I have a dealt with many LAN parties, and from experience I have one little suggestion about the power issue. This would only but helpful if you are planning on a large scale LAN party and would be pointless for small to medium ones. OK... so now the suggestion.
Take a look for any companies that deal with live concert production (aka..Sound system, lighting, video) in your area. Give them a call and tell them what you’re doing, and about your team and what not. (just like a sponsor) These companies have to deal with large values of power, so they have everything necessary do this kind of thing. The main thing you would be looking for is a power distribution; this is what they use for concerts to control their power flow. They genially have their own breaker box built in to the system, but the only problem with them is that to really get some good use from them they need to be hooked up a three-phase circuit (this makes the need for a electrician duty) and most of the time someone form the production company needs to be there to hook them up.
Here is what you might run in to if you get one.
LINK
They also might be able to provide you with some heavy duty power extender (I mean heavy duty), these well be nice to handle some nice amounts of power over a far distance.
Let me list out some pros. and cons. about doing this.
Pros.
• Deals with large amounts of power
• Built in circuit
• Makes easy transition from three-phase to standard Edison (if needed)
• May provide with high performance power extenders (big plus)
Cons
• Needs electrician (particularly for three-phase)
• May need tech from production company for hook up
Getting this equipment really depends on the shows they are doing that day. Again I well highly stress not to try this for small (20-30) to medium (40-120), but only for large scale (140+) LAN parties. For this is wasting both your time and the production company’s time and equipment if not really required. I do have an internship at the company that does this in my area so I do have experience with this kind of thing.
I hope this advice is helpful for any one that might need, and sorry for maybe wasting your time if you don’t.