SooYou: Universal Event Plugin

The tournament challenge focused on the growing crisis of loneliness and social fragmentation. People feel increasingly disconnected despite constant digital connectivity; traditional social structures are weakening; and many individuals lack reliable pathways to form meaningful relationships. Using a framework that evaluated problems by frequency, severity, urgency, and longevity, social isolation scored high across every dimension — confirming we were looking at a real, high-pain problem worth solving.

For event platforms specifically, 30%+ of registrants skip events driven by social anxiety and fear of attending alone — translating directly into lost revenue for platforms like Eventbrite, Meetup, and Cvent. No existing tools address the gap between sign-up and arrival.

Our day-long sprint involved two critical pivots, each guided by mentor feedback and user validation — demonstrating rapid strategic thinking under pressure.

A pre-event social readiness and connection plugin that event platforms can embed to help attendees feel calm, prepared, and authentically connected — driving lower anxiety, higher attendance, and stronger communities.

Using Google Antigravity — an AI-powered agentic IDE — we rapidly prototyped a working product showcasing the complete user flow, from landing page to wellness center to matching interface. The dark, calm UI design was intentional: reducing visual stress for anxious users.

Landing Page — "Connect Deeper. Meet Authentically." positioning with core value props: interest matching, social battery awareness, and icebreaker games.

Wellness Center — Breathing Module

Box breathing with category tabs for Breathing, Grounding, Reframing, and Bodyscan exercises.

Box Breathing — Active State

Animated inhale/hold/exhale cycle with daily affirmations appearing below the exercise.

Thought Reframing

Users type a negative thought and receive a reframed, balanced perspective — powered by AI.

Body Scan — Toes & Feet

Progressive muscle relaxation with visual body map highlighting the target area.

Body Scan — Hands & Arms

Sequential body areas with Previous/Next navigation and daily affirmation: "Small steps lead to big confidence."

We ran rapid user interviews focused on comfort attending events alone, interest in profile matching, fear of awkwardness, and desire for social readiness tools. The data confirmed strong demand across every feature area.

SooYou's B2B model aligns directly with the KPIs event platforms already care about — attendance, engagement, and repeat participation. End users access SooYou for free; platforms pay because it drives their revenue.

We translated the evolving idea into a structured Lean Canvas to clarify strategy, identify assumptions, and prepare a clear narrative for the judges.

Lean Canvas — Structured framework covering problem-solution fit, customer segments, revenue streams, and validation plan.

SooYou was a true team effort — four MS Business Information Technology students at Drexel University, each bringing complementary strengths to a high-pressure, single-day sprint.