CLEVELAND — If you and your family constantly find yourselves asking, 'What should we do this weekend?' There's now a new app that could help plan your next date night or family outing.
The outRise app rolled out on the App Store and Google Play Store recently. It was co-developed by Greg Clement, the owner of Mapleside Farms in Brunswick.
"It is a social experience platform, that's what we call it," Clement said. "It's designed with a simple mission: to help people experience the world."
Clement, who grew up in Northeast Ohio, said inspiration for the app came after he completed a cross-country motorcycle trip by himself. He wanted to explore the world around him and have the tools he needed to do so right in one central location.
outRise allows users to create experiences or adventures and share them with other users on the platform. The app allows users to leave comments and connect with one another. He said the beauty of the app is that it's not limited to one specific adventure or experience - there's several things you can do.
"A hike in the woods, a weekend hike, the perfect date night, could be a city tour or workout, basically almost anything," Clement said. "You can actually say when I went here, here's what I did. Here's what I bought, or here's what I ate or drank."
The Northeast Ohio native said the app will eventually allow users to use it to help plan trips, however for now its mission is to connect people with businesses and attractions in their area.
"We know that most people, their experiences, and some of the best adventures are local, hyper local. It's literally in the city they live in," he said.
The app is still in its infancy stages, but already it has thousands of users. Clement said the created it in 2019, well before the coronavirus pandemic, but they took a chance and rolled it out just a couple of weeks ago.
"A majority of these experiences people might not actually do right now. But the incredible thing is to see the creativity."
Creativity like holiday light tours. That experience is quite popular on the app right now with several tours featuring cities and counties across Northeast Ohio.
"I think because of COVID some people think it's very unsafe, they really want to stay home," he said. "It's Christmas, it's December and one of the best things about Christmas is experiencing all the Christmas or holiday things with your family and friends. So you can actually jump in the car, you can grab some hot chocolate and you can use outRise to go and look at all the best holiday little light displays all over Northeast Ohio. And instead of looking at your phone and text messaging for addresses and sort of the old cumbersome way of doing things, outRise gives you that map that route the pictures, and it just makes things very easily just piece together all these stops. It just really enhances those types of experiences."
Clement hopes the app can help provide a boost for local businesses and attractions who are trying to rebound after a tough year.
"Next year, there's going to be this energy and excitement to get out and explore the world. And I think the timing is perfect for us to to really help people experience the world in that new and cool way," he said.
The app is free on Apple's App Store and Google Play Store.
Clement said next year they're planning to add six additional cities to the mobile app. Those cities include Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati, Raleigh, Austin and San Diego.
