We chat to new event scheduling app Droppa

by Startacus Admin

How do you schedule events with family and friends?  Email perhaps? Text messages? Or maybe you go proper old school and actually give them a call?

A member of the Startacus community of Entrepreneurs , Roger Healiss, wasn't happy with this haphazard means of organisation, and so set about creating a more reliable and integrated way of making sure everyone would be on the same page when it comes to coordinating their busy lives.   And so Droppa was born.

Droppa is a fully integrated calendar and events scheduler designed for use by families and groups of friends.  

We asked the team to tell us a little more about Droppa, and they hope it will change the way we schedule events with family and friends.

Hi team! So first off, why invent Droppa?

We invented Droppa because we had encountered scheduling problems in our families. Roger had a conflict that, had all the family members used the same calendar, would have been averted. Ian Green, divorced with two children, was discussing different scenarios with Roger exposing the difficulties in “doing the right thing” for the children after separation. Both parents need to organise diaries for weekends on and off, additional days out, parents’ evenings at school, nativity plays, holidays, Christmas, Easter etc.

It only takes one day wrong and all of a sudden a situation arises. All the current calendaring systems use email to interconnect with others. We felt that as the predominant way that people communicate was through texting. (When was the last time you emailed your family or friends if not at work?) We then endeavoured to build something that sat more in tune with modern life.

How do you think it will help users?

Droppa is just like having the family calendar hanging on the wall at home only in your pocket and therefore with you at all times. Not only that but as Droppa works with your phone’s contacts you can “drop” events into your contacts’ Droppa or they can “drop” events into your Droppa at any time. Droppa also allows users to “Notify” other contacts of events just to inform them. For example: Sarah has received a “drop” inviting her to meet friends for coffee at the local coffee shop at 10:00am on Saturday (any Saturday) morning. Sarah now has three options. Firstly, she can “Decline” of course if she can’t make it, secondly Sarah can “Accept” the drop. This will send an “Accepted” alert to the creator of the “drop” saying that Sarah has accepted the invitation and will attend – it will also appear in Sarah’s schedule. Now Sarah might feel that her husband and/or children need to know that she is now busy at 10:00am on Saturday. The third option for Sarah now is “Accept & Notify”. Sarah can now accept the drop as above but she can also “Notify” her husband and children and the drop will appear in their schedules. Thereby Droppa keeps everyone informed as to what everyone is up to. Not in a prying way just in an organisational way.

What information do “drops” contain?

“Drops” contain all the usual information on other calendars – time, location, photos (if selected), maps plus a navigation function (if you’re invited somewhere unfamiliar), reminder function, description, list of invitees and notifiees, plus a chat function.

Can children use it safely?

Yes Droppa is designed specifically for families and children of phone owning age. It’s safe because the only people who can send you “drops” are the ones in your contact list so in essence it’s a private or trusted network.

Why do you think it’s better that the currently available calendaring apps such as Apple’s or Google’s calendars?

Easy. Both Apple and Google require email addresses to interact with others. Droppa works via push notifications and not email and uses the phone’s contact book. We found that most people do not have all their family or friend’s email addresses in their phone. (They normally just text or Instant Message and therefore have never needed them).

Also those other calendars rely on users subscribing to the same calendar. Droppa is your own calendar but any of your contacts can “drop” into it at any time. They can’t see your calendar but they “drop” things into it (assuming you accept the “drops”). So rather than having say a family calendar with family events and then your own calendar containing the things you just want to know about, by using Droppa you can have just the one calendar that contains everything -  family, friends and your own events.

Thanks for the chat team Droppa!

If you want to find out more about droppa, you can check them out in our showcasing area.

And you can get the app yourself here.

Subscribe to our newsletter

If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.

• #droppa
• #event scheduler
• #app startup
• #interview

Published on: 21st April 2016