UTC Regional (NOT competition results) (Thoughts - Suggestions - Improvements)

[Elgin Clock]

In order for Regional events to grow and prosper, we must have feedback from teams who attended said regional.
Thus I ask of you the following:

Please comment on the following catagories pertaining to the UTC Regional that was played from 3-18-04 to 3-20-04.

This pertains to Competition Location, Seating, Pit Space, Car Parking, Food, etc.... Any comments about any of those listed below can also be posted here that way we keep everything in one thread. When you reply to this thread. In the Title Bar (if its editable) use 1 of the following this way teams looking here know what your talking about !

A: The Good The Bad and The Ugly
B: Team Social
C: Competition Comments - Logistics only, not specific team related
D: Suggested Improvements for 2005 and beyond

"Borrowed" from Rich Wong's Format for critiquing the NYC regional! Thanks Rich!!

[K.Shaw]

A. I thought the competition ran awsome the judges were great and the refs. They were able to keep the competition moving along which gained everyone an extra practice round or 2 if they wanted to stay.

B. This was my first team Social and it was awsome! (we didnt have one in NYC last yr ) the comedian was alright and the hypnotist was phenominal! It was a great show and a great time. also the food wasnt that bad!

C. I dont really like the set up at UTC because it is difficult to see the field when its on stage. at the arenas and gymnasiums you can actually look down onto the field and see it well. Though they cant change this "obviously" im just sayint hats how i felt on that. Queing was awsome and the pits were kind of roomy except for the fact that all the traffic went trew a path that was about3 ft wide not even between the pits so at times it got really crowded.

D. Fixing Traffic in pits: The only way to fix this is to make the pits smaller or reroute all the traffic around the pits like it was last year. Or even have spectators go in through the yard and through the back of the Theater which would keep alot of traffic problems out of the pit area.

[Solace]

the ramp going from the pits to the stage was a little annoying. maybe in the future the ramp could start after the door, so as not to make the door height shorter. as it was, some teams could not fit their robots through while on their carts

[KathieK]

A: The Good The Bad and The Ugly - great regional this year, very few complaints, everything seemed to move smoothly, field re-setting was terrific so we kept to the schedule!
B: Team Social - I have a food allergy and the caterers brought me chicken without sauce - I was so impressed! I enjoyed both the comedian and the hypnotist and wish I could be in the students' classes come Monday morning at 11 when they remember everything they did on stage!
C: Competition Comments - Logistics only, not specific team related - while it's a little difficult to see the playing field from the front of the arena, the raised platforms helped this year. Sitting higher gives a nice overall view. Teams have lots of areas to sit in and decorate and therefore it has much more of a party atmosphere (which means it's a lot more fun!). Food prices were kept reasonable (THANK YOU) and they did not check bags at the door to prevent you from entering with food. Pre-ordered lunches were good, although the orders were a little mixed up.All the volunteers I encountered were helpful. I liked the concept of the Student Host program. The event management were very accomodating for the tailgating party we hosted on Saturday morning in the parking lot.
D: Suggested Improvements for 2005 and beyond - if it snows, please try to clear the parking lot of snow a little sooner. Unloading cars in the snow was not fun. Traffic needed to be directed around the pits, esp. on Saturday. Visitors could have been given safety glasses upon entering the pits at either end.

[JohnBoucher]

Crowd control needs to be worked on.
The main entrance routed all the spectators through the pits. Made it really tight in the pits.
The entrance to the arena got very crowded with traffic in both directions.
Perhaps funneling the specators around the sides would help.

[Mike Persico]

I have to say that I enjoyed the whole thing... the pits though I agree were packed (although i am thankfull they werent outside, like that one year with the flodding in the tents) and it was hard sometimes to get the robots to the staging area... the food was great... but the line... it might have helped if the caterers set up on different ends of the theater..but everything else was great.

[BoyWithCape195]

1. The speed from match to match was excellent. Also the announcers, in my opinion where much better then a few of theother regionals. Everything happend on time, and if it didn't, we were ahead!

2. The team social was great this year. The only porblems i had with this was the following: Not a varity of food like in previous years. Also there was only one line. At lkast year there was four lines total and it was buffet side. The only other problem was, teams didnt really get a chance to "socialize" since everyone was sitting in their own area. Besides that the comedian and the hypnotist where great.

3. The seating was alot more team friendly. Many teams decorated their seating areas and their boxes. Also when you walk through the center aisles, teams would hand you buttons from their team and many other things such as that. The feild was still a pain to see, but the video helped alot. The only thing about that was, there was not much camera to team acction, as in teams in stands cheering on camera. The pit congestion was also a problem, but that can be easily fixed.

4. I have one main improvment. Show a list on the screen while alliance selections are going on with the teams that are already allianced, and the teams who havnt been picked yet. This would have cleared up many problems that happened while on stage and the teams that were forgotten. Get better food selection for the social. Thats all.

[Brian(1)]

1) It was very awesome..
2) This years social was a lot better then last years
3) I would like to see a camera mounted somewhere on the field - like under the balls, or from the projector
4)I would have liked more of the screens displaying the scores in the stands.
Maybe turn the music down a bit.. it was hard to talk to people next to you if you were anywhere near the speakers

[Gabriel]

Traffic control was actually pretty impressive this year. I know that the Meadows people put a lot of pressure on the volunteers to make sure the aisles are clear and the volunteers than put that pressure on the teams to move quickly. The volunteers doing traffic control were occasionally nasty, but they were very effective, this was a lot better than in past years.

However, I think FIRST needs to get out of the Meadows, its a terrible site for the competition, the pits are cramped and having the playing field on a raised stage just doesn't work. I wish we could get the civic center of Gampel pavilion at UCONN but I think the NCAA gets preference over those sites. At least its better than the New Haven Colliseum where they won't let you move a table but the meadows is a lousy site.

[Gabriel]

Oh and the Meadows vendors were terrible! $2.00 for a Mountain Dew that expired in 2001!?

[Brian(1)]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

Oh and the Meadows vendors were terrible! $2.00 for a Mountain Dew that expired in 2001!?

Yea, I got a pepsi that expired in 2001.. but I didn't notice until I finished it, so I couldn't do much.. but I did check the other sodas I got after that..
I remember getting an expired one last year, so this wasn't a one time thing

[Mike Persico]

Originally Posted by Brian(1)

Yea, I got a pepsi that expired in 2001.. but I didn't notice until I finished it, so I couldn't do much.. but I did check the other sodas I got after that..
I remember getting an expired one last year, so this wasn't a one time thing

I didn't bother to check... but I'm not dying so I'll asume the sodas were fine... I hope...

[kid robusto]

with the congestion in the pits, they should do like what they did 4 yearsago, and just move some of the teams outside (under tents). anyone who was there should remember the flooding, but that was the rains fault,not the set up. pits half outside made a lot of room for people and robots to move around in

[cybrsabr]

Originally Posted by kid robusto

with the congestion in the pits, they should do like what they did 4 yearsago, and just move some of the teams outside (under tents). anyone who was there should remember the flooding, but that was the rains fault,not the set up. pits half outside made a lot of room for people and robots to move around in

I remember that, it was quite nice. Not only was there plenty of room to move around when walking through and looking at other robots, the pits weren't squished together. We had a little more room to spread out. I dont remember flooding exactly, more of just the ground was a little damp. You wouldnt want to throw your coat on the ground but it wasnt a problem for most of the equipment used in the pits.

Edit: and on another note i kinda thought the music wasnt loud enough.

[KathieK]

Apparently the "Best if Used By" dates are an indication of quality, not food safety. I am annoyed that they were continuing to sell the outdated soda even on Saturday, after being alerted to it on Thursday and Friday. But that is a vendor issue, not a FIRST issue.

And the food was reasonable in price compared to other regionals.