A site for seniors ends up appealing to millennials

We live in an age where we know instantly what's happening on the far side of the world -- but not what might be going on around the corner.

Toronto startup Chillwall aims to change all that.

Michael Campanelli got the idea for Chillwall last year while out for a walk in his neighbourhood. He came across an Easter fair, with free chocolate eggs, food, games, and entertainment. "And when I walked around the corner, there were families playing with no idea that this was occurring."

So he helped build a website that finds events going on near you -- pretty much wherever you are in the world.

When designing the site, Michael thought the demographic most likely to use Chillwall were seniors. So he kept the page simple, and didn't bother with a mobile site or app.

"It couldn't have been a more different audience," he says. It turned out that young millennials began flocking to the site and now make up most of its user base. They began using it so much that Michael hired millennial sociologist Jon Callagher to help him explain why the site was so attractive to younger people, and how he could make it an even better user experience.

Using a machine-learning algorithm, Chillwall, over time, learns the interests of its users and predicts events they might find interesting. But it also suggests ideas that may not have occurred to users, too.

It comes down to utility, he believes. "We live in this connected world where we know what's going on all over the world, but not in our local community," he says. Chillwall fills that niche, and is an effective tool, he believes. And that's why younger people are using it. "For something to be useful to millennials it has to serve a purpose. The new cool is that it has to be useful."

Now, Michael is hurrying to get an app and a mobile-optimized site up and running. "But I still hope the seniors will use it too."