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

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

It did halt things. Qualification matches ended an hour earlier than they would have otherwise and the dome was cleared out.

Newton was one of the fields affected by this hard deadline, but only had to play two matches back on the GaliNewton pit field (one of them a replay from earlier in the day). There was a holdup on the field while Galileo finished off their own matches, followed by the pre-planned ice cream social for GM teams that I half-crashed. (No ice cream for me, just a desire to make sure we didn't miss our match.) Even with all that, we were done around 7:15 or 7:20--plenty of time to walk a mile to dinner, walk back, and get seats (even if they were five rows from the top). Not the worst thing to happen to us.

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by Bryany

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already (too many posts to read through them all), but I really wish we had a little more warning about awards being given at the concert. If we had actually won the Chairman's award, it would have been terrible not to have been there. (we and a lot of other students we talked to weren't)

I agree. The chances of everyone being at a concert is way lower than the chances of everyone being at the matches on Einstein.

[Chickenonastick]

My hypothesis on the heavy bass was to discourage the audience from taking videos of the performance. The sound on the videos I took (as well as some found on youtube) was barely discernible due to the level of the bass. I can't even hear any lyrics...just bass.

I'm guessing the recording equipment for the official video probably didn't have any of these issues. Looks like FIRST didn't want too much of the performance revealed before its official debut on TV.

[DSM33]

Originally Posted by Chickenonastick

My hypothesis on the heavy bass was to discourage the audience from taking videos of the performance. The sound on the videos I took (as well as some found on youtube) was barely discernible due to the level of the bass. I can't even hear any lyrics...just bass.

I'm guessing the recording equipment for the official video probably didn't have any of these issues. Looks like FIRST didn't want too much of the performance revealed before its official debut on TV.

really? the videos that i got on my Flip sounded awesome! but maybe it would be different for the lower bowl teams as the bees were in the nosebleeds...

cant wait to see how this show will be put together with the matches on Einstein! If its anything like the FIRST in Michigan program it should be great

[torihoelscher]

Originally Posted by DSM33

really? the videos that i got on my Flip sounded awesome! but maybe it would be different for the lower bowl teams as the bees were in the nosebleeds...

cant wait to see how this show will be put together with the matches on Einstein! If its anything like the FIRST in Michigan program it should be great

same! my team and I were on the pit floor and even though I am really short, I got really good sounding videos. (by the way I am 5 foot and there was a 6 foot guy in front of me) lol.

I cant wait either!

The concert was absolutely amazing and I am so happy that we were so lucky to see it. FIRST will be known because music is a universal language!

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I wonder if they'd do a show next year and if they did would they do another big stage show and would the Black Eyed Peas be back or who else will they get to perform?

I wouldn't mind seeing Pink Floyd do a show on Friday night

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by rsisk

I wouldn't mind seeing Pink Floyd do a show on Friday night

If Pink Floyd was going to do a show they would probably require the whole arena plus you'd need extra security to keep Exploding Bacon from snatching their flying pig.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by rsisk

I wouldn't mind seeing Pink Floyd do a show on Friday night

2012...Justin Bieber w/ special guest Jaden Smith. Willow goes and tells bro how awesome it was, and he tells the Biebs....

I'm going to go ahead and call it right now. Maybe Koko Ed can make guessing the act part of Fantasy FIRST....

[Bob Steele]

I think that many of the perceived difficulties from the concert could have been easily dealt with by using better communication.

I will give you an example. We were one of those teams that got a match booted from the Dome and sent back to the pit fields.. We had to wait until 6:00 to start those matches... no big deal BUT we had our team dinner planned and we had food coming in addition to having to be at the Phillies and Willies for AutoCAD at the same time as being on the field to play our matches... this was tough to deal with because we didn't find out anything until 5:00 ... or a few minutes before...

If the information on how this was going to be handled was given to teams ahead of time we would have made our arrangements based on this contingency....

in the end we felt awkward about leaving the AutoCAD awards to go to the field to play... it felt like a snub to all of the other teams that worked so hard to get their awards...

Better communication.... the answer to many things... in fact ... it is always the BEST ANSWER...

We had a great time in St. Louis... we will be back... and now we can anticipate things better...

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

in the end we felt awkward about leaving the AutoCAD awards to go to the field to play... it felt like a snub to all of the other teams that worked so hard to get their awards...

Better communication.... the answer to many things... in fact ... it is always the BEST ANSWER...

We had a great time in St. Louis... we will be back... and now we can anticipate things better...

I am glad that FIRST is finding additional supporters that have the fame to be able to get FIRST more 'out there'. I will never condemn FIRST for that. Thanks go to the Black Eyed Peas. You made many FIRSTers feel special by being there (along with the huge boost in publicity).

We also had a good time in St. Louis, however FIRST will never sell me on the way this was handled.

1. I do not want to play in the pits. Some people seem to believe that the ends support the means: that the increased exposure for FIRST justifies the inconvience and decreased value the teams recieved at this year's championship. I wholeheartedly disagree.

2. Secrecy. The teams have begged for more transparency. Yet, FIRST has now come forward and said that FRC fields were going to be in the pits with or without the Black Eyed Peas. They had to plan that well in advance. So where was the upfront team feedback, the requests, the surveys, the trial balloons? Why weren't teams told in advance how it was going to be handled? Our team spent our Friday night elsewhere because we were not going to wait two days before the event to figure out how we were going to feed and entertain 80 people.

FIRST overall continues to be a positive experience for our team. I see areas in which they are improving, and trying to improve. FIRST Choice has the potential to be great - as long as FIRST doesn't use it as a way to decrease the total value we receive and then spin it as a positive. At the same time, I grow upset when I see problems the teams bring up glossed over as if they did not happen.

The true mark of an organization that works FOR it's participants is honest feedback. Admitting that people are upset or inconvienced, or that something didn't go off as well as had been hoped. An honest Mea Culpa gains far more respect in my book than a policy of trying to ignore mistakes. Putting a positive spin on an issue that doesn't deserve it results in a total loss of respect. I will use the rookie kit vs. the veteran kit as an example: when FIRST tried to spin that as an increase in value for veterans it was an insult. Indeed several posts on Chief Delphi documented that the decrease in the value of the kit - in useful parts - far outstripped the 'savings' to the team.

Stop spinning things. Give truthful explanations. Give REASONS. Give the teams as much warning as possible. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

For instance - I certainly hope FIRST is planning on giving honest feedback on the surveys we all sent in. What were the top issues? How does FIRST plan on addressing them?

St. Louis was a positive experience, but FIRST can be so much more.

[Bill_B]

B.E.P. watch - ABC Sunday 22nd - Billlboard awards show scheduled appearance. Who's going to be "disappointed" if they don't mention their little soirée-gig in St. Louis?

[pfreivald]

Why would you expect them to mention the FIRST gig?