2006 UTC New England Regional Feedback!

[Jessica Boucher]

The 2006 UTC New England Regional Planning Committee is looking for your feedback!

We want to make the 2007 Regional better than ever, and we need your help!



We want to know what you liked, and what you didn't like?

What worked, and what could be improved?



All comments will be reviewed by the Planning Committee. Specific replies to comments will be handled privately. Thanks!

[Greg Marra]

The new venue is amazing. The food was good and reasonably priced, and they managed to do a good job getting people through the line quickly. The wide aisles in the pits were really nice, and having lots of open space prevented the overcrowding (and overheating!) that was a problem at The Meadows.

The practice field was very nice compared to what most regionals have, and was a big help to lots of teams testing their shooters and autonomous routines.

The bleachers were a bit lacking. I know you don't have a lot to work with at the venue, but there simply weren't enough seats. People were sitting in the aisles of the bleachers, and venue staff were yelling at people to find actual seats. Also, having the field set up so that the screen was behind a goal instead of on the side made driving one alliance a bit harder than on the others.

Maybe you could set the field up with the screen behind it and then set up bleacher banks that wrap all the way around the three other sides?

Overall, UTC was a pretty sweet regional.

[Levin571]

I agree that they need to work on the seating a little bit but they also need to lower the price for parking more. I know that there was a reduced rate to I believe $8 a day but after 3 days that becomes a little pricy. I also think that while the food/drinks were reasonably priced, they need to allow people to bring in water since although heating is not a problem anymore, it still gets pretty hot in the pits and crowd and cheering wears out a person's voice very quickly. I think queuing could be improved a little bit because I remeber people having to walk around lines of robots going from the pits to the stands. Other than that, I think it was a great venue and next year hopefully there will be a team social again.

[YonZ]

The venue was superconvenient (and beautiful and new ). We are an NYC team, and being in the attached Mariott was a breeze, no need to even step outside!
The pits were kinda tight considering the room you guys had, but the closeness to the field was amazing. Seating across from each other was awesome, perhaps a third bleacher completing a "U" would solve the space issue. Vex is a sweet addition and was cool to check out. (and where would we all have been without the Convention Starbucks? )
The round tables were also quite nice (reminiscant of the lounge at the Championship), a very calming place where you didnt have to be in the stands or pits.
Free wireless would have been nice. I read on the CCC site that the venue offers it, but we couldnt get any there-- all we were able to see was our team's queueing countdown.

[MChapman]

The new venue was great. Like mentioned the seating was a bit low for how many teams/vistors who came. The scoring screen was definently a bit of an issue for the red alliance, they had to look behind them as to what was going on, but we managed. Definently loved the more open pit area. A lot less crowded then at the meadows. Overall the Convention Center proved to be a great venue for the regional, hope things go well so next year we're there again.

[AcesPease]

I really enjoyed the venue. It seems ideal for a FIRST event. I will offer up a couple suggestions and some help if you need it:

1. How about two fields and over 70 teams? That would make the oldest regional and the best regional one of the biggest

2. We need to get the machine shop organized earlier and preferably onsite.

3. A lot of non team spectators came, which is great. We could do more to help them understand what is going on. (I think, at the Meadows we became accustomed to very few visitors.)

[Levin571]

just as an added note, at Boston they played the game video both competition days but at UTC they only showed it on friday leaving many of the parents confused and having to rely on word of mouth (gasp!)

Also I thing the viewing area for seeing team rankings was a little too in the way.