2009 Championship Guest Speaker

Originally Posted by Laaba 80

You wouldnt want Obama to come? I wouldnt see having him speak as choosing sides. If any other party would have been elected we could have had them speak. I guess I dont care who speaks, but I think if we could get Obama there it would be huge for FIRST.

I agree that it would be good for the public eye, but I know of many people who aren't happy with the results of the election, and as a result wouldn't be happy with FIRST. Give Obama a year or so to get a track record, then I think it would be a good idea to try and snag him as a speaker. (Plus security for that speech would be near impossible... Think of all the tools they wouldn't let you bring in!)

[NorviewsVeteran]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Think of all the tools they wouldn't let you bring in!

I assume you mean any whatsoever.

[Laaba 80]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

I agree that it would be good for the public eye, but I know of many people who aren't happy with the results of the election, and as a result wouldn't be happy with FIRST. Give Obama a year or so to get a track record, then I think it would be a good idea to try and snag him as a speaker. (Plus security for that speech would be near impossible... Think of all the tools they wouldn't let you bring in!)

I see where you are coming from.

[bduddy]

Grant Imahara is directly involved with a team, I'm not sure it'd be a good idea to have him as a speaker. As for Obama, he's the President, like it or not. I'd have been thrilled if Bush could have come to or spoken at a competition, and I didn't like him at all.

Originally Posted by NorviewsVeteran

I assume you mean any whatsoever.

Exactly. The Secret Service would have to take over running the event, unless they had the speaker speak elsewhere, where it can be controlled... What you don't see when you watch a Presidential speech on TV is all the layers and checkpoints the cheering audience has to go through to get there. It's more secure than an airport...

However thrilling it would be to see Obama speak (and he's a GREAT speech maker), it would spell disaster for the competition....

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Someone good from NASA could be cool. Or a Mythbuster. Hopefully not a politician, I'd like for FIRST to not show any allegiance to any side, intended or not.

As for someone good from NASA, maybe that Dave guy?

I seem to remember watching a video of President Bush (the current one) talking about how awesome FIRST was. I'm relatively sure that was 2006, but it might have been 2005. By this point Mr. Obama will be the actual President, so I don't think having him shows any sort of partisanship.

Anywho, Red Whittaker would be awesome. His name has come up before, and now that he's most likely going to send robots to the moon, he's the obvious choice.

[Arefin Bari]

A little birdie told me that we will have a guest singer on stage this year at the championship. His name is Karthik Kanagasabapathy.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Arefin Bari

A little birdie told me that we will have a guest singer on stage this year at the championship. His name is Karthik Kanagasabapathy.

AHAHAHAHA

No duets with Karthik, Arefin? I'd pay to see that.

[Herodotus]

I think Gene Kranz would be an awesome speaker, or else any of the Apollo astronauts. Or maybe someone from one of the Lunar X Prize teams? They could talk about how they are using private resources to attempt something as massive as landing on the moon. (Gene would probably be more awesome.)

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

AHAHAHAHA

No duets with Karthik, Arefin? I'd pay to NOT see that.

Fixed your post

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by iCurtis

As for someone good from NASA, maybe that Dave guy?

I seem to remember watching a video of President Bush (the current one) talking about how awesome FIRST was. I'm relatively sure that was 2006, but it might have been 2005. By this point Mr. Obama will be the actual President, so I don't think having him shows any sort of partisanship.

Anywho, Red Whittaker would be awesome. His name has come up before, and now that he's most likely going to send robots to the moon, he's the obvious choice.

Red Whittaker spoke at the Boston Regional in 2007(I think). His speech was interesting content wise but not what I would like to see as the main speaker at Championships. I think his knowledge and expertise would be better displayed in something like a Q&A session with Team leaders rather than a speech to every one at championships.

[DUCKIE]

As much as I'd like to hear Neil Armstrong to be the guest speaker in ATL, he has chosen to live as a private citizen, and very rarely have I even seen him do interviews for Apollo / NASA documentaries.

I would love for one of the other NASA Engineers, Mission Controllers, or Astronauts to come speak.

Maybe someone like Gene Kranz, Jim Lovell, Gene Cernan, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Alan Bean, Dr. Georg von Tiesenhausen, John Young, or Homer Hickam.

[jax1488]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

AHAHAHAHA

No duets with Karthik, Arefin? I'd pay to see that.

I'd pay for Karthik and Paul to MC again, and have them sing! lol

I say we get two people to speak who really have space experience.

Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck

FTW lol

[ChuckDickerson]

So Championship has now come and gone and while Neil Armstrong and President Obama were pretty long shots I was surprised that there was no guest speaker at all this year. Going from President Bush Sr. last year to nothing this year was sort of a let down. I wonder if FIRST had a guest speaker sheduled and they had to cancel at the last minute or something?

[Bob Steele]

It is interesting that someone else had the same thought I did.
No speaker?? what was with that?

I guess the whole "patent thing" took the place of a speaker.

I am not sure what that was all about...