What would you want in an FRC party?

[1337pcgamer]

LAN Party man...
And none of this little kid stuff. Some old school games but not to much. Break out the projector also.

[FourPenguins]

Originally Posted by 1337pcgamer

LAN Party man...
And none of this little kid stuff. Some old school games but not to much. Break out the projector also.

And so I say again, this will NOT I repeat NOT be a LAN party. LAN parties are great, but they don't encourage interaction the way a party party will.
This is all about meeting new people, catching up with old people, and having a blast. If you want to LAN, that's great, so do we. Just not at this party.

[Cody Carey]

Not a LAN, but you might want to think about having a Console or two set up with four controllers and a game like super smash bros. That really does promote interaction At least it did at the Expo...

[Mike Nawrot]

On another note, what type of food would you want to see? I'm still taking ideas on activities, but i need a quick opinion on foods, so we can start looking for suppliers that are willing to donate or give us a discount, and we don't want to get a chinese place if nobody wants chinese, and we don't want a pizza place if no one wants pizza. so throw out what you want foodwise, as well as activity wise. And don't worry about soda.... we'll get that covered.

[Nica F.]

FRC party food... hmm if i were to pick i'd go for In and Out, but if that's not possible, the foods that are obvious candidates are hot dogs, cheeseburgers, pizza, and those of the sort. Candies are good sellers, like the kitkat and snickers bar, hmm i dont know if that would be good for an afterparty though cause i see these type of foods at like scrimmages... but maybe it could work too.

[FourPenguins]

Originally Posted by Cody C

Not a LAN, but you might want to think about having a Console or two set up with four controllers and a game like super smash bros. That really does promote interaction At least it did at the Expo...

Now that's a good idea. SSB is a party game, unlike Halo, which is too competitive for casual play. Plus with only one or two consoles, we don't end up w/ people only playing.
Great idea!

[ReaverOfSouls]

I'd say every1 should bring in consoles, alot of them and we have a very large lan party of halo 2 or some other violent video game. violence is good...

[Pavan Dave]

big beds - everyones gonna be tired.
MOUNTAIL DEW - doesnt everyones team 'Shotgun' MountainDew's when they are pulling all-nighters? The mentors have fun trying to beat us kids
The SpaceJam song

-Junx

[FourPenguins]

Originally Posted by Pavan

big beds - everyones gonna be tired.

Once again, this is not directly after the regional, it's a couple weeks after (we'll do it directly after if we do it again--that is if we do it this year.)
Also, I don't think our school, or our mentors, or anyone sane, isn't going to let 100 teenagers have beds...(our team has had it's share of make-out incidents.)

[JC-75]

I'm going to be very un-original here and say:

Pizza
Soda
A bunch of great films
Members from every team of course =)

[ScoutingNerd175]

If you were going to play dodge ball or any other game like that, you could consider mixing it up and saying that, 5 members (or insert reasonable number here) of each team (you could adjust this to size 5 of team XXX because it's a big team and 3 of YYYY because it's a small team) so that they play with people they don't know. You could also do games like pictionary, taboo, and charades, which are quieter smaller scale games (we had epic taboo at our hotel) and have mixed teams. I think you are best off to have any enforced activities (if you want to do any) earlier in the night (i.e. everyone plays dodge ball) and sort of open ended activities (play DDR, or taboo, or hand out and chat) later on, and then do a movie (if you want to) when it gets late and people are tired. Anything that takes organization will be harder to do the later it gets.

Glow sticks and anything that glow are a great idea (order a few weeks in advance and you can get those sorts of things from Rhode Island Novelty or Oriental Trading for quite cheap) and you know how much FIRST Teams like giveaways. You could also ask teams to bring a bunch of their buttons. If any team makes their own buttons, you could ask them to bring their button maker (people really do like this, even adults)

As far as food goes, I might try to avoid the pizza option just because I know that (and some of my team mates may actually kill me for this) people get tired of pizza by the time build and traveling are over. You might want to see if you can get some place to do a couple different kinds of pasta (baked ziti, pasta with meat sauce, pasta Alfredo) or a pasta bar. Whatever you do make sure you have a vegetarian option (meatless sauce, cheese pizza, veggie burgers/tofu dogs) and you might (if there are Jewish kids on any of the teams) want a Kosher option (something that doesn't mix meat and dairy, among other things). I might steer away from Chinese just because there are many people who don't like it, or make sure you have something else on hand. Have lots of chips/snacks and bowls of candy (cost co or BJs is helpful for this) and you may want to see if you can get some place to do a giant sheet cake (or a few) with the first logo or pictures of the robots on them.

As far as music goes you can do the DJ thing or just have people bring Cd's but someone should be making sure the music is appropriate. Try for not over done FIRST music, but don't play to much of one genre at a time. (And yeah, you're gunna want the Cotton Eyed Joe anyways)

We also used to do a raffle, although I don't know if that would work for you. Many places are willing to donate prizes and you could either charge ($1 for 4 tickets) and give the money to a local FLL team, an FRC team that has financial trouble, use it to pay for the party somewhat, or donate it to the local food shelf. Or you could give everyone ten tickets or give tickets for winning things or whatever.

Be sure to ask teams if any kids parents can help you. Someone may have an uncle whose a DJ or a parent who caters or something.

I hope some of this has helped and that it has not been in excess. I used to plan parties for the nonprofit theatre I worked for. (Yeah, I'm 17, but I've had experience) so if you have any questions you can PM, as I always did pretty well.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Mike Nawrot

if you were invited to a post regional FRC party, what would you want at the party? All ideas will be read. Try to be reasonable.

Lots of Pepe's of New Haven CT Pizza. Live bands of different types to satisfy everyone likes of music.

[Tetraman]

A Lego Mindstorm competition

or

Play the robotics game with people as robots like how they do to show you the game in the begining of the year.

Something wacko like that.

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

Play the robotics game with people as robots like how they do to show you the game in the begining of the year.

I would LOVE to do that! That sounds like serious fun man.

[Tetraman]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

I would LOVE to do that! That sounds like serious fun man.

IN MASCOT UNIFORMS!!! OH!