A new St. Petersburg-based app is giving residents another way to find local events, meet people and get connected to their community.
New Tree, which launched three days ago, is designed to help people discover things to do while creating opportunities to meet others. The app is currently in its pilot phase and is working to bring local businesses and event hosts onto the platform.
The app was created by Maddy O’Connor, a St. Petersburg resident who returned home to develop the platform after spending time living and working in different places. While working different jobs in different areas, O’Connor said she sometimes felt isolated, which helped spark the idea behind New Tree.
New Tree allows users to create an individual account, while businesses can apply for a business account. Business accounts are currently manually reviewed and approved by O’Connor.
Before adding a business to the platform, O’Connor looks at its social media presence, website and other information to verify that the business is legitimate.
“They don't have to have a lot of followers or anything like that,” she said. “I just need to see that they're real, and that I can check safety things.”
When signing up, users can select interests including wellness, fitness, food and drink, general social events, nightlife and arts and culture. Those interests help users find events that match what they are looking for.
The app includes a traditional event feed, a map view, a section for users' events and a personal profile.
O’Connor said the goal was to make the platform simple and familiar.
“I just want it to be a really nice place to get online and to see everything happening around them,” she said.
New Tree also uses ratings and reviews to help users determine which events and hosts they may want to attend. A host's rating is displayed on the event listing and can affect where an event appears in the app's feed.
O’Connor said the rating system was designed to give users more information about an event before deciding whether to attend. She also hopes it will help users feel more comfortable attending an event at a new or unfamiliar location.
