Besides,  you will get a hunt featuring 2 CoCs, the team from Time Out Solutions and Lawrence Hie.

Date:  29th December 2008.  

Flag-off is at 9am at Dream Centre, 2 Jalan Seksyen 13, PJ and finish at 2 pm followed by hi-tea and prize giving.

2 categories : Regulars & Novices, however in the spirit of this hunt you can choose which ever category. The whole idea is to allow everyone, regulars and novices to mix around.

Lots more stuff you can do to help. Donate prizes, find sponsor, spread the news far and wide etc.

You just got to read the flyer. More info in the Entry form

It was a family outing for many of the teams, many hunting for the first time.

For a few teams, it was the children who knew what the treasure was.

One of the things that Auto Bavaria wanted to highlight was the many advance and safety features in a BMW.  They found out that many of the owners never really make full use of all these features. So we designed a section where it can draws attention and test the participants on the various features.

It was certainly a joy for me doing this hunt.

He responded immediately “I can’t think of anything better”!!!

I spotted Phillip among the sea of hunters at this year’s hunt and can’t help wondering how he felt seeing something he stared  grew to be such a huge success.  I asked him about it a few days later after the hunt.

“It was exhilarating to say the least!”

“We knew when we started it many years ago that it would be successful and would have a huge following in the years ahead. Congratulations to Joehari and his team for sticking to the principles we formulated and further improving on the overall organization.”

Phillip was the group director for market development for Nexnews, which had just re-launched theSun as a free newspaper. He needed a customer outreach event that would achieve two goals - increase the prominence of the brand and allow theSun to interact with its readers.

“As you know, both Joe and I had already been bitten by the treasure hunt bug by then! I also knew that treasure hunting as a past-time was also increasingly becoming popular. We immediately realized that it would resonate with our readers - especially given the demographics that theSun was targeting - urban, middle class, English speaking readers”

It was a “dream” project for both Phillip and Joe, but they did not want to organise just another  hunt, they wanted  something groundbreaking.

“As treasure hunters, Joe and I had taken part in numerous hunts and whilst we always enjoyed ourselves tremendously, we were also dissatisfied with various aspects of the manner in which the Hunts had been organized”.  So we asked ourselves this question: “What if we ourselves organized an annual Hunt and organized it in such a fashion that would rectify all the shortcomings we were experiencing as hunters in other hunts”?

Phillip with team mates Joehari and Julius receiving their rat traps for coming in last at a private CNY hunt earlier this year. Photo by Jayaram Menon.

The key changes that Phillip wanted for theSun Hunt were:-

“Prizes - we had taken part in many hunts where we won a prize - but it was a single hamper that the four team members had to share. We were quite fed up of this and knew immediately that we would need to give all 4 members in a team individual prizes. Also, we wanted as many teams to go home “with a smile” as we put it - hence we made sure of this. This was done by getting in as many sponsors as possible and putting as much as the funds as possible into prizes. It really made our day when one of the participants fondly referred to theSun Hunt as “the mother of all hunts” because of this.

Another key initiative that  has contributed to the success and brought in a whole new bunch of hunters into the fraternity is the Masters/ Open category.

“We knew instantly that we had to “separate” these experienced hunters from the rest as we wanted to motivate the newcomers to participate in more hunts and what better way that to give them an opportunity at what we called a “rostrum finish”. That’s how the Masters category came into being in theSun Hunt. We were careful to ensure the Masters were not shortchanged and got the respect they deserved - hence we ensured that ALL the Masters teams got a prize and it was of equivalent value as the corresponding Open category”.

Another “must” that Phillip ensured when he mooted the idea many years back was in the overall hunt presentation.

“I think theSun Hunt to this day is known for its slick organization - no delays, great food etc”

And the rest as they say is history

Asked if he has any words for the hunters out there, he has this to say

“It’s important to support the organizers by taking part. Only when the hunting fraternity gets bigger will new organizers come into the fold and organise new Hunts. And that’s in the interest of all parties - hunters, COCs, Sponsors and organizers”

“So hunters - go out there and enjoy!”

Indeed, Phillip is looking forward to go out there and enjoy himself at the Mensa Hunt next month.

Date: Saturday, 13th December 2008

Type: Half Day Motor Hunt

Route: PJ / KL

Entry fee: RM240.00 per team

CoC: Purple Antz

Cash Prizes for Top 5, Consolation Prizes = 6th - 20th

Entry form

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2. Kembara ANSARA  (Maktab Rendah Sains Mara old boys)

Date: Saturday, 20th  December

Fee: RM65/pax

Prizes:- 1st -RM1.5K, 2nd- RM1K, 3rd - RM800, 4th - RM700, 5th -RM600

CoC:Fun Hunt People

As usual,  I like the fact that Zahrol provides  most of the details like hunt format, no. of questions in the entry form.

Entry form

___________________________________________

Tamil Foundation Deepavali & X-Mas Hunt

Date: 20th December

Route: KL - PD

They have options on the entry fee including non-stay, which is great considering PD is near enough to come back after dinner.

CoC: Pava

Entry form

The reader wrote:

I notice that

1) Open Category 7th placing Song Eu Jin is a former champion of Sun Hunt Open Category, Year 2005 (The Hunt-O-Holics)

http://www.sun2surf.com/page.cfm?name=Winners

2) Open Category 8th placing Chen Poh Loong is a current master.

see here

Both shouldn’t hunt at Open Category.

1st Prize - Cash RM3K, 2nd - Cash RM2K, 3rd - Cash RM1K.

Consolation Prizes x 3 : CASH RM500

No entry fee. I understand team must be family members only. Collect entry form  from Sime Darby Property Township Sales Gallery. Open to 100 cars only.

The organiser refused to reveal the CoC but I sure we will know every soon with the help of all you resourceful (and persuasive?) hunters out there. The number to call is 03-80225999.

1. 138 - Pava, Yeap Heng Boon, Loh Siew Fun, Ho Mun Yee
2. 135 - Vincent Woo, Chong Voon Kiat, Margaret Sha
3. 133 - Goh Teck Koon, Wong Chiang Chuen, Claire Chin Siow Lyn, Julie Tan Hui Siang.
4. 130 - Steven Arokiaraj,Sanjay Abdullah, Neilson Doss, Sumita Devadas
5. 114 - Dato’Ramesh Rajaratnam, Liew Kok Seng, Lim Kong Yew, Adrian Wong
6. 107 - Suhaimi, Anwar Jeffry, Lim Say Chye and Chan Kah Seng
7. 100 -T- Bird
8.  98 - Zharoh, Azri and team
9.  95 - CK Loh, Tommy Ng, Rachel Chia, Ling Liong Ang
10.  95 - Venka, Sakthival, Buavnes, Eeswaran

Date : 29 December 2008 (Monday - Public holiday) at 8.00am

Organiser : Community Excel Services (CES)

CoC :  Lawrence Hie & Time Out Solutions

This event is open to the public.
More information will be available soon.

Date: Sunday, 14th December

Start/End: Sri KDU Smart School, Kota Damansara

Entry fee : RM70/pax for members and Sri KDU and RM80 for non members

2 categories:  Open & Closed (min. 3 Mensa members)

CoC : Lawrence Hie

Entry form

Details later