Simon's Green Army app

Today my new independent app is being launched - Simon's Green Army. It's for Irish football fans heading to the Euros in France this summer and also for raising awareness for the Dublin Simon Community charity about their important work with the homeless.

It's main purpose is usefulness and safety - to help keep all the Irish fans travelling over safe.

What's in it?

A "Where are you sleeping?" screen where you can enter where you're (supposed) to be staying that night - so at 2am in the morning if you're having some trouble remembering where your hotel is, you can take out the app and show a friendly French taxi driver!

Likewise, there's a "Set a Meeting Point" screen where you can set a meeting point e.g. "Outside Micky D's beside the stadium". Very useful if the phone networks go down at the stadiums and you can't find your mates.

On the "When it all goes a little bit pearshaped" screen, you'll find emergency numbers for the main health insurers - VHI, Aviva, Laya Healthcare and GloHealth, the AA Ireland and the Irish Embassy in Paris. Thanks to all those guys for allowing their numbers and logos to be included.

The Irish Embassy in Paris has been massively supportive - giving us content for their own screen; tips, contact numbers and more.

The AA Ireland has been likewise awesome, giving us info about driving in France.

What else?

It also has maps of Paris, Bordeaux and Lille, with amenities like the stadiums, pubs, train stations, fast-food restaurants, atms, tourist attractions and the official Euros fanzones. 

Advice from a fan

Robbie Martin, former award winning League of Ireland footballer and currently my colleague in AIB Innovation, came up with the safety focus for the app. I initially was going for content like scores, groups, how many points each team has; Robbie said "nevermind that" (I'm paraphrasing!), what he wanted was something to help him get back to his hotel that night safely. 

He has his own page in the app, with advice and also a few chants to learn off! We're all a team of Gary Breens!

What have Simon Community got to do with the Euros?

I recently gave an app development course to business and marketing students in DIT; one of my students was Aoife Mulhall who works with Simon. She explained how they were looking at whether an app would help their work and to connect with a younger / wider audience and I just had the thought - why not do the Euros app, which I'd been planning anyway, for Simon.

They do incredible work, providing support and services for the homeless and some of the most vulnerable in our society. You can read about some of their work in the app.

The app is completely free, with no ads, but there's info in there on how to donate to Simon if you want to support their great work.

Thanks

Many thanks to James Phelan, Aoife Mulhall and Sam McGuinness from Simon, Orla Reddy from the AA, Amanda Bane from the Irish Embassy in France, Robbie again for his advice and also my colleague Dave Maxwell for helping with the design. The good bits are his, the bad bits mine! Also Mrs. Innovation, Joanne, for putting up with another late-night app development!

How to get it

It's available now on the Apple App Store - just search for Simon's Green Army. I'm working furiously on the Android version, it will be out in a couple of weeks.

Talk and share on social channels with #simonsgreenarmy

Please let me know what you think, all comments, questions, complaints or just any downright rampant praise welcome! Andy