Re: Let's talk about venues...
 

To get back to some of the oringal questions:

Depends on what you are really looking for out of an event. At the district level, accessibility is key. As you get up in level, the 'glam' becomes more imporant. Personally I think the 'glam' factor is always something that needs to be looked at in a venue, however I know that is something not everyone would agree with me on.

As we make the shift, in my opinion we should be expecting, and holding district leadership to keep the same production quality at the district championship events that we have seen at regional events.

With that said, I don't think we will see that based on trends. District Championship events year 1 are basically run and executed as a regional event. However year 2, HQ stops supporting those events in the way they did the first year, loosing things such as ShowReadyEvents, Sargent Productions, and other things that keep the production value high.

If you look at both Michigan and MAR, production value of their championship events dropped drastically after year 1, with MAR taking a bigger drop. We'll see where things go with PNW and NE this year. I don't know much about PNW, but as for NE, I see things heading in a similar, but sad direction.

Re: Let's talk about venues...
 

No, FiM for the DCMP actually increased production quality from the 2009 one.

Re: Let's talk about venues...
 

OOOH, the one thing I love talking about on these fourms.

PNW has only had one District Championship so far, but since we have kept our knowledge fresh in our minds by going out of state to IRI, I can safely say that our production quality won't take a big hit at all. I've been working on finding ways to make the show a bit more interactive as we hit delays such as the dual screen dancing and the thought bubbles that they pulled off at Einstein this year.

Personally, I believe that all district champs should have high production quality in all aspects. A/V is quite possibly the hardest to pull off, but is required to make FIRST more accessible to outsiders. Hopefully FIRST adopts some standards to help make the A/V better at all events, districts and regionals alike.

Re: Let's talk about venues...
 

I agree with you completely, but the problem is, some districts (MAR is my experience) just straight-out won't place a priority on A/V and media because it's expensive.

We can't even get our DCMP in a convenient-to-teams venue because it's 'too expensive' for the district committee, and I don't expect them to jump on any sort of 'frivoulous' extras like that. I hear they purchased a new camera system, but that doesn't help much if there's no broadcasting standard for them to follow.

To your point about FIRST adopting standards - since the PNW crew seems to be really spearheading the A/V and webcast revolution, why not try contacting FIRST about helping to create those standards?

There isn't anyone at HQ (that I know of) who's specifically got a background or experience in broadcast media, so maybe some outside suggestions/guidelines would be a nice thing for them to have on hand.

I spent some time with the new VP of Digital Engagement at the Supplier's Summit this year, talking about quite a few things in this realm. There's definitely the desire for changes but, as we all know, FIRST HQ is a really small group of people and they just couldn't possibly get everything that they want accomplished with just their staff. Reaching out to offer wouldn't hurt.

Re: Let's talk about venues...
 

"Creating standards for A/V" is on my list of things to do while helping out at FIRSTWA, but it isn't the highest right now. Reaching out to FIRST was something I hadn't thought of. I'll see what I can do about that.

We started a document to give a deeper understanding of our system to outsiders since we were going to need to train more people on how to help with the A/V setup at events, some of us can't be everywhere at once. We were hoping to have this document in a presentable form at IRI, but it was far from what you would expect out of a white paper. It required an experienced member to give a verbal explanation for each section.

Taking from that document, I intend on working with our team on defining some standards that should be possible at every event that we host, which includes all programs of FIRST, and also possible for events across the country. I will not say when this will be finished because my backlog of things to do is too large.

Thank goodness we have Kevin Ross. Without him we would have ended up like the other districts and I wouldn't have become so involved in A/V and FIRSTWA.