At the start of the year I stumbled across a fabulous online community called PlanBig, which essentially helps bring people together to make things happen! PlanBig creates a place for people to share their ideas for a better future and facilitates community collaboration between people from all walks of life.

Up until a couple of weeks ago I was just a PlanBig stalker - you can follow plans, make comments, provide tips and advice etc to other people’s plans. However, I recently placed our plan - let’s make borrowing the new buying - on PlanBig and the support and interest from the community has been fantastic!

I am a fan of the whole premise of PlanBig. I am an ‘idea generator’ and I find the Planbig site an exciting and inspiring place to hang out!

I like the collaborative underpinnings of the site and that it creates a place (online) that people can come together to talk about ideas, share inspiration, offer advice and assistance to help make ‘Big Plans’ happen, regardless of geography.

In the last couple of weeks I have met with a couple of Plan Biggers to find out more about their plans and because they really just sounded like cool people! I thought I would tell you a little bit about then and their plans, so you can get an idea of all the fabulous stuff going on in the PlanBig world:

Sarah Allen is an awesome Plan Bigger - she is bubbly, enthusiastic and full of ideas! Sarah is on the PlanBig Community advisory board and organises Sydney PlanBig Meetups.

Sarah’s PlanBig plan - Return to the old-school action thriller - is to self publish and develop a loyal and passionate following of readers for the Alex Morgan INTREPID adventure series, written by her husband, Chris Allen. You can download the first 12 chapters of Chris’ first novel, Defender of the Faith here. And you also have an opportunity to win tickets to the launch of Defender of the Faith on 26 August.

A couple of weeks ago I sat down and had a coffee with Marianne and Andrew from Young Republic, Australia’s first interactive marketplace for fashion, jewellery, homewares, art & lifestyle products from home-grown upcoming and independent designers. I first heard of Young Republic through PlanBig and ever curious, I wanted to know more about their story! Both were extremely generous in sharing the lessons they have learnt through building their site, marketing, branding and how to deal with copycats!

Last night I attended their launch and night markets to celebrate the site being live for two months. I really enjoyed chatting to the designers and this week I’ll be featuring those I met over on Outside of the Box’s daily gift ideas.

And last, but certainly not least! Last week I grabbed the opportunity to have a coffee with Ehon Chan, while he was visiting Sydney. I heard Ehon speak at Gathering’11 and when I heard he was also part of PlanBig I of course checked his plans out. Ehon’s PlanBig profile sums him up perfectly:

I breathe social change. I have passion for young people who want to change the world and their own world. I love stories and ideas; and I want to hear yours!

Ehon’s most recent PlanBig Plan - Soften the F**ck Up is all about challenging the stereotype of the ‘real man’ in Australia. The campaign seeks to reduce the stigma of mental health and issues associated with it amongst men, because without reducing the stigma, we can’t promote mental health literacy and empower young men to seek help. You can sign up for the newsletter “here”:soften and the word on the street is that the site is just hours away from going live!

I would love to hear about any PlanBig plans you think we should be supporting. If this is the first time you have heard of PlanBig I strongly encourage you to check it out, and get inspired by all the awesome ‘big plans’ that are being thought of in Australia! And since your there, why don’t you pop over and “like” our plan - cheers!