Meeting One: Max Brettler
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Visual Designer@maxbballin1
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“Have backup plans for your backup plans.”
Max Brettler, an UO alumni, visited us on January 12th to discuss his work on GoVoteBot, an AI-inspired Facebook Messenger tool that encourages and informs eligible U.S. Voters. Stemming from his passion for the issue of the challenge of voting in America, GoVoteBot was intended to be an end-to-end solution for making voting an easier process.
Max created four pillars to base his campaign off of:
- Accessible
- Educational
- Shareable
- Simple
With those things in mind, he and his team set off to gain traction for their campaign. When presenting an idea, he suggests to “pitch just enough to get the idea started. Get them excited, give them an opportunity to contribute.” Once his team was successfully able to receive the funding for GoVoteBot, they began to turn their idea into a reality. They formed a budget breakdown and a schedule for their campaign, using RealTimeBoard.com to organize their plans and ideas. Ultimately, his campaign showed great success by registering more than 50,000 voters before the 2016 Election.
Max also provided us with advice when searching for a career in the field of visual design. He recommends to “Contact people in genuine ways. Use your network. Look in all sorts of places.” Additionally, he emphasized the importance of understanding how to talk about yourself and the work you have done, in the context of the jobs you apply for.
Max Brettler showed us one of the many ways that social media can be used to make active change. Thanks, Max!