the public

CLARE: Hi, Grant. What sort of competition do you think we should organize?
GRANT: Well, Clare, the Open Day Committee was pretty clear on that—it must be something with youth appeal.
CLARE: That makes sense—after all, most of the visitors will have just left high school.
GRANT: Yeah, so I was thinking—technology.
CLARE: Do you mean something which uses the latest technology--like an bipod?
GRANT: Something like that but a bit more expensive maybe.
CLARE: What about the latest phone? I’m saving up for one right now.
GRANT: Let’s make it an pad—I wish I’d had a tablet computer when I started university.
CLARE: Yeah...that’s a great idea. That should get a lot of our younger visitors interested.
GRANT: Right...let’s go with that then.
CLARE: Fine. We could go into town now and buy it. I saw great deals advertised at the Rick Smith store.
GRANT: Oh, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that. A university purchase order will probably be arranged through the Resources and Supplies Section.
CLARE: Well, that’s settled then. What about the competition—is it going to be a game of skill or a guessing game or something else?
GRANT: What do you think would work best?
CLARE: Good question. I don’t think it should be anything too hard or anything that will make the visitors look silly—one of them have such fragile egos.
GRANT: True. So...something that anyone can do?—Nothing competitive—no skill or intelligence involved?
CLARE: That’s right. But the main thing is that the contestants have a lot of fun.
GRANT: How do we do that?
CLARE: Well, I was thinking of a popular TV series: science fiction or science fantasy—I don’t actually know the difference.
GRANT: Go on.
CLARE: It’s a series where in every episode the main characters step through a portal into another world or another era.
GRANT: What’s a portal?
CLARE: It’s like a gateway or entrance to something...
GRANT: Okay, I get it—they’ll be stepping into the new world of tertiary learning—so somehow we encourage people to step through this ’portal’—then what?
CLARE: They get their photo taken.
GRANT: Is that all?
CLARE: Not exactly—let me think.
GRANT: I can’t see how that’s a competition...unless we pick the best photograph...but there’s not much excitement or involvement in that for the participants!
CLARE: Mum. Wait. We don’t decide on the winner...I mean no one person does...we get them, the public, to do it.
GRANT: How?
CLARE: Put all the photos on Face book--and the one with the most votes wins.
GRANT: I agree...good idea. But there’s just one more thing I’m not clear about—how do we get hold of a portal?
CLARE: I was thinking graduates of the Engineering Department could construct it as part of their contribution to Open Day.