Bobby Chan

It was really hectic yesterday, but today I’d say was even worse (in terms of the stress). It was an extremely busy and stressful day. There was just so much to do, and I probably ran around the school at least 20 times making sure everything was going well. At first I started with the business report template, then I let Corina and Natasha take over that job. Instead I had moved over to help Ahiney, Patty, and Shannon with the accounting. At this point I was trying to figure out the actual prices of products, materials, items, and other costs we needed for our museum space exhibition.

This was such a painful task since we had to figure out the items we needed, the quantities of those items, and the best price for the best quality for those required items. Adding more to our stress, was that most manufacturers did not list prices for their products and they asked you to contact them via email or phone. It was a 24 hour competition, and we had a little more than 12 hours left. There was absolutely no way we could inquire them by email. So we had to do a little calling. We were able to phone some of the companies for prices, but this one company which was based in Spain could not be contacted due to limitations. It was the only manufacturer of a highly desired product for our exhibition. Eventually we decided to estimate the price of the product.

With the basic accounting nearly complete, I had turned over to help Sam with the model prototype of our exhibit. I worked on this for some time, before heading back to check up on the status of the business report and financials. I helped format Hayley and Corina’s power point presentation, website, and the business report, before the report and Powerpoint were due for submission. (The website was an added feature which was not required but we incorporated it into the Powerpoint). Then I went back to help with the prototype. Sam was called down to do her part in the video, so I was left in the room doing more work on the prototype.

Once I had been called down to do my part of the video, I couldn’t memorize my lines, which Andrew, Patty, and Marya worked on. With such a tight schedule, Sam helped by writing them out on a large piece of paper and I just read them off. There was little time to waste memorizing the lines, as the prototype needed to be finished before the video submission deadline. The video was finished before the prototype. Time was ticking and everyone was going into panic mode. Maria was rushing to edit the video and put all the scenes together. While that was happening Sam and I were putting the finishing touches onto the prototype.

When it was finished, Sam and Patty took photos of the prototype and we uploaded them onto the website. There was literally no time to add them to the video. With the video ready for submission, Maria rushed to upload the video. We had some unnecessary trouble logging into the the GEC account. Eventually we logged in and uploaded the finished video five minutes before the deadline. The next five minutes passed, but it felt more like 30 seconds.

We were done and we made the deadline. The competition for the North American division was over. It was such a relief. We even got an email from the competition coordinate saying that our business report and Powerpoint presentation looked good.

In the next hour we spent our time watching the finished video and some awesome bloopers with parents, and teachers. I would say the best part of the video was Sam’s little stunt. And after that we all headed home. All I’d like to say, is that the whole competition was a absolute blast, despite the insane amount of stress involved. Thanks to everyone who helped out and for being so supportive!