I will again be providing free laser tag games at the Auburn Parks 4th of July Festival this year. Fortunately for me, most of the preparations needed were done last year, and do not need to be done again. There are a few things I need to think about and try to work out, though.
First off, I need to try to make sure that the problems we encountered last year are minimized. It is fortunate, then, that I have already taken steps to do so. A couple weeks ago, I finished modifying all my LTTO Drones (IRT-2X taggers) with what is called the “Magic Drone” mod. Essentially, this is adding a capacitor inline with the CPU power so that in the event of excessive battery jiggle from dropping, falling, swinging, or jerking the tagger around, the CPU will not lose power and freeze, causing the player to be kicked out of the game. It’s “magic” because with the capacitor installed and charged, the batteries can actually be removed for 30 seconds or more, and the tagger will still keep running. This should eliminate all the problems associated with battery jiggle that we had last year. It wasn’t a lot, but it’s very disappointing when it happens.
The second issue we had last year were debriefing errors. As you can read in the comments from last year’s blog, we figured out what the problem was. So, I will be updating the instructions signs to indicate that pulling the trigger before it says “Good Luck!” is BAD. I’ll also be making this clear before each game. Hopefully, this will eliminate that issue. With battery jiggle problems licked, and debriefing problems understood, we stand a good chance of having VERY FEW, if any, technical problems at this year’s event.
What else is there? Well, I need to give some thought to how I’ll be setting up in the new location. It shouldn’t be a BIG difference, but the location is different, and so will need to be adapted to. Fortunately, the location itself is superb from an exposure standpoint. Last year, we had friends and people who knew we would be there having a hard time finding us. This year in the new location, we’ll be hard to miss. This year, we’ll be on the west side of the part, right next to the paved trail that the parade will be on, and apparently right next to the only access into and out of the car show next to us. We will be in plain sight from pretty much everywhere else in the park, and when there’s something in the way (like another booth or ride) signage should actually be helpful this year. Last year I think we had about 100 unique people go through once or more. This year, given the expected attendance of the festival, I would expect double that or more. I sincerely doubt there will be many, if any, games without a full 24 people. Since the whole point of providing free games is to promote the club and laser tag in general, the more exposure and players, the better!
So with this great new location, what’s the problem? Well, unfortunately, part of this great new location is a clay baseball diamond. Now, it’s a small one, for youth sports, but it’s still big. If that were grass, I’d be smiling. Since it’s not, that means my effective play area is smaller than it was last year. Sure, we can let the kids play in the diamond. We probably will. What we can’t do is anchor the barriers in there. The clay will be too hard for the pins we use in the grass, and probably even too hard for real tent stakes as well. I’m also not sure Parks and Rec would appreciate a bunch of holes being punched into the diamond. Also, the clay is hard. I wouldn’t want kids trying to dive behind a barrier on that stuff, nor would I want my taggers getting slammed down on it or dropped onto it, no matter how tough LTTO is. I’ll need to decide, possible on the day of the event while setting up, whether the play area is big enough without the baseball diamond, and if not, how much of it to use, and whether to even attempt to put barriers in there. I don’t think I’ll be able to do a dry run like last year, since the fields are used for practices and even games sometimes.
Last but certainly not least, and the inspiration for the title of this blog, is trying to get some involvement from Hasbro. By involvement I mean promotional material (i.e. freebies), and possibly a set of the new Lazer Tag gear coming out this year, as a raffle/giveaway to some lucky kid. While not strictly needed, it gets people more interested in playing, asking about the club, and coming back for more. It also gives people a positive opinion of Hasbro as a company, and laser tag as a cool, fun sport to play. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to maybe see some of the new gear in person before it hits the shelves. 🙂
Well, I know a guy who knows a guy at Hasbro’s marketing team that handles Lazer Tag promotions. I’m hoping he’ll be able to pit in a good word for me and my events with their marketing people so that they see it as a worthy tool for promoting the brand. With the exposure I’ll be getting this year, it WILL be a good promotional tool for Hasbro, so I’m hoping they don’t pass up that opportunity.
Hopefully I’ll have more to report on that stuff in the near future.