My head swims with ideas all the time. Many are nonsense, but the best ones I would like to share with you. If you would like to help me develop any of them, please feel free to get in touch by clicking here.
Popalong App
Do you want to go to the cinema, but have no one to go with? Popalong is the answer.
I’ve had the Popalong idea for many years and developed a full outline. If you are interested in taking it forward, feel free to contact me by clicking here
This is how it works…
Sarah (28) wants to see the new Hunger Games film. She has no one to go with. She logs onto the Popalong App. There’s a map populated with map pins of attractions. Theatres, museums, English Heritage, National Trust, Aquariums, theme parks, cinemas and art galleries… Any place that is a public attraction (not a bar, cafe or restaurant) and will take more than 1 hour to visit.
Sarah finds her local cinema and posts a message saying…
“I would like to see the new Hunger Games film one evening next week. Message me if you would like to come with me.”
Helen (57) logs into the app and can either post her own message on the map pin. Or she can search existing posts by clicking on the map pins. Helen sees Sarah’s post and sends her a private message. After getting to know each other in chat, they arrange to go to the cinema together.
KEY POINTS
- Users are not able to search profiles!! There is no swipe left/swipe right
- Users can only see other people’s profiles via the messages they post on a map pin. There is a constant throughput of people looking at attractions
- To keep the site current, posts only last for 3 weeks before being automatically deleted
- Not restricted to ‘dating.’ Instead, it is aimed at friendship irrespective of status. Meet in the real, not the virtual.
- Can be expanded to families and groups
- MEET THE PERSON, NOT THE PROFILE!
Philanthropy Dragons Den
Capitalism has eaten the world. In the Victorian period, the rich would donate wealth to build civic improvements for the greater good. This resulted in the UK having the most free libraries, galleries and museums in the world. We seem to have lost this trait of civic goodwill. I’m not saying there aren’t wealthy people doing good, but the cultural ethos of doing this isn’t as celebrated and commonplace as it should be.
The idea is simple: have a Dragons’ Den-type program, but instead of investing in a business, they give their money to a project that will make the world a better place. This way, we can see which rich people are willing to part with their money. The program should also publish a list of those who have declined to take part in the program. The ethos of the program isn’t greed, its betterment.
Mother Nature App
Aim: Putting a face to our world.
We are so far removed from Mother Nature, but we depend on her for food, air, and water. She still cares, but we now need to care for her as much as she cares for us.
The app works similarly to the 1990s craze of Tamagotchi. But instead of an animal, it is an old woman whom you must save through your own actions of cutting your pollution footprint.
There are two images.
- One image is the global picture of Mother Nature, who appears on her deathbed. Her illness is caused by human-made pollution.
- The other is your personal image, the daughter of Mother Nature. She is made ill by your personal pollution footprint.
To make both better, you must reduce your pollution footprint – avoid flying, eat a low-meat diet, use sustainable travel etc. All the things we know we should do. In the evening, the app asks you to fill in a short survey about your day’s activities.
The app avoids graphs, charts and simple smiley faces. Instead, it shows how well, or ill, Mother Nature is by an image. The app prompts you to do good for the world and revive Mother Nature, who is on life support.
With many stories, there is the hero, and there is the villain. In our story, we are the villain, and not many of us realise it.
Carbon Footprints
Raising Awareness of Carbon Footprints
We have heard a lot about carbon footprints. No doubt, someday we will have personal carbon credits. But before we do, there should be a stepping stone towards that inevitability.
I propose that for every foodstuff, every menu, every council meeting, every councillor, every Commons meeting, every MP, every TV program, and so on, a carbon footprint is displayed. With council and government meetings, we could also state the method in which people have travelled to the meeting, be it by car, car sharing, public transport, walking or cycling.
We need to look to our leaders as role models. If they don’t work to reduce their carbon footprint, then why should we?
Happiness Survey
Measurement of the world’s happiness. There are plenty of happiness surveys, but they are only short snapshots across large geographic areas and are complex.
What3Words has divided the world into 3m-square sections. Using this approach, a simple survey is conducted every week at the exact hour. The question is simple:
“How happy are you?”
You have three options, as shown in the image. Happy, neutral, or sad face. Keeping it pictorial and simple will remove any language barriers.
The results are anonymous and aggregated to different resolutions: 12m, 24m, 48m… squared areas. This will give granularity at the local, country and global scale. In a city, for example, there may be areas of deep unhappiness. Repeating the survey will give a temporal change.
Persistently unhappy areas will inform decision makers of where improvement is required. Additional surveys, asking more in-depth questions, could be conducted to get to the root cause of the factors impacting happiness. For example, “What do you think of the current air quality?”
The aim is to give a consistent, repeatable and reliable measure of the happiness of as many people as possible to inform decision makers.
Equality Balance
Rich areas should be twined with poor areas. For example, a charity in an affluent area is well funded and likely to have fewer issues to tackle. Whereas a charity in a poor area would have significant issues and not enough funding.
As for councils, expertise is critical. Road repairs, for example, a handful of organised, experienced officers are able to maintain the roads to a high standard. The officers know the system and are able to apply for funding. When these officers leave or retire, the situation deteriorates. A Council without these expertises are fire fighting to maintain the roads at a lower quality, as the task is too great and applying for extra funding is a daunting task.
In the early/mid 2020s, the government issued ‘levelling up’ money for councils to apply for. However, much of the funds went to affluent areas. This may be because the affluent areas had council officers with experience of applying for grant funding and could tick all the right boxes. Compared to deprived areas, where extra ‘time and resources’ to apply are absent.
The idea: The government sets up a model, artificial, non-London-based council without a geographical area. The artificial council has all departments from trading standards, environmental health, highways, planning etc. The officers in this artificial council have years of experience working in councils. Their task is to test new proposals, funding and legislation. They are also tasked with parachuting themselves into councils that are struggling with not just the basics, but the added benefits such as better housing, highways, schools, etc. They are there to share best practice and provide knowledgeable support throughout the funding and delivery stages.
Bird Song App
Meet through the love of music. The Birdsong App is a song of the community. This is how it works:
- There’s a tiled display of profiles mapped by distance (a bit like Grindr). There is no description or status, only a single picture.
- An independent musician posts their song from their current location.
- User A can like the song, and it becomes part of their repertoire.
- User B can click on the profiles, and it plays the songs that the user has liked with a link back to the independent musician.
- If user B likes the songs and the picture, they can start a private chat based on their shared love of music.
This means that every community has their own songs and distinct sound. When you travel, you enter a new soundscape of local songs.
Alternative Christmas
As children, we all loved Christmas. The build-up. The presents. The feast. Father Christmas. Family. It’s a special time. But what are we teaching kids? Consumerism? Greed? Wanting more? Christmas has now been taken over by corporations trying to sell us more and more. It didn’t always be like this.
By no means am I saying we should do away with Christmas. It brings us together as a family, as a community. What I am saying is that we should change our attitude to it.
1 – Children’s presents aren’t new. Older children wrap their old toys for younger children. Volunteering in the charity shop, they are swamped with toys.
2 – Instead of unrecyclable paper, presents are wrapped in reusable cloth that is made from old clothing.
3 – Real trees aren’t cut down for chirstmas. If you want a real Christmas tree, plant one in your garden and decorate it. Or go to a Christmas tree farm and sponsor a tree.
4 – Change what Father Christmas brings – not consumption of greed, but say, a Christmas cake.
5 – Adults don’t exchange gifts. Or perhaps sponsor a charity or something more meaningful than an unwanted present.
There is a lot we can change. We must reduce our consumption of the planet, else there will be nothing left.
Only Mineral Water
A paper carton of mineral water printed with local adverts on two panels.
The product is not the mineral water. The product is the packaging.
Will open the market to advertising on the shelf, and the customer will spend time with the advert as they consume the contents.
Off-Cuts
Our society generates a large amount of commercial and industrial waste that is either dumped in landfills or incinerated. A small proportion is recycled, but not enough.
Off-Cut is an App/Website that allows a company to advertise potentially useful off-cuts to other commercial outfits either for free or for a small fee. Recycling of waste is important, but reusing is more environmentally friendly.
The aim: Reduce the amount of industrial waste and maximise resources. But also to build a network of environmentally aware businesses that trade waste between them.
Bake with Bun
Selling baking goods with Bake with Bun.
A drag queen, ‘Bake With Bun’, presents online baking tutorials where things go a little bit wrong in a funny way.
The customers can buy a package which has a baking tin and all the measured ingredients to make the baked item. A bit like Hello Fresh but for baked goods. The package contains a list of ingredients, a recipe and a QR link to the online tutorial.
The second selling point is that once you buy the product with the baking in, you can order refills of ingredients.
The brand is all about the Drag Queen Bake with Bun.
Air Quality Walkthrough
Aim: Raise awareness of air pollution/air quality.
Using Google Maps Street View and air quality data, you can walk the streets, but there is a haze of green, amber, and red to highlight areas of high and low air pollution. This can be used as an educational tool for schools, but also for the general public.
Ping-Pong Pollution
Aim: Raise awareness of air pollution.
A perspex chamber is installed near a road. There is an ANPR sensor designed to detect electric, petrol and diesel vehicles. Whenever a vehicle passes the road, a ping pong ball is released into the chamber to signify the pollution generated. Black for diesel and petrol, grey for electric vehicles.
All vehicles generate pollution in the form of particulate matter from brake pads and tyre wear. Hence why electric vehicles would be grey, not white. Petrol and diesel vehicles generate emissions of particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and carbon emissions from their exhausts – hence why they are black.
In schools, a game can be played where kids form a circle. A quarter of the kids are given a black ping pong ball signifying they are a fossil-fueled vehicle, a third are given a grey ball for electric vehicles, and the last third, a white ball for sustainable travel (walking and cycling).
The game is repeated a couple of times with varying proportions of coloured ping pong balls to demonstrate how air quality could be improved by reducing emissions.
The Grey Cloud
The Grey Cloud is a consultancy platform with a simple, powerful aim: to unlock the wisdom of retired professionals and make it instantly accessible to organisations that need expert guidance. Councils, charities and SMEs often face complex challenges but lack the specialist knowledge or budget for traditional consultancy. The Grey Cloud solves this by offering short, affordable bursts of expertise — one‑to‑three‑hour sessions with highly experienced retirees who have spent decades solving exactly these kinds of problems. Whether it’s shaping a strategy, reviewing a procurement plan or mentoring a junior officer, organisations can book targeted advice online, exactly when they need it.
Behind the scenes, retired experts complete a structured skills survey and build a concise profile summarising their experience. They can browse and apply for micro‑consulting roles that match their background. On the client side, users see a curated shortlist of applicants, each with a clear, two‑paragraph résumé highlighting their strengths, sector knowledge and practical insight. The result is a marketplace for wisdom, a flexible, human‑centred system that gives retirees meaningful work and gives organisations access to the kind of deep expertise they rarely have in‑house. The Grey Cloud turns experience into a service, and makes good judgement available on demand.
Totem Pole Years
I have ‘borrowed’ this idea, but it is good… a long‑term, community‑anchored storytelling project artwork. Each year on totem pole is a single symbol is carved or added to the pole, representing the most meaningful event of that year. Over ten years, the pole accumulates ten symbols. One complete pole represents one decade.
At the end of the decade, the completed pole is ceremonially moved from the town centre to a local park. A new pole is placed in the centre to begin the next decade’s story. The park gradually becomes a forest of decades, a physical archive of local history, culture, and memory.
The project blends public art, collective memory, and ritual. It encourages reflection, creates a shared narrative, and gives future generations a way to visually trace how their community has changed over time. The more we build our past, the more solid our future becomes.
Contact PJ Mackintosh
Like I said at the start, my head buzzes with ideas…!
If you would like to help develop any of them, please get in touch.
If you have your own idea and want someone to bounce the ball around, I’m more than happy to help!
I love a game of idea ping pong!
All the best,
PJ Mackintosh
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