2003 National Closing Ceremony
 

This year's national closing ceremony was by far the best closing ceremony of the past 5 years. The speakers, especially Dean and Woody, did an incredible job explaining what FIRST is about and why it is so extraordinary. I watched it on the web and I still can't describe the emotion I felt being a part of this program. It almost brought tears to my eyes.

Congradulations and thank you everyone for another great year!

David Belling
Team 93 Veteran

I also saw it online and I thought Dean spoke really well, a great closing ceremony I'd say.

i loved the integrated awards/finals and the two reps from each team

I (and everyone else on our team) Thought how they gave out awards in between matches was great. (Along with the two reps thing) I know a lot of people complained about the long awards last year, and I think that FIRST did a great job of listening.

Also, the nasa award (or whatever it was) was very nice.

Finally, the balloons (sp?) and confetti were very cool. (I'd been looking at the balloons for the past three days). And, I knew they had to work in fireworks, and they did. (Which were cool)

/not really closing ceremony, but doesn't really deserve own thread.

In the opening ceremony on friday, that trumpet player was awesome. I really didn't even know that a trumpet could play that high. :) (and i think the entire crowd was like omg at it too)

Jack

That was very impressive. I play trumpet, myself, and let me tell you, that was some amazing playing! I knew you could play that high on a trumpet, but I know I could never do it.

Integrated ceremony / awards was GREAT.

EVERYONE was there for final matches instead of off at parks. :rolleyes:


LisaT

The closing ceremonies were fantastic. Really cool to mix awards with the matches - kept the crowd entertained and gave the competing teams a little extra cool time for robots. It also kept everyone in the arena and watching.

Total event was different from Epcot, some better, some not.
:)

EVERYONE was there for final matches instead of off at parks.

Not us... We missed getting our Spirit Award... Everyone on our team was walking out of the pits heading up the exit ramp when someone heard 222 and saw the tv screen. We all started watching and we didnt know what to do...

WE TRIED to get a golf cart ride but no success!

We had to go catch our return flight back home so thats why we missed the awards/ceremony!

BAD BRAD

Just spectacular!!! The indoor fireworks were breathtaking!

I was at home watching and I seriously got goose bumbs when I saw Chuck Yeager and heard his speech.

That along with the presentation on the painting to the families of the columbia was amazing.

Great job FIRST!!!!!

ill post more later but i just want to say as being a voulenteer working friday and saturday along with being on team 250, i knew how much work was being put into the ceremony. Yes it was so breathtaking and amazing at the speaches everyone gave, and also it was amazing at how professional everyone was with the award presentations. FIRST was not sure how the reaction was going to be as intergrading the awards into the final matches, but it worked well and was amazing as being first hand on the floor five feet from the podium/speach stand.

~Mike

Fireworks
 

The fireworks were completely unexpected! Especially for me, since I was standing behind Einstein with some volunteers (about 10 feet away from where they were being shot off from, back turned to them, completely unaware of what was happening). At first, I thought it was a bomb or something, then I saw and heard the crowd cheering and ran out to grab a few pictures. I still have goosebumps thinking about the speeches that were made, and the video of the entire competition that was shown. All in all, I think it was a great event, considering the short time span it was set up in, and the lack of any expectation from the Houston community. They handled it very well, considering they had no idea what they were getting into.

Random side note- The eagle was a cool alternative to releasing the traditional doves ;)

Disapointment
 

I found this years closing ceremonies as the weakest out of the past three years. There was no energy, no magic, it was like a school assembly! The format is better, it doesn't make the awards part drag on too long. The balloons and fireworks were neat, but I found it immature that everyone was popping the balloons; it sounded like downtown Baghdad!

As a Canadian the America-centric speeches by the guests and Woody went against the programs development over the last two years as a international celebration of science and technology. Listening to an Air Force recruitment pitch and how the NASA family was devastated by Columbia may my eyes roll. The WORLD experienced a great loss in our pursuit of the stars when the Columbia went down, not exclusively America. With a war going on I found Mr. Yeager's bomb comment and the militaristic speech disturbing; isn't the reason why FIRST is so great is that so many people from a wide multi-cultural group can compete in friendly and supportive environment? FIRST is an example of how we can solve problems without lying, cheating and being deceitful to others, resulting in hatred and violence.

The people who are involved are FIRST are not just going to be the techies and scientists of our generation, as was implied by President Bush and others; we are the LEADERS our generation, in business, medicine and politics. We are the people who are going to determine the legacy our generation leaves. Do we really want to perpetuate the violence and greed that has saturated our culture? FIRST's main problem is that they can't see the forest through the trees, they are too focused on just engineering, we want to change the entire culture of not just America, but of the world, in all disciplines of our society. This program has that power, they don't harness it.

Why wasn't there any TV coverage! They could probably get ESPN2 or Space TV or some other cable network to broadcast it live. And there was no national coverage on NBC, FOX, CBS, ABC, CNN; during war time there should be some positive uplifting stories, like FIRST, mixed in with the unhappy, but necessary coverage of war.

I'm sorry, but Dean Kaman is just a bad speaker, he has a decent message to present, but he makes people cry with boredom, his speeches are too long and lacks the necessary energy to hold the attention of a large group. He should keep it short and sweet, it comes off as a much more powerful message that way.

Overall I thought the closing ceremonies were great! The speeches and what not ended up being to the point and quick, plus Chuck Yeagers speech was pretty good. To make it the perfect event FIRST would do a presentation like the 2000-2001 season and I would just love it!

http://www.pictars.com/0412003/awesome!2.jpg

Best part: no Mandy Moore!:D

Re: Disapointment
 

There was. Onstage, I saw lots of local news stations, as well as either National Geographic or Discovery (forgot which, but they were there). After finals, TechTV interviewed the winning alliance, and filmed matches left and right.

Our robot was in the finals on the Einstein field during the closing ceremony. I, being a driver found myself in a funny little predicament: I could'nt hear anything that the announcers were saying. When we won the entrepreneurship award, I saw that my team had won something but I couldn't figure out what for a while!

Re: Disapointment
 

And this is after we played Canada's national anthem before our own. Here's a hint: we are in HOUSTON TEXAS, and are a largely american audience. If someone mentioning America upsets you, don't go next time.

Huh? First off, FIRST will not change the culture of america without changing itself first. To be honest, and realistic, it doesn't have a universal appeal. The game this year was impossible to explain in less than 2 minutes.

What the hell is your problem with America? The audience there was 95% American. FIRST is based in America. Most, if not all, of the sponsers of FIRST are largely American in nature.

Once again, if an America-based speech to an audience almost entirely American upsets you, don't go to the nationals ever again. Problem solved.


It was covered by NASA TV. There were also news articals and news blips about FIRST and the event on other channels. There were also a lot of media people filming and watching, and interviewing as well.

How....diplomatic...of you...isn't FIRST supposed to unify people despite different nationalities? Saying that kind of thing isn't going to help solve any problems, and will only start a long, tedious, unnecessary (though probably entertaining) flame war...

Re: Fireworks
 

They should've released the doves THEN the eagle to catch a few of them. As far as I know, the eagle didn't poop on people like the stupid doves did.

Amen!


Plus, it was still daylight when we finished this year.

In 1996 or possibly 1997 ESPN had cameras there but they did not do live stuff, and then never really stated when it would air.

Re: Re: Disapointment
 

I hate to break it to you but FIRST is an International competition, yes most teams are from the US, but at every oppurtunity for the speakers to mention America, and how great America is, they did. That's fine, i accepted it since it was in the US, for some of it i agree completely. But not ONCE during the closing cerimonies was the fact that it is a international competition mentioned.

Someone mentioning America is perfectly fine, even for the majority of the time, but to completely ignore the rest of the world is counter-productive for this program. I find it funny how you think a solution to my complaint is to not go next time, well that's great, lets all be isolationists! Three chears for ignoring the Global Community!

Right...

(does anyone agree with this guy:rolleyes: ?)

I have to say that the opening ceremonies were very, very touching. I've never heard a trumpet sing like that, and applaud FIRST for going with the unconventional approach.

Unfortunatly, most of our mentors (including our faculty advisor and our two student representatives) missed seeing us winning the Leadership in Control award, because we expected that they would run the finals before the award ceremony, and we were en-route to the hotel to drop off all our equiptment from the pits when the award was given out. The rest of the team was busy reclaiming our giant trash bag 190 in the pits (changing it from "88" to "190 loves 88"), and had to sprint over to Einstein to claim our award. Still, no one on the team knows what they said about us. Oh well, we will at least know what to expect next year.