GA-LINK, the rural at the click of a button

The world is a whole of charms, of things to see and do. It happens that, often, many of them go unnoticed. GA-LINK, the platform created by a group of Campus Terra students, has proposed to remedy this oversight. How? By bringing the entire range of leisure activities and events to our cell phones, tablets, and computers.

GA-LINK has just received the second prize in the third edition of the Terra Creative Jam, the program for generating ideas and projects to reinvent the countryside. An initiative promoted by the Campus Terra and the Area of Valorization, Transfer and Entrepreneurship (AVTE) of the University of Santiago de Compostela in collaboration with the incubator Lug Open Factory.

In the case of GA-LINK, reinventing rural areas revolves around knowledge. To bring to the thousands and thousands of tourists who visit Galicia yearly the many festivals, events and charms that dot a land full of history and culture. Of kindness and hospitality.

As its promoters explain, the platform's value proposition is as simple as it is evocative: «To make known presently all the activities, products and all the experiences offered by the small towns of Galicia.»

Beyond creating a real-time agenda so anyone can check what is happening around them from their cell phone, GA-LINK also offers small municipalities, villages, and companies a platform to make themselves known and promote themselves. In short, to put on the map what they have to offer.

Behind this original idea are five Campus Terra students who defended their project in the third edition of the Terra Creative Jam. Of this award-winning quintet, three young people continue in the project today since two of their classmates have had to step aside for organizational reasons.

The founders

Behind GA-LINK, there are currently three young Campus Terra students who, paradoxically, were born outside of Galicia. They are Juan Hernández, 21 years old and originally from Albacete; Gabriel Barrigón, 20 years old, from Cáceres; and Abel Belhaki, also 20 years old, from Murcia.

The first two are students of the Robotics Degree at Campus Terra, while Abel is studying the same degree in Alicante. For some time now, he has been looking at the faculty of Lugo, thanks to the SICUE mobility program.

It was precisely this condition of coming from outside Galicia that somehow precipitated the birth of GA-LINK. «Being three students from outside Galicia, we were able to feel more radically the need for an application that would facilitate our stay in a completely new territory.»

That experience in the first person landed the project at the Terra Creative Jam. «GA-LINK originated as a response to a tangible problem in our daily lives. In this hyper-connected world, we are often more informed about what is happening on the other side of the planet than in our neighborhood,» emphasize its creators.

The platform is based on a straightforward and intuitive interface where any user can consult all the events, parties and attractions found near their location—a sort of collective map in which to delve into individual passions and hobbies.

For example, explains the GA-LINK team, «someone passionate about wine is more likely to be informed about nearby wine festivals. However, what about those who might share that passion but don't know it yet? Precisely, these people face difficulties learning about wine-related festivities in their vicinity. In response to this information gap, the idea of developing an application that presents a map with all available activities was born. In this way, we provide options to those who are unclear about what activity they want to do, encouraging new people to participate in these local events.»

Sustainable development and rural growth

This open, transparent, and collective character can represent an impulse for the rural areas, the central idea of a creative program such as Terra Creative Jam. «GA-LINK's ability to connect the local community with potential tourists and provide a comprehensive view of tourism offerings can contribute significantly to the sustainable development and growth of rural tourism in the region,» they detail.

The young students say the program was «a test of our collaboration and creativity skills. It also allowed us to discover the Jam environment, meet new people, expand our contacts and learn from other team members.»

Regarding the platform's plans, the three young people leading the project maintain that, in the short term, the objective is to finish the MVP (minimum viable product). From there, they hope to present the platform to investors and the Galician government.

With these assets under their belts, they would enhance the platform's capacity by expanding the catalog of towns, events and places included in GA-LINK. In the long term, they wish to reach all Spanish communities and, on the final horizon, even abroad.

This is the roadmap of GA-LINK, the rural world at the click of a button...