Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

Teams 829 and 1529 are considering hosting an off-season FRC event either in October or July. The one-day event would either be at the Warren Central fieldhouse or Southport fieldhouse – both in Indianapolis. We would like some help from you. If you would be so kind, please answer these questions if you may be interested in participating.

1. Would you more likely attend an event in October (during October Break – this year, it would be the 20th) or in July (the Saturday immediately following the 4th)?

2. If you are able to attend, would you or any member of your team be willing to volunteer to help us?

3. What is your name, your team name, your location, and contact info?

Please send me your answers either via email (mstaylor@msdpt.k12.in.us) or by PM.

Thank you for your input, and hopefully we’ll be able to put on a great event either this October or next July.

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

I'm looking forward to anaother off-season event to keep our teams in top shape for the next year.

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

October is a really fun time to run an event. Although, we would rather you come to RiverRage 11 (the longest running offseason ever!) :D

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

I just wouldnt do it in the summer anywhere near IRI... its a tough act to follow!

Having a fall event would be AWESOME, that means at any given time I only have to be without FIRST for about, what, three/four months! :yikes:

-q

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

Something close to IRI would be cool. This way, people that are travelling don't have to come twice :D

Jacob

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

I voted for October but please not over break. This is the last vacation time before January.

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

I think having it after the school year starts up would be great. It would help to train the new members and allow them a chance to understand what FIRST is about. Not just from hearing it, but actually living the experience. That would definately improve the chances of us going. As far as traveler(not us), wouldn't they just get done visiting families for the 4th of July? Just curious... Either way, good luck with the event. Also, how much would it be?(a guess is fine)

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=14

:p

I know I would be flying whenever necessary to get there... even if it meant no BBQed Speedys....

Jacob

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

To answer a couple questions that have come up:

Timing:
We are looking at October Break because it is a shared time between all metro Indy schools - we have the Thurs and Fri off school for setup and (theoretically) would not be pulling students/teachers out of the classroom.
We are looking at the weekend after the 4th of July because by IHSAA regulations, there are to be no athletic events that week, which would free up the fieldhouse and keep a regular date (assuming this is successful and becomes an annual event).

Money:
Fees are completely up in the air - depends on how much interest and support we receive. If we get some sort of corporate sponsorship, it could drastically affect prices. We're also fairly unsure of what capital this will take to get going. I really hesitate to put out any figures right now, but I can say with confidence we will not be as expensive as IRI.

Size:
We are looking at a 1-day event, most likely a Saturday, with quals starting early in the morning and elims in the late afternoon/evening. I've never personally attended a 1-day event - if anybody could point me in the direction of planning/execution of one of those, I'd appreciate it.
At this point, we're looking for a rather small event (24-36 teams); we don't want to bite off more than we can chew.

Registration:
It's really too early to say. I don't imagine we'd be turning many people away, but that'd be a nice problem to have. Honestly, we haven't outlined any sort of criteria regarding geography/past success/first come first served/etc.

We are still in the very early, exploratory stages. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll have enough info to make the decision of whether or not this will become a reality. Please feel free to PM or email me (mstaylor@msdpt.k12.in.us) with any questions OR SUGGESTIONS you may have - for some reason I've been "volunteered" as primary contact. Whee.

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

I would be up for volunteering so long as it was on a Saturday, but I wouldn't be able to go to both IRI and this one in back-to-back weekends, which would happen if it were the weekend after July 4th... K&K isn't too keen on letting me have a lot of time off... especially on Saturdays.

I would also suggest limiting the amount of teams to 24 or 36* so that all teams get to play in elimination rounds, especially for a 1-day event.

*with 36 teams, once the teams get down to 3 (3 final alliances) you could turn it into a round robin where 1 plays 3, 2 plays 3, 1 plays 2... then the team with the better round robin record comes out the winner of the event. Or something like that.

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

It would be really cool to have another Indianapolis event, especially if it is co-hosted by the CyberCards! That will be two hosted events by Indianapolis' Perry Township teams! (The IRI is co-hosted by CyberBlue). I like the idea of having it had Southport Fieldhouse too. I'd go for October because, like others have said, I don't think it should compete with the IRI.

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

Or Rah Cha Cha Ruckus!

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

Hmm... I just checked. There is a weekend inbetween. This shoots down my idea of coming and staying for both....

Oh well.

Jacob

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

Based on our highly scientific survey (cough cough), I think we are leaning hard toward having an event this October 20.
Team Leaders/Mentors: If your team may be interested in competing, please send me a PM or email. Whether or not we go forward with this project depends completely on team interest and participation.

email: mstaylor@msdpt.k12.in.us

Re: Possible new Indianapolis-area off-season event
 

I think this would be beneficial for teams wanting to come to Indianapolis to compete. The Indiana Robotics Invitational is becoming so massive that it looks like, for the first time, we will have to turn away teams this year. "Overflow" (that really isn't the best term to use here) teams that are not able to compete in the IRI could come to this event as an alternative.

This could be interesting...