Event planning for O-Day 2020, and notes from O-Day 2019.

For ideas and notes from previous years, see ODay2008, ODay2007, ODay2006, ODay2009, ODay2010, ODay2011, ODay2012, ODay2013, ODay2014.

Important Info

  • O-Day 2020 is on Friday, 21 February 2020, starting at 10:00am.

    • Cars will only be allowed onto the oval until 9:30am, so if using a car for transporting stuff make sure it is packed and ready to go in time.
  • Arrive at 8:00am for setup - it's early, yes, but UCC has a lot to do and your help will be really appreciated.
  • Check the weather forecast, and don't forget hats, sunnies and sunscreen!
    • Forecast is: Maximum 36C, partly cloudy. Winds easterly 25 to 35 km/h becoming light in the late afternoon.
    • Sun protection recommended from 8:40 am to 4:00 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 11 (Extreme)
  • 2019 stall was A21, 6x3m and near the Maths building.

T-shirts

  • We have a number of polos still available, these will be for sale at the stall
  • Door members may borrow a polo, but buying them is encouraged! Support the club!
  • Bring a bunch of coathangers to put the shirts on display.

Grabbing New Members

  • Arrange new-member escorts to the room - the bottom of Cameron Hall has a distinct "you're not supposed to be here" feel, and it would also give the new members a friend right off the bat.
  • Make sure someone is available to keep the room open and talk to new members should they go there on the day.
    • Try to find at least one wheel member to help with edge cases, otherwise door / committee should be able to take care of everything.
  • Either team up with other Cameron Hall clubs for BIG A2 signage on doors and ground outside or go it alone.
  • Remind people they get $5 of dispense credit with a new account and show them how to use the vending machines.

Posters

  • Signage leading from the Guild Reception all the way to UCC would help freshers find the place.
  • Posters need to have the UCC name on them in an obvious way, rather than just being you-beaut pictures - it would be nice if poster designs were consistent, you can get the UCC logos from https://github.com/UCC/Branding.

  • Have some information around the stall - try to get at least a few A3 posters with basic info such as our O-day wifi password, Discord links, what we do, upcoming events, etc.

Marketing Spiel

  • UCC is older than the Department of Computer Science - 46th year in 2020. We are also older than the first UNIX users group, the Homebrew Computer Club and the Chaos Computer Club.
  • Cool stuff:
    • Internet coke machine - first one in Australia! (And the Southern Hemisphere)
    • Snack machine that not only gets us snacks using a smartcard, but also gets us into the clubroom
  • Clubroom - dozens of different sorts of computers. Eat your e-mail, read your lunch. Our clubroom is open more often than any club on campus.
  • Access to webspace, e-mail, computers to experiment with, fully stocked projects bench with tools
  • For CS students: an excellent way to get exposure to the stuff you won't get taught.
    • Also, good place to organise with other smart people
  • For non-CS students: a chance to play with the kind of equipment you only see in university and corporate environments.
    • Good place to go for general computer help
  • Gamers as well - LANs etc
  • Not just a student club. Plenty of interesting people around
    • People working on Mozilla, GNOME, Flock, Songbird (Yakk's still old guard, right?), Linux, Avahi, plenty of other stuff
    • We should down play this. UCC is a student club first and foremost.

  • A social club, too - our myraid events like LAN's, programming comps, dinners, quiz night, pizza nights, movie nights
  • Close relationship with other CH clubs - but you don't have to join them all
  • Begin today by going up to the club, and come to Fresher's Welcome Pizza Night next week and AGM shortly after

Things to show off in the stall

  • HTC Vive (if it works, which it usually doesn't)
  • Oculus Rift
  • Fancy Wireless Link
  • Old things - floppy disks, DEC terminals, ...
  • Member projects?

To Do

Well beforehand

  • Check that the marquee is still functional - it is stored in a box on top of the machine room, has a number of white metal poles and plastic joiner pieces.
    • The marquee can be set up as a 6x3m enclosed space. The roof and walls are not very good at blocking light so things like the Vive will probably not work inside very well or at all.
  • Room cleanup
  • Prepare and print the Fresher Guides (100-150 copies should be enough - ask at Uniprint a few days before or go to Officeworks).
  • Check that the signup system is functional and people know how to use it - either https://portal.ucc.asn.au or print paper membership forms.

  • Design and print membership stickers
  • Make posters for the stall
  • Find volunteers to help set up and run the stall

    • Recommended 6 people to help with setup, 3 to hang around to run the stall during the day and 6 to pack up, and 1-2 people to stay in the clubroom.
    • Find someone with a car to help move stuff from the clubroom to the oval
  • Test the technical setup you will use - wifi antennae, hardware, software configurations etc.
    • Find a sufficient number of computers/laptops/tablets with bright screens (sunlight is annoying) and working wifi for people to sign up on (if doing signups online)

The few days before

  • do a snack run, the machine has to be absolutely full
  • print posters
  • check that the signup system is still working
  • Check that you have enough tagged electrical cables for the stall - Guild is sometimes quite fussy. It will usually be possible to get equipment tagged the day before, something like $3 per cable.
  • check machines are all working, upgrade whatever needs upgrading, clear big/old cached user profiles
  • Check that the network stuff still works and you haven't lost anything - get a box for all the cables and stuff you need to take down.
  • If setting up the Vive - make sure that you can log into the machine you are using and that Steam and all drivers are set up.
  • Remind volunteers what they are doing and check that you still have enough people to set up and run the stall.

On the day

  • vacuum clubroom
  • set up tables, boards, and marquee
    • Collect any applicable equipment (such as tables and chairs) from the Guild
  • make sure you reserve a computer for committee to add new user accounts with
  • set up posters, banners
  • make sure posters are up that lead from guild reception to UCC

CategoryEvents