FIRST 5 years from now
 

on the last day of nationals, i think many people noticed the FIRST banner over the second flight of escalators... next year's nationals in Anaheim! more interesting though was the fact that the competition will A) be in may, much later than any other nationals? and B) is 4 days long!

obviously, this means more teams, more fun, more competition, but there are also some negative implications... people have more work to make up when they get back to school, an extra night of hotel and food costs...

i want to hear what people think on what FIRST is gonna be like a few years from now. with the exponentially growing number of teams, will it grow too fast for the supporting volunteers and facilities? I wish dean kamen & co. the best of luck, and things worked out fine this year, but it seems like too many teams will eventually run the competition amok...

what do folks think? i'm sorta looking at this from a practical/economic aspect...

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

I saw that banner too but it nowhere said anything about being from FIRST. I think it was left over from some other event. Supposedly Atlanta has a three year contract.

WC

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

That banner was for some national home show that was being held at the Congress Center earlier in the week...

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

The banner, I think in question, was in reference to the Home Show, or what ever was going on at the same time. As Wayne said, the Chamionship will be in Atlanta for the next two years.

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

just a thought.....

Even though from what I’m reading it looks like he made a mistake, the thought of having a nationals last 4 days doesn’t sound that bad. To me this would be a great way to make room for FIRST expansion, and yes I do realize that it becomes more expensive for all but it makes for great competition and lots more fun.

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

Actually, I recall it being for an SAP users conference.

I figured it wasn't a FIRST sign--it didn't look like any of the other FIRST signs. And nobody had mentioned it here.

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

SAP :rolleyes:

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

Well, now that that is sorted out: The future of first
I definitely think in 5 years we will have expanded to about 1550 to 1700 (thanks for the correction in math) teams. We went from 12 to 900 in 12 years, so that rate is just going to grow exponentially larger. As a result, there will have to be more/longer regionals and it will be extremely hard to find a city big enough to host nats unless we keep it at about the number of teams we had this year. Otherwise, with more regionals, there will be more qualifications, and we will have a hard time trying to find a city to host our competition (especially if the hotels in Atlanta get word out of what we did there :D ) As for speculation of where the 2007 nationals will be (Atlanta's contract is only through 06) Probably a big city with an indoor stadium, possibly in the midwest. All I care is that it isn't in Hartford, that would suck for everyone.

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

I will be scared for the fools that accept a cometition with thousands of teams. It would be a crazy nightmare

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

If you go look at this thread
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...=annual+report

or the FIRST annual report and you do the math, FIRST's growth seems to have stabilized at about 130 new teams per year. We are on a linear growth right now, not an exponential growth.

As such, five years from now, there will be about 900+5*130 = 1550 teams.

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

In addition to a longer Championship event, it'd be nice if it was a month or so after the last weekend of Regional events. This would give ample time for those new qualifiers from the last weekend to prepare for such a large event.

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

You can't really push Nationals back too much more than it already is. The entire competition is pretty much cemented. You can't start any sooner, cause you have to start with the high school spring semester. You have to have 6 weeks to build, 2 weeks to the first regional, a set number of weekends for regionals, and another 2 weeks to nationals. To move nationals back much farther than where it is, you'd be pushing it very close to the end of the school year and finals and all of that stuff. So I think FIRST is mostly stuck with its current schedule.

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

I think/hope/wish that there will be an EPCOT regional. I have not heard nationals described in as flowery terms in recent, non-EPCOT years. I think that such a regional would be quite fun for all involved, and EPCOT does have a big dome.

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

NOt to mention that seniors get out earlier than the rest of the school and they have to worry about graduation and stuff...

Re: FIRST 5 years from now
 

Hmmm... The impact 5 years later...

I think that nationals will have to be split into 2. I don't think they can find a place to house all thoes teams.

The championships will be pushed into May - mid to late May.

For some of the richer teams - some of the school are going to start to limit how many regionals the students can go to. It just takes away too much school time.

I'm wondering how does this play into some of the schools that want to go all year round. If schools decide to go all year - I don't see a problem with the students going to go to 4-5 regionals.

You'll meet a lot more people/make a lot if new friends! :)