Happening

"Happening" is a community-driven platform that makes it easy for students and tech enthusiasts to discover and share the latest events, webinars, and networking mixers — all in one place.

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Inspiration

The inspiration for Happening came from the recurring frustration I've faced as a student trying to stay active in the tech community. Tech events were scattered across Discord servers, Slack groups, random newsletters, and niche Eventbrite pages. Finding events felt like a constant scavenger hunt.

I kept thinking, "Why isn’t there a single, community-driven platform where students and organizers can post events they discover and instantly make them visible to everyone else?"

What It Does

Happening is a community-powered event aggregation platform that lets users easily:

  • Discover upcoming tech events like webinars, workshops, info sessions, and networking mixers.
  • Post events they’ve found from anywhere on the internet to a shared calendar.
  • Earn XP points, profile badges, and ranks by contributing events and staying active.
  • Climb community leaderboards based on their total XP and event streaks.

Happening focuses on visibility, recognition, and community contribution making it a pure, grassroots way for students and tech enthusiasts to grow their networks and stay informed.

How We Built It

Happening was built using the following tools:

  • Frontend: Typescript, React, and TailwindCSS
  • Backend: Next.js with Supabase to manage user profiles, events, XP progression, and streak logic.
  • Bolt.new

Challenges We Ran Into

  • Designing meaningful ranks and badges: Making sure titles felt aspirational and distinct — I refined these multiple times based on vibe and progression pacing.
  • RSVP experience clarity: Since events aren’t hosted on Happening, I had to rethink what "RSVP" meant and avoid confusing users by implying event registration.
  • Creating build: Progress bar component was conflicting with build and took me awhile to identify it was the culprit.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

  • A fully functional XP and badge system.
  • A clean leaderboard system with daily/weekly/monthly filtering to keep competition healthy and attainable.
  • Simplifying event discovery and contribution into a platform that’s fast, frictionless, and student-friendly.
  • Sticking to the project’s core vision — resisting unnecessary features and focusing on what really benefits the community.

What We Learned

Building Happening taught me a lot about product design, incentive structures, and community building.

What’s Next for Happening

  • Event subscription alerts: Let users opt-in to categories or organizers they care about.
  • Improved streak tracking visuals: Add visual streak counters on profiles to motivate consistency.
  • Better RSVP integrations: Connect directly to third-party event registration platforms (Zoom, Eventbrite, etc.).
  • Community feedback boards: Let users suggest features, upvote ideas, and help shape Happening's future.
  • Social sharing tools: Make it easier to promote events on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Discord.
  • Email integration: Send email reminders of RSVPed events and newsletter to enhance discovery.

My focus moving forward will be on refining the core experience, growing the contributor community, and iterating based on live feedback.

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