News Release
August 1, 2013
For Immediate Release
Contact: Angela H. Brown – angela@craftlakecity.com, 801-487-9221
This year’s festival continues to get bigger and better with new additions happening all the way up to opening day. This year, the Geek Show Podcast will be joining the DIY Festival as part of the sumo bot competition. Panelists Kerry Jackson, Shannon Barnson, Jimmy Martin, Jay Whittaker and Jeff Vice will be on hand to announce, judge and add color commentary to the festivities as builders compete with mini-bots to prove they are the best! Plus, the panel will also be honoring select bots and their makers with specialty awards throughout the day. The competition will take place on Saturday, August 10, from 12-4 p.m. in the DIY Engineer building.
The tournament will be conducted sumo-style, where two opposing bots (some remote controlled by their creators, and other autonomously running in the ring themselves) will fight to push each other out of the ring. The competition will feature mini-bots with specific size and weight restrictions, giving builders and experimenters both a chance to show off their creative skills as well as an opportunity to overcome mechanical restrictions and challenges. In order to help make the tournament fair and competitive, Craft Lake City has partnered with engineer Peter Reed and robotic builder Michael Anderson, who will both be overseeing the rules, submissions and gameplay throughout the festival. All trophies awarded that day will be the Craft Lake City 3-D Robots, printed up by GoEngineer, who are also featured in the DIY Engineer building. You can read up on the competition and robot fanatics in this month’s issue of SLUG Magazine. For more info and to register your a bot, visit the Sumo Bot Competition area on CraftLakeCity.com.
“We’re very excited to have the show involved with this year’s festival,” says Craft Lake City’s Executive Director, Angela Brown. “Their show has helped influence the engineering end of the community in several ways, along with their many contributions to the art of podcasting. Each of the panelists will bring their own unique insight and personality to the festivities, and will make this year’s competition an exciting and fun event for those who attend and participate.”
About Geek Show Podcast: Comprised of several like-minded media gurus in Utah who all grew up passionate fans, the Geek Show Podcast offers the finest in news from TV, film, comics, video games, pop culture and more, all discussed over an open bar with the microphones left on. The show was founded in the late 90’s as a segment on X96’s Radio From Hell show, growing over the years into it’s own entity until 2008 when host Kerry Jackson moved the program into a podcast format. The show’s panel currently consists of Jeff Vice (MSN’s Parallel Universe), Jimmy Martin (SLUG Magazine), Scott D. Pierce (Salt Lake Tribune), Leigh George Kade (Frisch Compassionate Eatery), and Shannon Barnson with occasional guests panel members. Since it’s inception, the show has produced a new episode every week, earned several reader’s choice awards from local publications, and grown it’s audience into a national product. One of the longest running podcasts in Utah, the Geek Show Podcast celebrated its 5th Anniversary in April 2013. You can download the show from GeekShowPodcast.com, iTunes and Stitcher.
About Craft Lake City: Craft Lake City is a 501-C3 charitable organization. Craft Lake City’s mission is to educate, promote and inspire local artisans while elevating the creative culture of the Utah arts community through science, technology and art. In an effort to keep the community active, educated and aware of the local DIY culture, Craft Lake City hosts monthly workshops, gallery shows, fundraisers and an annual DIY festival to promote regional spending with independent artisans and businesses. The 2012 Craft Lake City festival welcomed over 200 vendors and 15,000 attendees at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake. Craft Lake City will expand the fifth annual gathering into a two-day format on Friday, Aug. 9 and Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013. Craft Lake City was recently awarded “2013 Best of State” in the “Fairs, Festivals and Events” category.