First, let me say that I appreciate the promptness by the event organizers to start this thread. Asking for feedback shows a true dedication to improving the quality of the team experience.
On behalf of Team 696, I would like to thank Velma Lomax, Dave Berggren, the event sponsors, and everyone on the Ventura Regional Planning committee for the top-notch event they ran this past weekend. Putting on such an event is a major undertaking that requires the countless hours and dedication of numerous people whom I cannot even imagine. Everyone we interacted with, from volunteers to students and mentors, was so enthusiastic and dedicated about their involvement and participation in this event. We had a wonderful time. To me, the biggest factor of the customer experience is not being hassled by anyone for any reason, and not having anything pointless over which controversy arises. This event exhibited those traits.
For the first year of this regional, it seems like FIRST put their absolute best people on it, and it really made a difference. From the referees to the judges to the event crew which ran power, trusses, cable ramps, etc, everything was top notch. The camera work and quality of the webcast was leaps and bounds beyond numerous other events we've both watched and attended.
The free and easy parking was certainly appreciated and worked really well. Load in and load out was a breeze in Lot C. Also, our students had a great game of Volleyball at the beach Thursday night. There aren't too many regional where you can do that.
Finally, to be awarded the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award, from the man himself to whom we owe so many thanks, was such an incredible experience for my students and me. I'll never forget it.
Now, onto the areas of improvement.
Suggestions & Feedback
The pit area was cramped, but maintained a nice atmosphere with the teams. Everyone was maintained awareness of people and robots in transit, and was respectful of clearing the way when needed,
without the need to yell "Robot!", and even while amazing conversations took place, yes, in the aisles.
While we most certainly prefer a 10x10 pit area since we've invested a lot in that standard format setup, we were able to adapt our arrangement to fit the smaller constraint, and we made it work. If having 10x10 pits meant there would not be enough slots for us to attend, I'd prefer the smaller pit over not attending. It did seem like at least one more team could have been added in the area where the safety advisors table was. This was a very underutilized space that would have better supported the expansion of team pit areas. If the pit areas do end up to be smaller than 10x10 again, I would respectfully like to request that knowledge be formally communicated to all prospective teams MANY MONTHS in advance, including which dimension (front to back, or side to side), is smaller.
It was a mistake to essentially tell people to leave before playing the Chairman's video. It was an honest oops that was not intentional. However, the fact that a majority stayed to attentively watch speaks to the character of the teams at this event.
Regarding the heat. In my next statement, my goal is not to complain, but to help improve the situation. I will be honest in saying indoors, it was the worst heat and humidity I have ever experienced next to IRI 2013. It honestly was at a dangerous level for many of the elderly attendees and for the students who have been awake a long time, often without eating. Outdoors, it was a beautiful cool breezy day. It would have been very easy to make at least a sizable difference in the problem by opening the doors to the fitness exercise area. Let me explain the issue from an engineering perspective.
You have somewhere in the neighborhood of a half million cubic feet of air trapped in this building, with only 50 square foot hole to get it out of, and nowhere for new air to come in. Add to that the 50kW heat load of the roughly 100 estimated 500W apiece halogen lights, and you have an absolute oven in there. It was noticeably cooler on the arena floor when the lights were dimmed after the event. I absolutely LOVE that the field was incredibly well lit. It made for amazing and easy video and photos. Do not change the lights, but we need more air. Additionally, how many people were inside? The average male adult is roughly a 100W heat load when simply sitting in a room. But, the people in this venue were not just sitting still, they were excited! It's easily another 100kW heat load from the ~1000 people inside. I am not an expert in thermodynamics nor heat transfer, but I know how to cool a building, and the small fan in the small doorway helped in the 5 feet surrounding it, but did absolutely nothing to address the massive heat load in the relatively small building.
To cool this particular building, the ideal circumstance would be to allow for cross flow. Enter a large volume of air on one side, and evacuate it on the other side. However, it appeared the design of this older structure didn't include any openings whatsoever on an opposite side to the main doors (which however old, is still kind of surprising). So, the flow would be a U-turn, if only the fitness center doors were open.... I asked a few people if it could be done, but apparently not. This is a mandatory change for next year, if the event is in this building again. Those doors must be open.
If the building had any kind of air exchanger or air anything at all, I didn't see it, and it clearly wasn't working. What is needed to remedy the problem is to exchange the inside air with outside air, with a high flow rate.
Even something like a BigAss Fan permanently installed in the venue would help to improve convection. The college really needs to work to improve cooling in this building, not just for FIRST, but for anyone else who uses it.
Chezy Champs was pretty up there with heat and humidity as well, but they had a planned remedy to the problem with the Port-A-Cool units which were very effective at maintaining a reasonable climate inside.
At the end of the event, I felt bad that I think it was team 4201 did not get to take their photo on the field under the lights. The lights were cut out just as they were arranging their group. I realize that the production crew has a schedule, and to run over time costs a lot of people a lot of money, but FIRST needs to remember one thing:
The photos teams take on the field are often used as the primary selling point of each team, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars and numerous business partnerships being brought into the program each year, which we ultimately turn around to pay FIRST as registration fees, which keep this thing going. Let the last team take their photo under the lights.
Finally, while I really appreciate that the event was scheduled during the college's break, it would be even better to work the schedule to not be concurrent with the swap meet on the college campus. The swap meet attracts a very different crowd, consisting of several types of individuals you do not want in or around a large quantity of high school kids. Additionally, there needs to be a stronger security presence in and around the venue. We had an incident that necessitated the need for a police officer to respond. The response time was abysmal, and there was only one officer on site for the entire college, with the FIRST event, swap meet, and soccer games all going on concurrently. Even a private firm such as Securitas to park in the lot outside the venue would be better than nothing. There were times where we felt our students and equipment were not safe in the parking lot.
While there are a couple areas for improvement, do not let my comments in any way detract from the high quality event that took place last weekend. Thank you again to everyone involved in its production, and we hope to be back next year!