Championship Badging and Housing Registration Opening
Written by Frank Merrick, 2015 Dec 08
It’s already time to start registering for the 2016 *FIRST *Championship!
Registration for pre-qualified teams, that is, teams who *already *know they are being invited to attend the 2016 *FIRST *Championship, opens today. Pre-qualified teams include all past Championship Chairman’s Award Winners (Hall of Fame teams), Original and Sustaining Teams, Engineering Inspiration Award winners from the 2015 *FIRST *Championship, and Winners from the 2015 *FIRST *Championship. We informed these teams last week they would be able to register for the 2016 Championship starting today. These teams are being given priority registration because they are already guaranteed a slot at the 2016 *FIRST *Championship and have done something extraordinary to deserve being first in line.
Registration for non-prequalified teams, that is, all other teams, will open at 9 AM EST on Tuesday, December 15th. Teams registering early will have easier access to the most desirable rooms. Teams can register here.
We’re looking forward to another great *FIRST *Championship!
Even if we have no plans to attend Championship, is it a good idea to book a block of rooms on Dec 15 just in case we become eligible to go and later decide to?
Can I later drop the rooms if we do not become eligible, or decide not to go? I haven’t really done this for Champs before, but the process last year didn’t seem pleasant.
Nothing about badging? I got excited when I saw the title, hoping that something is being done about the abomination that was the check-in line this year.
I hope they drop the whole team ID badge thing. It caused so much trouble for us volunteers down on the field as so many spectators assumed they had the right to come down to the field. All it did was make our jobs that much harder for what was already a monumental task. FIRST please do you hardworking, dedicated volunteering staff a favor and dump the team ID badges.
Ed, I’m sure from a queuing perspective it was a nightmare, but from a referee standpoint, it was kind of nice to be able to have a conversation and know who you were talking to. Maybe find a better way to denote who’s who. Have the pocketed lanyard badge holders for x group and the normal volunteer ones for y group.
I was very frustrated when a friend living in the greater St Louis area came to the championships last year to see everything, but couldn’t make it until Saturday afternoon due to a somewhat long drive and a work during the week. The badge desk had just closed and I was not able to show them the pits because the event staff would not let us through. Needless to say, not so inspirational. What is the purpose of this?
Can someone clarify if registration on the 15th involves just setting up for a later specific request period or if a team must register every team member, parents, etc likely to need rooms and then immediately proceed to hotel selection priorities? If so, how fair is the process for a huge team needing to type in all the relevant data before hotel selection process occurs?
So instead of fasted mouse wins, the fasted typist wins?
Edit: contacted Experient and found out that block request with hotel priority list occurs first and you wait to hear back from them before you have to fill in all of the names of team members, etc…so fastest mouse wins again in some cases.
Off the top of my head I could see a lawyer thinking this would help reduce the odds of a kid getting abducted/assaulted at the event, if they have to sign everyone in first.
I see that the 30 teams prequalified for Champs managed to take up all of the prime hotels in Experient’s block of hotels nearest the venue again…talk about incentive to qualify early for Champs Hopefully we have luck with our number one priority…
Its also gives FIRST more exact numbers on how many individuals attended the Championship and their involvement: students, mentors, sponsors, spectators, etc.
I can only imagine the reason they closed up shop early was to begin the process of getting the venue packed up and didn’t think there would be much of a need for registration.
Thanks for posting Joe. I totally forgot this opened at 9AM Eastern unlike everything else for FIRST that opened at 9AM Pacific. I logged in at 45 minutes after opening, and there were still a number of hotels within walking distance available for selection. It took me about a half an hour to put my list of 8 together and submit.
Hopefully we have luck with our number one priority…
