Are you getting everything you can out of the innovation community? The internet makes finding like-minded folks incredibly easy, but the sheer amount of places to do so can be overwhelming.
If you're looking at a specific challenge, however, we've made it a lot easier for you.
Every challenge has its own forum, and you can find a link to it right on the challenge page. This is a place where you can connect with other participants as well as the creators of the challenge.
If you're interested in a particular contest, don't hesitate to ask some questions. Whether you're unclear on the details or you're wondering how incentive challenges work, someone will be able to help.
Maximizing Your Chances of Success
Most challenges on HeroX are a bit more complicated than they appear at first, and sometimes questions come up that the creators didn't anticipate. The challenge forum lets you get in touch with the people behind the contest, and sometimes this could even give you an edge over other competitors!
You have a way to directly communicate with the challenge creators – why wouldn't you take full advantage of that?
Participants in the Autism Speaks House to Home Prize, for example, used the forum to ask the creators a variety of questions, including details about how the winners are being picked. A competitor in the Infrastructure Vision 2050 Challenge was wondering about one of the contest phases, and got a good explanation from a member of the HeroX team.
Growing Your Ideas
Collaboration is a big part of solving HeroX challenges, and the forums are a perfect place to bounce your thoughts off other participants. This has been happening in the Graffiti Removal Challenge, where users are posting some interesting ideas about using drones to repaint graffiti.
Beyond just sharing ideas, the forums are a place to actually form teams with other participants. If you're a lone wolf or part of a small team, check your challenge forum – you may find the help you've been looking for (and lose a competitor in the process!).
You can also give feedback to the creators about the challenge, after it's over or while it's still going. If you have some constructive criticism or reviews of a challenge you've participated in go ahead and leave your thoughts. It will help make the challenge better, or improve other challenges down the line.
The Autism Speaks challenge is in its final stages now, and there has already been some great feedback posted from a competitor.
So dive into the forum of your challenge. It's your community for the contest, and the best way to get valuable inside information about how to make your submission the very best.
Not a HeroX competitor? Check out the challenge page and find one that you like, or even create your own. The world has problems to be solved, and it's waiting for you!
