[JesseK]

FWIW, FRC pit crew and drivers have just a little time for conferences as FTC pit crew and drivers. The conferences are "right there upstairs", and yet often there's not quite enough time in between matches for the critical people to go to the ones they want.

Also, "Back in the day", a Championship-competitive FTC robot budget was about $6k for the robot across the season. This included spare motors, controllers, and extra metal to cut. The one I coached in Division finals at worlds (FTC 1885, 2010) had a BOM of $4500, and the one which won the Championship (FTC 354, 2012) had a BOM of $3200.