Growing the NAIPC and Looking Ahead to 2016ΒΆ
Since its creation in 2012, the North American Invitational Programming Contest has been a destination event where the top ICPC teams in North America have been treated to an all-expenses-paid weekend in Chicago culminating in an on-site contest with major prizes at stake. The 2014 edition of the contest included a full schedule of events, including a reception at the world-famous Museum of Science and Industry, and a $12,000 grand prize for the top team of the contest (the same amount awarded at the World Finals).
Unfortunately, we were unable to raise enough sponsorship funds to hold the contest as an on-site event in 2015, and we will instead be holding it as an online contest. Although this still allows us to further one of the NAIPC’s goals –to allow the North American ICPC teams to train for the World Finals– it does not provide a realistic contest environment, and does not have the visibility or the potential for cross-team collaboration that an on-site contest does.
Nonetheless, we are determined to continue to grow the NAIPC and position it as the premier programming competition in North America, helping to improve the visibility of ICPC and its contestants as well as their performance in the World Finals. We hope that 2015 is just a bump in the road, and that we can once again hold the NAIPC as an on-site contest in 2016, with more teams, more training opportunities, and more fun activities than before.
However, this requires finding enough sponsorship support to cover the expenses of running an on-site contest. If you are interested in sponsoring NAIPC 2016, please contact us at naipc2015@cs.uchicago.edu for more details. We offer multiple sponsorship tiers, from under $10,000 all the way up to $50,000, providing different levels of access to some of the most talented collegiate coders in all North America (from providing literature and branded merchandise to participants all the way up to exclusive sponsorship of events and talks during the contest).
Similarly, if you are an ICPC coach, judge, contestant, alum, etc. with ties to prospective sponsors, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Many of the past NAIPC sponsors have come on board thanks to connections made by ICPC-ers.