Brazilian invitational - it's official!

[Manoel]

Dear teams,

I've mentioned a couple of times on this forum that Globaltech, the largest Science and Technology event in Latin America, will take place at our hometown on May 17-22, 2005.
What I didn't mention, and I'm pleased to announce now, is that the first FIRST International Invitational will be held at Globaltech, in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil!
The venue is a modern Convention Center ("the best in Latin America") owned by the State Federation of Industry:



You can find some info about it here, and clicking "Visita Virtual" you can access a 360° virtual tour. The event layout can be found here (pdf) - the competition will be in the space called "Arena de Atividades", at a central location (and what a great one!)
There's no coming back. It is definitive, and as of now, we have the presence of the six Brazilian teams, plus two awesome teams from the USA, 75 and 555! We'll build a field as close to the official as possible, and will count with the official IFI and Hatch control and scoring system.
This is an invitation to every team on FIRST to attend the event. We understand the date of the event is close and money is short, especially with Nationals this week, but we ask interested teams to get in touch with us so we can work something out. I'm pretty sure we can arrange lodging in our student's houses (or maybe with the other teams from Brazil) for all the teams in need. Our currency is very advantageous for American teams, as you can have a full Big Mac meal for three dollars
The major expense will be the air tickets and robot transportation. As 75 and 555 are coming, that's being worked and I'll have more details soon. A month may not be a very long time to fund raise, but there are teams who win a regional and raise enough money to compete in less than a week!
School board permission may be an issue, but 75 and 555 are setting the precedent and you may use it as a persuasion.
Consider this event as a fun endeavour but, most importantly, as a serious attempt to gather enough sponsor attention for a 2006 Brazilian regional, and your team can be a part of it!
Even if you feel your team cannot attend, please pass the word along to team members, as you never know what kind of fundraiser crazy teenagers can come up with when faced with such a noble goal!
More info can be found on http://www.brfirst.org/globaltech/in...o=home&lang=en, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Thanks for your time,

Manoel Flores da Cunha