Its all wishful thinking, but the kickoff isn’t really that far away.
Where will you pick up your kit? Or will you have it shipped?
For the first time we will not have to travel down to Kokomo for our parts, as GE Medical will be hosting a kickoff right in our backyard in Waukesha, WI. Sorry Andy B. 
*Originally posted by Ricky Q. *
**… as GE Medical will be hosting a kickoff right in our backyard in Waukesha, WI. Sorry Andy B.**
wipes tear from eye
Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The Kokomo Kickoff will not be the same without the cheese-heads.
Somehow, some way, we will forge ahead and manage to get along without our friends from the great state of Wisconsin.
Maybe we’ll eat some bratwursts and cheese curds in your honor… maybe not. 
Andy B.
In past years we’ve gone to NASA JPL. But their auditorium is going to be busy this year. Some minor thing about landing on Mars or something 
and needing the room for press coverage. So we’ll be even closer at USC.
Of course the REAL party will be at our sponsor, Rick Varnum’s (J&F Machine) house. But somebody has to go fetch the kit.
We go to a local college (University of Alabama @ Huntsville)…but our advisor gets to go New Hampshire 
sigh Maybe one day we’ll all go…
I went to NH our first year of the competition. It was very impressive to see Dean’s house and some of the workshops were informative, but I could not wait to leave. I wanted to get the parts home as soon as possible. I think the remote kick-off is one of FIRST’s better ideas. It is great to get your kit locally and start brainstorming with the whole team.
Team 357, Royal Assault, from Upper Darby High School is hosting the Philadelphia Alliance Remote Kick Off. We did it last year for the first time and it was great. We have an auditorium that can easily seat over 800 people, this way entire teams can come to the Kick-Off. We projected the NASA feed onto a huge screen so everyone could easily see. We even had workshops. We look forward to seeing everyone from the Delaware Valley area again in 2004. I can’t wait to see what FIRST has cooked up for us this year!
Personally, I’m organizing the Remote Kickoff to be held here at RIT so I suppose it wouldn’t be appreciated if I went somewhere else during kickoff.
Matt
VCU Remote Kick-Off. W00t. More info will be posted latter.
*Originally posted by Andy Baker *
**wipes tear from eyeWell, it had to happen sooner or later. The Kokomo Kickoff will not be the same without the cheese-heads.
Somehow, some way, we will forge ahead and manage to get along without our friends from the great state of Wisconsin.
Maybe we’ll eat some bratwursts and cheese curds in your honor… maybe not.
Andy B. **
Dont forget theres plenty of Packer Backers in Indiana. Do you want me to bring my cheese-head Andy?
I usually either go to the kickoff in Manchester or Kokomo. Since it doesnt look like im going to Manchester, I think I’m going to have to settle for K-town, the city with the most stoplights per capata… 
ussually Bristol Myers Squibb sets up a web cast for all the New Jersey BMS sponsored teams, at Lawranceville NJ, we watch the webcast, and then mix the teams up into groups, and have idea sessions, and they serve breakfast and lunch and its all cool 
I am very tempted to fly out to Manchester again to see the real field and talk to FIRST staff… On the other hand the Silicon Valley Regional Committee wants to meet after the game is revealed… Hmm… Can’t decide…
*Originally posted by Ricky Q. *
**For the first time we will not have to travel down to Kokomo for our parts, as GE Medical will be hosting a kickoff right in our backyard in Waukesha, WI. **
Yes this will be very very nice. Parts the same day as kickoff and only 20 mins down the road
My team will probably be watching the remote kickoff in the same place as we always do in the training building of the local NU-CLE-AR POWA PLANT:p luckily it is just out side of the security check parimeter so all of the lock downs and tightening of security has yet to deter are tradition of coure the network crashing and having to trying and get the system up when it is based out of VA last year wasn’t a whole lot of fun but we were able to catch part of the broadcast and this year hopfully more:D
We go to the remote kickoff in Novi, MI, at the Novi Expo Center. I believe it’s the largest remote site, according to what Woodie said last year. We had in excess of 2000 people there last year for the kickoff viewing and subsequent workshops.
A couple of our mentors go to Manchester for the kickoff, and the rest of us go to an unofficial kickoff at IUPUI here in Indy. A few other teams usually join us too… that will be the day my friends, I can’t wait 
*Originally posted by “Big Mike” *
**ussually Bristol Myers Squibb sets up a web cast for all the New Jersey BMS sponsored teams, at Lawranceville NJ, we watch the webcast, and then mix the teams up into groups, and have idea sessions, and they serve breakfast and lunch and its all cool
Yep, yep. First, we all have breakfast. Then we go inside a small theatre-type place and watch the webcast. Then we do some initial brainstorming together, eat lunch, then break off into assigned groups to do group brainstorming before each individual group presents their ideas to the other groups as a whole. It works quite well and definitely promotes unity between the Bristol-Myers Squibb teams.
Ontario Science Center = )… not a bad venue if i do say so myself
*Originally posted by Ricky Q. *
**Its all wishful thinking, but the kickoff isn’t really that far away.Where will you pick up your kit? Or will you have it shipped?
For the first time we will not have to travel down to Kokomo for our parts, as GE Medical will be hosting a kickoff right in our backyard in Waukesha, WI. Sorry Andy B.
We run the NYC Remote Kickoff, last year 20+ teams pickup their kits from Polytechnic University. 24 teams attended the kickoff broadcast. For 2004 we hope to double the attendance (we have a capacity of 500). We also have workshops and brainstorming sessions after the FIRST broadcast.
The more students we get to visit the school for the remote kickoff, the better our standing is with the University. So visit us New Jersey Teams and Long Island Teams!
We’ll be joining Ricky and the rest of 269 in Waukesha, WI.
We’re gonna miss Kokomo!!
*Originally posted by J Flex 188 *
**Ontario Science Center = )… not a bad venue if i do say so myself **
Of course it is, I work there lol jk
Actually it works out really well with the one main auditorium and large screen (plus a max of 3 overflow studios all also w/ satelite hook-up). And I think this year we are going to need all that overflow space (seeing as the Canadian Regional will be 80+ teams…most of which will be attending the kick-off at the OSC)
Plus an added bonus with the EduBots competing on the afternoon of the kick-off adds to the excitment, and really gets everyone into the FIRST mode right away.
It’s really getting hard to contain all the excitment
Prolly with my team at the school.
One of these days I will get to Manchester.
Wetzel
*nudges Dave*