New Regionals in 2008

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

Glad to hear that the Seattle event is a "go" for next year. I think the Seattle regional will be a big boost for growing FRC here in Vancouver as the chances of getting sponsors and such to come down to Seattle (6 hour round-trip drive) are much greater than getting them to come down to Portland (12 hour round trip). As good as the streaming video is, even Discovery's 360 degree pit-cam doesn't make up for being there when it comes to plain old jaw-dropping awesomeness. We might even be able to bring a few more rookies along with us next year as we try to increase our numbers here in BC with a goal to getting a Vancouver regional off the ground in the next few years. (Although I understand every hockey rink in town is booked up in Feb/March of 2010 for some reason... it might have to wait...)

I have to say, though, that the decision to drop Portland from our schedule will be a tough one. Memorial Colliseum is a great venue (from a competition viewpoint I would rather see a two-field super-regional in Portland than one in Portland and one in Seattle... the pit area at Portland could handle close to 100 teams and if you haven't played at GTR in a two-field year then you don't know what you're missing) and the whole Rose Garden / Convention Centre District / Fareless Square (free and fast trains to downtown) makes it very easy to take students to Portland... and that is not even mentioning the great job the organizing committee and volunteers do there!

I'm looking forward to more info on the Seattle regional, including dates and venue.... but I know the students are far more interested in that whole Hawaii thing.... so is one of our teachers, but he's sailed there the last two time he's gone. I don't think we'll be doing that...

Jason

You could fly on Hawaiian airlines which flies directly to you! In fact, we will be possibly going to Vancouver from Seattle next month for an electric vehicle event.

[dtengineering]

Originally Posted by waialua359

You could fly on Hawaiian airlines which flies directly to you! In fact, we will be possibly going to Vancouver from Seattle next month for an electric vehicle event.

I'm guessing that would be one sponsored by the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association? Before getting into FIRST I built and raced electrathon cars with my Engineering 12 class. VEVA hosted an event called REV, at the time, down by Science World and False Creek where we got to race on a section of what was then the Vancouver Indy track. It is now in the process of being converted to housing for the Olympics.

And I am well aware that there are some very good value flights to Hawaii... Westjet flies there now, too... but even a good value flight to Hawaii is considerably more expensive than a nice bus to Seattle or Portland! Hawaii will represents a fund raising goal our students can aspire to!

Hope you have a good time when you're here in Vancouver.

Jason

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

We might even be able to bring a few more rookies along with us next year as we try to increase our numbers here in BC with a goal to getting a Vancouver regional off the ground in the next few years. Jason

What does it take team wise in order to host a regional? I beleive that the San Diego folks put together a three year plan and started something like 10 new teams before they put together their regional for this year.
This would be in addition to the rent for a venue for the four days plus meal costs for volunteers, field rent, and I don't know what else. Did OKC start a bunch of teams in the area? I read a previous post about Hawaii using the regional to start new teams. Something of a chicken or the egg first thing

[Nawaid Ladak]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

Glad to hear that the Seattle event is a "go" for next year. I think the Seattle regional will be a big boost for growing FRC here in Vancouver as the chances of getting sponsors and such to come down to Seattle (6 hour round-trip drive) are much greater than getting them to come down to Portland (12 hour round trip). As good as the streaming video is, even Discovery's 360 degree pit-cam doesn't make up for being there when it comes to plain old jaw-dropping awesomeness. We might even be able to bring a few more rookies along with us next year as we try to increase our numbers here in BC with a goal to getting a Vancouver regional off the ground in the next few years. (Although I understand every hockey rink in town is booked up in Feb/March of 2010 for some reason... it might have to wait...)

I have to say, though, that the decision to drop Portland from our schedule will be a tough one. Memorial Colliseum is a great venue (from a competition viewpoint I would rather see a two-field super-regional in Portland than one in Portland and one in Seattle... the pit area at Portland could handle close to 100 teams and if you haven't played at GTR in a two-field year then you don't know what you're missing) and the whole Rose Garden / Convention Centre District / Fareless Square (free and fast trains to downtown) makes it very easy to take students to Portland... and that is not even mentioning the great job the organizing committee and volunteers do there!

I'm looking forward to more info on the Seattle regional, including dates and venue.... but I know the students are far more interested in that whole Hawaii thing.... so is one of our teachers, but he's sailed there the last two time he's gone. I don't think we'll be doing that...

Jason

The reason their all booked, the Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver in 2010, around the same time as most regionals. if you want to pull this one off, it will have to most definitely have to be a week 5 regional

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze

I would presume that FIRST and the various regional event directors will schedule the multiple events in a region to not coincide so that teams can attend two regionals without the travel issues as already mentioned.

Okay take note, my presumption in this regard was very far from correct and could in the instance of the the Texas and Oklahoma regionals be in direct conflict with it
Lone Star Regional
Katy, TX DATE 3/20/2008 - 3/22/2008

Oklahoma City Regional
Oklahoma City, OK DATE 3/20/2008 - 3/22/2008

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

A lot of Minnesota teams went to the Wisconsin Regional this year, only adding to the greatness of the regional. However, I think with a new regional starting in Minnesota, teams will be split between Minnesota and Wisconsin and will have to make a choice. I'm very excited to see even more teams spring up next year, hopefully as a result of Boston Scientific and Medtronic sponsoring even more teams. They did a great job this year.

Same thing happened to the Midwest Regional with the inception of the Boilermaker Regional. Nearly all of the "powerhouse" teams decided to go to Boilermaker instead of Chicago, dropping the strength and reputation of the Midwest Regional, IMHO.

I see sort of the same thing happening to either the Wisconsin Regional or the Minnesota Regional... could also adversely affect the Midwest Regional, again lowering the number of attending teams.

Some members of 648, not me, want to go to Minnesota. I'm not in favor of it ... I want to get away from the Midwest for once, but not the Midwest Regional. I wish we could be like 25, 234, 233, etc. and travel to some exotic regional every year.

[Ben Martin]

Originally Posted by Budda648

I wish we could be like 25, 234, 233, etc. and travel to some exotic regional every year.

We do travel around a lot, but we do like to go to at least one regional near home, like the Midwest Regional, West Michigan, or BMR.

Though it can be fun to travel, sometimes I wonder about the merits of attending a third regional instead of going to one close regional and one that's across the country. By going to other regionals, we get to know other teams better, but we see less of the other teams in Indianapolis. We kind of had this debate this year, and we eventually decided to travel to Long Island. Eight days of school would be a lot of days to miss.

We may go to a far-off regional every year, but Hawaii is quite a distance. I don't believe that we've gone to the west coast before, so we might concider that as a possible place to visit next year.

[waialua359]

I hope all of you consider coming to Hawaii. There "should" be 48 total slots which we are pushing for, with a minimum of 32.
Which one of you out their are seriously considering attending?
I am sure teams would know by now as they would have to decide and start their fundraising campaigns.
We are already starting to fundraise for next year for mainland regional competition. As you can see, all these past years, Hawaii teams always had this "challenge" just to attend one regional.

[Noah Kleinberg]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Which one of you out their are seriously considering attending?
I am sure teams would know by now as they would have to decide and start their fundraising campaigns.

It's not quite final yet but team 395 has almost decided on Hawaii, especially if it's not the same week as the New York Regional.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Noah Kleinberg

It's not quite final yet but team 395 has almost decided on Hawaii, especially if it's not the same week as the New York Regional.

Our new Hawaii state science specialist in Education, Jeff Piontek, says that he helped you folks when he lived in New York as the district superintendent. He mentioned last year that you folks won the Pittsburg regional.
Do you know him?? He seems to know a lot about you folks.

[dbeck103]

Hey - 103 is seriously considering coming to the regional in Hawaii, as are a couple of other east coast teams. Should be a blast.

[AndyB]

Originally Posted by Budda648

Same thing happened to the Midwest Regional with the inception of the Boilermaker Regional. Nearly all of the "powerhouse" teams decided to go to Boilermaker instead of Chicago, dropping the strength and reputation of the Midwest Regional, IMHO.

I see sort of the same thing happening to either the Wisconsin Regional or the Minnesota Regional... could also adversely affect the Midwest Regional, again lowering the number of attending teams.

Some members of 648, not me, want to go to Minnesota. I'm not in favor of it ... I want to get away from the Midwest for once, but not the Midwest Regional. I wish we could be like 25, 234, 233, etc. and travel to some exotic regional every year.

Actually, when Boilermaker had it's first year, it was a couple weeks before the Midwest regional. But I get what you are saying. Hopefully many teams will be able to attend both Wisconsin and Minnesota, but it isn't a horrible thing if a regional gets smaller because FIRST is growing....

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

There's been some discussion about how the Seattle event will affect the existing regional in Portland, OR and, specifically, whether teams from this region would be likely or willing to attend both. Seattle was home to Pacific Northwest Regional before it moved to Portland, so there's some precedent for shifting the location of a regional, but what little I've seen, heard or read about this new event suggests that it's meant as an additional opportunity to demonstrate FIRST to the community, not as a supplicant to what already exists.

This is similar to the New England Regional which was in Manchester, NH until UTC took over the sponsorship and moved to Hartford where their corporate headquarters is (Almost across the street from the current venue). Then BAE Granite state Regional was added in Manchester and Hartford kept the New England name until this year. It was finally changed after adding Boston to minimize confusion.

Surprisingly these events don't really cannabilize each other for teams as many teams go to one and a farther away event.

[chaoticprout]

Any idea when they will announce the dates for this years regionals? Thanks.

[Vexkingof716]

Our team started to dream over going all the way to hawaii next year but then realized the cost of it for us. if we were to go we probably not go to nationals but who knows i would love to go out to the pacific.