From the Stevens Point Journal April 21, 2003:

Trivia 35 Rescheduled to Avoid Conflict

Organizers of the world's largest trivia contest have moved the dates for next year's event to avoid a conflict with a popular local festival.

Trivia 35 will be held April 16-18, 2004, according to lead organizer Jim Oliva.

"It's just one of those things," he said. "I had to do it."
Oliva said he agreed to move the dates for Trivia 35 after organizers of the Portage County Cultural Festival called to say their event was scheduled the same weekend. But by moving

Future Trivia Dates 2004 April 16, 17, 18 2005 April 8, 9, 10 2006 April 7, 8, 9 2007 April 20, 21, 22 2008 April 11, 12, 13 Source: Trivia 34 Web site: http://www.90fmtrivia.org/future.htm

Trivia up one week, the contest will again conflict with the state Destination Imagination competition as it did this year. Destination Imagination is a high school academic contest that brings more than 12,000 students to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus.

To limit future conflicts, Oliva said he reserved the dates for Trivia through 2008.

As for the recently completed Trivia 34: Survivor Trivia, Oliva said the competition was tough, but the contest was a success, especially in the way the questions were structured to blunt the impact of the Internet.

"I got pretty much the response I wanted from teams," he said. "They said they got a lot of answers off the Internet, but if they wanted big points, they had to take notes."

After some experimentation, Oliva said he and question-writing partner John Eckendorf have figured out how to manipulate questions so they know the impact the Internet has on the competition.

Preparations for an independent film documentary about Trivia are moving forward. New Jersey cinematographer Patrick Cady and a friend shot about 60 hours of film over Trivia weekend, Jim Oliva said. Cady plans to turn the footage into a 30-minute presentation to show to potential investors. Cady hopes to raise up to $300,000 for the film, which would be shot entirely during Trivia 35 for a planned 2005 debut at the Sundance Film Festival.

"I can literally determine where they're going to get the answers," he said. "We know when they're going to get it off the Internet and when they won't."

That strategy has some top teams arguing that the questions have become too easy over the past few years, but Oliva dismissed that complaint. "They have to understand that John and I write this for the 200th place team," he said. "We want them to have fun, and to do that, they have to get several questions correct every hour. When they get several questions correct every hour, they're having fun."

More than 11,800 players and 459 teams participated in Trivia 34. Network: Eye of the Spider took first place with 8,785 points.

The fund-raiser was successful, with advertising sales for the New Trivia Times rule book setting an all-time high, Oliva said. He added that, for the first time, all of this year's Trivia merchandise sold out.


Chronis can be reached at 344-6100, Ext. 2512, or at paul.chronis@cwnews.net.