New Regionals in 2008

[Barry_Bonzack]

Our plans are to attend the OK regional early in the season and then continue to compete in the Lone Star regional.

I am extremely excited to hear that Oklahoma will now have their own regional. The arena in OKC will be a great venue, and Bricktown is an awesome place with fun things to do and places to eat. I have gotten word that they are working on making one killer social event, I’ll let that information be saved when the planning committee is ready for an official announcement. I am hoping this regional will spark many new teams to form in Oklahoma.

I plan to attend, and I am encouraging my friends in Florida to go to this regional (I am not sure how successful I will be at it). I am curious though, what information is there that it will be early in the season? This would conflict with the Florida Regional.

[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

[waialua359]

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.

[FunkyRatDemon]

Portland vs. Seattle is the same GLR vs. DET regional debate. Some teams only choose one over the over (for MANY reasons) and some teams go to both because they can do it without over night expenses. Team 1023 goes to GLR because we have been there since our team was founded and we have a great presence (many teams and volunteers know us year after year). Then our 2nd regional is usually one we like to travel to so we don’t attend DET.

We’ll be going to Portland and Seattle next year
Sorry UC Davis…

[Andrew_Schuetze]

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:yikes:

[dtengineering]

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 carswith 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

[Nawaid_Ladak]

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

[Kris_Verdeyen]

I thought the Oklahoma regional was cool, but I was surprised it was in OKC and not Norman, at OU.

Norman is Botball country, a KISS Institute stronghold. FIRSTers would be wise to tread softly there - you might see some scary creatures, like this guy:

[Ben_Martin]

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]

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]

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.

[AndyB]

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. :mad:

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…

[Doug_G]

We’ll be going to Portland and Seattle next year
Sorry UC Davis…

You’ll be missed. 2006 Finals still sits in the front of my memory banks. Perhaps we’ll catch you in Portland in '08. With the addition of San Diego, Las Vegas, and Seattle there are many local choices now for us west coast teams.

[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.

[dlavery]

Norman is Botball country, a KISS Institute stronghold. FIRSTers would be wise to tread softly there - you might see some scary creatures, like this guy:

Meh. Since KIPR (KISS Institute for Practical Robotics) is run by the guy that co-founded FRC Team 116, I wouldn’t be too worried.

-dave

[sheltie234]

Although Hawaii is far away from Indianapolis, it’s over our school’s Spring Break for next year, so hopefully…

I wish our team could go to any of the new Regionals for 2008 (and our team does travel outside of the Midwest), but they are far away, and when we travel by plane, we fly out on Wednesay evening so we don’t miss school. All of the new Regionals are pretty far…

[waiakea2024]

Yay! Hawaii is finally in the FIRST regional family! Everyone better sign up quick because this one is definalty going to sell out fast!

[lynca]

The new regionals are creating interesting press articles,
Seattle - Microsoft Regional

Hawaii Regional

[Pavan_Dave]

Yup! That’s the one!
Interesting.
All the new regionals are out west.

It’s about time too. Not enough events near Texas. This year Bayou was an exception, but now with Oklahoma I think it will accomplish two things. It will make more teams in Oklahoma and also add to the Robotics Education Program of Oklahoma because Botball is HUGE there. The only thing is that Botball is during the FIRST season which may pose some problems, but for huge teams, it is a great way to split the team and/or to keep the rookies busy with the programming and let them do the mechie or control stuff in their later years.