Sunday is the day that ISEF officially starts. For us it began with a hot breakfast in our hotel and then a walk to ISEF Registration in the Greater Columbus Convention Centre (GCCC). I booked this Drury Plaza Hotel in May last year as it was adjoined to the GCCC, but we have since found out that we are connected to the Southern end of GCCC, while most ISEF activities are in the Northern end so we had a 550m walk through the GCCC to Registration. At Registration we collected our lanyards, ISEF bags and wrist bands and each of the students had the opportunity to get a photo with their name on the ISEF sign that has been set up with the names of all 1600+ finalists.
From Registration, the AUSSEF team were directed to the Shout-Out Video Recording Room where our NZ team were filmed giving their six second welcome followed by three AUS team members giving their six second welcome. They were then given the opportunity to show off their artistic and creative skills by designing and colouring their country placard signs that they will be taking up onto the stage at tomorrow’s Opening Ceremony.
The next and major stage was setting up their individual displays in Exhibit Hall B & C, a huge space that is 200m long by 72m wide, filled with 1300+ projects. We began by attaching our header boards to our main posters and we lined them up for a video sequence. Can I say, the posters look amazing and we definitely made a statement that the AUSSEF team had arrived. Six of the ten AUSSEF students were able to get their projects signed off by the Display and Safety inspectors, before we left for a Mother’s Day dinner at a local restaurant. We have a total of six mum’s in our 20-strong delegation so this was another special event.
The day concluded with the International Pin Exchange where our clip-on koalas and kiwi pins are still the most sought after pins. Our team came out exhausted from the continual attention that they were given. It was a great night and a wonderful conclusion to our first official ISEF day.