Peoples Feelings on Atlanta's Nationals(like as many people to respond as possible)

[BlazinFire47]

Wow I'm amazed at how much attention we got!! I mean, it's my first year on the team and i get bombarded with people asking for pictures and how we doing. It's like we're celeberties or someting. I personally would like to thank Team 1422 for cheering with us even when they didn't have too! As well as team 1097 even when they didn't have as many of their team members there as they did in San Jose. All I really have to say is I had a great time in Atlanta with all of the teams from all over the US and the world and I hope I have as much fun next year as I did this year. I would stongly like to have team members from teams 1097 and 1422 reply to this message as well as anyone else would k!

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by BlazinFire47

Wow I'm amazed at how much attention we got!! I mean, it's my first year on the team and i get bombarded with people asking for pictures and how we doing. It's like we're celeberties or someting. I personally would like to thank Team 1422 for cheering with us even when they didn't have too! As well as team 1097 even when they didn't have as many of their team members there as they did in San Jose. All I really have to say is I had a great time in Atlanta with all of the teams from all over the US and the world and I hope I have as much fun next year as I did this year. I would stongly like to have team members from teams 1097 and 1422 reply to this message as well as anyone else would k!

Dear Bo,

Take my word for it, you are no ce·leb·ri·ty

Jack
PS: Just kidding my friend You guys are stars in my book

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I liked most everything. The venue is nice and the food wasn't too bad but not Disney. People flow needs the biggest improvement. The almost two mile walk from Archemides pits to seating area got a little tough to handle after 7 matches. Why should you have to go up 6 levels then come down two and walk to the opposite diagonal of the dome? I attended the electrical seminar which was well attended. I would guess that the others were the same and that means a lot of people were able to get some great info on robots. Keep the seminars but change the times so there are none that occur during match times. The pits didn't seem too confining but the aisles nearest the field did fill up on occassion. I would leave the jib cameras out for next year. There was no interesting video coming from them and I know they are very expensive. Ceremonies on Einstein should be viewable on the other fields and on the big screens in the dome just like last year at Houston. You could at least keep tabs on other teams. The big screens in the pits should be dedicated to individual divisions and placed over the pit area so divisions could see their standings and not crowd into the center aisles. Teams should be able to transport pit gear directly to the pit floor and not need to share elevator space from the top level. The convention center has a full size truck dock and several drive up overhead doors for that purpose. Outside traffic flow should improve when construction is complete so that should be better next year. The food police should be a little more flexible in that food purchased at the convention center should be OK for the dome. I saw many people stopped for having pop or water purchased in the convention center as they entered the dome. Bathrooms should be checked more frequently to clean up and remove paper from containers.

[Randy]

I spoke with a rep from the GA Dome on Saturday afternoon. She told me to send all good/bad feedback to atlantafalcons.com and georgiadome.com. I went there to find an email address, but the only one I could find was feedback@fans.atlantafalcons.com. If anyone else can find a feedback email address on either site, please post it so that we can let them know what we think needs to be improved.

They loved hosting it because of the nature of the event. Rarely does the dome host an event of that size which is educational and fun. Hopefully they'll have all the kinks worked out by next year.


-Randy

[Andrew]

The Good
1. Venue was out-standing. It was clean, bright, and well organized.

2. The Pits were very good. Good spacing, aisles generally clear, enough light to see.

3. The robot transport from the pits to the playing field was very good. It was relatively short and direct. Combined with the generally open aisles (compared to Disney in 2001 especially), it was very easy to get from the pit to the field and back again.

4. Good spacing for matches and good number of matches.

5. Field announcers were excellent (as usual).

6. Refs were very good.

7. The food situation in the World Congress Center was pretty good. There was selection and the prices weren't all that bad. OK, there were coffee and apples at reasonable prices. I don't know about anything else.

8. There were several things to do in WCC (such as the Hall of Fame, the Rover Mock Up, the FIRST store, the Conference). If you had a free moment and were tired of lurking in the pits, you weren't likely to get bored.

8. The practice field in the pits was wonderful. We only had an opportunity to use it for one practice, but that made up for the practice that we missed on the actual field.

The Bad
1. Load in was horrible. What an unpleasant surprise. When we arrived at 7:00 on Thursday, it took forever to find out which entrance FIRST had arranged for us to enter (no signs to speak of or confusing signs). When we entered, there was a looooooong line for the freight elevator. We ended up bypassing the freight elevator (at considerable physical effort) to finally get into the pit. I think we trimmed it down to :30. Still, there is no reason that we shouldn't have been into the venue and in our pit in :05.

2. The Load Out was not much better. Announcments wanted us to leave the pit by 5:00. However, the event ran past 5:00. So, if you wanted to beat the rush or make their deadline, you had to unload and repark to watch the rest of the event (there goes another $8).

3. The travel time between the pits and the venue to watch matches was both excessive and fatiguing for pit crew members. We lost valuable pit time when the pit crew went to watch our matches. So, we stopped going to watch matches in order to be ready to work on the robot. Perhaps in future years they can install a "pit crew lane" between pits and competition venue and give the three pit crew people expedited access to the arena just like the robot operators.

4. Pit announcments needed some work. With the "first call, second call, final call, final final call, no we really mean it this time call, GET YOUR ROBOT OUT HERE NOW call" there was a constant, annoying pit announcer buzz. If you actually responded to first call, you ended up standing at the playing field for a very long time. They need to get the timing between calling matches and playing matches refined.

5. The pit announcers stopped announcing "Team XXX needs a YYY part" in order to keep up the incessant match calls.

The Ugly
1. I had a vague, undefined, and undefinable feeling that this event was not "about the competitors" but about something else. For those of you who remember when FIRST pushed up the match times in 2000 in order to do "Good Morning America" you know what I mean.

2. I realized at some point over the weekend that I was at a robot competition. The message to "compete, compete, compete" was louder than the message to "inspire, inspire, inspire."

[Rob Colatutto]

One thing I was disappointed about was the lack of free FIRST event shirts like we have had at nationals for at least the past 4 years. This years shirts didn't even look like event shirts and you had to purchase them, and they weren't cheap. The ammount of "reserved" seating in the stands for oppening ceremony and the finals/awards was bothersome. Attendants would say, you can't sit there because its reserved seating, then no one would sit there and they'd open the section after the ceremony had started which caused masses of people to get up a move around during finals matches.

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by Rob Colatutto

Attendants would say, you can't sit there because its reserved seating, then no one would sit there and they'd open the section after the ceremony had started which caused masses of people to get up a move around during finals matches.

I think the problem was that they didn't make it known to the volunteers that they had a section reserved for them; there were only a handful of us up there. Three rows were also being reserved for the hearing impaired, so they could have a good view of the signer.

[Rich Kressly]

I agree with Al on all of his points with special emphsis on the pit walk and food situations. I think the 2004 Championship was much better than the 2003 Championship and I know the "issues" that still exist can be solved or improved upon.

That being said, I'd still love to see FIRST and Disney come to an agreement in the long run. Nowhere else can 20,000 people have fun of all different kinds and still be safe and in the "same place". The only part about Disney that wasn't as good was the lack of an actual stadium.

[Wayne C.]

Here are some good and bad impressions-

good- diversity of foods were available at the stadium
bad- the price still was pretty poor- $8 got you a soda and fries....
solution- instead of FIRST requiring the purchase of meal ticket plans where the tix were essentially worh a buck why not just publicize the prices at the venue and let people pay cash? It was especially cheap for the vendors to refuse to give change for the vouchers, thus jacking up their prices even more

good- the view of the fields and such from the stands at the stadium
bad- the poor handling of the open ceremonies and parade from the view of the fields on the opposite side of the stadium
solution- make sure that the events on the main stage are aired on the big screen for all the fields. Why this wasn't done is beyond me but it was surreal to hear a big commotion and see crowds of little kids in the distance marching towards some horizon. Kind of made the Newton field seem unimportant....

good- the Omni hotel- the place was beautiful and rooms were nice
bad- why do the hotels at all these FIRST events insist on breaking up teams to rooms all over the building?
solution- since the hotel gives THS blocks of rooms they should give clusters of rooms to the teams. Unless they prefer to have teens all over their building unsupervised?


good- the closing party. The hypnotist was great and the fireworks were a real spectacle amongst the big buildings and reflective surfaces. The BBQ was also pretty good and the food service was well planned
bad- I think the moon walk mardi gras was probably better suited to younger kids and it didn't seem like many kids were using them
solution- How about a name act like Blue Man Group for next year?


good- the Georgia Dome Complex- it was huge and big enough to bring 600 teams to the nationals.... hint hint
bad- signage and locations of things- while working in the info booth it seemed that the same questions were being asked over and over and this was simply because no coherent signage was visible.


good- MARTA- I was shocked to realize that my entire team got to the venue and back without a hitch
bad- the venue crowd control- when 5000 people are trying to exit and there are only three turnstyle doors you open the ten other doors right next to them so people can get out. Some folks need a bit more common sense...

Overall my team found the event the best Nationals since Disney.We had a great time and the team really grew from the experience. Of course we still want to go back to Epcot but Atlanta was the next best thing.

WC

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

bad- why do the hotels at all these FIRST events insist on breaking up teams to rooms all over the building?
solution- since the hotel gives THS blocks of rooms they should give clusters of rooms to the teams. Unless they prefer to have teens all over their building unsupervised?

I heard a rumor it's so there wouldn't be a team having a big block party - splitting the team solves the problem.

I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong with that idea, until you put it, "all over their building unsupervised".

I requested all our rooms be together. I requested the girls' room be next to ours. Neither happened, until after we got there we were able to move the girls next to our room. 1/2 our team was even in a different tower.

[Matt]

Since this was my first trip I would say it was good. I have a problem with the walk from the pits to the stands and the cost of parking was insane for a day. We stayed near the airport because the cost of the hotels near the event was insane for our small team. I believe that the cost was to high for the teams.

[Kit Gerhart]

What I say here is based on my experience with Atlanta compared to the rest of my nine years of attending FIRST championships.

1) Overall, I like Epcot. The atmosphere is fantastic. The food is decent. If your team stays on-property, you are probably the best place in the world for turning 15,000 teenagers free to have fun without getting into trouble. It is not that great for watching matches on the "big stage," but otherwise, from the competition standpoint, it is pretty good.

2) Atlanta, overall, is much better than Houston. There were hotels close to the competition site. The food was somewhat better. It was much easier for the drive teams to get from the pits to the playing fields. It was a little better for the spectators to get from the pits to the playing fields, and the "wrap" party was very good. The party was, to me, better than the ones at Epcot.

If I had my choice, we'd still be at Epcot, but overall, this years championship was a very good event, and with lessons learned, should be even better next year.

[Sean Schuff]

I have to agree with Kit about Epcot being better than either Houston or Atlanta.

Houston was a bad choice but you don't really know that until you've tried it. The venue was difficult to navigate and the neighborhood surrounding Reliant Stadium made me feel like I was in a demilitarized zone. Not much to do with 40 students/mentors/parents that was within walking distance. Oh well, lesson learned.

Atlanta was light years better than Houston. Good proximity of hotels to eating establishments (one of my favorite past times), MARTA, the Dome and GWCC, and other after-hours points of interest. The walk to the field from the pits was great for the field teams but rough for the spectators. Dean could make a killing selling Segways at an event like this! The venue itself was clean, neat and well organized. Event staff were realtively friendly although I agree that they were a bit tight on allowing food purchased on site to be taken between the dome and GWCC. On more than one occasion I saw serious "discussions" relating to this. All in all, Atlanta was a good site.

That being said, Epcot still rules! The event site is set up for the needs of FIRST and the competition rather than FIRST adapting to what they are provided. Close quick walks for everybody from the pits to the fields to the food. Disney puts on one heck of a show! And I don't have to worry about my students after hours. They all have someplace to go and something to do and it's all "G" rated! Being on Disney property is like being in a different world and there are no worries when you're there.

My vote is still for Epcot but Atlanta was a reasonably close second place.

Sean

[Tyler Olds]

Originally Posted by Sean Schuff

That being said, Epcot still rules! The event site is set up for the needs of FIRST and the competition rather than FIRST adapting to what they are provided. Close quick walks for everybody from the pits to the fields to the food. Disney puts on one heck of a show! And I don't have to worry about my students after hours. They all have someplace to go and something to do and it's all "G" rated! Being on Disney property is like being in a different world and there are no worries when you're there.

My vote is still for Epcot but Atlanta was a reasonably close second place.

Sean

One thing I loved about Houston and Atlanta was the fields! Each field had proper seating for everybody. If anybody remembers two years ago (or more) all fields except for Einstein were cramped, and unless you team was competing, you could only really have 1 or 2 people watching matches. Though the Stadiums might seem a bit big even for a program like FIRST, it makes me think that in 5 or 10 years, maybe the entire lower section will be filled, and in 10-20 years, maybe the whole stadium (imagine how many fields you would need).

I will agree though that because we were in a Disney World resort area, that I felt safer overall. I loved being able to walk to Marketplace as well!

[Joe Matt]

Well, everyone here knows my Houston vs. Disney opinions, so I'll just say that I'd too rather be at Disney, but Atlanta was a great substatue and did all it could. Anyway....

Food: Good choices, bad prices. Simple as that. I would keep the current system but remove the whole $2.50 thing and have the people refuse to give change thing. If you had a problem with the prices, you could go to the Omni, but that wasn't known to teams, and many found out from second hand comments of teams staying there.

Transportation: We walked, so from the Omni, it was great. Only saw two pannhandlers, but being from Cleveland and having to deal with lots more, I thought it was good.

Walk: Yes, the walk was horrible. Couldn't they just open it up so people could just walk from the first elevator out into the plaza where they had the GM exhibit, and then into the Dome? Or could they just go through where the bots did? Could be improved, but this place wasn't designed for what we inteded it's use to be, but isn't that what engineering is?

Competiton: Overall, great, but I did sense a bit of "Dean is talking to the media about you now. He'll talk to you latter" type thing. I remember back at Disney when he went in the pits to talk and even talked to kids around the competition. Man, I miss those days....

Party: Wayne said it best, get a big name that people that we like and know. No Mandy Moore, get Blue Man Group, or Evenessence. Hyptnotist was great, but mabey if they had him as a warm-up act.

Overall, I liked it better than Houston, but it's still no Epcot. Disney's business was to entertain and handle people, Houston didn't have much experence in that, and Atlanta only did it 8 years ago, it's not like you have to re-invent the wheel every year.