Discussion: Long Beach orienteering

I would like to organize an orienteering event for ~150 people in or near Golden Park in Long Beach CA on or about July 13th 2012. It would be great if a local orienteering club or event organizer wanted to help out; budget is a few hundred dollars. Any suggestions for people to talk to? Is there a map there?

The first step is to find a map suitable for orienteering near your audience.

The Los Angeles Orienteering Club is nearby. They may be able to help.
http://www.laorienteering.org/

For most event organizers, a few hundred dollars will barely cover insurance and map printing costs for ~150 people. Economics are better for orienteering clubs, but not that much better.

For that kind of budget and such an urban location, a good approach may be 'Hood Hunt style. You don't need an official orienteering map to introduce people to orienteering.

Who's in the group?
Last Saturday, I just did a very low-key, low-cost event at a local park using only a black-and-white Google map aerial view. I designed it for adult, non-orienteering colleagues, but it evolved into an event for their kids: age 5-9. It worked great! I drew 8 circles (#1-#8) on the map and hung a long pink surveying tape (I should have numbered tham #1-8 also) at each site along with a set of 3x5 cards (with a picture) hung on a large paper clip and red ribbon. After 5 minutes of map reading (roads, tree vs. grass, basketball court), we had a mass start (kids ran ahead of attending adults). They collected the 8 cards, came back, and then had to ask a couple math questions (this WAS for our math dept :) ). Worked great. No clue sheet: each site was 'tree-grass boundary'. The format seems very flexible: perhaps the 8 or 12 rectangular cards could be a cut-up picture: "Return and put them together." (PS: I only had about 12 people total.) Short and fun event!
I believe that a key for the young kids was that the aerial photo was much less abstract than even the simplest of park orienteering maps.

I'm going to guess that this is for the annual worldwide meeting of computational biologists...

Yes, the annual Computational Biology conference. We usually work with the local orienteering club, often on an existing map, and they appreciate the chance to make some money for a few hours work. I haven't heard back from them yet. The phone number for Rich Hoesly seems wrong. I filled out the contact form on the website; no answer yet. Anyone know other contact info for LA orienteering?

Our format is usually score-O in teams, with a time limit. This is good because it maps to a computer science problem, and because we can start groups whenever they are ready to start.

Budget could potentially go higher than a few hundred, up to $1500 maybe, but I do not know for sure. We mostly attract students, and so don't charge very much.

Insurance is covered by the conference.

I love your description of your event, Ricka!

Making a map from aerial photography + map might work. Or that open orienteering map thing. It would be nice to get someone local to check the map for a couple of hours beforehand.

Isn't ClareD in LAOC? (rules at orienteeringusa dot org)

I find it difficult to contact anyone through the website.

LAOC has done some street-o races in Belmont Shores, which is nearby, so I think there's some sort of map already. Don't know if thats close enough for what you're looking for, or what the map actually looks like.