The Fastest Hands in the West: South by Southwest!
By: Ben Lucier on March 22nd, 2010
Posted in: Events
Tags: conference, contest, SXSW, The Planet
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If you’ve ever worked a trade show booth, you’re probably all too familiar with the challenges associated with attracting the attention of passers by, especially when conference attendees’ singular mission seems to avoid eye contact with exhibitors at all cost.
Last week I attended the Interactive portion of the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference and stopped by the booth of one of our favourite resellers, The Planet. The team were all smiles as they talked to attendees, but what I found most interesting was the excitement surrounding one area of The Planet’s exhibit where a contest they called “The Fastest Hands at SXSW” was being held involving the timed assembly of a Dell server by an attendee.
The contest rules were pretty straightforward; in order to win the grand prize of an Asus Eee PC netbook, the winner must assemble the following components with the fastest possible time:
- Two RAM DIMMs installed into the appropriate slots
- Chassis fan mounted to the chassis and connected to motherboard power
- CPU heatsink and fan mounted and connected to motherboard power
- CDROM and hard disk IDE cables and power supply connections
- The case side panel covering secured in place
How quickly could YOU perform the above tasks? As a former PC build assembly geek, I figured I was a shoe-in for the grand prize. I was already picturing myself sitting on a beach and soaking up the rays with my sweet Asus netbook. My quest for glory was quickly dashed however, during my dry run assembly, when I only made it 3/4 of the way through in mediocre 42 seconds (at the time of my visit, 42 seconds was the winning time). I was rusty.
The winner, was Tagged Director of Engineering Mark Jen, who masterfully rebuilt the server in a blistering 30.7 seconds. I wasn’t there to witness this nimbleness in person, but you can catch the whole story at The Planet’s blog. I’ve also included the video below so you can witness Mr Jen’s speedy handiwork.
Although the days of expensive conference swag may be history, it’s refreshing to see conference exhibitors like The Planet engaging their audience in fun and challenging ways. This kind of creative thinking should serve as a model for future trade show exhibitors looking to increase audience engagement.