Friday Night Entertainment - will.i.am with special guests

[Libby K]

If I can step in and add my two cents for just a moment.

The concert was will.i.am and his friends stepping forward to celebrate FIRST.

At the "Mothers of Invention" panel on Friday (which included will.i.am's mother, Evelyn Kamen, and some other very smart moms), Will stood up and said the following:

Originally Posted by will.i.am

One day, I was riding around on my Segway backstage, and I was like 'WOW. I wanna call the guy who invented this and tell him how awesome he is.' So I did. Then he told me about FIRST and I said I wanted to check it out. So I came to the kickoff, and I saw all these students. Dean said to me, 'Do you think you can make FIRST cool?' and I said 'Dean, it's already cool. I'm gonna make it LOUD." So I called up ABC and I asked them for some air-time.

He went on and on about this - but what y'all should take from this is that WILL.I.AM WANTED TO DO THIS FOR FIRST. Nobody is 'pandering to celebrities' or trying to 'destroy your experience' for their own funsies.

When this show goes up on ABC, people will tune in for a Black Eyed Peas concert, that's true - and then they'll be bombarded with information on FIRST. Sure, they 'came for the show'...but they'll stay because of the passion and excitement that anyone can see as soon as they witness a FIRST Competition. That's the truly magnetic and addictive part of this program. It's why I stay, too.

If you were at the concert, I hope you remember that Will and the BEP's goodbye to the teams was a little something like this as they walked offstage...

"YOU GUYS ARE GENIUSES! THE FUTURE OF AMERICA! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!"

I hope that your teams had a great time at the Championship, even if you didn't get exactly the field you wanted. I hope that when FIRST gets new teams, sponsors, and fans because of the i.am.FIRST show, you don't snub them because they took away your few extra hours on the dome floor.

I really hope that you all can appreciate why this event took so many resources and changes to happen, and that you can see the kind of potential "i.am.FIRST" has to truly infiltrate the culture we've been working on changing for 20 years.

Will.I.Am really wants the world to see FIRST. Let's give him, and FIRST, a little more credit for helping make that happen. No - the situation with the fields wasn't ideal. We all know that. But imagine what FIRST's growth can be like in the next few years with the support of big-ticket celebrities who truly 'get it' like we do.