'The Great Boissevain Find': Group creates 21st-century scavenger hunt in small Manitoba town

Keeping your eyes glued to your cellphone is considered bad form at most conferences and community gatherings. But in Boissevain, a new event will make it a requirement.

A group is organizing a scavenger hunt called "The Great Boissevain Find" for a conference in the small border town, about 220 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg and 70 south of Brandon.

Inspired by the television show The Amazing Race, the Boissevain event will send teams around the small town to complete tasks on their smartphones as part of a technology conference being hosted in the community.

The March 3 event is being organized by the Turtle Mountain Adult Education Centre, along with the local chamber of commerce and economic development officials.

"We wanted to incorporate something, rather than just have booths and speakers, add something different and something unique to the day," said Catherine Carlisle, the director of the Adult Education Centre.

Race to attract people to town

Carlisle said she and a small group came up with the idea as a way to attract more people to the conference and get them out and about around the community.

"It's a race that you use your phone ... and you have a series of locations that you have to find in the community using clues," she said. "There's a task that you do and you store it on your phone in Google Docs."

Carlisle didn't want to give too much away about the race, but said the first stop will see teams visit an IT expert at the conference to get lessons on how to use the apps they already have for the challenges.

Then, teams head out.

"They have to listen for something and then take a group selfie of yourself doing something," she said, vaguely describing one of the stops teams have to find. Once the task is complete, teams will get a clue that will take them to another stop in town.

"It's a series of fun tasks that you can learn about the community."

Race tested out

She and a small group have already tested out the race. She's hoping local businesses send teams to compete alongside conference participants.

"It took us two hours," she said. "It was so much fun [but] we knew where we were basically going and what the next task was."

"It was so much fun," Carlisle repeated.

Carlisle said she hasn't heard of the idea ever being used and is a spin-off of something the centre did last year on world literacy day, where a graphic novel was passed around town by readers who had to sign their name in the book and give to to someone else.

She said she just started to get the word out about the event and doesn't have anyone registered yet. But she is hopeful people will register, at a cost of $10 per person, before or at the event.