Months of planning, stress, and a good amount of hassle finally came to a somewhat conclusion. On Thursday, October 29th, the ELEVATE competition was a go! We were able to get all 38 teams to their assigned rooms with their judges for them to present their ideas for how to create balance.
Now how did everything work given the current pandemic? That question has been on our minds for a long time. With the competition on Thursday, we had to have everything squared away by Tuesday night which was the Director Preview. For that meeting, one member from each team met with 2 of our other directors for them to receive their final instructions on how to present, whether that would be in person, over Zoom, or a mix. Then, in a last-minute meeting on Wednesday, we received our final assignments for our stations, and Thursday was all set and ready to go.
The ELEVATE Directors
Now of course it would not be any sort of event without any difficulties, right? You would be correct. Our first hiccup was that 2 of the scheduled rooms were not actually set up for Zoom, so there was neither sound nor video for the projectors. We scrambled to find other rooms to use, and thankfully by the grace of it being a non-busy night on campus and the I.T. Department of BYU-Idaho, we were able to get new setups for the judges and teams. I was stationed outside one of the 4 rooms to get teams checked in prior to their presentation, and also a runner for any other things we needed for the other rooms. We were able to get all 38 teams to present, and our lovely judges were there to help choose the top 5 teams for the Finals, which will be held next week.
One of the participating teams.
It’s amazing how much stress can accumulate over the months in preparation for an event such as this. However, the feeling of relief once it’s done is an amazing sense that I don’t ever get to experience. I am glad that I have been able to help organize this contest and am really excited to get to help run the finals next week. The teams did such a good job on their presentations, and we are so grateful for their participation.
