I think we talked about this before, the Suncorp Plaza is still my favourite venue but Steve was saying there were issues getting them on board again?
_________________
<Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls

Piaza is a bit hard. The cost to actually hire it would be prohibitive. In the past we were apart of the ideas festival which organised all that and we were dropped off that list when they got a bit tight on cash. I think we did 2006 and 2009 right? Where 2009 was us making our own arena? I don't think the festival has run since 2011.

As for the Edge, I think we got dropped off there as they decided that the robots wasn't "art" and why the hell were they funding it.

The hackerspace ahh.... well I chose never to go back there. Others may have had different experiences but I got a bit sick of being told how I could fix my robots by people who had never built anything. They also have way too much political shit going on and can never seem to stop arguing internally or changing leaders long enough to actually do any "hacking".


Another option if we were to go down the more commercial route. Might be to actually hire a venue and then charge entry fees. If we charged $5 a day and got 500 people watching a day would cover our expenses. But I have no idea how realistic this is nor do we as a club really have the capital to do this.


Thinking slightly crazy here, we could just do it somewhere completely random. Like a conference style thing and just pick somewhere that we want a holiday? Airlie beach? Adelaide? Hobart? New Zealand? This might limit some people due to finances but anywhere on the east coast should be reasonably accessible if we have people driving.

Steve
_________________
Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Back to the actual date as well.

What are peoples thoughts? I don't want to get much closer to Xmas. Lastest possible weekend would be first weekend of December but it realsitically could be moved to wherever.

Steve
_________________
Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

New Zealand - love it!

More realistically, it would be nice to get ticket sales to pay for a venue hire but its difficult to do. We would have to do the whole promotional thing and its very easy to lose money. If we can't find a place like the gallery to host the event, I would be just as happy to go to a backyard event or we hire a small venue somewhere scenic.

After looking at the EB web site, I am not at all sure its worth doing much in the way of promotion there. Comparing the ticket prices to what's on offer its bad value and attendance might be poor. Moreover, I have a feeling its going to attract complete tossers and nobody who might actually want to build & compete.

Given that, let's pick a date in October that works out best for the bot builders.
_________________
Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Well the current date is the best date in October. As it is during school holidasy and is a long weekend.

As for EB I think they said they had 10k last year.

Steve
_________________
Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Hiring a hall in the Brisbane area on a weekend is $450 for 8 hours plus security guards over night. So it's a bit costly. And most halls are 200 people max and charge extra if you are selling tickets.

If it's <$500 per day for a quality venue, BotBitz could sponsor that.
_________________
Team Knightrous

The earlier in the year the better for me. We are not allowed to take holidays after August. We work six days a week in the last couple of months leading up to Christmas.

Any weather proof venue would be fine. I don't mind paying a reasonable fee per robot or team to cover hire. I am also happy to have a backyard event.
_________________
So even the rain that falls isn't actually going to fill our dams and our river systems

In all seriousness though New Zealand isnt that outrageous. Flights are really cheap and its an excuse to have a holiday. Getting an arena over there could be interesting but that is another problem.

I would be keen to go somewhere a bit different. My goal at one point was to see if I could get a tour around Aus going. That might have been a bit ambitious but it was the idea.

I think we could probably think outside the box of the event being limited to QLD. In all seriousness we can make a new arena for about $5k and we can get to anywhere in Australia with shipping and a few months notice for significantly less than that.

If we are talking about changing the date can I chime in that I am probably too busy until November. I keep saying that October weekend makes the most sense but selfishly I would like to see it delayed till at least mid November.

Steve
_________________
Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

how about seeing if these guys want it?
http://www.bliblicastle.com/

never know ;->
_________________
Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

Bli Bli castle doesn't have the room for us. I grew up near there and visited it a few time with school. We'd be better off with Aussi World or Kingston Park Raceway. In fact my brother and I were organising an event at Kingston Park a few year back but it fell though due to the arena not being finished or being not able to move it or something. Maybe we can try again

The benefit of having the event somewhere on the east coast is that at least a few people can drive and take heavy equipment for others. If we all had to fly, everything has to fit into the luggage limit and that really reduces the tools & spare parts you can bring.

Having an event at a motorsport venue is a great match for us - look how long Motorama has been running bots in the US. Perhaps Motorama is a good example to show the venue people.
_________________
Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

If it was OS, we could look at slow boating most stuff (bots and arena) there and back.

But yeah its starting to become a *very* big job.
_________________
Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

Ok I talked to the curator at the ipswich art gallery today and its a go. They defiantly want us for the 4th and 5th october.

So if everyone like the sound of that? i guess we can start gearing up for it….but we don't sign the contract for a couple of weeks…so wait till then before we start booking stuff.
_________________
Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

UR the best!

If the gallery want us, then I am very happy to blow off the EB expo and drive up to Ipswitch. The event was awesome last year and can only get better.
_________________
Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion