Okay, I am going to attempt to reply to all of this at once.
We don't know exactly what venue we will want to host it at, but there are a number of places that have done all night events before (Relay for Life, etc).
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Originally Posted by Alexa Stott
To add to my previous post: as someone on the planning committee for an off-season, this also sounds like a logistical nightmare.
For events hosted at a school, you need to have the custodial staff on hand. This would likely be hard to convince the district to allow, especially during the summer. I'd imagine events hosted at other venues have similar rules regarding having people from their own staff at the event. Just think what would happen if the bathrooms didn't get cleaned for the entire event. Gross.
Then there is the issue of concessions and having people to work them. Most of the volunteers that come from outside of the team end up in positions that require some knowledge of how an event goes (so things like queuing, field reset, reffing, etc.), which means most of our concessions are run by parents. Again, good luck getting parents willing to do this.
If you can figure out a way to make this work and take care of all those issues, then more power to you.
Perhaps a different idea would be 24 hours of robotics-related fun? Have teams come in the night before for an all-night social/movie night (and, of course, allow teams and individuals to opt out) followed by the competition the next day?
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As far as concessions, there are lots of ways we can figure it out. We have people already willing to do it, but food can be handled in a number of different ways. For example, if one of the venues that I'm lobbying for ends up being it, we will be in the middle of Morgantown (one downtown, one on the Evansdale WVU campus). Both downtown Morgantown (with downtown WVU campus) and the north side (Evansdale) are thriving with shops, restaurants, etc. WVU's catering people have done lots of really large events, not the least of which are campus-wide festivities with 10,000-20,000 people, proms, conventions, etc. Most of the restaurants will probably be willing to donate coupons if they know hundreds of really hungry kids will be invading the streets of Morgantown. Plus, we've got some really dedicated and awesome people that have expressed interest in helping out.
As far as power tools, why don't we limit their use? From what I've seen at off-season events is that most teams don't need to do much repair/building/modifying because it's already done. This event tests your personal endurance levels, why not your robot too?
Lots of caffeine will be provided, definitely. Endless supplies. We're looking into some big-name sponsors for this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexa Stott
I also can't help but think people might, well, get a little bored. Imagine 20-21 hours straight of just qualification matches. You'd see the same teams playing each other over and over and over again. That's not really exciting.
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You know, I never really thought of that. We will need to get creative, but I've got some ideas. Maybe we could do two competitions? With some kind of party or "robotics-related fun" in-between? Teams could also opt-in or out of the full 24 hours, and do just 12. The competition would start Friday night and into Saturday, so spectators off the street can wander in and see the excitement of kids competing after 12 hours or more straight. Around the time people will start wandering in on Saturday will be about the time for elims/awards ceremony, so now that I think about it, it won't be too bad. Especially if people are taking naps throughout the event.
This event will be coupled with a campus tour of West Virginia University, probably on Friday evening, led by students, faculty, and staff that can answer any questions you might have about attending WVU and why you should be a Mountaineer. For those of you that are looking into colleges, this would be a great opportunity to see a beautiful and growing campus (which, coincidentally, also houses an awesome FRC team, numerous other FTC/FLL teams, and a newly-started FIRST Alumni organization.
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07-04-2013, 10:08
Only because by the end of the day on Friday at a normal event I am already beat. The judgement, comprehension and patience of the referee crew would be paper thin by morning matches the next day.
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