#LATechWeek · Wed Oct 14 · Griffith Park

Founders & Funders Tennis.

Out of conference rooms. Onto the court. Two hours of rotating doubles for LA's venture community, and this is how it went.

See the gallery Get on the list for the next one
The full group lined up along the net at Vermont Canyon with the Griffith Park hills behind.
2:45, the group photo, just before the challenge match.
WhenWed Oct 14 · 1–3 PM
WhereVermont Canyon Courts
FormatKing of the Court doubles
Hosted byALAi · LVLON · bümo · UST
01 · The day

Nobody had a microphone.

Tuesday at Caltech was four panels and a stage. Wednesday was two hours on the upper bank with a racquet and whoever rotated on next. Same community, no programme, and a far better hit rate on actual conversation.

Win

Stay on your side.

Lose

Rotate off.

Waiting

Meet somebody.

The format did the work

  • Four a court, two doubles teams, winners holding the King side.
  • First to four when the line was long, seven when it was short.
  • You did not pick your partner. That is the entire reason strangers ended up talking.

All levels, genuinely

  • The rotation flattens it out inside twenty minutes.
  • A first timer and somebody who played in college end up on the same side of the net, and the point still has to be played.
  • Nobody kept a running score, because there was no bracket to feed.

Then the challenge match

  • At 2:45 we stopped for the group photo.
  • The challenge match was the only competitive moment of the afternoon.
  • It was also the loudest the courts got all day.
Play
9 · 10 · 11 · 12

The upper bank ran continuously from 1:20 to 2:45. Partners and opponents changed all afternoon, which is the whole mechanism.

Players gathered in the shade by the lower courts with drinks and snacks.
The shade by the lower bank.
03 · How it ran

Two hours. No bracket.

The schedule we published, and the schedule the afternoon actually kept.

Arrival on the lower bank, warm-up, drinks and snacks.

Welcome and the rules, which took about ninety seconds.

Continuous play on courts 9 to 12, rotating all afternoon.

Group photo at the net, then the challenge match.

Wrap. A good number of people stayed on anyway.

04 · Next

Same courts. Bigger list.

This is becoming a regular thing rather than a Tech Week thing. If you want to be on the list for the next one, or you were there and want an introduction to somebody you rotated past, write to us and we will make it.

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