[Robotgroup] Armadillocon report-

[Denise Scioli]

Only thing I might add was that I believe we got 4 new members and one shirt 
sale.  A small boy, perhaps 10, was totally fascinated by the various 
projects, and his mother was amazed that he seemed to soak it in. She sat 
across the room for extended periods of time and let him just come and play 
and poke around the RG table.  She couldn't believe that he could stay 
focused for such a long time.  She joined so that her son can some and learn 
some robotics.  With our later times for meetings, I am not sure if he can 
really come during the school hear, but....If they come to the meetings, be 
sure to take him under a wing or two and show him some techincal items.  I 
think it is a great way to build some future creativity and enthusiasm for 
the group. What a fun weekend.

Thanks to all who came out and participated.  Are we going to be at the 
World Fantasy Con in November?

Denise


>From: Vern Graner <vern at txis.com>
>Reply-To: vern at txis.com,        Austin Robotgroup Mailing List 
><robotgroup at puremagic.com>
>To: Austin Robotgroup Mailing List <robotgroup at puremagic.com>
>Subject: [Robotgroup] Armadillocon report-
>Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 12:06:44 -0500
>
>Ok, I wanted to throw a bit of info about Armadillocon onto the list.. :)
>
>First the pictures:
>
>http://www.robotgroup.net/armadillocon28
>
>Don't miss Eric's dancing debut with the therepings!
>
>:)
>
>So, a show summary:
>
>The booth was completely setup and running a little after 10:00am.
>Denise was nice enough to act as the "Hearse" for B0rkin Bob, (aka the
>dungeon keeper) since the coffin wont fit in my car. :)
>
>The booth was in a corner of the dealer room and we had some comments
>from show organizers that they might place us at the *end* of the hall
>next time. Turns our many people came to our booth and stopped right
>there, never getting to the back of the room. Our booth was a literal
>show-stopper! :)
>
>Lots of robo-crew were wandering the halls. Rick manned the eggbot and
>Eric made the babbling head babble with the help of the Haunt
>Controller's power supply. and drove the Black Knight around a bit.
>
>We entertained folks with the Therepings using the Dungeon Keeper as a
>PA system and talked to various folks that came by the booth. When it
>was time for the "Automating Fear" presentation, we carried the dungeon
>keepers coffin across the hall to the presentation room while repeating
>the litany "Bring out your Dead!" :)
>
>Though it took a bit of time to get all setup, we had a standing room
>only crowd and the people laughed and appeared to enjoy the
>presentation. I don't know precisely how focused it was on the interests
>of the type folks that attend Armadillocon as the presentation focuses
>on the types of microprocessors used and software/hardware options.
>
>I think folks enjoyed the presentation nonetheless. We only had one
>person leave "early" and that was after we had been on for about 45
>minutes and someone standing in the back quickly took the empty chair. :)
>
>We then adjourned back to the booth and spoke to folks about the
>projects we were working on. At the booth we had:
>
>XAR (Experimental Arachnid Robot) - Vern
>RC-40 Bot - Eric
>Tankbot - Eric
>Robosapien - Denise
>Robosapien Dog - Denise
>S.U.V. (Shy Ultraviolet) - Vern
>Babbling Head
>Therepings
>Haunt Controller board - Vern
>Eggbot - Rick
>Dungeon Keeper - Vern
>Black Knight - Eric
>Theremin Bot - Bob (on day 2)
>
>The table and area surrounding the robot group booth were FILLED with
>lots of blinkin lights and babbling bots making for quite a traffic
>snarl (hence the reason they would like to move us to the end of the
>hall next year). I think we managed to obtain two new robot group
>members thanks to the great efforts of Denise. :)
>
>We did have one person on day 2 complain about the shrill sounds
>emanating from our booth to which Mike replied something to the effect
>of "Yes the Therepings can be rather ear-drilling". The person responded
>with "No I meant that squeaky sound coming from that silver robot! I
>actually kinda like the Therepings". :)
>
>Also on day 2, we added a wireless video camera to the Black Knight's
>"eyes" and used the video projector to display on the wall what the
>black knight was "seeing" as he wandered about. Video Quality wasn't
>good enough to use for remote navigation (i.e. Eric sitting in the booth
>and using the video feed to drive the bot around) but it was more
>entertaining eye-candy for passers-by.
>
>All in all, the displays we provided did add to the spectacle and there
>really wasn't anything like our booth at the show. Lots of people
>enjoyed our presence, especially the kids. However, as I type this, I
>was hesitant to describe it as a "success" as I'm not sure *exactly*
>what we were there to *accomplish*...? :)
>
>It was discussed that we use future opportunities of this nature to
>either sell things for fund raising for the group, or as a way to
>advertise for new members. I'm going to explore building a presentation
>that details the groups history and activities and can be used to
>encourage people to join the group.
>
>The title we played with was "From concept to concrete - making your
>ideas into reality." or something like this... I think Denise and I had
>a snappier name during a bit of brainstorming at the booth but I didn't
>write it down.. (Denise did you?) :) I'll have it done right after I
>finish robospin.. and SUV and uh.. hmm... ;)
>
>Anyway, it was a lot of fun and if you didn't come out, you missed out!
>
>:)
>
>Vern
>
>--
>Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
>Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
>Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course, if the network
>http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
>Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG
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