October 5, 2005, NEW YORK, NY — The LVHRD Foundation, in cooperation with creative agency thehappycorp global and the Global League of Competitive Consumption, has announced its next major event: The Vending Machine Challenge. This competition is set to take place on Monday, October 17, 2005 at an undisclosed location and will be the first competitive eating event of its kind. Once again displaying a penchant for unexpected outlets of imagination and wit, LVHRD will demand the utmost from its showcased competitors — a combination of quick thinking, endurance, and sheer ingestive capabilities.

The Vending Machine Challenge incorporates the physical strain and inventive strategy of classic competitive eating, but its concept originates from a more modern dilemma. The vending machine has long stood as a touchstone of frenzied late-night productivity, inducing creative professionals under high pressure and tight deadlines to decide on their fast fuel of choice. The Vending Machine Challenge takes that late-night competitive spirit and turns it on its head. The tool that has long served to help get the job done now becomes the job to do. Competing teams will attempt to consume the entire contents, sans packaging, of their respective vending machines.

For the main event, LVHRD has invited representatives from rival internet giants Yahoo! and Google. Design firms Anomaly and IconNicholson have also been invited to compete in the “South of Houston” exhibition match, while Studio Red/Rockwell Group and Counts Media, among many other organizations, have registered their interest in competing. Companies with such clout aren't uncommon at LVHRD events. Past competitions have featured architecture firms Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Smith Miller + Hawkinson, dancers from American Ballet Theater and NYC Ballet, founders of Flavorpill, models from Double Agent and even scientists from Scientific American and Popular Science. “We are an organization that prides itself on challenging creative professionals,” says Beauregard H. Montgomery, the Founder and Director of the LVHRD Foundation. “It's now time to challenge our members' competitive spirits in new mediums.”

LVHRD expects between 600-800 attendees at this debut event. While membership with the organization is currently closed to the public, non-members who wish to attend the upcoming duel are encouraged to find their way to the competition by contacting a current member. For those who cannot make it to the Vending Machine Challenge, but would still like to bear witness to its spectacular feats of consumption, the event will be podcast from thehappycorp.com for the global competitive eating community.