AND SO IT ALL BEGAN…
The 2010 yMedia Challenge officially launched on Monday 14th of June; and this year it’s bigger than ever with 20 teams competing! In fact, it’s so big that yMedia needed to move to a larger venue than planned (thanks AUT) to accommodate everyone involved.
It began with AUT Business School’s 7th floor fizzing with anticipation as the yMedia crew set up and the 160 people involved in this year’s challenge arrived and awaited the announcement of who they’d be paired with for the next eight weeks.
At first everyone sat around trying not to make eye-contact with each-other, but a quick ice-breaker soon had everyone off their feet, and the room humming with conversation as people rushed to get to know each-other and complete their sheet the fastest. Claims have been made that Lawerence Brock from Shift (one of this year’s Mentors) was running around the room, knocking over women and children to complete his sheet first!
After everyone was picked up and brushed off, proceedings began with all the appropriate thank-you’s and housekeeping from co-directors Eddy & Jade. And then it was the moment that everyone had been waiting for, team announcement time. Despite stumbling over a few names, the teams were announced quickly, and it was with excitement that everyone moved into their groups to find out all they could about each-other.
While the evening began with some off-standish trepidation, it wasn’t long before each of the 20 newly formed teams were talking like old friends, planning for the success of their group and conspiring to beat out everyone else involved. To date we’ve counted a total of 20 teams that are adamant that their project will outshine all others. We can see already that the judges are going to have a tough time on judging day!
After two hours of getting to know each-other, running through the top 10 questions and starting to define briefs it was time to call it a night; although many teams didn’t seem to want to leave. As people eventually did leave, meeting times were made for the conspiring continue, and the fizz of anticipation from the beginning of the night transformed into a full blown bubble of excitement for what’s to come over the next eight weeks.
