On Saturday morning our team arrived at Orchard Hardware and set up for the demonstration in sponsorship with the store. A little after it started we realized that choosing to come in the morning was not the best idea, since the store isn’t as busy early in the morning than it would be near noon time. After we had set up our demonstration area, many customers passing by starting stopping at our demonstration. We noticed that many children were interested in our robot, which our drivers Marlon and Victor were driving for demonstration. Meanwhile, other members approached customers and Orchard staff introducing our team and FTC. Later, the store manager Steve which we had spoken to several times online had come out to greet us. He along with the Orchard staff were very affable and understanding, as our sponsorship leader introduced our team and explained our team background. He expressed interest explaining that his father was an electrical engineer, which was a big reason why our sponsorship proposal caught his interest.
Less than an hour later, our demonstration had already come to an end. Despite this being our first time hosting a demonstration, in our eyes it was very successful as many customers and children were attracted to our demonstration. We are very thankful to be able to become acquainted with Steve and his staff in person, with promising growth in our relationship between our team and Orchard. Overall, this demonstration was very successful, and had a very meaningful experience as we were able to gain more experience in outreach and interact more with our community. We had promised to update Orchard with news on how their support is implemented in our team’s success. To close our demonstration, Steve gifted us a $500 gift card to their store, which we graciously accepted.
Besides gaining useful exposure to our local community and meeting the wonderful staff of Orchard, we had also recognized areas of improvement on our part. Despite there being a generous amount of customers at Orchard, upon reflection we concluded that holding a demonstration in the afternoon would be more impactful since more people arrive to shop during noon time. Additionally, besides arranging a better time to hold events some members suggested holding a small scrimmage with another local team. A scrimmage would capture the interest of more customers and people passing by, as they get a more realistic experience and understanding of robotics. It would also make a great bonding and outreach experience for more than one team, as we are well acquainted with some local teams through tournaments and previous scrimmages. Through these reflections, we concluded that to better capture the interest and reach out to our surrounding community we need to plan more accordingly by considering the interests of the community.