RE: the conferences.
I have volunteered to do a conference presentation the past two years. I am very happy they were free this year. Whether hundreds attend (Karthik) or a few dozen (mine
) each of these sessions have a lot to offer.
There was a mentor who attended my session last year. He did not have teams competing. His organization funded him to attend the conferences. All the rest of the event was gravy.
There are many schools and organizations who would allow and, gasp, even fund people to attend.
I would love to see the conferences expand and be a destination in themselves. Program books. Professionally done abstracts and bios. More days. More sessions. But I'd also love to keep them free.
I don't believe FIRST has the bandwidth to do this now, so it would take a partnership with another organization. And some funding.
This is doable.