Introducing FIRST to other countries

[Racer26]

Originally Posted by MrTechCenter

-You will need many teams in one particular country to have a regional there, and even if you do have enough teams, I'm not so sure that FIRST would be too keen on having another international regional (currently, the only international regional is the Israel regional, but there has been a regional in Brazil in the past).

Um. Hi. Canada here: We have 6 FRC regionals in 2014. Last time I checked, we were not a part of the United States, despite sharing a continental land mass.

Yes, Israel is the only non-North American event. Brazil held a mini-regional back in 2005 I think, but couldn't get the team momentum to keep it going. They're getting closer though, thanks in large part to the efforts of 1772.

There are several teams in Australia and Europe, both areas are working on getting a regional near them.

FIRST HQ is DEFINITELY interested in getting events to happen in these places. FIRST's stated goals are for every high school student the world over to have the opportunity to participate. Its a lofty goal, and there's a LOT of work to do to get there. The growth rate of the program has become quite remarkable in the last couple of years though.