Here is how the conference went down:
Day 1 (Sunday): Matt and Alex arrive at the conference venue in Houston with a load of baggage. We brought all of the hands, a high-speed camera, the materials for the demos, and the presentations. Traveling through TSA with a cooler full of hands was an interesting experience. They did not like it.
Once we arrived we knew that we had a lot of work ahead of us because these would be our very first demos. Since we had to focus first on making the hands, no demos were complete. As a person who likes to share things that are finished and polished, this was certainly outside of my comfort zone.
Dave and his colleague Glen brought the 10 ft long clear acrylic pipe for the drop demo and the proper PPE. Once we all got together, we started practice.
Alex holding the 4 in diameter pipe, Dave about to drop, and Glen holding the ladder
Day 2 (Monday AM): The entire conference kicked off with our demo. Since ConocoPhillips begins their meetings with a "safety moment," we were up first. Our plan was for me to present the Live demo concept and show some of the high speed video for the situation with a glove and without a glove. The presentation was a huge hit and was mentioned several times later in the conference. Below are the key videos from the presentation.
This video is without a glove. Contact pressure of the chisel is 9000 psi
This video captures the falling chisel with the glove. The impact pressure is reduced by 98% because of the increase in contact area.
Day 2 (Monday PM): The afternoon was filled with trying to get our second demo complete. Do we use a grinder or a box cutter? The answer was quickly determined once Dave tried cutting a sample hand with a box cutter. The knife went through the hand like butter - just like it would with real skin. We knew immediately that the the demo had to be a cut with a box cutter. The box cutter demo ended up being an excellent choice because it focuses on the decision to use the right tool (which is sometimes inconvenient) or the easy tool (e.g., box cutter, which is NEVER the right tool). The demo also deals with an issue that plagues almost every project.
Day 3 (Tuesday AM): We kicked off the second day conference similar to the first. Our goal with the second presentation was to do two demos: the full-scale drop column and the box cutter demo. We had shown the videos above on the first day but wanted to demonstrate the actual full-size drop column. The second demo would involve using the right tool to cut a cable tie and a video showing the box cutter hitting a hand.
The presentation was well executed. Unfortunately, as we feared, the drop column didnt work quite right. The diameter of the pipe is so large that we cant be sure to hit the hand every time. Of course, both drops int eh live presentation missed after every one in our practice hit. Fortunately, we had a back-up plan and I had a hand that had been hit to show the camera.
The slow motion laceration of a box cutter
Day 3 (Tuesday PM): The afternoon of the second day of the conference involve an "un-poster session." In this session we had one-on-one time with the conference attendees. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. This session gave us the confidence to know that this would receive broad and long-term support. Below are some photos from this session taken by Alex.
Our booth
Showing off the Phantom camera
Showing off the hands. People thought "cool" or "creepy" but everyone had some sort of memorable reaction.
We had a steady crowd for the whole 2-hour period - How cool!
The Kong gloves were a pretty big hit. new to almost everyone.
