Have you ever been frustrated by thinking there is nothing to do in Utah County?
UVU senior Justin Pitts has several times, but unlike most of us, he actually decided to do something about it. Back in February, he launched ProvoHappening.com, a website that provides information on everything going on in Utah County.
Pitts, a senior Business major from Florida, initially started with covering events only in Provo, but has recently expanded to the entire county.
The user-friendly site offers a section listing attractions and entertainment, which lists everything from the BYU Planetarium to Hobble Creek Park. Each entry specifies the type of attraction or entertainment and contact information, as well as an address and Google map to the location.
To make things even easier, on the left of the site is a pull-down menu to help narrow down options. A visitor simply has to choose a city and what they are looking for, and the site will bring up all the places that apply to the selected criteria.
For example, if a user selects Lehi and city parks, the website brings up 27 different city parks within the Lehi area. Different options are art galleries, bowling alleys, comedy clubs, movies, historical sites and much more.
The same format is used for restaurants. A user can select a city and then select the type of food they are interested in. A search for Korean food in Provo brings up three different restaurants, plus contact information, addresses and a map. Each restaurant can be reviewed by anyone that visits the site. The types of restaurants are available for selection are bakery, barbecue, cafe, Chinese, fast-food, seafood, smoothies and more.
The site also has the biggest events calendar for Utah County on the Web. When a user clicks on an event, a description of the event pops up along with the start and end dates, location and entry fee, if applicable. The events are color-coded to make searching easier. Concerts are in red, while sports are in purple. Each day is loaded with entries; the weekends usually boast over 20 different events.
Every three weeks there is a free giveaway. Prizes have included wedding cakes, photo sessions and gift certificates to activities or restaurants. If you have an event, restaurant or attraction that you would like to have listed, Pitts’s contact information can be found on the website. The website also has a blog so people can stay up-to-date on everything going on with the site.
