Team Socials

[Kate00]

Waterloo. No question. I know that it's across the border, but on top of being the most well-run, fun event I've ever been to or heard of, it has a great team social.

I really enjoyed the Waterloo social. All of the years I've been there has been a free arcade, private rooms and tables for teams to strategize, and plenty of food. There is a large area to socialize, and one of the best parts for me was being on a university campus, actually in their Student Life Centre.

The activities in the years I've been have varied - two years ago there was a movie shown upstairs, with a large area for socializing downstairs outside the arcade. Last year, there was a VEX game set up with premade robots built by Vex experts. You signed up in teams of 4, everyone from a different FRC team, and played the game. The team with the highest score got a prize, and it was a really cool co-operative game.

Probably the neatest part of the Waterloo team social is that all the big names come and hang out. I got to talk to the lead designer from 1114 and winner of the Waterloo WFA 2007 (Derek Bessette), the pioneer of FIRST in Canada and winner of the Greater Toronto WFA 2007 (Mark Breadner), the Chair of the Waterloo regional and Volunteer of the Year at Waterloo 2005 (Ian Mackenzie), the winner of the WFA in Greater Toronto 2006 and a phenomenal programmer (Shawn Lim), JVN, Karthik Kanagasabapathy (he's won more awards and regionals than letters in his last name)... that's a lot of WFA and VoY winners, as well as a lot of inspiration in one room. It was a really incredible experience.

In conclustion: Pick Waterloo!