Championship Conferences - Who Goes?

[CMBrandon]

Cooler Master has an opportunity to submit an idea for a session at championships.

So tell me:
Who goes to these/how many per session?
What do you think would be a good topic to propose?

Bonus Section:
What do you think about CM suggesting a "How to do marketing" seminar in place of something PC related?

[Akash Rastogi]

What would your presentation about marketing entail?

I would have a hard time believing someone not directly marketing a FIRST team would be qualified to speak to this, but if you mean straight up corporate marketing I guess that would be applicable if there are students attending who are interested in that kind of stuff. (Which I'm sure there are plenty, marketing is fun stuff). I think the best way for you to use this platform is to bring in someone on your marketing team that works in the marketing analytics side of things. It would be a great way to show kids how statistics and data analytics is used in fun fields like marketing.

Other than that, I'm not sure what teams could learn from corporate marketers that they can't learn better from a top FRC team. (not being mean here, being realistic. It's not like most FRC teams can run a product giveaway easily as a promotional event).

-Akash

[Lil' Lavery]

Here's a link to the YouTube playlist of the conferences from the 2016 Championship. You can get a feel for the sizes of rooms used and how full they were (it obviously varies by presentation topic).
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZT9pIgNOV6Y6CgNoZ_o0k-k2pqBErS0i
And one of the presentations I know that list is missing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJOfH-lomEQ



Topics span a great range. Most, but not all, are FIRST-specific (or sometimes FRC-specific or FTC-specific). Some others are tailored at interests that FIRST students have, but aren't explicitly FIRST-related (scholarships, NASA projects, tech industry, etc). The most popular presentations tend to be from individuals with high amounts of success within the FIRST community giving insights into particular aspects of FRC. The topic lists from 2015 and 2016 can be found below:
http://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/workshops-and-conferences

[CMBrandon]

I'd agree with this. I think the only reason I even threw it out there is because I've seen a lot of teams struggling in this area. We usually do "How to build a computer" or a related topic so I thought that may add more value. The stats thing is interesting since we do a ton with that.

I'm open to all suggestions. I really value everyone's input.

[Monochron]

I would Cooler Master would be uniquely able to give a talk on what your employees do / how these students could apply their interested at a place like CM. Not really in line with the other seminars, but it might be more aligned with what you guys do.

[Edxu]

We usually have about 20-30 people on the team attend conferences when we're at Championships.

I think that CM should consider doing a presentation on building a brand/making your team recognizable, which is something that a company like CoolerMaster should have experience with.

[Captain_Kirch]

FIRST competitions create a microcosm of the business world. I'm sure if you held a conference about how to develop a brand for a team, or how to market a teams image, etc. it would be greatly beneficial.

Perspective is valuable. Experience is valuable. I am disappointing that anyone in the community would have the gall to suggest your perspective isn't worth sharing because you aren't from a successful FIRST team. Your offer to host a educational session is generous, and I know for a fact there are teams interested in this.

Maybe you can ask this question in a poll?

[jweston]

Who goes to these/how many per session?

Our students and mentors go to these. We typically review the conference schedule prior to the trip, do an interest sign-up, and then try to build as much accommodation into our schedule as possible. Some students and mentors don't go to any, often by choice. Some just go to one. Several go to as many as three or four.

What do you think would be a good topic to propose?

A better question might be to ask yourself what area of knowledge do you feel comfortable giving advice in that would be useful to teams? What kinds of frequent questions come up on CD or other FIRST forums that could be helped by a 1-2 hour presentation?

What do you think about CM suggesting a "How to do marketing" seminar in place of something PC related?

FRC definitely has a business side that can leverage marketing. Non-profit robotics is expensive. Most teams rely heavily on attracting sponsors. A team's marketing can make a huge difference in their sponsor support.

If you haven't already done so, you might want to look at the list of last year's conferences to get a sense of past conference content (download it before FIRST decides to take it down):
http://www.firstchampionship.org/sites/default/files/2016-cmp-conference-descriptions.pdf