Discussion: We need help!! "What is orienteering?" in 60 seconds

One day before classes start at the the University of Illinois (i.e., Aug 23) several thousand new students will descend upon The Quad to learn about student organizations and activities. We, the Orienteering Illini, will probably talk to a couple of hundred students.

We are looking for a 1 minute presentation about orienteering that is interesting, hopefully exciting, that would entice people to sign up to attend our organizational meeting. We have a table. We have a banner. We have a presentation board that briefly explains the sport. What we need is the 30 to 60-second "grabber" that will prompt people to linger long enough to put their contact info on a list.

Please point us to any threads on Attackpoint that address this issue. But also, if anyone has a particular rap that they prefer, please take a moment to post it here. We have our own ideas, but we want to know what others have found to be successful.

I almost always say the same thing:
"It's a race, it's through the woods, there is no marked route, you go any way you want. You just need to find the flags that are marked on a map that you carry. The fastest person wins"

It is a sport training the little GPS in our heads, the same part of the brain that helps you think spatially, helps with word problems, etc. It is training for that spatial thinking, the same as practicing math facts is for your math skills, or doing crossword puzzles is for your vocabulary skills or general knowledge, etc. It is a fun activity, the great outcome of which is training you to navigate when travelling even if your GPS fails and you don't know where North is, and all you have is a scribbled map on a napkin. It is a life skill worthwhile practicing in a fun way while enjoying the outdoors with friends and family.

It's a do it yourself video game - you get to immerse yourself in the race!

Introduce yourself, ask the passerby her/his name, remember it, call them next time they pass. Be sincere.

Then say, we go run in the woods, it's oodles of fun, and we'll look after you.

If you have spare time, explain uncrossable fences in normal and sprint orienteering.

I should add---make sure and have maps with courses on your display board and ideally, pictures of people having fun in NICE forest. Being able to show some maps goes a long way in explaining the sport. Also, hang some control markers around your table to jazz it up. If you have electronic punching, have the clear, start, 2-3 control boxes along with the finish and a dibbler and results printer there on the table. Then, show folks how they punch the controls and get splits. It's really not part of the navigation but the technology is intriguing and unique (I think), to orienteering.

PS find out what they are studying, where they are from, etc.

I usually don't emphasize "running in the woods", but this is mostly a factor of being in Seattle where we have a lot of urban events, regular events where there really aren't woods (corn maze, sand dunes, campus), and our local woods are usually so impenetrable that running through them isn't a selling point.

So my elevator pitch usually goes something like this. "It's a race where they give you a map to find checkpoints. Sometimes it's in city, sometimes in parks, sometimes in the wilderness. Races can be as short as 15 minutes, as long as 24 hours. There's a lot of variety, and it's a lot of fun."

As someone that was involved in a lot of dorm and campus activities at a big public university, here are some suggestions:

Have a campus event(s) on the calendar, and have them be very soon. An overwhelming majority of the attendees at these sorts of things are dorm-living freshmen that haven't attached themselves to many things yet. If you can say, "Hey, come out to our event next Thursday evening! It's right here on campus!", that's a great selling point. If you can offer free food afterward, that's even better.

I think there's potential in having a orienteering thing during orientation week. I didn't discover orienteering until my last year in college, but if I had discovered it earlier, I would have organized some sort of score-o with trivia checkpoints across campus and billed it as a "Campus Adventure!". I'd try to have a dorm competition. Floor vs. floor, dorm vs. dorm, whatever. Something to get the student housing organizations interested. Most freshmen don't know campuses yet, and you have the perfect way to get freshman to run all over campus. It's a win for you (exposure), it's a win for the students (it's fun, team-building, and educational about campus), and it's a win for student housing (a fun, cheap, social activity that keeps them on campus).

If you want to use OUSA's tabletop display, email and let me know. It is about 40 inches tall and 4-5 feet wide. I'd need to ship it to you or could drive it up to Indianapolis and meet you.

"Orienteering is the sport of map reading and navigating your way (usually by foot) through unfamiliar terrain. The organizers give you a map with a 'course' - a series of check points, marked on it. You are to read the map, and with the help of a compass, navigate your way in turn to each check point.

"Between the check points, which are marked in the terrain with orange and white flags, you can go by any route you choose. Going straight line by compass over a hill or through a swamp may or may or may not be faster or surer than going part way around it on a trail, and then taking a new compass bearing towards the control. Your choice!

"A typical course may have 10-15 checkpoints, which are spaced maybe 100-500+ meters (yards) apart, and may take 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours to complete. You can go alone or with friends or family members. and walk or run.

"Most orienteering events will have several courses to choose from of varying lengths and difficulty, from first-time beginner to advanced, with staggered start times. Beginner instruction is almost always available to teach you how to read the map and understand its various symbols, and how to use a simple base-plate compass with the map.

"Orienteering maps are similar to USGS topo maps, but are usually of a larger scale and are specially made, with much multi-colored detail on them useful for navigating by foot. Boulders, cliffs, stone walls, stony ground, fences, buildings, picnic tables, hills and valleys, pits, clearings, fields, forest, significant trees, rootstocks, marshes, swamps, streams, ponds, jeep roads, trails, foot bridges - reading this detail on the map and matching it in the terrain as you proceed helps you keep track of where you are.

"Even so, getting 'a little bit lost' between controls is part of the fun. Then 'relocating' by careful map reading, and spotting something in the terrain to recognize where you are is part of the rewards of orienteering. It's a lot of fun, and can do wonders for your overall confidence and self-reliance (and not just in the woods), as your map-reading skills progress and you are able to succeed in tackling harder controls and courses."

Yawn.

The trouble with making a pitch about orienteering to a random crowd is that what some people will love about it (maps! or terrain running! or getting muddy!) might be something that scares someone else. So, since these are college students, I say focus on free food. "Next week we have an adventure course around campus, followed by free food!" should do the trick.

+1 free food if college students are involved. Just order some pizzas for after; it's cheap, and quick enough that you can place the order after you see how many people are there.

Usually, "scavenger hunt for grownups" does the trick. Avoid the long descriptions. Show rather than tell - can you use the Hubmann video?

+1 on the Hubmann video! I want to go orienteering.

I'm prepping for some fall advertising around the U Penn campus, too (outdoor club office, gyms, maybe a club fair) and made this tri-fold info sheet, with a brief description of O, the DVOA club schedule, map sample (guess that event!), and QR codes to the club website, schedule, and Hubmann video (great idea, Alex!). Feel free to e-mail me for the (admittedly juvenile) Word doc, but I think you get the idea.



Fold 'em up (like a control!) and either:

* punch corners with hole punch and hang below a mini O control!
* set on table tops

DVOA also has business cards ... punch holes in the corner of those close to the edge and hang them from the control as well, for easy 'grab and go' pull off. The weight of those also helps with wind control for the info sheet above.

I love the idea of a tiny campus event with pizza at the end. If I only had a map and the time!! Hmm.

QR codes: use http://goo.gl/ to make a short URL, and go to 'details' for the image, and for analytics, too!

Did someone say 'food'?

Some great ideas here. I would point out to andreais that all some people will remember from your "elevator pitch" is that it has something to do with GPS. Better not to mention GPS at all, saying "only map and compass".

@origumigy
I know the part about the GPS very well, and it should indeed not be in an "elevator pitch" to students. It is, though, a great conversation point with teachers when emphasizing that they would not endorse calculator before math knowledge, but we have no problem letting kids use the GPS gadget before teaching them sound navigation skills.
It should actually be only "Map", no compass, that gadget is also overrated and intimidating to some, especially in a campus or other urban setting. The compass only distracts when trying to get newcomers to focus on map reading.
In terms of a pitch to students I agree with Cristina and Becks, free food is more likely to do the trick.
@DVOA envious of your schedule

hughmac4, I love what you did!

that's awesome Hugh!

I usually say: "a cross-country running race where there is no line to follow, and you're finding checkpoints (in the forest) using a map to figure out where to go.. the races range from 15 minutes to 1.5 hours... and the start times are staggered so you can't just follow"

also - for college students - free food :)

Prototype (sans business cards) on the tree in my office:

Thank you for all of your ideas! I will try to respond some of the above points:

carlch - We do have three sprint maps around our town. It is a great idea to put them on our poster board!

ndobbs - I agree that recognizing students walking to our table to find info is a good thing to do. We are a small club. It is nice to make people who join feel like a family. In fact, in this semester, I am testing bi-monthly gathering at different bars/food court to increase social aspect of the club.

Pink Socks - Since our local events are sprint maps at small parks or campus areas, I like how your elevator speech sounds.

Pink Socks, Cristina, ndobbs, Suzanne - Look like I should get some food for our first informational meeting. Question: is pizza the best food after an orienteering event? Previously, we always buy bananas, cookies, and Gatorade for the orienteering participants to eat. Last year, I set a demo course in the informational meeting. I am thinking of doing the same thing again, but this time with food afterwards!

acjospe: We use the Hubmann video in the last informational meeting. I think we will use it again!

Videos do the majority of the work. Puresive Films (youtube channel) makes the best ones. Personal fave is the Swiss O Week 2014 Aftermovie

Phrases like "cross country with a map" that puts runners in "unfamiliar terrain" to find a "series of checkpoints"... usually gets the gist across.

Pink Socks, definitely like your explanation of variety.

acjospe, spot on with the Hubmann vid (also Puresive Films)

We had the Quad Day today, where thousands of students look for new student clubs to join. The link showed a picture of our table.

Quad Day Picture for Orienteering Illini

We got 141 emails in the whole 4-hour Quad Day. This broke our record comparing to the last two years!

Thank for carlch and Pink Socks elevator speeches. We use both of them with minor modifications!

Now we are going to prepare our first meeting two days from today. We will certainly serve pizzas!

Ooh I was hoping there would be some awesome Quads on display!! Dissapointment :(