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

Overall, is anyone not surprised by this? Considering will.i.am was at the FRC launch back in janurary. That was a good clue that there was going be some kind of concert at this bigger area

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

[Citation Needed]. For all we know our registration fee is paying for this.

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

OK, here are my 2 cents worth. Number one, quit your complaining. (didn't use better word). One of the goals for FIRST competitors is to overcome any obstacles and meet their original timeline, just like in the real world. There will always be obstacles in the real world, get used to it!
Don't forget this is the 20th year for FIRST & they want to celebrate their success!. Enjoy it. I am unable to attend the Championships, But even at the age of 50, I enjoy almost all music, except ghetto rap. I would've loved to attend & take in all the commotion.
Yes there are people who don't particularly like BEP's. Nobody says you have to. As has been already said, those who don't want to go to the concert can take the extra time to study their scouting.
Please try to see all the effort that went into planning this event. Make the best of it. Enjoy your time there, there's no guaranty that you will qualify next year.

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

Well said Marc! I'll see you there!

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

I think this is all pretty cool.

Play half our matches in the pit area. Awesome. A 30 second commute. The pit crew can watch matches. The drive team can watch matches.

Play half our matches in the dome. Awesome. Cool to be on the arena floor. More room to sit and spread out.

Concert on Friday night. Great. A top entertainer is performing at our event. Maybe a TV special. Even if it is BEP focused, look at all the people that will tune in and see FIRST and robots and kids in team shirts and want to find out more.

Late night Friday? Sure. Challenge for the scouting team. Sure. Does every kid on the team focus on scouting? Probably not. Would they be in bed at 10 PM if they were back at the hotel instead? Probably not.

Open your mind. Try it. Enjoy the weekend. There is no reason you cannot enjoy a great Robotics competition and a great concert. And then on Monday generate some more excitement at your school when you talk about everything that happened in St. Louis at the FIRST Championship.

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

I agree with Chris and Marc, well said indeed.

I have not been seriously on CD for a while. After having been absent for a couple of weeks and then seeing this thread this evening it made me sit back and wonder what is happening here.

FIRST is having a 20th birthday party. Some people seem to think it is the would think it was the end of the world... Really ?? ( Is that what "2012" is about. )

Enjoy your trip to the Championship, enjoy the party. Happy 20th, FIRST !!!

Unfortunately I'll not be there to party so y'all have a good time.

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

Two things

1. "Don't Fail Me, Education in America" will be filming pieces during the championship. If they do end up filming this concert, I hope that CNN sticks to it's idea of being fair and balanced by filming the teams that actually have scouting meetings Friday night as well.

2. Like a lot of other people have stated, This is a great idea, it was just executed very poorly.

3. To our performing guests. we're glad that you guys are here and we hope you stick around and enjoy the robots on Saturday afternoon. The execution issue that i listed earlier is a matter to be dealt with between the teams in the FIRST program, and the people at FIRST HQ in Manchester.

When dean said FIRST isn't about the robots, he was right.

I don't have a team here at Championship, so i guess I'll be at the concert.

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

I have been trying to feel out my thoughts on this event over the past few days as the event comes closer every day to happening and I think I have finally come to a sense of feeling I can post.

I wont lie when I say that one of the things that drew me to starting FIRST was the opportunity to go to Disney. I'm not saying I wouldn't have joined FIRST if it wasn't for the trip to Disney and a week out of school, but what kid is going to complain about a trip to Disney. If this concert, the production piece that comes from it, or other "events" in the future draw people to FIRST, is that a bad thing?

As for the performers who will be playing, whether it is Will.I.Am, The Black Eyed Peas, Willow Smith, or any number of other potential guests, Who has said they did not approach FIRST and volunteer to do this for us? I am grateful to whoever will be playing together for FIRST that they are doing so and potentially will help FIRST's programs grow.

Also for those of you that have been around FIRST for a while, you may remember a certain PSA video that was done with Will Smith in 2002(?). In the video he says to keep doing great things and making better technology so he can stay home with his kids. Well now his kids are grown a bit and well, they are coming to us. I know that to me, this is inspiration to keep doing what we are doing.

While some of you may glance over my thoughts, and the few cents they are worth, maybe just maybe this concert will attract some student with no plans for a future, to join a FIRST team, and a decade later will be standing in front of a class of students teaching and inspiring them to have a future of their own!

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

They didn't have to have the concert at all. One solution to the problem of the concert stage taking up room otherwise available for FRC fields would have been not to have the problem in the first place.

I have recently come to understand that many people truly do not have the ability to tell the difference between great music and not great music.

I plan to attend the concert, if only to find out what message it presents. (I also plan to wear earplugs.)

FIRST doesn't have to remain unchanging forever. I know my focus has changed in the eight years I've been part of FRC, though the broader goal is still the same. If FIRST's direction is changing, I'd like to know what the new target is.

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

I gotta agree with Dez. Great concept. Lousy execution.

However, the last time FIRST had one of those was the sudden spring of the Dean's List last build season (I'm not including the Minibot here). They got the bugs worked out for this year, or at least I haven't heard of a single issue there. (Even last year, the main issues were time and the mentors not wanting the students to know who was being nominated in some cases, but needing to use STIMS to submit. Both were fixed easily before Kickoff this year.)

When FIRST has a great concept that is poorly executed, at least in some views, they change it to make it even better. The original alliance selection system had unlimited declines (and no elimination backups, and you only knew that these X teams will be on the field until 2 minutes before your match). The 3-team elimination selection was originally non-serpentine. The last time there was any form of minibot, it was optional and tethered to the main robot (2002, and you don't want to know how many entanglement issues were called/not called on those).

I think that if they learn from the main complaints this year (namely, teams couldn't plan for it due to late-ish notice, plus the fields moving with no reason given) and address those, there is great potential for this to be really, really, really great. The great unknown is whether they will learn from those errors--I think they will learn. The only questions will be: How well do they learn, and who's playing?

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

I can't support this. It's great that we have support from celebrities. It is not great that we are compromising a competition we paid $5,000+ in order to further glorify a celebrity in lieu of what we're actually here for. Whatever happened to "you get what you celebrate?"

According to FIRST, will.i.am is more important than half of its flagship program. Really?

No! This is awful! We had an opportunity to reach out and get THE GENERAL PUBLIC into a ROBOTICS COMPETITION and we threw that out. This is the first time in FIRST history that a FIRST competition is closed to the public, and I really don't think that is consistent with FIRST's mission at all.

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

Conor Ryan had the right statement about the fields.
Who cares where they are? the compition wont be easier. The chalenges wont be less intense. It will just be different.

I am not a BEP fan, BUT something has to happen to help get the name of FIRST out there. If it is a concert video, great let FIRST be like other celebrity causes such the chrisis in Uganda issues where celebrity fame can inform more people about the issue.

Bono isnt a doctor, but I appreciate the fact he uses his fame to do goood. Perhaps your next mentor will join because his/her 10 year old BEP fan kid introduced them to FIRST, or the next buisness you go to raise money from has heard of of FIRST because of this.

The least of my worries for our FIRST robot matches. If you teach the values I would be happy playing matches in a waffle house parking lot

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

Chris, normally I see eye to eye with many of your posts, or at least can understand your point of view, but not now.

How is this a compromise to the competition? Is anyone being shut out of the competition because of the concert? Is anyone not getting to compete now than before the concert was announced? Is this the reason a team signed up for the championship instead of competing to begin with? I think not. Unless FIRST allows teams to sign up today, and their sole reason to sign up is to see Will.I.Am perform, than how is this a compromise?

As far as the two fields being in the pits, my guess (and from your listed rookie year) you never have been outside of Atlanta for Championship. Back in the Orlando days, when we had Championship (then Nationals) in the Epcot parking lot, or even before, in Disney, this was a normal occurrence. Yes they were separated by tent walls but you were also normally rotated among the different fields to get to play on the "Big Stage" too. Be happy your pit wasn't moved outside into the rain or onto a pitchers mound where you don't have a flat floor.
I actually think the fields being in the pits is a GREAT thing. When was the last time at championship you saw the general public walking through the pits? I know in the 6 years I was in Atlanta, Year in Houston, and time in Orlando, I can't count it off one hand. Now with two fields there, the public (and VIPs) who may attend will have a reason to go to the pits, and see the teams doing their thing off the field. I can see a major plus there. Will the seating be an obstacle, more than likely, but it wont be anything that hasn't been overcome before.

And as for this competition being closed to the public, I must have missed where it said that. The concert on Friday night is nothing more than the team socials of past years. Whether it was Disney in Orlando, Six Flags in Houston, or Centennial Park in Atlanta, the parties have always been closed to the public. The competition is still open to the public, but when the matches end and the dome closes to prep for the concert, everyone will have to leave. Doors will then reopen later to only those who have wristbands as a ticket for entry.

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

From this page:
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...t.aspx?id=4190


Only this special concert is closed to the public, only people with wrist bands can get in

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

Is anyone else (not so) secretly hoping that the Black Eyed Peas do a version of the FIRST Rap?