Explaining the FIRST Competition to Others...

FIRST General Forum
1

Good Morning Chief Community,

I have been a part of FIRST for a while now and have yet to come up with a succinct way of explaining the FIRST competition to the magnitude that I feel validates FIRST. I feel that at the end of my explanation the listener doesn’t have a strong appreciation of our early mornings, late nights, dedication, passion, and then I am at the point where I am not doing Dean’s homework properly of spreading what FIRST is.

I am usually asked “What is FIRST?”, or even worse at competition, “Explain to me what is going on!”. I begin by explaining that…

“FIRST ranges from ages 8-18 and reached over 250,000 kids across the world”. (Thanks Morgan Freeman)

And quickly jump into FRC.

“At the beginning of each year, teams are given a game and six weeks to design and build a robot.”

This is where I start to become shaky.

“Um the games could be Basketball, Soccer, Frisbee”, to which they say “Wow! The robots play real sports!”
“Well…it’s a modified version…”

Then I jump into this years game - the easy part

The next part is the tough part - Competition. Now that I have the time to write this post and get my thoughts down…it is easier to relay what information I want to get across, however, when I’m explaining I feel like I am missing some integral parts of competition.

“Teams are then put on an alliance together and compete with each other to win each match. However, in the next match they could be facing the same team they just competed with. Something FIRST calls Coopertition”

I never say the next part properly

“After the qualification matches are over, teams go through an alliance selection period. The top 8 seeds have the opportunity to pick their alliances, which they will then compete with in Eliminations.”

I am never able to explain the serpentine alliance selection method.

If anyone has a succinct way of explaining the aforementioned, to the extent that elucidates the magnitude of FIRST…I would forever be in your debt.

The best explanation will get a Bubble Tea/Starbucks Coffee/Other Drink at Champs from me.

EDIT: That’s to say I didn’t even touch Scouting/Strategy/Pit Crew…There’s so much!

2

I usually say, "It’s a robotics sport competition. Teams are made up of high school students who work with professionals in the STEM industries. Every year in January, a brand new, never before seen game is released. Teams then have 6 weeks to design and build a 120 lb robot to play this game. It’s a very hands-on, intense program. This year’s game, the robots shoot frisbees in different height goals, and then climb to the top of a huge pyramid. At competition, teams get about 9-12 matches each, where they’re paired with different partners and compete against three other teams. Each match your opponents and partners are different, so there’s a level of working together while competing against each other, to make sure that your partners are at their best. We call that “coopertition.”

Usually that explanation opens it up to lots of different kinds of questions.

3

Define it as an engineering challenge that teams build a solution for and test their solutions in a competitive format.

4

Sounds like you’re doing it right, really -

**Nothing shows off the magnitude of FIRST like being there. **

My go-to, if you can’t drag someone to competition, is just to have a video or two ready on your phone. (Thank goodness for the 21st century!) I use the Morgan Freeman one.

How I do the ‘qualifications’ part:
“Well, for the first day of competition, the teams are randomly set up on alliances - one match you could be with the school down the road, and then you could be against them! By matching them up against each other in different ways, they’re able to rank who’s the best performing robot out of the 40-60 robots there could be at the regionals.”

Alliance selection:
“After the robots are all ranked, the top 8 get to pick teams that they want to play with through the whole of the elimination rounds - no more randoms! It’s really important for the teams to scout out who’s the best match for them so they know how to form the best alliance.”

(I usually don’t bother with the serpentine - if you’re doing a high-level explanation to someone brand new, they’ll tune out on the details.)

“Then, there are double-elimination rounds until we figure out which alliance at the regional is best. There are other awards, too, for things like community outreach and spreading the word of FIRST - which are even more important than the robot! FIRST, after all, is about changing culture.”

Keep in mind I’ve had probably 15 years of practice explaining FIRST to people - and I’ve learned that if you go too far into the little details of competition, people who don’t know it get bored or confused.

**Keep it high level, keep it punchy, keep it fun. **
Sometimes the details- for example, the ranking system- aren’t exactly represented well, but they can figure that out when they become a mentor or a volunteer.

If you’d like to practice your speech on me, or continue bouncing ideas, send me a PM or find me at Champs.

5

When I explain what a FIRST event is like to someone who has never seen one (or are about to) I say it’s like Mardi Gras surrounding the Superbowl. It’s intense. It’s insane. It’s breathtaking. There’s nothing like seeing a FIRST event in person. Nothing.

6

The FIRST elevator pitch can often be a challenge. But there are some great materials already out there. One of my favorites is: http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/About_Us/Media_Center/FIRST_Facts_Assets/2011/USFIRST-Psychology-Trifold-2010-WEB.pdf

This year at the Chesapeake Regional we introduced a new visitor program, involving VIPs, invited guests, team guests, media, and walk ins.

We called it “FIRST Stop”.

Our goal was to break down the visiting experience in small chunks and let visitors decide what they wanted to absorb. We had lots of trained student ambassadors, the “menu”, designated “stations” throughout the venue, adult ambassadors. Graphics and printing were provided by SAIC, working with us.

We also ran a TEDx “Adventure” program where visitors who signed up through TEDxBaltimore got a special one-hour behind the scenes look at the event, teams, volunteers, and FIRST program.

We had talking points for each “stop”, including most of your questions.

I am a huge fan of having student ambassadors at the events. We have involved the students as guides for years here. They are trained in how to do the elevator pitch, how to ask questions, and they practice the talking points and many really shine in this role.

We are still collecting input from all the invested parties but I think this program mostly worked really well.

So we may have some best practices and materials to pass on to help at the events. Give us some time to do a proper evaluation.

There will be student ambassador program at the Championship. Consider asking about joining the group.

I am not involved with this at the Championship, but would be happy to give you my 5 minute training. I am helping to train some of the St. Louis Convention Bureau people and will have my training materials. I will often be around the information/registration area. Look for the fishing vest… and I like my coffee no sugar, 2 creams.

7

I think I will take you up on those offers.

Looks like I owe 3 drinks - 1 to Libby, Ed, and Jenny.

Thanks for the input!

8

In Atlanta 2008, former US President George HW Bush, spoke to the crowd at the FIRST Championship. He described FIRST as “…WWF but for Smart People.”
Politics aside its still one of my favorite short descriptions of FIRST. :slight_smile:

9

How I describe the it is the process. I tell them, image that baseball was just invented the first saturday of the year. You have 6 weeks to come up with a strategy and get as good as you can. The rules are the ball weighs this much, bases are this far apart, you can have 9 people on the field, hit it over the fence it is a homerun, etc. But the catch is, once you decide a strategy, you can’t change it dramatically. Then they say “that doesnt sound too bad.” where i respond with, of course not. The system of baseball has been perfected. The answer is so obvious once it is found, but the answer is never really discovered. Multiple methods solve the problem just fine, but some better than others.

10

While my shpeel definitely varies person to person, I do have a general game plan:

-The programs FIRST offers and an oversimplified overview of them relating the programs to sports using descriptors like JV and Varsity.

-Then I dive into FRC, I state the basics of the challenge, the time constraint, the game format and tournament format.

-Then I stress the roles that the students and mentors play and talk about my personal experiences in FRC.

Then I’ll answer questions and try to build a conversation around robotics to deepen their understanding of the facts that their ears were just assaulted with.

And of course, I have a meme for this because I always feel that I don’t get the full message across.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/582521_517899141582188_2085490936_n.jpg

Have a good day CD :smiley:

11

… but seriously…

Someone needs to make a YouTube video that clearly and succinctly covers all the points in this thread.

…and it has to be shorter than 3 minutes.

You could only imagine how much I’ve wanted a “What is Robotics?” video that went into these kinds of more low-level “nitty gritty” details.

It’s the video you want to show to a parent, teacher, potential mentor, or sponsor who’s already at the competition, watching intently. They’re already felt the initial “hook,” but now want more details - they’re interested in “what the heck is going on behind the controls, and under the hood?”

Most of the videos we produce are high-level “isn’t robotics great?” type videos. But once you get past that point (which is surprisingly easy to do), we seem to lack the “now that you’re interested, here’s exactly what’s going on” type video.

12

First post, so forgive the lack of swag on my profile, or any noob blunders. Seattle regional was my first competition. I have a son who participated for the first time, and I was blown away by the depth of the program.

If you want to explain it to a CEO or business person, (I work for a game company in Seattle) tell them the program comes pretty dang close to the heady environment of a start-up company that is hyper-focused on success in a shifting market:
There is fast and furious development, testing, adaptation and non-stop competition. I told my engineering team the students participating did approximately 19 sprints in 2 days!
Teams have to be noticed in a crowded field,(a combination of branding, marketing and differentiation).
The strategy of observing strengths and weakness of other teams, whether evaluating an alliance or comparing your own design is critical for products to succeed in emerging markets.
Plus you get the support of actual rules that create good sportsmanship, (the one part the real world lacks) and HEY you are having fun! (an essential part of a game company)

Was that 3 minutes or less?

13

I am loving some of these descriptions! FIRST can be very hard to explain to people who know nothing about the program.

I would say the best way to explain what FIRST is would be to bring the person to a competition! This is not always feasible and would not be considered an “elevator pitch” but there really is no better way.

In fact, the entire inception of team 503 happened because a mentor from a local team decided to have his first date at a regional nearby and she absolutely loved it. She decided that her high school had to have one and viola!

Ze Frogs Were Born.

14

One of the more interesting explanations I have heard: “It’s like a Grateful Dead concert with Robots.”

A competition, especially in the years before colored bumpers, was inscrutable.
New spectators would see a bunch of Robots moving back and forth around a field; throwing objects, dragging implements, running into each other, climbing on top of each other, while the audience appeared to cheer at random intervals. Then a buzzer would sound and one of the teams was declared a winner for no discernible reason.
Meanwhile, all of these teenagers and adults in the audience would dance like crazy on cue, as if they were all privy to some secret code of behavior.

This is good, I describe the game as a complex Problem, with anywhere from 30 to 60 solutions all competing to see who came up with the best Solution (Robot)

This is also succinct advice.
Morgan Freeman = good explanation.

Having some prime videos on your phone really helps to explain: 1) The Program. FIRST has many personal interview PR videos that are useful. Here is one source that I have used:
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/marketing-tools/frc/video-clips-frc?id=652

Good match videos that show the game can be harder to find as our point of view of the match is different from someone seeing it for the first time.
Plus, the game changes every year, so their shelf life is short.
I have been using this one:

Team Titanium’s POV.

I have also been totally digging these videos from Detroit Public television for explanations of the matches:
http://www.dptv.org/programs/robotics/index.shtml?cmpgn=shorturl
Dave Verbrugge describes the matches and strategies with interviews of team members before and after matches. Too long for a quick phone video, but very comprehensive.

I work with the Media Center at the CMP, so we have many newcomers visiting for the first time with little background information needing to create an article or video about the event.
What we do is find out where they are from and generate a short list of teams from their area, as well as other teams they may find interesting (HoF, International, Rookies).
We take them down to the pits and find a team, then we introduce them to any student, who are the best acolytes of FIRST. The process runs itself from there. By following a team from their pits through a match provides the experience that they can distill into a story that best explains the program. These are journalists and they know how to explain an event to an audience that has little information.
An example of one such product:
http://www.channelone.com/video/the-first-robotics-competition/

15

All good answers so far, but one aspect I don’t think has been discussed. Who is your audience? A middle schooler who might think of joining a team in a year or two? Someone younger than that? A potential sponsor? A parent of potential team members? A parent of a current team member? A ‘techie’ student, a ‘non-techie’ student, etc…

In general, for the younger crowd, you focus on the game and the excitement (music, dancing, etc.) For the older crowd you put additional focus on the less visible aspects, like simulating a real world situation, scholarship opportunities, spreading the message into the community, etc.