We are counting down the days to the official start of the ACM-ICPC 2015 Phuket World Finals! Volunteers are busy preparing the venues in Thailand, but you can prepare your own venue at home for your university!
Each year we ask fans around the globe to create Cheering Parties in their countries. Watch the World Finals live from Phuket and share your encouragement for your team as they battle the competition in Thailand.
Data and Information Sources
There are multiple sources of information regarding the ACM-ICPC in general and World Finals in particular. To help Cheering Parties get the most from their viewing experience, we propose the following setup for your event at home:
- One big TV/screen + audio/projector + audio for the online broadcast
- One smaller screen/projector for the myICPC scoreboard
- Personal laptops for the Cheering Party participants, to follow the events of the World Finals both on myICPC and alternative sources
Main sources are:
- ICPC Live Broadcast – http://icpclive.com
- ICPC Scoreboard – http://icpc.baylor.edu/scoreboard
- myICPC – http://myicpc.baylor.edu
GUIDELINES
20 days before the contest – start spreading your idea
To get started…
1. Share your idea with friends at your university.
2. Determine the time in your area of the ICPCLive broadcast on 19 May 2016. See http://icpc.baylor.edu/worldfinals/schedule for details and visit http://bit.ly/ACMICPC-WF2016-Time to find out what time it will be in your country.
3. Find a venue at the university, local office, IT company or even a café. Make sure the venue has enough space, appropriate AV for ICPCLive broadcast, and sufficient WiFi for the group attending your event.
4. Let us know about your Cheering Party by filling out our registration form (http://bit.ly/2016ICPCheer)
5. Send an email with subject “Cheering Party” to icpcnews@acmicpc.org with any questions, and we’ll provide you with more details.
15 days before the contest
Go over the following venue checklist:
- Venue or facility is open during the entire World Finals time (at least 5 hours, up to 9 hours)
- Venue or facility has all the necessary equipment or allows you to bring in and install all necessary equipment (one larger screen with sound, that can be connected to a computer for the ICPCLive broadcast and one smaller screen that can be connected to a computer for the scoreboard
- Venue or facility has very good internet connection (preferably with both wireless and wired connection), or is in the area of good LTE coverage
- Venue or facility allows you to bring in food or provides food functions itself (you and your guests are likely to get hungry during the five hours)
- Venue or facility allows entrance of preregistered guests, based on a registration list
- Open a registration for the event (collect names, social media handles, emails and comments). There should be no entrance fee for the event. Promote the registration link through social media. Make sure to send an email with updates to all registered guests.
10 days before the contest
Think about the food functions of the event. It is OK to charge all guests for the food during the event (both in case of a café venue and other options). Make sure everyone knows the price range in advance. You can always order pizza and drinks – it is easy, manageable and the delivery is possible. Check with the number of guests to be sure that you fit into the venue and correct food-functions based on the number.
Check with the http://icpc.baylor.edu/worldfinals/teams to find out who the closest competitors of your local team are. Find more information about the team members of your team:
- Have they participated in the World Finals before?
- How was their last participation during training?
- Were any team members participating in personal competitions?
- Were they better than their competitors?
Tell your friends about it, try to keep it simple so those not familiar with ACM-ICPC can learn more about our program and competition. Adding an invitation to Google Calendar events will also be useful.
7 days before the contest
Make sure that you have everything needed for your event – laptops for the ICPCLive broadcast and official scoreboard, backup internet connection (Mi-Fi or LTE), all necessary cables to connect everything at the venue, extra extension cords and power-outlet-multipliers. Having a person with a nice DSLR camera would be good, though there is no need to hire a photographer. Send a reminder email about the event to all registered participants. Do they have a t-shirt from the World Finals? Maybe from a regional competition or any other related event? Ask them to wear it!
By now your team will depart for the World Finals. If you are planning a goodbye event with them in the airport – share some pictures with @ICPCNews on social media or “tweet” them good luck!
3 days before the contest
Now you have plenty of information to look for – the World Finals are on their way. Follow ICPCNews on the social media network you like (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), or check out their YouTube channel for the latest news from Phuket. Send out an email to the guests, so they will know all the latest information sources right away.
Day of the contest
Send out the last reminder email to the guests. Make sure to put a time and a map of the Cheering Party location.
Set up the video system before the Cheering Party arrival time and make sure the broadcast is live and in the best possible quality. The broadcast will start about 40 minutes before the contest.
As soon as guests are arriving, take time to cheer for your team. Post your pictures on social media and mark them with appropriate hashtags (#ICPC2016, #ICPCheer) – in a few minutes they will appear in the ICPCZone in Phuket. Any last minute “good luck” will surely make your team happy and they will feel just as confident as at home.
We would love to hear from you during the event itself:
- Show us how you celebrate the first accepted problem of your team.
- Is anyone at your Cheering Party solving the problems themselves?
- Want to know more about the flow of the contest? Ask us questions through social media networks or even record a video question!
We want to show the way ACM-ICPC connects and encourages people from around the globe to celebrate the best and the brightest.
After the contest
Don’t forget to send out a “thank you” email for all guests and encourage them to upload all photos from the event to any public storage. Share a link to your uploaded content with icpcnews@acmicpc.org.