

Ask HN: How do you find stuff to do in your city? - martinshen

Building out a new start up to compete with City Guides. I want to focus it on things to do rather than just venues.&#60;p&#62;For example: Restaurant X vs. Friday nights at Restaurant X with a Jazz band and ask for Dish Y.&#60;p&#62;I just got a launch page up at UpOut.com. Just want to ask HN how people find stuff to do.
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matdwyer
Cool landing page (I like how the pictures are localized)

I have a few ways, they are pretty specific to Toronto but I'll mention them
anyway so you get the idea.

1) Redflagdeals.com - this is my primary source as it is the largest forum in
Canada (with a huge center around Toronto). Basically it is a "deals" forum
like slickdeals or fatwallet in the states, but there is a TON of talk about
things to do in Toronto, great restaurants, and of course, deals on stuff. For
me I browse this often and if I find something I like then I'll check it out.
For example, I found out about "O'Noir" here, which was a restaurant where you
eat in pitch black, and all the waiters are blind.

2) Local blogs - things like blogto.com show me a lot of the independent type
stuff around (festivals, smaller shops, bands, etc.). Torontoist is another
one. For example I just learned they are opening a Ping Pong bar in downtown
Toronto from here.

3) Deal sites (like groupon, living social, etc). Basically it isn't just
about buying the deal (as I only buy maybe 1 per week) but I keep an eye out
for the new things to do that they feature - I might find a paintball place
and keep it in mind even if I don't buy the deal, or some sort of trade
show/exhibition, etc.

For things like a) sports and b) music I'd basically either know that it was
coming (I'm a huge sports fan with seasons tickets to baseball and basically
never miss a leafs game) so I don't really have to search out that info.

I try to be pretty frugal with what I do so that is certainly a bias - If I'm
going to a new city the first thing I do is save the Wikitravel page to my
iPad, then I'll check out some of the past groupons there, etc. I'll then
check out some of the online coupon places (for example I got coupons for
2-4-1 mini-golf & bowling in Florida, etc). Last resort when I get there I'll
check out the rack cards at tourist type places (in Florida I found out about
a pirate tour boat, lol).

If I were you I'd be skimming forums as your best bet for crowd sourcing data,
there are two different opinions for "things to do" one being a local and one
being a tourist, but usually locals don't do enough tourist stuff, and
tourists don't do enough local stuff... so there is an interesting middle you
could find there (for example, I've never been to the Royal Ontario Museum, or
the Bata Shoe Museum after living in Toronto for 5 years - these would be done
by 75% of tourists). Of course you could skim foursquare data too but it seems
to be done already.

Good luck

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martinshen
I'm actually a Toronto local.. Can I send you a beta invite with my personal
100 plus random awesome things to do in Toronto? For example: Friday night
drop in Flying Trapeze classes?

Thanks for the feedback

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matdwyer
Absolutely! - my username @ gmail

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martinshen
Thanks.. I'll keep you posted!

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matdwyer
No problem... P.s. I'd love to help add some things if you'd like, as I'm the
"planner" of my group! Make sure you have things a bit north too (Tree Top
Trekking, zip lines, old steam train, steam ship cruises, etc - I split my
time between the city & Barrie )

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martinshen
That's awesome. I'll email you as soon as the site is ready (probably in a
week or two).

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djb_hackernews
I've been working on a similar but different solution at
<http://impromptudo.com>. I'm currently focusing on quantity and breadth,
saving quality and depth for later.

Edit: checked out your project, looks very similar to <http://usehipster.com>,
which was recently acquired (?) and it hasn't even launched. So, theres
confirmation of the idea.

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martinshen
I've looked at Hipster and don't think their solution is stellar. It's more of
Q&A for location which I think is too far away from a city guide. City guides
just need a quick web 2.0 uplift in my opinion.

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T-hawk
Incredibly low tech, but printed newspapers. I'm in NYC so there's an
abundance. amNY (the free one) and Newsday are pretty consistent with a small
section listing concerts and comedy and other performers, usually in the
Friday editions.

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martinshen
Which NYC newspapers do you typically use? Also, what's the coolest thing you
do in NYC?

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murtza
Village Voice is good. They have a listing of different shows on their site.
You could probably data mine from there.

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staunch
I hate to say it but I really want a Groupon for Activities (ONLY).

Horseback riding, trap shooting, skiing, fishing, and that kind of thing. A
site that gives me something to do on the weekends when I'm in the mood for an
activity.

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martinshen
This is exactly what I'm trying to do. Please sign up for our beta test at
UpOut.com.

We also have simple and clean filters... already have 200+ submissions just
from my friends.

We're also planning to put in a bunch of great plug ins.

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staunch
Cool, I will try it. Side note: How much did you pay for UpOut.com? It's
pretty good.

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martinshen
40 bucks. namepros

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jkjeldgaard
I use <http://www.songkick.com> for music, and <http://www.meetup.com> for
social stff.

London resident.

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speakeasy
I started ThisCity.com in Calgary, AB. We have a new version launching next
month. If you want lessons from being in the biz and potentially to link up,
email me.

Chris

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martinshen
We're doing something similar but got it going for most major cities out
there. We have a different UI though. Your site reminds me a lot of
Toronto.com

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topcat31
For music last.fm does a wonderful "gigs in your city" RSS feed.

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ig1
Timeout

