HardwareZone Goes Wild for Its 15th Anniversary
HardwareZone celebrated its 15th anniversary in style at the Singapore Zoo this past weekend, with many games and prizes lined up for our loyal members. If you weren't around, hit the link to find out what you were missing!
HardwareZone 15th Anniversary
With HardwareZone turning 15, our team decided to hold a celebratory event at the zoo. You may ask, why the zoo? That’s because in the 15 years that HardwareZone has been around, our members have stayed and grown with us, with many becoming parents (or even grandparents!) in this period. So what better place to celebrate the growth and evolution of HardwareZone and our members than at the Singapore Zoo, where we can celebrate as one large family?
Held on a fine Saturday morning that was the 21st of September, Team HardwareZone prepared a series of mini-games for our participants, with the opportunity to win a host of prizes sponsored by our many partners in the tech industry. Expecting a turnout of over 200 people, our team got the registration booth set up at the crack of dawn even though the official registration for the event only started at 8.30 AM. Even then, we were surprised to see a line forming before 8 AM. Quite a few of the attendees turned up with their children, and some with their parents.
Dividing the participants into groups of 10, each group was assigned a specific colored tag for their members to wear, making it easy for members of a group to identify one another. Once registration was complete, they made their way to the Forest Lodge to gather. There, the attendees were given an event pack, which included a special HardwareZone 15th anniversary t-shirt, with many taking the opportunity to have their pictures taken at the photo wall.
Step right here folks!
It wasn't 8.30 AM yet, but a line had already formed.
The attendees had to collect their event pack which included a special HardwareZone t-shirt.
A photo wall is always a popular fixture at any event.
Here We Go!
The party kicked off with a welcome address by Dr. Jimmy Tang, the group editor of HardwareZone, who thanked all those present for their continuous support over the years.The emcee then introduced the audience to the rules and regulations of the game itself.
All participants received a game card to keep track of the points they earned after completing each of the games that were held around various parts of the zoo. There were also mini-games that an individual could attempt to get more points for him or herself, in order to stand a chance to win one of the many individual prizes. Once all the teams were done with the games, they were to assemble back at the Forest Lodge, where the final points were tallied.
Of course, before setting off, everyone was given some time to get acquainted with their team mates. Always wanted to put a real face to a forum nickname? Now's the chance.
Welcome speech by Dr. Jimmy Tang, Group Editor-in-Chief of HardwareZone.
The emcee briefing participants on the rules of the games as well as important safety notes.
Let's do some warm up before hitting the road!
Let the Games Begin!
It was now time for everyone to set out in search of their respective game stations. Thankfully, the weather was bright and sunny, so there was no danger of being caught in the rain. There were four game stations spread out around the Forest Lodge; this gave the participants the opportunity to also explore the zoo while moving from station to station. And to make things more interesting, small stickers were placed along the routes for the participants to discover. Teams who discovered these "easter eggs" were awarded additional points.
Participants checking out which station their group needed to be at for the first game.
Oh, what do we have here? A sticker...
Capture the Moment
Arriving at the KidzWorld Challenge area, teams were handed pictures of people adopting various poses around the game venue in order to play the "Capture the Moment" game. The task was to adopt the same poses and take a picture with the aid of a Sony Xperia Z Ultra smartphone. But that's not all though, they also had to take the picture at the location depicted in the handouts. While it may sound easy to strike a pose, many poses were unconventional and required a good dose of courage to do them in public.
It's not easy to get the pose right even if you have the picture in your hand.
There's also the possibility of getting wet in the midst of capturing the shot, though there's no worry about getting the Sony Xperia Z Ultra wet since it's water-resistant.
Catching the giant squid?
At the end of each mini-game, each team was required to take a group photo. There were different themes for each game station, and the group who best portrayed the theme in their group shot stood to win prizes.
Hear Ye, Hear Ye
Located at the Garden with a View area, teams at this game station were required to put on the Audio-Technica ATH-XS5 and ATH-RE70 headphones to listen to songs that had the sounds and calls of various animals sprinkled in. With the HP Envy x2 laptops' built-in Beats Audio kicking in, participants not only had to identify how many types of animals were in the audio clip, but also had to identify the animals themselves. This station awarded points to individuals who had the right answers, so everyone was deep in concentration. For once, there were actually moments of silence during a game.
Identifying the types of animals may not be impossible, but to identify the actual animal is another matter...
It was not easy to identify the various animals, with many of the participants concentrating intently while listening to the audio tracks.
Don't forget the obligatory team snapshot after completing each mini-game.
Pictionary
Moving on to the Tropical Crops area, each team made use of an HP Envy x2, which can be converted from a laptop to a tablet by sliding the keyboard off, to play a few rounds of Pictionary. After choosing a representative to draw out the word or phrase given to him or her by the game master on the tablet, the rest of the team had to guess the right answer. While we won't comment on our HardwareZone members' drawing skills, suffice to say, everyone had fun trying to make sense of their team mates' drawings.
The HP Envy x2 allowed the teams to unleash their drawing skills, though we have no idea why many opted to go with the yellow ink brush.
The 11.6-inch HP Envy x2 has a multi-touch screen, which is great for those who like to doodle.
Can you guess this phrase? (Clue: It involves doing something wrong.)
Speak the Lingo
Here at the Boat Dock 2, was the station that rewarded those of our members that participated regularly in our forums. Each team had to choose an envelope containing a number of pictures taken from our very forums. They had to guess the meme or text associated with the respective images, and points were awarded to participants who guessed correctly. Suffice to say, 'GPGT' and 'Cool story, bro' made an appearance.
"Hmm, I'm sure I saw QFT on the forum quite a few times. What was it again?"
Even our younger participants wanted to get in on the guessing of memes and lingo.
Prizes, Prizes, and More Prizes!
Gathering back the Forest Lodge once they were done with the games, participants had to exchange their game cards for lunch vouchers. By then, many of our members were famished, and feasted on the KFC or vegetarian meals provided. Quite a few participants also made their way to the HP booth to check out the various notebooks HP had on display once they were done with lunch.
Many of the participants bonded during the games, making new friends and expanding the HardwareZone community.
Many of the attendees were curious about the HP notebooks on display, with the HP staff receiving many enquiries during the event.
Once the scores of all the participants were added up, it was time to give out the prizes. 37 prizes were set aside for the lucky draw, with an additional three prizes for the individuals who were the most active in posting about the day's events on their social media networks. There were also prizes for the two most enthusiastic participants. And let's not forget the top five individuals who scored the most points during the games; last we heard, the prizes were super attractive.
Due to the sheer number of prizes given, we won't be posting photos of all the winners. But here are a select few:
Five lucky individuals received the Mili Power Nova II external battery pack and Mili Universal Charger from the hands of the one and only Mr. Vijay Anand, Editor of HardwareZone.
Corbell Technology also kindly sponsored two sets of Sharkoon Xtatic Surround Headset for the lucky draw.
Those weren't the only headsets given out though, with Corbell Technology sponsoring another four sets of the Sharkoon Xtatic Digital 5.1 Channel Gaming Headset.
Judging from his smile, we're sure this lucky draw winner was pleased to win a copy of Forza Horizon, an Xbox 360 video game sponsored by Microsoft.
Forza Horizon wasn't the only Xbox 360 game that was given away, with five winners walking away with a copy of the Halo Anniversary game.
Portable battery packs are really popular with everyone, and so Ban Leong Technologies provided us with five sets of the eGear 2,600mAH portable battery to give away.
One of our younger lucky draw winners walked away with one of the five sets of Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse. It'll come in handy when she surfs our forums.
A pair of tickets to the Singapore Zoo was up for grabs too.
The two most enthusiastic participants each received a Veho Kuzo VCC-001 HD Camcorder and a pair of tickets to the Night Safari. Presenting the prize here is Mr. Terence Ang, Product Manager for HardwareZone.
Quite a few of the participants were actively uploading images of the day's events to social media sites, and three of them went home with a Veho Kuzo VCC-001 HD Camcorder each.
The Top Winners!
Five units of the SanDisk Extreme SSD 240GB were given out as consolation prizes for the mini-games. Now, that's some fantastic consolation prizes.
Ms. Lynn Yong, HP's Marketing Manager, here with the fifth prize winner. He won a HP Split x2 tablet notebook, which has a 2-in-1 design that goes from a notebook to a portable tablet in an instant.
The fourth prize winner received a 3D/2N stay in a Club Deluxe Lake View room at the Chatrium Hotel Royal Lake Yangon, courtesy of Asiawebdirect.
The winner of the third prize gets to go to Bangkok, with a 3D/2N stay in a Deluxe Room (65sqm) at the Emporium Suites by Chatrium, courtesy of Asiawebdirect.
The second place winner didn't only win a 3D/2N stay in a Deluxe One Bedroom Suite at the Chatrium Residence Sathon Bangkok for two (courtesy of Asiawebdirect), but also a Raymond Weil Maestro watch.
The happiest person at the event got to be the first prize winner, who walked away with a 3D/2N stay in a Chatrium Club Suite One Bedroom Riverview (thanks to Asiawebdirect!) at the Chatrium Hotel Riverside Bangkok for two, as well as a Raymond Weil Jasmine watch.
And the team that took the geekiest team shot walked away with AC Ryan's Veolo2 Smart Android Hubs and 13.3-inch Prolink Mobile LED monitors.
For being the happiest team in a group shot, they walked away with Razer Ouroboros and Mamba mice.
ViewSonic 10-inch digital photo frames and X-mini Kai Capsule Bluetooth speakers were awarded to the loveliest team.
The coolest team won themselves Cooler Master Power Fort 5,600mAh portable battery packs.
So that's it. The HardwareZone 15th Anniversary event drew to a close in a midst of sweat, fun, and laughter. Sincere thanks to our kind sponsors for the fantastic prizes, those working hard behind the scene to make this event such a resounding success, and of course, the over 200 lovely members who turned up to join us in celebrating this milestone (apologies too to those we had to turn away, as we had reached capacity crowd).
For those who couldn't make it this time, see you in our next HardwareZone event.
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