How a Vintage Train Ride Could Spark Innovation

June 11, 2013— -- Going retro just might be the way forward.

That's what a group of young entrepreneurs is banking on. They're about to embark on a cross-country train journey to turn innovative ideas into world-changing projects.

Forty men and women between the ages of 18 and 34 will board a vintage train made of cars from the 1950s and 60s in San Francisco this August.

Each participant will climb aboard with an idea for a project, something with the potential for national impact but that can be implemented at the local level. With the help of on-board mentors and each other, they will attempt to bring their ideas to life in a week and a half as they chug across America's heartland toward their destination, Washington, D.C.

It's a tall order. But Patrick Dowd, the brains behind the project, says that a trip like this is the best way to affect real change at the national level. You can touch down in the fly-over states and attempt to bring entrepreneurial ideas to life in the real world. And for something so old, he added, trains can be a great vehicle for innovation.

Dowd knows that from personal experience. He completed a similar train journey in India several years ago as a Fulbright scholar. That journey is called the Jagriti Yatra, which means "journey of awakening." And for Dowd, that proved to be true.

"It was like getting hooked up to an IV of young entrepreneurs," he recalled.

He focused during that trip on electronic waste management (read: what a country does with a bunch of old cell phones and other outdated electronics it no longer wants), and the trip allowed him to see the real-world challenges and opportunities for a project like this.

Why not bring the train travel idea to the United States, he thought later. So a year and a half ago, he quit his job, gathered a team and launched an effort to bring what had been a personally transformational experience to other young people.

The basic concept is that people develop a project idea that will have national meaning but that can be implemented at the local level before they embark on the train journey. The projects can be techy, but that's not a requirement.

People apply online and begin fundraising. Each participant must drum up enough support to raise the $5,000 required to participate. Crowdsourcing is encouraged, not only to make funding easier but to spread the word about the different projects. Up to 40 millennials can go on the journey. So far, about 20 people have completed the application.

It's high-impact, short-term change, Dowd said. A teenage nerd sitting behind his laptop can create apps until he keels over from sunlight deprivation, but he's not necessarily connecting with the people using those apps and seeing how they impact different communities.

The trip gives young people a chance to do that. They will pile into a confined space with other like-minded young entrepreneurs and actually talk face-to-face with each other. Trekking across the country will offer participants a "visceral sense of what it feel like to do something on a big scale," Dowd said.

The train trip is not only a way to reaffirm the idea that millennials can bring about change, but it's also an opportunity to let young people meet with mentors who have already walked the proverbial path to entrepreneurial success.