[nerd_dad]

I have to say that Atlanta did a fantastic job for this event. As an old guy who's seen a lot of conventions, expos, and tournaments, I felt that the facilities were top-notch, the staff friendly, the food edible, and even the airport security wasn't the nightmare that I had been expecting.

I'm sure everyone has legitimate gripes -- as a long time Diet Coke fiend, I resented the fact that it was 50 cents more in the Dome than in the Congress Center -- but I've never seen an event of this size run as smoothly as this one did, and I've attended a number of well-funded corporate events in places like Orlando and Vegas. The staff delivering the crates, for example, kept their cool even though there were too few of them for the job; the MARTA staff were always helpful -- the trains ran late enough that we could take them back after a long evening of weather delays. I also appreciated the street banners and finding that the Peachtree Mall food court extended its hours to serve the hordes of kids and adults looking for affordable food.

Nothing is perfect: rules are never 100% consistently enforced; mistakes get made -- engineering is a human activity, and involves much more than just math and science. When all is said and done, though, I had a great time and felt that there were very few things that could have gone better, and a great number that could have gone much, much worse. So much was done right, I hope that we can keep the things that didn't in perspective...

Ken M
(Occasional heavy lifting and crate construction for Team 1732)