In 1989, two students from Otago and two from what was then ATI came tenth
in the ACM Contest Final in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1990, a team from
Otago won the ACM Contest Final in Washington, DC. In 1999, a team from
Waterloo, Canada, won the 23rd Annual ACM International Collegiate
Programming Contest World Finals in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. A team from
St Petersburg State University won the World Finals in 2000 and 2001.

What is the thread that runs through these seemingly disparate events? In
this decidedly low-brow, and hopefully light-hearted, seminar, I will show
how the nature of both the New Zealand and ACM programming contests has
changed over the last decade or so, and attempt to peek a little into the
future to see where contests are likely to go in the future.