The 24-Hour Rock-a-Thon Challenge

I'm just a little embarrassed to say that last weekend I let my love of Guitar Hero and Rock Band get a little out of control. I helped run a charity event at my office in which we played the games for 24 hours straight. It was an amazing life experience, and of course, offers Challenge Dividend lessons.

(For a full view of the experience, check out our site and the blog I kept at Rockband.bridgeworldwide.com)

A little over a month ago I came up with the idea to play Rock Band at our office for 24 hours straight to benefit our company charity, the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund. While the charity angle was important, my main motive was personal: I just wanted to do it. I bounced the idea off a few friends and they loved it. We then invited other Rock Band players around the office to a special meeting where we announced the idea. They, too, jumped on board and we quickly planned the event. 

Last Friday at noon in our office the party began. Everyone chipped in to help. Some made decorations, others set up multiple projectors, and some set up our web cam. I kicked off the 24-hour set with Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” and we were off. I was really amazed at how many people played with us over the course of the event. People played the game instead of heading off to happy hour, clients joined us, parents brought their kids in (even at 1am!), and people came back from their night on the town to bring us beer and snacks throughout. People who had never sang or played before got on our makeshift stage. It was a true bonding event.

The real challenge for us came at 2:30am, when our group shrank to 5 core people, including myself. We rotated among the 4 playing slots (guitar, bass, drums, singer) non-stop for the next 6 hours until relief came on the form of breakfast and more players at 8:30am. We saw the sun rise, and we played the same songs over and over. I was amazed at how our energy was renewed each time we chose a new song and kept playing. People were dialing in to our webcam feed from their homes throughout the night and morning, reading my witty blog posts and wondering how we could keep playing (and smiling) for so long.

By noon on Saturday, only me and tech stud, Dan Brunner, had stayed the entire 24 hours. We finished up with Boston’s “Rock and Roll Band” – a song a chose because it’s all about a band of friends who have fun making great music and making audiences smile. I went home and crashed for hours.

I think the event exceeded our expectations in terms of fund raising and participation. Already people are talking about what we’re going to do next year, which is probably the biggest sign of success. Of course we’ll have to set new challenges for ourselves; maybe play the entire 24 hours…or expand into 48? We have a whole year to plan what’s next, but for now I’ll take away the experience of a challenge that made a better day for many people – especially me!