Atlanta - activities/ammenities I'd like to see
 

With the help of any ideas you have, those of us who live in and near Atlanta can prepare for the Championships by collecting and sharing knowledge and planning, whether it be something like organizing teams and planning out an Ultimate Frisbee tournament during lunch or after closing ceremonies one day in Centennial Park, measuring the distance and grade of the terrain between the GWCC and the field inside the Dome, or scouting out good restaurants for a stressful lunch or a celebratory dinner, we'll be happy to help.
I encourage you to start a thread about any idea you have for activities so everyone can contribute their thoughts on it and I'l try to organize several more of the locals to help with this.
pauluffel
Student on #1127
***************************
As an adult mentor/chaperone, I was looking forward to going to Disney. I was not pleased with Houston, but that was my first Championship...

This is what I hope the Atlanta planners can achieve:
*A space at the competition venue where teams can gather during "downtime" - in between matches, for example, where you can lay in the sun, catch a frisbee or give "group hugs" to other teams as they walk by
*some kind of board/wall/sheet where teams can post their buttons or write messages, etc. expressing team spirit
*High quality and variety of food options with FIRST package (PLEASE have your vendors provide ingredient lists for all foods! We have food allergies on our team and I couldn't get any answers at Houston!) both in the competition venue AND in the hotels
*Moderately-priced souvenirs - of FIRST or of Atlanta
*Moderately-priced "snack" food at the competition venue
*Be more handicap-friendly. Having to take someone in a wheelchair to another building just so she could get lunch wasn't easy.
*Clean, attractive hotels that will actually welcome teenagers (our hotel in Houston hired a security person and was not exactly welcoming)
*A meeting room in each hotel where the students can hang out with other teams would be great - and allow us to bring in refreshments from outside.
*provide something for everyone to do each evening/organize team events/provide list of activities in the area

Anyone and any local teams who want to get in on the planning and execution of all the requests we are bound to get here, let us know. Let's show FIRST our southern hospitality so they forget all about all their worries. :]

While Houston did an overwhelming poor job at impressing me, I sincerely hope that the time we have before our time in Atlanta will allow FIRST and the people at the Georgia World Congress Center to make our experience there worthwhile, exciting and special.

I'm talking pie-in-the-sky, ideal world stuff here, but given the chance, this is how I'd do things.

Overall

• The entirety of both venues, the Georgia World Conference Center and the Georgia Dome, should be decorated to reflect FIRST's presence and its unique approach to learning and inspiration. This means that vacant areas of either venue, closed areas, areas in use by other groups, or areas otherwise not appropriate for our use be sufficiently covered from view. Such areas might include unused upper-tier seating, the stadium floor, unused conference center space, closed concessions, universal lobbies, etc.
  
  The point is that Epcot's event village was made for us, special order style, and it really felt like we were wanted and meant to be there. Every tent had a purpose and every seat would be filled. Houston's event felt overwhelmingly empty and unfulfilling. The myriad of empty seats in both the Astrodome and Reliant Park was depressing. The unfinished, unsightly concrete walls, pillars and floors further reminded me that we'd been shoe-horned to the venue without given any special consideration of our needs, goals or accomplishments.
  
  On the whole, I'm not thrilled at all with being in a sports stadium. Epcot's event village showed what we were capable of doing. It showed that FIRST was influential, effective and important enough to warrant the attention of a company such as Disney and that we earned the right to have our own venue. Competing and meeting in these structures that are built for sports stars is something that seems to go against the grain of what we're trying to accomplish. While one may argue that FIRST has finally moved into the big time with that move, I think it's just trying to fill the shoes of the people and events it still hopes to emulate. It's not there yet.
• The walk from the pit to the venue should be as short as possible, should be attractive, and should be arranged and situated in such a way as to attract the public's attention.
  
  For the sake of those people wheeling around huge carts, we all want to see that walk made a little shorter. While Houston did manage to replicate the tented walkway to the stages, once the participants moved back indoors, the magic was gone. Again, this stems from being in a space that's far too big for us. I recall seeing unused equipment hidden behind cursory barriers, as well as regular 'stadium work' of loading and unloading inventory taking place as we walked by. In addition, volunteers and staff say were positioned all over the place at entrances and openings through which we weren't allowed to pass. That is bad show and very unprofessional. At Disney, one never sees "backstage." While FIRST events have two levels of backstage -- that of the public and that of the teams -- both should be adequately shielded from view.
  
  If FIRST hopes to grow up and fill the big kids' shoes, they need to attract the attention of the passerby. In Disney, we had the benefit of being surrounded by hundreds of thousands of folks who were on vacation. In metropolitan areas, there are far fewer people with no place to go, so we need make a greater effort at pulling them in.
  
  For that, I'd like to suggest turning the walkway between the venues into a "red carpet" for teams. this would mean keeping it covered by a high-level tent to shield participants from the elements, but still provide a good view of the people. On the street side of the walkway, it would remain roped off, but open. On the opposite side, erect bleachers for people to sit, eat, and wave at and cheer for their favorite teams. Make it a place that people who're touring downtown Atlanta can stop for a bit and relax and maybe see some neat robots in the process.
  
  That'll draw them inside to see the pits and the game. But, it has to start somewhere.
  
• Create a three day long exposition in Centennial "FIRST" Park for the event that is complete with food vendors, educational exhibits (maybe past FIRST robots, other robots, the Delphi car, etc.) an open lawn, and a stage with bleacher seating. Bring in a small variety of carnival rides catering toward different age groups. These might include one spectacular ride such as Conklin Shows' Doppel Looping (the largest traveling coaster in North America) or Cumberland Valley Shows' Space Roller (the only traveling Top Scan in North America) or something equivalent. Beyond those rides that really grab someone's attention, include smaller, more common rides to entertain both FIRST participants (free of charge with a package) and the public (for a nominal fee).
  
  On the stage, book musical acts and comedy troupes for scheduled performances throughout the event. During the opening and closing ceremonies, use this stage and seating, along with video equipment, to broadcast the ceremonies outside.
  
  All of this is geared toward making FIRST a presence in the city of Atlanta, not just another convention.

Daily Itineraries
Wednesday Evening

• Early Check-In - upon arrival at their hotel, teams are given informational packets about the event, including pit maps, schedules, dining and entertainment recommendations, discounts, etc.
• Welcome Dinner - each FIRST package hotel will hold a welcome dinner, attended by someone from FIRST, that will formally begin the event's festivities and give teams a chance to learn who they'll be staying with. These dinners should be accessible by teams booking outside a package by paying a small fee.

Thursday

• Entertainment - in the park, entertainment, rides and food is available all day long.

Friday

• Entertainment - see above.
• CNN - CNN does a live on-air spot about FIRST during the qualifying matches. This occurs right before we break for lunch. During lunch, CNN does a round-table discussion with students, teachers, engineers and FIRST personnel. This can be done in-the-round, with CNN visitors allowed to ask questions about FIRST to the participants.
• Party - at the end of the day, the event moves outside to the Park where a headlining performer gives a concert. This is followed by fireworks and access to the World of Coca-Cola, the nearby museum, and Underground Atlanta.

Saturday

• Entertainment - Again, see above.
• Party - After closing ceremonies, teams are bussed to Six Flags over Georgia in nearby Austell, Ga. There, the park is closed to the public, and FIRST students are given exclusive access to the park for a period of four (4) hours. Busses with leave from the Georgia World Congress Center but will return to the varied hotels in the FIRST package. At Six Flags over Georgia, all rides will remain open to FIRST participants. The park will make an effort maintain short queues by running their rides at the best possible capacity as well decorate the park to represent our presence. Disney event catering goes a long way toward turning Epcot into an exciting, special place. I expect nothing less -- especially from people who are bidding to have me come to their city.

Again, this is pie-in-the-sky. I really enjoy putting on a show, and I really enjoy when people take the time and energy to put on a show for me.

Houston, in my opinion, did nothing of the sort. Walt Disney World, on the other hand, made a great effort at making FIRST feel welcome. I sure hope that Atlanta and its three year commitment are a lot closer to the service and excitement Disney provided than what Houston happened to have on hand.

Wow... those are some great ideas. It would be amazing if we could make all of those happen. I definitely agree, though, that the "welcome" feeling Disney provided was far greater than Houston. While I didn't think Houston was bad, it just didn't have that same feel Epcot did.

It's too bad that Nationals are before the end of the Spring semester at Georgia Tech. Once all the students leave there's a lot of dorm space available. Many groups use the dorms for Summer camp activities and such. They could definitely handle a bunch of high school students.

I would like to see packages also offered for 'RVers'. Four years I have been involved in FIRST.. and they continue to push the advantages of pushing their packages why not make them camper friendly too? They deffinately had opportunities at Disney and Houston to offer packages of nearby campgrounds and at Disney their own. I understand that the majority travels as a team; however, I bet many families would take advantage of this opportunity, and many campgrounds have on-site unit rentals that have much lower costs than a hotel.

Vincent...great minds think alike :)

We at Tech have been working on this and many of the issues KathieK and others have brought up have already been taken into account.

I will be sending an email out to all the GA teams soon asking for help to create this resource for all visiting teams. We would like everyones input so we can create a repository of information for all the other teams with downtime activities etc. Not to steal your thunder or anything Vincent, but since we already have the ball rolling lets combine efforts to make this a huge success.

<edit>
M. I love your vision for the Championship. Hopefully some of these ideas can be incorporated.
</edit>

Thank you.

Making memories is something I've aspired to do my entire life so I've given a lot of thought to stuff like that. It's what I live for, practically.

Consider yourself lucky you didn't get, like concept renderings ;)

I'd love to see all of those things implemented, but I understand how difficult they may be. If I can ever be of help, though, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'd love a shot at being involved.

i shall show this post to some one who can auctlly do sumthing with it when they get back in town....

You ppl must go to the varsity though.....

I hate it when ppl demand that I must help them out like im sum 24/7 tech support via remote assistance I need to start chargeing ppl... bbl of to fix sum other werid omg I cant fix this plz help me plea from a friend......... BBL

It's Pauluffel's thunder; I just like to add some noise to go with it. I can't take much credit for anything that I've done, because I owe it all to Paul. And I'd figured you guys would have started so as to avoid the things you college students really need to be doing. :D

Excellent Ideas!
 

[quote]Originally posted by M. Krass
[b]While Houston did an overwhelming poor job at impressing me, I sincerely hope that the time we have before our time in Atlanta will allow FIRST and the people at the Georgia World Congress Center to make our experience there worthwhile, exciting and special.

I'm talking pie-in-the-sky, ideal world stuff here, but given the chance, this is how I'd do things.


Wow, excellent Ideas and event planning- I hope someone from the FIRST Companionship Planning Committee see these great suggestion.
:)

I really like the idea of the signing wall. After thinking on this idea further, I'd like to have several posters for special signing along with a couple of pieces of plywood painted white for anyone to add anything too.

#1 At each of the fields have one large poster that had the schedule of all the qualifying matches that would be played on that field, and just before each match, the human player/drivers/mentor would sign by their team name and match number to show who were the humans that represented each team for each match. This would make a great piece of FIRST memorobilia and at future Championships the past year's qualifying schedules could be displayed along with the current years. When it was time for the elimination matches, a bracket-type poster could be put up near the entrance to the Dome so that teams could easily see the progress of other teams in the elimination matches and again, the human participants in each match would sign by their match and team name.

#2 Have a large map of the pits on one of the walls of the GWCC with each team's number and full name in their space and have enough room for the team to attach one or two of their pins next to their number so their logo would also be displayed.

#3 Three or four sheets of 4x8' plywood painted white that would be fair game for any sort of message or picture or chunk of a robot that fell off during a match.


Now off to spark some lightning so I can make some more thunder...

[edit] I really shouldn't have wished for that thunder. Just after I posted I went to a robotics meeting where we almost have our robot moving again and lightning struck about 50 feet from the shed we were working in...[/edit]

Since Coca Cola has a museum there it'd be nice for some of their sponsorship... as in, free drinks.

Also, I agree with Maddie that a CNN crew should definitely do some national coverage.

Yeah... I went to Atlanta last summer and it was cool.

Unfortunately, the Georgia World Congress Center and the Georgiadome will have existing contracts for vendors. There's probably very little FIRST can do about soft drinks and food because the GWCC and dome are obligated to use their contracted vendors.

I've looked a bit at the World of Coca Cola website and I'm not exceptionally impressed by what it has to offer. It looks like nothing more than a few exhibits, a food court, and a place to test Coca Cola's international product line. Still, access to it, particularly for food during the day, is probably a good thing.

The idea of larger signage is a good one. I think the largest difficulty you'll find in implementing that is that, often, the match lists aren't finalized until the last minute -- such that getting larger posters formatted and made may be impossible. If they showed up midday Friday, though, I doubt anyone participating would mind the absence, though visitors may not understand the reason for its late arrival. Again, it's all about putting on a good show.

Signing walls could be cool, too. Maybe something a bit more dimensional than simple plywood? I'll write more later.

I've been thinking more about some of the things I posted previously and I have some specific ideas about how to make the venue feel a bit more intimate. I'll share those ideas again later when I've developed them further.

not necessarily true...

Signing Wall
 

Hey if anyone would like to help me out, ill make out some large posters, i have access finally to multiple ploter printers and things and i have the FIRST Vector image so i can resize it. I will be working on some mock up designs and things and post them and things, if you all would like to, we can add different designs and things before its printed and it can be placed some wheres at the event for everyone to have access to, and then can organize a place later for it to be displayed at after the event...
~Mike

My contact infos on my profile and my email is m.dessingue@team250.org

Your impression of the World of Coke (I love that name... sounds like a 1950's newsreel) seems to be pretty accurate. Its kinda neat, but at the same time its more or less an incredibly large advertisement for Coke that you pay for. The part at the end where you drink coke from around the world is by far the best part. Overall its something that's kind of neat (and kinda cool that you can say you've been to see it) but nothing to get incredibly excited over.

~Tom~

Being the sports fan that I am i know that stadiums give tours. If anyone feels like touring the GA Dome, it would be nice to know if there are any forseen ramps or other obstructions that would make travel to the playing fields or pit more difficult then it has to be.

Didn't they have something exactly like that at Epcot??? It was a giant igloo and you got to test some differnt foreign drinks. Hmmmmm...... If 564 goes to nationals I would probably bring some neon signs to nationals. Then again I must just start dressing up my teamates in this stuff depending on how cool it works. Heheh I come up with the wackiest of ideas. http://www.elamusainc.com/

I was thinking the same thing adam... Thats where some of our team-mates and myself had a snowball fight while in Epcot. Man good times that was!
~Mike

atlanta
 

wow, this is my 3rd time mentioning it so it sounds like i'm plugging it, but really i'm not getting money lol. I'm going to Atlanta next tuesday (july 15th for a week) and all the same places are catering to us, hotels, Georgia Dome, Georgia World Congress Center, etc. My friend, Lisa (a fellow CD forum member) and I will be scouting this place out, doing the things that the locals may not have access 2. Any pointers/requests as to what to look into would be great. I know for the ELCA national gathering, which is hosting 20,000 high school kids, we get a bracelet which gets us free rides on MARTA (Atlanta's rapid transit system) which goes to Atlantas airport. Everyone was put into a hotel so all members going are in one of however many hotels they have total. I think both free transportation, (or covered through entry fees, or i guess teams could take care of itself, but maybe offered a discounted price would be great for outta the area teams. I think it would be a big step up for first to basically rent a group of hotels, and then divide it up between teams attending, that way u know, this, this this, and this hotel have first teams in it. The hotels, (not in charge of it) but all have "hotel life" events scheduled every night for the week. Different hotels are given different activities, so one hotel has like games, arcades, those giant blow up slides and velcro walls etc. Another hotel will have a dance. the website for the gathering is here http://www.elca.org/gathering/home.html I'm really impressed with what they are doing, and will have a blast. If Atlanta can take care of 20,000 high school students for a week (there are 2 sessions back to back, so it is actually 2 weeks for Atlanta, one week per person going) with those kind of benefits, i think they can do some great things for first as well. Thats my rant for the day. Thanks for listening.
Peace
-Eric

hey eric, just try to get some photos of the places down there and time yourself (if you can) walking form where the pits would be to the fied and see if theres interferences or not (ramps and things)... It will be nice to see what also is around there for entertainment.
Thanks,
~Mike

Some Ideas
 

I just wanted to reply back here with some sketches of ideas I'd mentioned earlier in the thread. Hopefully, this'll get the ball rolling again so that the folks who are putting this event together can get a good idea of what you want as participants and what the event needs to draw in the public.

First up is a variant of the "Signing Wall," concept that was mentioned here.

What I've envisioned, and what's shown here, is the simplest form of this concept. Given proper attention and importance, this could grow to be something FIRST can use over and over as an ambassador to the public.

The "FIRST Ambassador Pavilion," -- a name I've made up just now -- represents the point of confluence between the students, engineers, and teachers of FIRST and the uninitiated public visitor.

(Forgive the quality of that drawing. I hadn't intended it to be detailed or encompassing.)

Essentially, this exhibit would combine the "signing walls" concept with the efforts FIRST's been making to spread their message. It would be largely symbolic in its architecture and function in several ways.

Most important is where the signing would take place. A circular rim of curved surfaces -- canvas and lexan have been suggested as possible materials -- would line the circumference of the tent ceiling and act as the support columns for that roof. The number of individual walls hasn't been determined, but it could be something relevant to FIRST, or it could simply be whatever is structurally sound. Imagine that each is approximately 8 feet tall and 6' wide.

FIRST participants would be asked to sign the outward facing portions of these walls. Visitors to the event would be invited inside the circle, however, and asked to leave messages of support and inspiration on the inner walls. This symbolic action would represent the breaking down of the barriers between FIRST and the regular culture. It'd mean welcoming people to our event by showing that they don't need to be a spectator; they can be at the heart of the action.

In the center, we'd find a turntable that's divided into hemispheres by a large wall. On one hemisphere, the unassembled kit of parts would be displayed. On the opposite side, a complete robot will be on display.

Michael (Dez250) suggested that we also prominently display the kick-off date and ship date on the appropriate side to really drive home the abbreviated schedule under which we work.

Maybe it'd even be wise to paint the kit parts in some bright, solid colors on both sides to quickly illustrate their creative uses.

The possibilities for such a pavilion are really endless, limited only by space considerations and budget. But, really, I think this provides us as participants with the best possible chance of garnering the interest and devotion of a passerby. That said, I'd love to see it erected outdoors in Centennial Park or in some other highly visible, inviting location.

Second, I worked out a brief picture edit that shows how someplace large and sterile like a domed stadium can be dressed up a bit. It helps to make the venue a little more personalized and scales things down a bit so that the building doesn't overwhelm its inhabitants.

By controlling our views of and in the building through using streamers and fabric and and other decorations, it'll be easier to focus our attention on the show. Therefore, it stands to reason that a presentation that's similar in scale to what's work successfully in the past -- at Epcot's Einstein Stage, in particular -- will be sufficient.

Otherwise, I think FIRST stands the chance of overextending itself by trying to fill a building it's too small for. For now.

Your feedback is appreciated. I've been doing this as a labor of love with the hope that someone will take notice of these ideas and work with them to make the event something really magical and special and spectator friendly. But, it's your event as much as it's mine, and I'd like to know what other people think of these ideas and others, in addition to their entire philosophy and design ethos where putting a show on is concerned.

About making the Dome fit our needs; this past year, the WGI World Championships were held in a rather large arena (for hockey, I believe) but all the space that was needed for the performers was a basket-ball court sized area. They rectified this problem like you did, M. by having a HUGE black curtain cut out about 2/3 of the floor space and also all the excess seating. Like you suggested, a simple curtain could sut the Dome down to the size we need and also provide staging room for teams to get into the area, get in line, and get out without being cramped.

I like the signing shed idea and I think Centennial Olympic Park would be a great place for it (around lunchtime it generally has many schoolchildren running around playing in the fountain, and this would be a great way to get them interested in LegoLeague and later FIRST) but I think we could make it more interesting by doing things like having information about past years and having former robots and so forth involved with it. If you have one wall per year and on that wall have an explaination of that year's game and a robot or two from that year, it would show how long this program has been around. These walls of history could alternate with simple white walls for signing and thus the pavilion would have some more information on the program and help 'draw the public in' more (or even have each year's robot on the outside and the explanation on the inside, so the pretty bot catches an eye, but they have to get inside to understand it).

I really like the renting hotel idea. The best thing about regionals in my mind was meeting all of the new people at night, in the pool or around the hotel. In Houston, out pool was broken (freezing!), and they had nowhere else for us to go. What did we do? We played wiffle ball in the parking lot and we hung out at Big Lots. That's right, a majority of my time outside of competition in Houston was spent in and around Big Lots. There was nowhere to go to meet new people. We met one team that challenged us to a wiffle ball game (we won, of course!), and that's it. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Astrodome, which had no other hotels near it. I'd like to see a group of hotels within walking distance of each other, if possible. FIRST could either rent the hotels, or say stay at these hotels. I have some friends from regionals that I'd like to hang out with, and it would be nice to be able to do that during the extended time we spend at nationals.

Let's just hope we qualify! With Jordan and I at the sticks, it shouldn't be a problem!

hrmm forget hotels and stuff.. can't all of first just camp out in the parking lot and the olympic park .. :-) it would be so much more fun

just think

:: smores ::

yum

Dan, I like the way you think!

Here's an idea.... maybe not a good one, but an idea none the less. What is FIRST raised the entry fee for championship to include x number of hotel rooms and the other "perks" that went along with the packages of last year.

If teams choose not to take advantage of this option they can just pay the $4,000 entry fee and stay in the same general area as the rest of the teams. By paying a very small fee they can take part in the same events as the other teams.

This would not only allow teams to be placed in hotels that are reletivly close to each other but also drive down the cost per room because of the volume of rooms that would be rented. Thus making social gatherings easier to plan and easing some of the burdens of travel planning.

Well its just a thought to play with (note: I never said it was a good idea), maybe this will spark a better idea down the road.

I dont know about u guys, but i am a avid computer gamer, and maybe if we talk to some of our sponsors, like microsoft, a lan party/pavilion could be set up. If anyone is interested in this idea, let me know, we could email some computer game firms in the area, and they could do something, and we would benifit!

Andrew W.K.

For anyone thinking about contacting companies directly you should re-think it. I'm sure FIRST appreciates ideas and efforts to obtain sponsors for potential Nats. activities, however anything to do with sponsorship related to the Championship or any other local competition for that matter should be routed through the appropriate FIRST leaders/representatives.

This helps eliminate multiple people approaching a company with more than one proposal for an organization called FIRST.

I'm not saying your or any other idea is good or bad (I happen to love lan games). Just my thoughts.

More sketches.
 

More ideas.

Okay, since another thread was started earlier today that showed interest in the development of an exhibit dedicated to bringing FIRST to the public while we're in Atlanta, I went ahead and made another quick sketch of a larger, more involved pavilion-type structure.

The concept, again, is that the newcomers and visitors are welcomed into the folds of the FIRST family and, as senior team members mentor freshman, and veteran teams mentor rookie teams, the participants of FIRST will look on as the visitors learn what our program is all about.

The entrance and subsequent hallway surrounds the exhibit, traveling in a large 3/4 circle before entering into the center of the circular exhibit space. On the right side, alternating red and blue panels are peppered with photographs, text descriptions and quotes detailing the evolution of FIRST. These panels will act as a quick introduction to the history of our competition before the visitors are exposed to our present and their future.

The left side will be made of an acryllic-sheet wall that is entirely transparent. This acryllic will act as our "signing wall," as all of the event's participants will be asked to sign their name on the outside of this wall.

This, of course, is symbolic of the goal I stated earlier -- welcoming visitors by surrounding them with FIRST participants and teaching them as they walk along.

At the end of the hallway, they will turn a 180* corner to be greeted with the 2004 game. In this center exhibit space, there could be a robot on display (many teams build a practice robot, right?) and there will be video of matches and explanations showing how the game is played. Another idea might be to have a roaming video camera at the event that feeds directly to a monitor in this exhibit space. It'll tie the visitors into what's happening at that very moment. It might show teams cheering for their team, or fixing their robot, or sharing a part.

Upon exiting, visitors will find a podium and book. In this book, they can leave messages of support, their name, and maybe contact information.

Please, excuse the poor quality of this sketch and photograph. As always, feedback is appreciated.

FIRST Pavilion

M. Krass thats a nifty idea, It could be done really well, and I imagine would be pretty effective, if made large enough

IMO something like this should be looked into.

It'd be nice if we could get some live bands...like Blue Man Group or Weird Al...or Frank Zappa, but he's dead, so that's out of the question. Any other ideas for live music?

I think all of the ideas you guys have come up with are great. In order to implement them, its going to take 10's of 1,000's of dollars. The bottom line to making a championship great is money. Unfortunately, with today's economy it makes it rather difficult to have a highly entertaining event unless you have someone who is willing to write a check for a large amount.

In defense of Houston, we had all of these great ideas as well on making the championship a great event. The problem we ran into is money and lack of time. I know Houston wasn't Epcot but I think for the short amount of time given the crew did a good job. My best to you in Atlanta. I hope you have more success than we did making it a spectular event. It's hard to fundraiser major dollars when you have a regional and a championship in the same city.

Water... lots of FREE water. That's all I ever want.

Yes, money is always the issue and the time to obtain it and prepare. Unfortunatly last year Houston was lacking in the time. They did a good job with what they had to work with. I am happy to say though that there is a great team working on both the Regionals and Championship here in Atlanta. Hopefully with the advanced notice a lack of funding will not be an issue.:)

live entertainment
 

whenever someone mentions live entertainment at nats, they always mention some big name artist. who says we couldn't just get a variety of local bands to perform, they could use the publicity more than the big names.

Not only that, they would cost a lot less, read: next to nothing. That would also allow a larger variety of entertainers, rather than someone like Mandy Moore who was almost universally disliked, and probably cost FIRST a decent amount of money (Unless she did it for free?). I think its a good idea.

Cory

Or maybe some bigger, but still up-and-coming artists? The kind of bands that some people know and love, but are still relative unknowns. A lot of bands in that class would love to do a large show for something like FIRST. It would get them a lot of exposure. So, it would be good for FIRST (Cheap, not universally reviled) and good for them. I can think of several bands I like that would be good choices.

RA -- (lol, just had to say that).

What's RA? Is it a band?

Well, one I love that would be great is Will Hoge. He plays most of his shows in the South, anyways, and I'm sure he'd love the exposure to kids from around the country.

yea... its a band.

Mrs
 

A massive FIRST LAN party could be fun, but there's one reason why I don't see it happening: Gracious Professionalism. Think about the games that are usually played at LAN parties: Quake, Unreal, Battlefield 1942...most of these games involve victory by the total destruction or death of your opponent. That seems like it goes against almost all of FIRST's ideals.
[edit]Besides...it would be a nightmare to get set up, especially in Centennial Park. And as other posts (after mine) have stated, it would be hard to accomondate everyone, and there are much better ways to spend free time, like promoting FIRST to the community.[/edit]

As for bands...that would be a great idea. There are probably quite a few smaller groups in Georgia that would love to perform and get publicity...especially if they were allowed to sell their CDs at the show. :) If people are still stuck on finding a big(ger)-name group, we could probably find someone who's a technology geek who'd do it for free. They Might Be Giants, anyone?

Okay, I live in ATL and would like to help in anyway possible?
Anything i can do?

BTW a lanparty would definately be cool. I might be able to help out w/that.

10,000+
 

This is an event that can attract 10,000 people. Maybe more.

I'm unclear about how a LAN party could accomodate those people and keep them occupied and entertained in the city of Atlanta.

As to bands, I would like to see a local band like, oh say, REM? show up to do a concert. As to Will Hoge, he did a concert in Centennial Park earlier this summer and it was quite good. I don't believe he made much money off of it (admission was $3 and he was just one of the openers for Blues Traveler) so he would probably be willing to come again. They Might Be Giants has also performed in Centennial Olympic Park, though that was a couple of years ago and then there wasn't an admission price, so I believe both of those bands would be willing to do a show in Centennial Park without being paid (or without being paid much).

They Might Be Giants are great, it would be awesome if FIRST somehow got them... REM... well if they played their old stuff it would be good. The new stuff is horrible :(

Re: Atlanta - activities/ammenities I'd like to see
 

*A meeting room in each hotel where the students can hang out with other teams would be great - and allow us to bring in refreshments from outside.


The best way to get this would be for a team to negotiate a meeting room into their package when they book at the hotel. Request it just for the evenings - then the hotel can still use it during the day for other meetings. Maybe a few teams could split the extra cost.

The key will be to be sure and respect the property and others in the hotel. If you cram 40 people into a 20 person conference room things get broken, and you're back to security guards in the lobby again (another replier stated this).

OK heres what i think, since i have been working with M since the start for the "Pavilion idea". LAN Parties can happen, but only in a hotel with each other, don't even really try to get a LAN party started in the park, one it wouldn't work, 2 personally WHY!?!, maybe its just me but i think i can find a few things for some team members to do to display FIRST to the public other then by playing games... Also guys, you gotta remember these things have to be available to the general public who wants to know about FIRST if its going to be happening during Nats in the Park by us.

Now onto Bands... Don't think of getting any bands to play if they charge any sort of fee. This goes against GP really, FIRST noticed in the last year of Disney a band wont work... The people are tired and it winds up being a wasted effort. Now if bands would like to set up on their own and perform for free without interacting with FIRST and just happen to perform at the same time, go for it, i don't see a problem unless they charge a fee. Personally i would not like to see a band perform on my behalf due to it changes why people would be there. From getting to learn about FIRST to going to a free concert... When you start charging the public for activities and events that they want to learn more about or find out what it is, thats when the event goes down hill... Why do you think FIRST doesn't charge admission at competitions?

~Mike

P.S.~ i am going to be gone for at least 5 days starting Thursday you can email me your replies... my email is:
Dezdezdez25[AT]Netscape[DOT]net [AT]=@ and [DOT]=.
or you can wait till I'm home for me to reply here...

What do you mean, getting a band to play is against GP? Paying for a band has absolutely nothing to with Gracious Professionalism. If done right, a couple of good bands could make the team party in Centennial Park a great time. If that's where everyone's going to eat food and mingle with other FIRSTers, what's the harm in having some good live music? As long as it's not too expensive, and no admission is charged beyond the basic fees for Nats, I have no problem at all with that. In fact, I think it should be encouraged. A good band or two could really make the difference between an average party and a good one. In the end, people will go to the party because it's part of the competition experience, for the same reasons they always have, not just because some band is going to be playing. And nobody ever said anything about charging anything. Where did you get that idea? I can see your concern, but I don't see any of it as valid enough to matter.

My biggest problem would be that the team party needs to remain an event that's closed to the public. While we want to do everything we can to attract attention and interest in our Atlanta event, we don't want to risk safety to the competition participants.

A party in Centennial Park might be fun, but faces two challenges. The first is the most obvious -- weather. Does Centennial Park offer the same sort of indoor attractions found at Epcot that can accept an influx of thousands of people? It doesn't, as far as I can tell.

Second is security. The event needs to be cut off from public access. My fear would be that a free concert by any locally or nationally famous act would attract public attention -- but at the wrong time. The Party is for the FIRST participants to celebrate surviving another season. Public awareness and interest in FIRST needs to be cultivated before the party, not during it. I'd be worried that a performance in a public park would attract too much outside attention, and where security might not have been a real problem, it could become a huge, expensive headache.

Just my concerns.

To the first... absolutely. I agree that the party should be closed off to the public. To the second, it's not Epcot, but what else is? I doubt that there's any easily accessible area nearby with the kind of "indoor attractions" like Epcot. Centennial Park wouldn't be Epcot, but we have to work with what was chosen, and the whole concert thing seems like something interesting and doable, given the facilities available.

I think Dez was talking about charging people admission to the concert, whereas earlier posters were talking about FIRST paying bands to play at Nats.

Cory

Another solution to the LAN Party thing would be like the wireless net links 108 provided this year, it formed a LAN in the pits, get some strong PCs to act as games server and you're on.

Um... Just because there wasn't an admission price DOES NOT mean the artist didn't get paid! It just means they didn't get paid BY YOU. Many of the large free shows like that get big-time sponsorship dollars from Budweiser, Coke, local radio stations, etc. You think bands will fly anything other than first class? hehe. :D

Putting on a concert of that magnitude in a public park costs THOUSANDS of dollars ... think about it ... you have to rent staging, lighting, and full sound equipment .. and then you need qualified people to set up and run the whole thing. Typically big name bands require venues to contract these services to nationally recognized companies that cost big bucks. (the artists don't want crappy sound guys making them sound like butt .... hehe). Not to mention that the City of Atlanta would have to say yes to the whole thing and issue a permit.

Having said all that, It's probably still a feasible option to have bands play in the actual arena. They had Mandy Moore play at Nat's 2 years ago, which seemed to go pretty well (think about it ... the field area already had the necessary sound, lighting, and staging equipment -- just add a band).

I know of one Atlanta local band, Cloud-10. They are signed to Course of Nature's record label and are pretty solid. They have been playing at various college and high school events in AL -- so I KNOW they'd be interested in playing the GA Dome. Theres a band in Birmingham, AL called Adelayda that would probably do it too (they're up-and-coming as well). Search for 'em on KaZaa.

Anyway, enough rambling! I'm done!

ramps/walking etc
 

Well, having been back from Atlanta for a while, but busy with other stuff i haven't brought it up. Atlanta hosted the youth gathering i was at extremely well. It was a blast. Unfortunately i don't know if i shall have any pictures due to loosing some stuff on the flight back. I can say this, if you walk at a normal pace it takes u about 2 minutes max to get between the Georgia Dome and the GWCC. I don't know exactly how they plan to set up the site for FIRST, so things may change around, but if you go out the doors of the GWCC around the C section, (which is nearest to the Georgia Dome) this is all by memory so hopefully the names are accurate, and walk directly across there is a small grassy area much like a small football/frisbee field, yes we played frisbee on it one bad thing is its got a line of brick every some odd feet, but it still worked out. There is no elevation change other then maybe one step between the GWCC and the Georgia Dome, i can't say this for sure, since the GWCC is a multifloored and expansive building. They may end up putting us up a level, i dont know. Also, about a 5-10 minute walk depending how slow you are from the GWCC and the Georgia Dome is the CNN Center, which has an extremely large food court that could easily hold a large percentage of FIRST'ers. MARTA worked out extremely well. You can use it to get pretty much anywhere. Superman at Six Flags Over Georgia was great. Its a flying coaster so you are laying down during the ride including a large loop that results on your back being towards the ground if you get the picture. What else? The whole "take MARTA to see the cows thing" is about a city wide art thing going on. I know my city did it too. Different companies and other groups took a cow and then painted/whatnot to it to make it there own cow and the cows are spread out throughout the city on display. Also, MARTA security guards don't appreciate volleyball or frisbee being played on the train or at stations, and I had to climb down onto the tracks in order to retrieve a frisbee. The Sheraton Colony hosted us very well, didn't see a roach or anything disturbing. There is a small mall connected to it for food and such, as well as a Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins. One thing about this hotel is, its in the Midtown area, and since less people will be there for FIRST, everyone will probably gravitate towards the airport/Georgia Dome section. Marriott Marquee i believe was the most praised hotel of any one the ELCA was at. The GWCC for the youth gathering, had ropes courses hooked up, 8 or so basketball courts, a few volleyball courts and one sand vball court, an ultimate frisbee court, ping pong, dodge ball, kickball all set up along with stages for bands, an area selling stuff. Those were just in the main exhibition hall. There were plenty of meeting rooms 2. Obviously we will use most of the exhibition hall for pits etc, but it would be nice to see some team/multi team building activities. I think nationals should be extended (which won't happen this year) add an extra day in so that things are quite as rushed, and allow more social time. How often do you get some of the brightest high school students united under common goals under one room? Make the most of it and meet people, which is alot harder when u r putting in so much work on the robot just to keep it working. If they spaced things out and had a little more social time I think it would vastly improve nationals, and it builds another skill involved in business, networking. Meeting new people that may end up being a good friend/helping u later on.
Can't think of much else to say at the moment, request any info u want and i'll let u know if i have an answer in regards to the Georgia Dome/GWCC/Atlanta

I could provide the server PCs, but with 802.11b there is no way you can have more than a few people in most games without horrible lag. Even with 801.11g/a, things arn't much better.Besides with an area soo large, you would need multiple access points, which can be a pain to coordinate. You could use ad-hoc mode, but that further compounds bandwidth probs. Unfortunately i think wired is the only feasable solution. The trouble then lies with the wires and the problems associated with them (lengths of over 100meters for ethernet and also people not liking cables strewn about.) Assuming we have several smaller networks using a typical tree topology, cable lengths shouldn't be all that bigh of a deal though.

Some people seem to object to a FIRST lanparty, but i think it would be a fun relief when people arn't to busy. I love FIRST and i love lanparies, and i know many other people feel the same way so why not combine the two? :)

You mean theres a time when people arent busy at a competition? I call that sleeping time :D

Cory