Claire: Hi, Grant. What sort of competition do you think we should organize?
Grant: 1Well, Claire, the open day committee was pretty clear on that. It must be something with youth appeal.
Claire: 1That makes sense. After all, most of the visitors will have just left high school.
Grant: Yeah. So I was thinking technology.
Claire: Do you mean something which uses the latest technology, like an iPod?
Grant: Something like that, but a bit more expensive maybe.
Claire: What about the latest iPhone? I'm saving up for one right now.
Grant: 2Let's make it an iPad. I wish I'd had a tablet computer when I started university.
Claire: Yeah. That's a great idea. That should get a lot of our younger visitors interested.
Grant: Right. Let's go with that then.
Claire: Fine. We could go into town now and buy it. I saw great deals advertised at the Rick Smith store.
Grant: Oh, I don't think we'll have to worry about that. 3A university purchase order will probably be arranged through the resources and supplies section.
Claire: Well, that's settled then. What about the competition? Is it going to be a game of skill or a guessing game or something else?
Grant: What do you think would work best?
Claire: Good question. I don't think it should be anything too hard or anything that will make the visitors look silly. Some of them have such fragile egos.
Grant: True. So something that anyone can do. Nothing competitive, no skill or intelligence involved.
Claire: That's right. 4But the main thing is that the contestants have a lot of fun.
Grant: How do we do that?
Claire: Well, I was thinking of a popular TV series, Science fiction or science fantasy. I don't actually know the difference.
Grant: Go on.
Claire: 5It's a series where in every episode, the main characters step through a portal into another world or another era.
Grant: What's a portal?
Claire: It's like a gateway or entrance to something.
Grant: Okay. I get it. They'll be stepping into the new world of tertiary learning. So somehow, we encourage people to step through this portal. Then what?
Claire: They get their photo taken.
Grant: Is that all?
Claire: Not exactly. Let me think.
Grant: I can't see how that's a competition unless we pick the best photograph. But there's not much excitement or involvement in that for the participants.
Claire: Wait. 6We don't decide on the winner. I mean, no one person does. We get them, the public, to do it. How? Put all the photos on Facebook and the one with the most votes wins.
Grant: I agree. Good idea. But there's just one more thing I'm not clear about. How do we get hold of a portal?
Claire: 7I was thinking graduates of the engineering department could construct it as part of their contribution to open day.
Grant: How do visitors enter the competition on open day?
Claire: 8Well, firstly, they have to make their way to the portal photo booth on campus.
Grant: Okay. A bit like a treasure hunt to start with.
Claire: Yes. And then they get their photo taken stepping through the portal.
Grant: And they'll have to write down their 9details. You know, name, phone number, email. No. Hang on. Let's keep it simple. Just name and email address should do.
Claire: 10Then after say the July 30, people can visit the university Facebook page and vote for their favorite photo.
Grant: So the photo with the most votes wins.
Claire: Yes. I think that should generate quite a bit of interest.
Grant: What about a cutoff date?
Claire: Of course. Maybe, the most popular photo as of 5PM on the August 10 will collect the iPad.
Grant: And the winner will be notified by email.
Claire: And the winning photo will be enlarged and published in full color on the university Facebook page.