Town of Aurora x Goosechase: Bringing Imagination (and a Town!) to Life

The Town of Aurora uses Goosechase for Cycle Aurora, an annual event that promotes community engagement and showcases the town's cultural and tourist destinations.

The Town of Aurora is always looking for platforms that allow events to be flexible, easy to join, and free for residents to participate. They wanted to start a new annual tradition, a mix between a bike ride and scavenger hunt that would inspire locals to get active and support small businesses in the community.

When they set out to organize a biking event that would showcase the town's cultural and tourist destinations, they faced some strong headwinds:

• Conceptualizing an Abstract Idea: Talk about imagination! The Town of Aurora had a vision of combining biking with a scavenger hunt-style event to encourage participants to rediscover their cultural and tourist destinations. But they struggled to find a platform that could effectively bring this abstract idea to life.  
• Limited Competitive Research: Traditional cycle events, usually mass group rides, provided some insights, but most of this research was done before the COVID-19 pandemic. They needed something totally new.
• Legal Responsibility: The town had to carefully consider the potential legal implications and necessary safety measures associated with organizing an outdoor event on their own land.

Cycle Aurora was born in 2020, leaving a lasting impact on participants, organizers, and the community as a whole.

Cycle Aurora is an interactive biking experience to discover cultural destinations within the beautiful town of Aurora. Full of family-friendly challenges, participants cycle to different destinations and win weekly prizes!

• Increased Community Engagement: By making the event easy to join, the Town of Aurora witnessed a surge in community engagement. Residents just had to download a free app, and didn't even need to create an account to join. Using an app with a simple interface meant participants of all ages felt comfortable using it. The intergenerational aspect of the event further strengthened community bonds and highlighted the inclusivity of the experience.

“When participants came to pick up their race kits from our farmer’s market, I had a very mature senior, easily 84, signing up for the Goosechase with her granddaughter. The fact that she may have never had this activity with her grandchild, and the fact that we could make the event so intergenerational, was such an ‘Aha!’ moment.”
- Shelley Ware, Recreation Supervisor - Special Events, Town of Aurora

• Heartwarming Participation and Collaboration: The event's innovative Missions, such as leaving nice messages for the community in chalk and making cards for local senior homes, sparked heartfelt interactions and acts of kindness. The Town of Aurora received emails from residents expressing their appreciation and gratitude, creating a heartwarming sense of community spirit.

“The emails that we got back from absolute strangers that were registered in the event was really heartwarming.”
- Shelley Ware, Recreation Supervisor - Special Events, Town of Aurora

• Flexibility, Trust, and Focus on Creativity: With total trust in the technology side of running the event, the organizers could focus on their creativity and innovative event planning (AKA the fun parts!)
• Safety First: Because participants got to select which Missions to complete, they could make choices that reflected their personal interests, comforts, and risk levels - if they didn’t want to ride on a rainy day, they didn’t have to!

The Town of Aurora heard rave reviews of Goosechase from the City of Burlington, which used the platform for celebrations like Canada Day, and had the opportunity to test it themselves for mental health and wellness initiatives.

Excited by how well the platform worked to perk residents’ spirits and keep them connected, they turned to Goosechase to bring their abstract idea of a bike ride scavenger hunt to life.

• Easy Adoption and Engagement: Goosechase's user-friendly platform provided a low adoption curve for participants, allowing individuals of all ages to easily get involved - no complicated accounts required. The interface was intuitive, aesthetically pleasing, and fun!
• Effective Communication: Goosechase's features, such as Mission notifications and messaging capabilities, allowed the Town of Aurora to effortlessly stay in touch with participants.
• Educational Opportunities: Through Missions that included educational content, such as how-to videos on helmet safety, Goosechase offered an engaging way to share important information.

From one Goosechase creator to the next, here are tips for how you can create the most brilliant experiences for your town, city, or municipality:

• Rock the Mock: When Shelley introduced the Goosechase platform to other members of her team via a presentation and mock Experience, she included screenshots of both the backend and what participants would see. She called what she saw “An explosion of transferability” (which we love!) - she could see other department heads’ eyes light up as they envisioned using Goosechase for their own needs. Internal buy-in is easier once you show folks the platform’s backend and reporting capabilities.
• Experiment, experiment, experiment!: It’s harder in subsequent years to keep things fresh. Try to change up how you use the platform each time, because your participants will call you out for reusing too many Missions - trust us, they can get feisty! Experiment with the timeframe of the event, Mission themes, and storytelling by grouping Missions together.
• Have your prizes pay it forward: Try gift cards to local businesses, so you get participants into stores or restaurants in the area, redirecting love to the local economy.

Thank you so much to Shelley Ware and the Town of Aurora for sharing their Goosechase Experience. Cycle Aurora is carrying on the town’s legacy of community-first programming that is inclusive and accessible to all.

Think Goosechase could be a fit for your organization? If you haven’t already, start by creating your first Experience. You can upgrade it at any time.

What is Goosechase?

At Goosechase, experience is everything. Originally inspired by scavenger hunts, Goosechase is an online platform that enables organizations and schools to engage, activate, and educate their communities through delightful interactive experiences. Sign up and try creating a free recreational Experience, or check out our Pricing!