Hosting Events

Spaghetti bridge

Spaghetti bridge is an easy event to run in terms of management.. ideally you'll have extra help for setup and take down but can be run by just 1 person. we had planned to start at 1 but people came late so we started at 1:30 we gave 2 hours of build time, stopped at 3:30.. cut the power to the boards if all daisy-chained, weight testing took 30 minutes, had to keep reminding people to back away from the table, future i'd have an area setup and have only the contestants and a judge up at the front, the contestants would pour or place items into the bucket looking at the crowd as to not block the view.. keep 2-3 meters in-front clear. Having the participants help to clear up made it fast and easy.

Resources

1. 2 people needed for setup (if carrying tables)
2. power cords.. you need lots of these, for each team you need 2 sockets.
3. tables
   1. on the huge xinchejian tables you can get 3 teams on there.
   2. on a table tennis table which can be broken in half can get 2 teams on each half (it's nice because the white lines)
   3. on a long table that isn't too wide you can get 2 teams but not ideal
4. Glueguns - 2 per team
5. Glue sticks - 5 per team (be prepared to have 8 per team depending on how hard you want it)
6. 50cm measurement device (piece of string)
7. wall hooks - 1 per team
8. fish scales/electronic scales
9. weights in 1kg (optional)
10. 2 bucks - one full of water and one to be used with the scales
11. chairs - optional
12. string - to tie to the scales to stop it falling into the water
13. gaffertap/ducttape to pin the power boards to the table
14. black bags for discarded waste (1 per team)
15. paper and pens (some for teams) to sketch out ideas
16. mop & brush - cleanup, expect water to get on the floor along with spaghetti.

During the Event

During the event you'll get the most questions at the beginning for clarifications, reminders during the event at 1 hour gone, 30 minutes remaining, 15minutes, 10minutes, 5minutes and 0 - put your guns down!

When it comes to the bridge you need 2 high tables evenly spaced 50cm apart (check both ends) a demonstration bridge is a good idea or someone that has done it before, have the contestants place their bridge and the scales and bucket, also to fill it with either water or weights, people were not inclined to cheat and dump water into the bucket.

for the disqualification be flexible.. after 2 hours of building and all that work it might not be a good idea to disqualify teams unless they obviously have broken the rules.. like putting a metal rod through the middle.. but heights and freestanding are at the judges discretion .

improvements to be made

for those that arrive early a holding area is needed where they can meet others and get chatty, this could be a good time to give the rules printed out and some paper and pens to let the early birds pre-plan ahead of starting, the longest time people spend is on the design/discussion phase, those that have done the event before get started quickly.

Taunting to be started earlier in the game to get the competitiveness up.

Drinks to be provided, snacks are enough to keep the hunger at bay. - both of these are funny since people dont even take bathroom breaks while building.

Clock - one visible official clock.