Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

Thank you Will.I.Am and FIRST. You guys are amazing yet again! I cant wait to see you guys at Championship and to see the competition!!! I am so excited! :) :) :) :) :)!!!!

This makes the competition more amazing than before!!

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

Remember kickoff, and will.i.am's appearance there? I thought it was pretty goofy. Most of us forum regulars probably thought the same.

However, I have a couple of first-year students who got excited about this. At the time of kickoff, they were "outlying members." Now, after a year of build season, they're pretty involved, and starting to "get it." I thank will.i.am. for drawing some initial excitement from them. Did I get excited about it? Not at all. But that doesn't mean no one did. And although I thought it was goofy, who am I to judge what ultimately draws someone into this program?

As I said, I haven't yet been impressed with the execution, and do wish this had been confirmed earlier (though its been pretty clear for quite a while now). But again, trust me, there will be people out there who get excited about it.

Maybe, but i doubt it. For example...
Don't judge what you haven't seen yet.

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

It is official.......

From FIRST volunteer announcement:

FIRST is delighted to announce a free private performance for assigned FIRST volunteers by Grammy Award winning super group, The Black Eyed Peas, with guest artist Willow Smith, on Friday evening, April 29, 2011 at 8:30PM at the Edward Jones Dome. The FIRST Championship community is invited to take part in this extraordinary evening that we hope will be the basis of a potential future television special.

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

Dean's List students?

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

Oh wow!!!!! Just adds to the absolute coolness!!! My mom is flying in and even SHE is really excited!!!

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

Hmmm...I wonder if Willow's dad will finally go take in a FIRST competition.

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

Just to be clear:

I do not mind having a concert at the Championship. It's happened before; it's just been at the wrap party instead of on Friday night, or it's been after finals but before the wrap party. Having it on Friday night, before the event is over, is just new--if done right, it could be really awesome. See next points for why I'm commenting in more of a negative vein.

I do mind the movement of two fields. Said prior concerts never had the fields moved. They've also never even been in the same venue, to my knowledge (though Epcot might be the exception there--I only went once). Again, could be quite awesome, if done right. See next point.

I do mind the lack of official explanations for said field movement until today. Even a "Hey, we are having a special concert with [name redacted] on Friday night" would have been better than "We're doing something cool, just wait for more info"--which is exactly what we got for the last couple of weeks. Even knowing that there would be a concert--for sure--would have been a vast improvement over the rumors that were around, even though those rumors did turn out correct.

I would not be entirely surprised if the concert is comparatively sparsely attended, not in protest, but because people planned ahead to be doing something else at that time due to the lack of information. That lack of information is my main complaint; the fields moving can be dealt with, even if it is uncomfortable for a while.

For next year, there are two things that would help this continue: 1) Say that there will be a concert as soon as that is known (or that you're working on a concert if you don't know for sure by, say 1 month before--"something cool" won't cut it). This allows teams to plan to be there. 2) Try to have it displace as few fields as possible--for that, some clever floor planning or using a field as a stage may be needed. This allows more teams to play where they were expecting to play this whole time, for more time.

As far as a performer giving a concert just for FIRST participants getting attention: I don't think that will quite get the message out, even with a national television special. However, if there was some way of getting word out that [insert favorite celebrity here] was going to be at this robotics competition, and they would be [doing something for their fans] if [fans in question do some easy task like finding a cool feature on some random robot], or [celebrity] was acting as a traffic director/MC/tour guide of cool robots/some other function that gets them interacting with the public, I think there would be a really massive invasion of the general public. Maybe some of them just come for the celebrity. Maybe some of them get the FIRST bug and start looking hard into STEM. As a matter of fact, that's what Morgan Freeman did with that video he did for FIRST--"I'm going to be here on these days, come join me in watching" (paraphrased).

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

I'm going to make two separate statements here, and then banish this thread from my thoughts until Sunday.

1) To Will.I.Am and guests (whoever they may be): Thanks for coming--hope you stick around for the robots and the people.

2) To the people with the robots: It's the first time (or at least the first time in a long while) for a lot of things at this year's championship. Keep an open mind, and we can tell FIRST exactly what we thought of their plan on Monday morning.

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

When I first heard about the whole two fields in the pit thing I was all bent out of shape over it. Because the field has been relegated to the puts doesn't mean the competition won't be any less intense and it doesn't make the event any less fun and it doesn't change the fact that I still have a job to do no matter where the field is located and I'm still gonna do it.
At least the pits won't be flooding (we hope).
Heck now I get a free concert out of it. Sounds like a good time. I think I'll go and have one. After a season of hard work I think I and the many volunteers and members of FIRST deserve it.

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

I agree with you! I think it's great that FIRST is trying to make Championships even more exciting than it usually is this year. Although we do have to adjust to a new layout, I think it's a minor sacrifice. I saw the Black Eyed Peas last August and while I wasn't crazy about them at the time, they put on an amazing show and Will.I.Am was a great performer. I think we should be really grateful that FIRST is trying to bring more attention to the program - even if we do have to use famous entertainers to do so. The point is, this is a great thing to get FIRST some positive media attention and I'm sure we're all going to have fun on Friday night. :)

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

I'm sure that exceptions will be made on a case by case basis. Just have to figure out who and early on, how to ask.

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

Thank you Dave...my feelings exactly.

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

Or, you might be able to join a team that is planning to go and has extra wristbands already for the weekend.

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

For the most part I agree with what's being said here, but I disagree with how much is being said. FIRST is holding a concert, something we've been unofficially aware of for quite some time. People have spoken their opinions, and the details provided have been analyzed down in classic FIRST style. Now, I would reccomend e-mailing FIRST at frcteams@usfirst.org and explaining your concerns. Once you've done that, pack your things (if you're going), make the trip, and enjoy the event with a positive attitude. If you don't want go to the concert then don't go. I'm sure there are plenty if nice restaurants in St. Louis that would be more then welcoming for your business.

Re: Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests
 

Agreed, but for the 352 teams at the event, their season of hard work isn't over yet.

I know we are struggling with how to handle our picking list meeting on Friday night. Do we tell students they cannot go to the concert? Do we rush it and do a bad job and do it in between the end of matches and the concert? Do we work after the concert untill 2 or 3 am and then get up at 6 am the next morning? Do we let students go to the concert and hope we aren't in picking position? Do we let students go to the concert and have mentors work on the list, which doesn't involve students or show them what it takes to be successful? I'm really not happy with FIRST for putting us in this position.

It's dope that there is a concert, but I don't think it should effect the Robotics Competition this much.