Thread: Northern England & Scotland event startup

As I touched upon in a differing thread, I am in the process of trying to start up a series of events, however to avoid cluttering that thread more, I'll post a new thread, and here it is, so introducing;

*name not final yet, but this is what I am using to refer to it in all the paperwork and emails i'm sending currently

From Liverpool to Leeds, Glasgow to Gainsborough and Sheffield to Scarborough, I'm aiming to of set up a semi-regular event / circuit in northern England and reaching up into Scotland, I want to bring events of some description to those currently without, both roboteers and interested members of the public who'd love to watch them. To this, i want to try acting as a spearhead with which to bring in interested people, and help the hobby continue and gain new people with new ideas and new bots, rather than just have a laugh and a bit of fun.

So the important details, aims and what I'm hoping to include in each event.
- For the first one, I am aiming for at minimum, arenas suitable antweight and beetleweights. Although if I can find the funding, featherweights too. The weight classes factor hugely into the appeal to the public attending and how much they're willing to pay, so the cost of the venue rental can be paid for, at least as much as possible, but naturally each step up in weight classes is a step up in the strength of arena needed, which can raise the cost exponentially. If things go well, I'd love to support the heavyweights in time.
- A focus on education, as well as fun, I'm going to aim to teach interested people who want to get into the hobby varying helpful things, either through leaflets, or live workshops on things like soldering, different types of plastic and other materials to use, battery care, everything they'd need to get into the hobby, and hopefully compete the next time the event (or any) occurs.
- Mini games! - Something you can just drop a bot into and try to set a high score, for those that don't have time or patience to take part in a main competition that may require them hanging around, or just people who need something to do during repair time.
Here are some i'm confident can be done on a small scale suitable for bots;
> Pinball (similar to the Robot Wars version)
> Ten Pin Bowling - aim to knock down the oversized pins in the fastest time
> Football
> Tug of War - on bots that have the ability to have rope secured to them, first to pull the other across a central line wins
> Assault Course - a full on labyrinth with dangers like air or water jets, swinging boulders and all sorts. This should be not too difficult to do in even small spaces with a bit of clever building to fit a lot into small spaces, with a surrounding transparant cube wall to ensure there's no water or even a mistimed bot and air jet flying around, shouldn't take too long to reset after each one either.
There are several others i have, so i'll probably rotate between them each event - these are just a random selection for sake of the post.
- Sales - I'm going to try seeing if its viable to set up something like a 'Carbot' (instead of carboot) sale. Roboteers selling off parts, souvenirs, or even if we can get them, some pre-made 3D printed bots that can be sold to the public so they can instantly get up and running into the hobby, should they wish to not go through the often frustrating route of building their own.

Of course, there would also be the bit everyone loves, and robots going head to head in a tournament style series of live matches. So don't worry about that being overlooked.
So the main barrier to this starting up, is the initial cost of building suitable arenas for everything. I'm not sure the best route to go with this issue. Either trying to find an investor in the underlying company registered in my name (Bad Science Limited), a sponsor, or even going to crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo & Kickstarter. So that's an immediate point of issue I need to resolve pronto. However, I don't think it'll be too hard to self sustain after the initial cost of building the arena, and any props needed for the mini games are initially created. It's also been noted that some places may donate, purely out of an interest in keeping the sport going, or upon agreeing to support and encourage people into STEM areas.

I'm currently talking to sports centres, colleges, and schools about renting their halls. I'm having a bit of luck with school sports halls, as after all, they don't need them on weekends and they're willing to charge a lot less than something like a sports centre, as they have nothing to lose renting it out on weekends when its of no use to them, but sports centres need to take into account all the money that hall could earn them over those two days through actual sporting stuff. I've also been trying to barter with them, and offer any students of the school free or reduced entry, in return for a cheaper rent agreement. I'm not expecting nor wanting to make a lot of money off this, but ideally it needs to pay for itself in the long run, obviously.

I'd love to hear any feedback on this plan / idea, and I'd welcome anyone who is willing to help setup this venture or has advice or even constructive criticism, and hopefully we can bring robotic chaos and mayhem to the north of Great Britain in regular bursts!

There's lots of stuff to do, so I better stop writing this, get off to bed, and figure out a few more things!