[synth3tk]

What happens? Glad you asked:

First, you arrive at the local kick-off location roughly 30-minutes early (though you should check with your local kick-off for the best time to arrive), and just socialize with some of the other teams, eat a light breakfast, or whatever else your local kick-off provides.

At about 10:30, you watch some pre-event playlist of safety animations, FIRST PSAs, and probably some sort of "20 years of FIRST" video, since this is a special year.

The broadcast then starts with an opening video, and the event officially begins. It varies slightly every year, but usually involves speeches by politicians, prominent people, sometimes alumni, and a few of the higher-ups in FIRST, with videos from teams, actors, or whomever else, sprinkled in between. You can expect subtle hints to the game throughout.

Then at some point, Dean Kamen is introduced, and starts speaking. This can include stats about FIRST, recent notable events/happenings, and occasionally, his disappointment about certain aspects. A lot of times, he will comment on the state of the country or world's focus (or lack thereof) on the fields of science and technology. You'll want to pay good attention to his speech. While some people joke about how long he speaks, he usually isn't speaking unless it's worth-while.

Near the end, he'll give you "homework". The homework changes every year, but is usually related to expanding FIRST in some way, shape, or form (correct me if I'm wrong).

Finally, the game unveiling. Now the order of events are fuzzy right now (I think I'm tired), but a huge curtain is drawn back, and we see the game field and elements for the first time. We'll then watch the game animation, which will tell you how the games is played, how to score, any major penalties, etc. After explaining the basic gist of the game, they'll play through a sample round with humans pretending to be robots, with Dean and Woodie Flowers pausing the "match" at certain points, to highlight/elaborate a rule or penalty. Then they cover some important rules in the form of a gameshow (Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?-style, if I recall correctly).

At the very end, they'll release the password for the encrypted rule manual (don't fret, though, the unencrypted manual is released within minutes to hours of the Kick-Off). As Kara stated, it'd be best for you to download the encrypted manual (which is usually released a few days before), that way you can start reading up on the details the minute after the webcast is over.

Some kick-offs also have workshops afterwords, that cover everything from team management to tool usage. They can be very useful, and full of great information that both rookies and veterans can use.