The Final Open House Reminder
This is the week - are you ready?!
The week has finally come! This Saturday (October 22nd, 2011), from 11 AM to 4 PM, SparkFun is opening its doors for the SparkFun Open House! It is going to be a great time and we wanted to post one final reminder to encourage you to attend. So what exactly is the SparkFun Open House? Well, I'm glad you asked...here are the nitty-gritty details about all the happenings at the SparkFun Open House (oh, and did you register to attend yet?).
When you walk onto SparkFun premises (at 6175 Longbow Dr, Boulder, CO), you'll be handed one of the cards that you see above. This lists all the various activities you can do! You'll automatically get one entry for our prize raffle, but if you complete all the activities, you get an additional five tickets! Speaking of the raffle...
We are going to be raffling off an assortment of products and swag! This means things like the SparkFun Inventor's Kit, sensors, Geek Cards (loaded with SparkFun cash!), and much more! We'll be giving out the prizes throughout the day so everyone has a chance to win. And as mentioned above, if you get all 8 activities marked off on your card, you get an additional 5 tickets!
You'll notice one of the activities is listed as "costume." What does this mean? Well, since the event is taking place so close to Halloween, we are encouraging everyone to bust out their costume a bit early! Show up in costume and you'll also have a chance to win a "Best Costume" prize.
In conjunction with the costumes, we are going to be running a SparkFun photobooth. This is "hosted" by the SparkFun marketing department (AKA MarComm) and is one of the 8 activities on your card. In order to participate in the costume contest, you have to get your photo taken so we can judge the costumes! So make sure to swing by the photobooth and get your picture taken!
We will also be hosting tours through the SparkFun building where we invite you to meet all of our departments and "talk shop" with the SparkFun employees. We love showing you where we work and hope you'll stop by for a visit.
While on the tour, be sure to stop by the Production department and try some of their games. These include "Are You Faster than a Pick and Place Machine?," "Disco Stu Automates PCB Inspection," "Kitting Race to the Finish," and more. What you see above is just an illustration of one of the games - Levitation Pong - but they should all be a great time!
We are also going to be holding a couple workshops. One is our popular squishy circuits workshop. This workshop is designed for kids and will teach basic circuits by using conducting dough to make LEDs light up. It's a great way to get an introduction into electronics! The second is an E-Textiles workshop based around the LilyPad system!
Next item is the project showcase. We have invited our customers to bring their embedded electronics projects to show off! We'll have booths set-up where you can see what people are working on. We'll also be bringing out a few SparkFun projects for you to check out.
This next activity is called "Ask an Engineer." If you haven't heard of "According to Pete" yet, this is a monthly video feature we do with our Director of Engineering Pete Dokter. At the Open House, Pete (and possibly a few other engineers) will have a booth (think like Lucy's booth on Peanuts) where you can ask your engineering/electronics questions.
And last, but not least, we are going to have a bunch of games! We have rented a bouncy castle, an inflatable obstacle course (allegedly the largest in Colorado), and human-sized hamster ball races. It's going to be a lot of fun!
Also, don't worry about bringing a lunch because Top of the Hill Grill West will be here serving up FREE delicious BBQ! Again, if you haven't registered yet, please do so at our EventBrite page. We hope to see you all out there on Saturday, October 22nd!
