Who did you get to meet/want to meet at nationals?

[Coco the Monkey]

Hey everyone!

I had a blast at nationals this year. It was my first year being an alumni and I wasn't expecting to have as much fun as previous years.

One of the highlights of my nationals trip was I got to meet two people I've wanted to for a while.

Encounter #1: Saturday morning at the Omni, after getting dressed and heading downstairs, I went to eat breakfast in the CNN Center food court. I went over to the sandwich shop, one of the only places open at the time, and placed my order. I shuffled off to the left to wait for my order. A mentor from team 45 The TechnoKats, wearing a competition team coach pin, stepped over in the wait line behind me. I know a few people (Deej) that came from that team, so I figured I'd start a conversation while waiting. Much to my surprise it was the one and only Andy Baker! (On top of that, he knew my name! ) We talked for a bit before my order came and someone else came over to get Andy's attention. I said goodbye and went to enjoy my mini pancakes, eggs, and sausage.

Encounter #2: This also happened on Saturday. My friend Tom and I explored the Hall of Fame, looking at what other teams had done in past. We noticed a teammate of ours, Kyle, talking with a member of the X-Cats. After looking at the rest of the displays, we sauntered over to where they were. Kyle had to head out to tend to other duties, so Tom and myself stayed there and continued the discussion. Turns out it was Koko Ed! Koko meets Coco. We stayed there for about 20 minutes talking about how the year was going, the game in general, chairmans awards, etc. I would have stuck around longer but we had a match so Tom and I had to leave.


Being an alumni, I guess I now have more time to interact socially with other FIRSTers. I hope to meet many more people next year!

Did anyone else get to meet someone they wanted to? Or did anyone not get to meet someone?

[Dorienne]

Just was curious to see who met who. I met the following: (the bold are who I met, unbolded who I didn't meet, italicized are people I met that weren't on my list).

Dean Kamen
Woodie Flowers
Brandon Martus
Jess Jank (103)
Amanda Morrison (sweetest gal)
Alicia (433)
Karen (433)
Barry Bohnsack (1604)
Katie Reynolds (93 mentor)
Arefin Bari (FINNYFINFIN! <333 108)
Cory (100 mentor)
Pit Bull 1126 (aka Alex Cormier, 1126)
Ryan Dognaux (234)
Ryan Albright (1083 mentor)
DJ Fluck (1646 mentor)
John V Neun
Andy Baker
Tytus Gerrish (179)
Tiffany (180)
Mary Badame (180)
Brittany Davis (180)
Gary Dillard (180)
Andrew Rudolph (1083 mentor)
Michelle (236)
Billfred (1293 mentor)
Karthik (1114 mentor)
Nadia (1369)
Harry (121)
Lisa (573)
Erin Rapacki
Courtney (111)
David Kelly (234 mentor)
Drew (1251)
Genia (461)
Scott Shaw (237)
Kevin Shaw (237)
Ted Boucher (237)
Jess Boucher (237 alumni)
Kyle Love (45)
Tom (195)
Jake (134)
Ashley Weed (84)
Jeff (173)
Leslie (233)
Kyle (365)
Rich Kressly (103 mentor)
KoKo Ed (191 mentor)
Ashley (1559)
Jeff Wetzel
Theresa Cox (1140)
Neha Batra (1345)
Greg Ross (330 Mentor)
Stevie Alvarado (65)
Greg Needel (73, 1405, 1511)
Aaron aka rocknthehawk (549)
Alex Pelan (177)
Courtney (1023)
Rich Wong
Brad (222)
Bridgette (121)
Ryan Foley
Matt Shea
DarkJedi613

DISCLAIMER: If I forgot you, tell me. My memory's so bad right now because I'm exhausted. >_<;

[DarkJedi613]

Alicia (433)
Karen (433)
Eugenia (???)
Bridgette (121)
Kyle (365)

thats all i know the names of

[Dorienne]

Originally Posted by DarkJedi613

Alicia (433)
Karen (433)
Eugenia (???)
Bridgette (121)
Kyle (365)

thats all i know the names of

Growl on you, I met you!! I was with Bridgette and Genia yesterday when they approached you. >_<

[CatchRothy22]

TEAM 11 MET WOODY FLOWERS GOING TO THE AIRPORT AND RODE THE SAME SUBWAY AS HIM.
Haha "OH MY GOD ITS WOODY *sprints across subway*"

I met a few differenet people from differnet teams. I was the kid holding up the Team 11, MORT painted chair during the finals.

[Bridgette]

Let's see...I was much less shy than last year, and I met a lot of people:

Jess Jank (103)
Alicia (433)
Karen (433)
Barry Bohnsack (1604)
Arefin Bari (108)
Cory (100 mentor)
Billfred (1293 mentor)
Karthik (1114 mentor)
Lisa (573)
Genia (461)
Scott Shaw (237)
Kevin Shaw (237)
Ted Boucher (237)
Mike (237)
Tom (195)
Matt (195)
Jeff (173)
Neha Batra (1345)
DarkJedi613 (358)
Big Mike (25)
Dez
Carli (1083)
Corey (25)
Dori (007)
Marc (38)
Ashley (38)

[MrToast]

I hope this doesn't sound really dumb, but I met my entire team...

(I've been away at college this past season and flew out to Atlanta to meet them for the competition)

Yay I love my Rhode Warriors!

[edit]I got to meet Mike Martas (47). That was cool. [/edit]

Dave

[Kevin Sevcik]

Kinda got stuck in my pits helping fix things and coaching at whatnot, So the list of people I met is rather short..

Paul Copioli, who I didn't actually know was all famous and the new WFA when I actually met him and played with his team. (Shows how in the loop I am)
Karthik Kang..... yeah. Karthik. Who's really cool and mentored 1114, who we teamed with to beat 71 in a round.
Eugenia Gabrielov, who randomly found me staring at a match on the screen waiting to see if we needed to leave for our next round.
Joe Johnson, who I actually met at GLR, but that was before kept finding bugs in his wicked scoring spreadsheet.

I'm sure I probably met more people than that, but things are a bit of a blur at the moment....

[Billfred]

Let's see...my list looks like this:

New folks:
-Genia (461)
-Karthik Kanasomethingorother (1114 and such)
-Jack Jones (1213, IIRC)
-Brandon Martus (47)
-Joe Johnson (47)
-Dori (007)
-Bridgette (121)
-Kevin Watson (????)
-Heidi (116)
-Neha (1345)
-Barry (1604--although I so said something to him at UCF)
-Andy Baker (45, although his stuff's everywhere)
-Steve Warren (188?)
-Al Skierkiewicz (111)

That's all I can remember. For some reason, my fragile college mind isn't working as well as I thought.

[Eddie168]

Dean Kamen (I saw him up close on the segway. But my friends got his signature)
Dave Lavery (Saw him at the NASA booth and I was standing next to him. got a picture of that)
Alicia (433) (Went by on the the last day of nationals to deliver my old team T-shirt)
Karen (433) (Same thing)
Brandon Martus (Got to shake his hand and said hello during the web hug)
Robomom - Jenny Beatty (Was walking back to the pits from a practice sesson and suddenly saw the name tag)

And the rest who I saw in Atlanta, I may have seen them but didn't speak to you or I just didn't noticed if you are a poster on ChiefDelphi

[Jill1022]

People I was very happy to meet/hang out with:

Team 1574 from Israel. I had the pleasure of meeting most of them and actually hanging out with them for most of the competition. We had a lot of fun and I'll miss them a lot. They were really really really nice and funny guys.

Lindsay Q from team 234. I met this chica in Arby's at the Boilermaker Regional and was really happy to have hung out with her again at Championship. She's a great girl and I can't wait to see her again.

Aaron (aka rocknthehawk) from the DevilDawgs. I had been talking to him for a while online and was really looking forward to meeting him. He's a cool guy. I hope to see him again at a competition.

Ryan from 234. I didn't get to talk to him much, but he's a nifty guy and I'm talking to him online right now.

I wish I could have met more of you!!

[Alex Pelan]

I didn't have as much time as I thought I would, and when I had spare time, it was rarely long enough to venture into the stands or extensively in the pits. As a result, I didn't meet nearly as many people as I intended, but most of my time was spent finding these people that I did. I probably didn't forget anyone on this list, as it was rather short:

-Billfred(1293)
-Brandon Martus (47)
-Big Mike (25)
-Corey Balint (25)
-CDR1122334455 (1403???)
-Barry Bonzack (1604) (nice business cards, btw)
-The Lucas (365)
-Henry (222)
-JVN (229)
-Oliver (1006)
-KathieK (173)
- RJ (don't know username) (173)
-Genia (461)
-The rest of 461 (that's what happens when you cram an entire team in an elevator )
-Alex Cormier (1126)
-Koko Ed (191)

People I saw Again:
Tom (195)
Steve (571)
Kyle, who I saw only briefly at Philly (365)

That's all...I think. I recognized a bunch more of you, but at the time I was either rushing around or you were zooming by me on a segway fast enough that I couldn't catch up .

[Scythe]

RoboMom- Saw her at the seder after championships Saturday.
Arefin- Finally met him...several times
Dean Kamen- Again...at the seder this time(I now have his and Woody's signatures on my team shirt )
Isreali team members- At the seder obviously
Human Players- Human player zones.

[RoboMom]

I cannot believe all the people I got to meet, at the webhug, at the NEMO hug, in the pits, at the seder, at the VEX party, in the Hyatt elevator, at Jocks and Jills, walking the blue carpet back and forth, and even on the street. It was great! of course it helps when you have a name tag, or two, or three, or four, hanging from a fishing vest.

Next year, I want to add one like Steve W.'s flashing nametag thingy.

Many thanks to all of you who went out of your way to introduce yourselves.

[Jack Jones]

I got to meet Billfred and Big Mike!!! Lucky for me, I didn’t get a bear hug from either.

I’m really disappointed that I had the chance but didn’t get to meet David Kelly. He was sitting right there next to my son, Keith, at the scorer’s table on Curie, but I never saw the name on his volunteer badge. If I had, I would have delivered some reputation points in person – AKA a very warm handshake.

Keith and I volunteered this year at GLR, Detroit, MWR, WMR, and the Championship. I wish now that I’d kept a list so that I could exceed the max post size by mentioning them all. Many of them you may not know; they’re the ones behind the scenes, the scorekeepers, field attendants, coordinators, technicians, referees, supervisors, directors, judges, and so on and so forth…

Note to Jack: Make a list in 2006 !!!