Ideas to wow an audience during IT development recruitment event.

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diablo2nd

84 posts

Master Geek

#152363 24-Sep-2014 13:41

Hi All,
I'm involved with a company recruitment evening tomorrow night, and it was requested of me today if I could come up with some ideas to 'wow' the audience. The event is a mid size walk around type event, where we have a bit of space to sell our department to potential recruits.

We have some prizes to give away, were just not quite sure how to do it.

The coolest idea we have so far is to have a race - a small course to be navigated on Segway - best time wins: Only problem with this is we cant find a Segway to hire.

The other cool idea that I came up with is to hold a mini competition on classic arcade games, however these proved to expensive to hire - so i figured why not a raspberry pi with emulator on it. This idea holds merit apart from the fact that the event is tomorrow and would have to acquire all the parts and assemble and configure and hope nothing goes wrong...

Does anyone have any ideas or could assist with any of the above that can help our event to stand out?

I should point out, our even is an invite only recruitment event, and we are competing with other departments internally.

gzt

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#1136518 24-Sep-2014 13:50

Depends what kind of people you want to attract to your department. I gather you are not in auckland hence the problems with segway hire?

dclegg

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#1136525 24-Sep-2014 13:55

If competition is what you're after, perhaps you could source a PS3, a couple of Move controllers and a copy of Sports Champions (or Sports Champions 2). If this stuff has to be purchased, you could even give it all away as a prize at the end of the event.

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#1136528 24-Sep-2014 14:03

At Microsoft TechEd NZ 2014 Intergen ran a Guitar Hero competition - three days of delegates playing Guitar Hero to the audience around the hub. The finals were on Expert mode and here is the video (worth watching to the end to see the public's reaction):

This stand won Most Awesome Stand at the conference. It took the team two months to put it together, and about three weeks to fine tune (no pun intended) the competition rules.

If you have the console and controls you could run a small version of this and put players against others. It worked well for Intergen.

Inphinity

2780 posts

Uber Geek

#1136535 24-Sep-2014 14:07

Lightsaber duels.

diablo2nd

84 posts

Master Geek

#1136537 24-Sep-2014 14:08

We are in auckland - havent found a place that can do 1 or two segways. everything seems to be tours

bazzer

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#1136547 24-Sep-2014 14:18

freitasm: At Microsoft TechEd NZ 2014 Intergen ran a Guitar Hero competition - three days of delegates playing Guitar Hero to the audience around the hub. The finals were on Expert mode and here is the video (worth watching to the end to see the public's reaction):

This stand won Most Awesome Stand at the conference. It took the team two months to put it together, and about three weeks to fine tune (no pun intended) the competition rules.

If you have the console and controls you could run a small version of this and put players against others. It worked well for Intergen.

The problem with competitions like this (although without question it is awesome) is that either you're already good (should that be great?) at this or you're not. It's fun to have a go anyway, but not as much fun as if you think you can actually win it. The Segway race is a cool idea, because not many people are already awesome at racing Segways. Old school games/fun physical games too, for the same reason.

diablo2nd

84 posts

Master Geek

#1136552 24-Sep-2014 14:25

Good point on the skills of the more "Standard" type games/competitions - Thats why i was moving towards either classic arcade games or the Segway.

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freitasm

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Geekzone

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#1136553 24-Sep-2014 14:26

Yes, that was considered, and over a three-day event there were three different categories to play. Since the even here is something "faster" a simple heads on competition won't be a big deal. It will entertain the audience and require some skill. Not a big problem I think.

bazzer

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#1136556 24-Sep-2014 14:31

diablo2nd: We are in auckland - havent found a place that can do 1 or two segways. everything seems to be tours

Did you try to contact them directly? I wouldn't be surprised if they would be happy to rent them to you. I doubt there's much demand for segway tours on a Thursday night?

zaptor

745 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1136605 24-Sep-2014 15:00

There's so many artificially balanced party games - excluding traditional video games - one could create with technology I'm surprised no one has ever successfully implemented something before.

diablo2nd

84 posts

Master Geek

#1136611 24-Sep-2014 15:10

Creating the perfect balanced party game - I sense a profit opportunity there. Too bad i dont have the time nor skills to achieve this!

floydbloke

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#1136615 24-Sep-2014 15:16

freitasm: At Microsoft TechEd NZ 2014 Intergen ran a Guitar Hero competition - three days of delegates playing Guitar Hero to the audience around the hub. The finals were on Expert mode and here is the video (worth watching to the end to see the public's reaction):

This stand won Most Awesome Stand at the conference. It took the team two months to put it together, and about three weeks to fine tune (no pun intended) the competition rules.

If you have the console and controls you could run a small version of this and put players against others. It worked well for Intergen.

I'd outsource it to Mauricio/Intergen

Did Eric Clapton really think she looked wonderful...or was it after the 15th outfit she tried on and he just wanted to get to the party and get a drink?

gzt

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#1136616 24-Sep-2014 15:18

bazzer:
diablo2nd: We are in auckland - havent found a place that can do 1 or two segways. everything seems to be tours

Did you try to contact them directly? I wouldn't be surprised if they would be happy to rent them to you. I doubt there's much demand for segway tours on a Thursday night?

+1 & 0800 TO SEGWAY

zaptor

745 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1136638 24-Sep-2014 15:30

diablo2nd: Creating the perfect balanced party game - I sense a profit opportunity there. Too bad i dont have the time nor skills to achieve this!

You'd be surprised at the opportunities the right type of game would open ...

jevvv

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#1136695 24-Sep-2014 16:21

Our you could completely rock the boat and go so Old Skool that you're medieval.

Maybe get people giving ideas of how some very modern stuff might have been done way back when (60s 20s 1800s - whatever)

Anything to get imaginations going.

Then they can re-enact what they come up with ;)

<- don't ask me where I am - I haven't a clue: its a tech thing ;)
Housewife computerer: not particularly great at either.
And don't take me too seriously.