Overnight Challenge 2009 Wrap-up : Spoiler – we didn’t win

Posted by admin on Mar 2nd, 2009 | View Comments

The Overnight Challenge wrapped up around 10:30 or so today. The overall winner of the event was the organization District 202 (old site here) and their team Praxis. I can’t say for sure on how the judging was conducted, but I’m sure the key was the overall impact to the organization on fulfilling their mission rather than merely the things that “geeks” would otherwise hold dear. If I remember correctly, Praxis set up some sort of 3rd party community platform through Ning. I don’t know much about Ning, but the theme this year was definiatly reaching constituents through social media integrations. I also think most groups ended up going with some sort of pre-rolled CMS too. We, and a few others, used WordPress – which after this long weekend, I think more and less of as a piece of software.

Our non-profit YEA Corps really loved their site and the Director M.H. started crying at the end of the spiel with the judges. She, and the board member Kris, that showed up at midnight or so for the remainder of the event, were a pleasure to work with. I’m actually excited to help with them on the continued support.  I did feel a wee bit bad that we didn’t talk more after the event was over. However, I’m sure they wanted to go home and sleep just as much as we did.

All in all, the event was once again really fun. The organizers made a smart move by including mealtimes in the 24 hours which shortened the event by 6 hours or so and cut out an entire catered lunch from last year. After eating so much to stay awake, the last thing you need is more food. I did miss having Rock Band and such going on in the main event area on the giant screens. That was sort of a nice addition last year and kept spirits high. I don’t even play Rock Band, hehe. They did however this year have a free photobooth, which was pretty fun. I didn’t really make use of it personally because it kept slipping my mind.

Anywho, I will post some more bits later. I got home and just crashed for a few hours and now am off to Charles’ bday grilling jobber in the snow. Yay more food.