Would you like to come to europe?
 

So, with the possibility of the regional in europe next year. We need to know how many US teams would be interested in coming over to join us and to help us make a full regional (i believe current plans are for 30 teams, and we are (in my opinion) not going to manage to get 30 teams up in one year.
So please vote and say below :)

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

Too far. Too much money. If we did it would be in place of the championship (that would not go over well with the team) and we get nervous taking our kids over the border to Canada (lots of foreign born kids on the team) so Europe would most likely be out of the question.
Sorry.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

dont be sorry. the point is to see how many people are thinking about it or anything, its just as helpful to say no :)

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

We try to go do a really far away regional or a big regional each year. Usually its championships, but since we weren't planning on going this year we went to New Hampshire. Europe I think could be a possibility, but our team would have to be more financially stable.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

team 233, the pink team, would definitely be interested. keep in touch

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

I think there's a difference between being interested and being a possibility of going. I'd be interested as in it'd be neat to go. But I don't think itd be financially possible. :(

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

I, personally, would be somewhat interested in going if the price were affordable. (Perhaps the teams traveling to the event could get in on hotels, Championship-style?)

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

As much as i would say i would love to go with my team to Europe for a regional, this would most likely kill our entire travel budget in one event, thus we would go nowhere else and compete in no other events. This would be a hard fight to make when we could competete in the regional here in town, chicago, detroit, st louis, buckeye, WMR, the list goes on of regionals much much closer to us. So i'd say although i'd like to come i dont see it happening, maybe i could scam a plane ticket and come myself.

However, rather then bringing american teams i say its a better and in the long run a more effective plan to try and start 30 teams around Europe, there are plenty of countries over there, and although it would be a challenge, harder things have been done. That would make it a true regional, rather then just an exotic event people are traveling too. Granted I'm sure there are teams that would still consider attending, but I'd say start some more teams and when the local interest is ready, go for it, look at Israel, granted they had support from FIRST doing all this, but they started all those teams and the regional in 1 year. Who's to say Europe or Asia or Africa oculdn't do the same thing?

Good luck, and maybe in a few years i can come and watch a regional in Europe.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

I am all for it, however from a budget standpoint, I am not sure. I ahve been to Europe a few times and I have discovered it would be more cost effective to hold the event somewhere in Spain, it seems to be the country in Europe with the most affordable economy for us Americans. I love Europe, and I would love to travel there to compete~! :)

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

the idea is to start 30 teams and i quote "with the hope of at least 10 surviving" but there really simply arn't enough people here who have seen it already. I think there are only about 10 other people from europe interested in first, plus the 2 uk teams

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

oh, and on the travel note, budget airlines are cheap and cheerful....
our flights were about $650 each this year, because the nyc regional was over easter weekend, but otherwise
i wouldn't think that it could be that expensive, for example i just did a search and found that new york to london and back with one week gap at £236 ( approx $450) with America Airlines
you can also find cheaper flights if you wnat to change in iceland or something...
but the question is really would you like to and be able to

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

Considering that our fee for team participation was $250 this year, I don't think we'd be able to. Even at those rates.

It's just so much cheaper to travel in the continental U.S. We use school buses to get to regionals in Michigan (which we don't have to pay for, since the district provides them) and a chartered bus for bigger trips. Since we've got issues covering even that, there's no way that 818 would be able to afford to fly to Europe.

That said, it would be an amazing experience. I've never left North America, and a chance to compete overseas would be more than enough to get me to mentor on 818 next year. Even with a two hour round trip every day.

I like the idea of having a smaller Europe "division," though. A European regional could function like the Israeli one, where only the area teams are allowed to compete, or it could be open to everyone. If it happens, FIRST will figure out how to make it work. I'm sure of it. :)

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

I think it could work great if Dean (hint hint Mr Kamen... :D ) chartered a 747 for all the FIRST participants out of Dulles or JFK...

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

our team participation was £350 =~$700 , excluding food etc.
anyway, its just a preliminary survey to see interest.
and that would be great bt highly unlikely with the 747

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

Would I like to go: Hell yeah
Could I go: Probably not, we're looking at $1,000+ per person.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

Yes, but it would be more expensive for us, seeing that the dollar isn't very strong right now, so it would probably be more expensive for us to go over to UK/EU than it would be for UK teams to come to the US. I know my parents would probably be happy to let me go (I go nearly every summer to see family), but cost probably would weigh down many teams and their members.

If they did manage to get a UK/EU regional, I can say that Anfield would be such a great stadium to have it on, other than the snowball's chance in hell of them getting a late stage FA Cup game to play that may land on that weekend... (We can dream, can't we? :D )

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

You can always try to start more teams in the UK and Europe.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

we are :P
i can see what you mean
what i foudn odd was how when i did a return from usa to uk, it cost about $200 less than uk to usa lol
anyway, if it gets going , it iwll be down to you to register for the event if its open and if you want to go.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

If there is a regional in the UK, would it be in the London area? If so, we should be able to get reasonably cheap flights from Orlando. There are some one-stop flights on Air Canada to Heathrow for ~550. The nonstop ones I found are British Airways and more expensive at ~750, and are to Gatwick. Of course, prices, schedules etc. are subject to change between now and next spring and, hopefully cheaper flights will be available than what is available booking now. Of course, there's always the issue of getting the robot shipped, but in the end, I guess all worked out ok for 759's robot making it to NYC.

As far as our team wanting to go to a UK regional, there are at least two of us, Mrs. P. and I who would like to go, and I suspect a lot of our students who have never been out of the U.S. would also like to go, even though the weather is probably not too great that time of year.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

i wanna leave the states..i've never left the states yet!! i would soooo go if i had the money and time away from school...


can pink take me if they are going??? i'll be good i promise!!

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

Oh man, I'd love to go to a regional in Europe! I haven't looked into it very much, but I know that in the past, Virgin Airlines has offered flights to London for as little as $300 round trip. Granted, my brother will have a job in London come fall, so I wouldn't have to worry about staying somewhere, but bringing an entire team along would certainly be a tricky endeavor. Getting tools and equipment through American airport security is one thing, International security is a whole different ball of wax (at least from my experiences with it...).
Also, what about batteries? I know that we were lucky enough to have Ricky Q drive ours down to the Championships, but I would be very interested to know how you guys got yours to your regional(s).

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

I think it would be an amazing thing to experience but the cost will be a huge problem. I am sure MOE could find some way to raise the money to go but paying to have our HUGE pits flowen over would be way to much. It would be a really cool thing to see though

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

I don't know about the rest of my team, but I'd love to come to Europe for robotics. I mean, if you guys come over here for nationals, and regionals(?) I think we could owe it to you to come there. I mean, we're only in New York, and going outta the country, in my opinion, would be awsome, and a first for me. I'll have to discuss this with my team.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

Ok I personally love Europe, I used to live there and I still have a ton of family over in England and Ireland, but there would be a few problems with US teams going out to Europe.

-Money, of course its gonna be expencive, probably about US$500 per person than your average, travel and stay at regional.

-Shipping, 759 can tell us all about transatlantic shipping. Now imagine 20 teams with this potential problem?

-Current Exchange rates, my dad is an accountant for Merril Lynch, my family is constantly going back and forth between NJ and Ireland, well anyway we planned on going on a big family vacation to Ireland last summer, but the one thing that held us back was the Current Dollar-Euro exchange rate which is off the deep end compared to what it was 3 or 4 years ago.

-Time of regionals, like Dennan said they flew into New York on Easter Weekend, and had a flight +US$400 more than a typical flight is, If your planning a regional in europe take into consideration what the rates are so that way teams can get the cheapest trip possible into Europe.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

tools : I think we stuck as much as possible in the crate and then paid overweight charges.... and then we had 2 huge toolbags as luggage.... whilst someone shared around their clothes....


Pass, it is still under consideration as to the location....

see the other main thread about it for more info... me and the London firsters (including a first judge... Vijay K from Chesapeake regional) are going to be meeting up in 3 weeks and discussing it all and making some plans hopefully

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

So you're getting on the ball and making some 747s for us?

Anyways, I'd love to go to Europe, but we don't have much support financially for travel type expenses. If we tell a company that we would like their sponsorship so we can buy some 80-20 for the frame, then they'll quickly sponsor us. But if we tell them we need $10000 to get 25 people to Europe and back, we'd be turned down immediately.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

I'm almost positive that if given the chance, members of my team (836) would be able to go. We have the funding, and I think that it's a great idea. Let us know if anything becomes official.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

Given the chance and the money, I'd be there tomorrow and just stay until the regional comes around.

Re: WOuld you like to come to europe?
 

evil spellchecker! :)