FIRST Convention Thoughts

[Erin Rapacki]

I appreciate your input, and we (the FIRST Robotics Conference Comittee) certainly learned a lot this year. Although we haven't yet met to discuss new options for next year; here are some of the observations I have made and ideas that I have for the future:

-Have more robot-oriented workshops throughout all of Thursday (instead of just half-day). I know that people are busy working on their robots Friday & Saturday, and Thursday was the day with the most attendance. It is very unlikely that we will hold workshops at any other time than when the pits are open. So having them in the evening or the day before probably wouldn't happen.

-One of our aims is to provide these workshops during the pre-season in different locations across the nation. Nothing is confirmed yet, but it's an idea.

-Now that it's a year before the 2005 Championships, it would be cool to see what other conventions (technology related) occur at this time of year. It would be nice to convince them to hold their event at the same time and place as Championship (The World Congress Center can definatley handle it) so people and ideas could flow between the two events.

-Because our suspision was confirmed that the Conferences would be popular, we will probably do-away with pre-registration next year (we wanted to get an idea of how many people would be attending). I'd rather have a table in the pits selling universal tickets, and then you head upstairs to the rooms for whatever conferences you like. You just hand-in your ticket at the door... first come, first serve. I know the lines Thursday weren't all that great, but by Saturday this was the system we came up with. This way, teams may pay all at once for the amount of tickets they need, and people will move through to get into the conference a lot faster.

More ideas will surface I'm sure, but feel free to include your input... we love to hear it!


ByE

erin