2004 Nationals in Charlotte

[Peach]

Originally posted by dekko

This thread is how to make nationals in Charlotte a better event for all. Please stick to that topic. Thanks.

King Canute told the tide not to come in, too. Threads are like conversations, not homework assignments. We all have to get something out of it, not just the person who asked the first question.

I rather liked what they did in Sacramento, with the host committee table near the entrance and lots of friendly people sitting at it. Based on the number of T-shirts & other things still available, I guess they didn't sell all the trinkets they ordered, though. That's a risk.

Phil Daly's Proprintwear outfit seems to be doing a great job on event T-shirts, though, and he's got a good thing going by doing transfers on-site. Hope you're going to work with him.

[Inquartata]

And hopefully those people at the desk know the area. I've asked questions like "Where can I get a good steak around here?" at a couple of NACs and gotten only I-don't-knows and vague well-somewhere-off-thataway-I-think-there's-an-Outback's...

[dekko]

I just don't want to see this thread turn into another conversation, as some threads do on this list. I understand it's a working conversation I just want to try to keep it on topic, that's all.

As for the comment about the hotel people knowing something about the area, I went to an event in Virginia and the hotel people had no ida where the venue was even though it was literally 100 yards away from the hotel. The event was great, organized, fencing, etc but the hotel people didn't know where the venue was even though we walked out the back door and 100 yards to the door.

I am not sure how knowledgeable the hotel staff is but I suspect the fact that the Adams Mark is a famous hotel around the country I suspect the hotel staff has above average knowledge of the immediate area, esp for resturants and bars.

[edew]

Won't hurt to suggest to the manager or the concierge to prep the hotel staff for such questions. Here's the forum to find out what the questions would be (hopefully, if it's used in its original, undeviated thread), and then bring the list to the hotel management. I'm sure they would like to know as much as you would like them to know.

Sure, one should expect the cleaning crew to know the ins and outs of the area, but anyone wearing the standard receptionist-looking uniform should be ready to answer any such questions at a drop of a hat.

Some useful questions:

1. Where's the nearest cheap gas station?

2. Nice italian (french/chinese/mexican) restaurant? Here, the staff should be aware that folks from some parts of the country, say, the Bay Area or NY or LA, might have a "higher" standard for what is nice in terms of italian or french or chinese vis-a-vis food. So an answer like, "I really like Johnny Foo's..they make the best choy-suey and have take-out as well!" might be very earnest and honest, but isn't answering the question.

3. How do I get to <some particular nice sites or areas>?

4. Where's the men's (ladies') room?

5. Can I leave my bags with you until it's time to check-in (or after check-out)?

6. How do I get to the venue?

7. Which way is north?

[Victor]

(First person to post information confirming the venue, and did anyone say, 'Hey, thanks, Vic! Nice going!"? ... I'm hurt. Deeply.)

Don't forget to keep in touch with the local Chamber of Commerce to secure some maps, driving directions, average prostitution prices and such. "You-Are-Here" pointer maps are pretty darn handy, but only if they're designed well -- simple lines, points of interest, etc.

Lots of wall signs with arrows pointing to stuff like bathrooms and/or dressing rooms, spectator areas (if any), sources of water. Plenty of trash cans to cut back on floor clutter.

A go'fer dedicated to nothing but posting updated bout/standings information. A wall projection would be nice, too.

If you have some local dignitary prepped to speak in the middle of the tournament, make sure it's an appropriate time so no one feels interrupted.

As for the matter of prizes: The top winners are going to pleased with their awards and ratings. Yay for them. They don't need anything else to make it worthwhile. What do the "losers" get, though? Zilcho. If you really want to supplement your freebies, I suggest a random drawing for each event to give away some small token item, a door prize of sorts, such as a T-shirt or water bottle or fencing gauntlet or engraved keychain ("I fenced Div-II Epee at Summer Nationals and all I got was this stupid keychain."). ... Otherwise, I've always figured piling on prizes for the elite eschelon was sort of tacky and unnecessary.

[dekko]

We are in contact with the local chamber and plans are in motion to supply visitors with lots of information.

We are also planning to meet in the convention center one day and see the room, where it is in the building and look at other logistical concerns. I am not sure how much control we will have over the site itself concerning signage but there is no doubt the question will be asked.

[edew]

Small 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper with an arrow on it should be allowed almost anywhere. It's big signs made of plastic sheeting and cut out letters and such that convention center folks will require to be placed at only certain locations.

[Tireur]

folks from some parts of the country, say, the Bay Area or NY or LA, might have a "higher" standard for what is nice in terms of italian or french or chinese vis-a-vis food.

OH??? 'Scuse me suh? Us po unwashed trash from the rest of the country don't know nuthin' 'bout no good eats, no suh!

Talk about elitism. Or snobbery. Listen, expensive or showier does not mean "nicer".....

[KShan5[PrFC]]

How about you give the singer of the Natioanl Anthem a test run, just make sure they don't suck bascially. I personally would rather go without a Star Spangled Banner at 7am than listen to what we had last year. Granted sometimes it sounded okay, but a few times, it just hurt to stand there and listen to the howling....errr singing.

[edew]

Originally posted by Tireur
OH??? 'Scuse me suh? Us po unwashed trash from the rest of the country don't know nuthin' 'bout no good eats, no suh!

Talk about elitism. Or snobbery. Listen, expensive or showier does not mean "nicer".....

I'd be happy to enumerate more regions with people who have an understanding of good gastronomia. I thought I'd just put down a representative sampling.

I do know, from having been to NC, SC, FL, KY, and similar places, that most of what passes for "good food" is swill.

[Tireur]

do know, from having been to NC, SC, FL, KY, and similar places, that most of what passes for "good food" is swill.

I could say, having spent much time,(not just passing thru), NY and CA that you could say the same thing about "most" of what passes for good food there. It just costs more and has a more interesting "presentation".

[edew]

certainly, there are parts of CA and NY where the attitude about food is the same: blah. However, those aren't usually at the more metropolitan areas like NYC or SF or LA. If you're in Barstow or Fresno, you're just not going to get food that will stay in your stomach for long (unless you're used to that...)

But the corresponding "cosmoplitan" cities in some of the more "red" states don't have restaurants as good as the those in the "blue" states. Maybe, one can be sure of a decent meal at an Olive Garden or some such.

[Tireur]

Like you said, you were just passing thru and, obviously made bad choices.

Most of my time in CA is spent in San Diego, San Francisco and, sadly, LA. I find "most" of the food to be overwrought and overpriced, but "popular". Whcih seems to mean "good" to these people. I'll give you IN-n-OUT Burger, tho.

[edew]

In-and-Out for free is overpriced. Maybe what you consider to be good food - if In-and-Out is a representative of that - is different from what I consider good food.

If I were to eat an In-and-Out, the result will be just that: in and out, and might be before I can get home.

[Dee EffEll]

This is a great thread, and it is nice for the LOC to take an interest in us fencers. As you say, the USFA has control of many things, so we won't belabour what you can't do. But here's some more thoughts:

1. Work with the ProPrint dude to get nice stuff. He is *really* nice, works hard, and has good merchandise. I like getting an event sticker or two for my bag. I also like getting an event poster - it is a nice reminder at home of why you sweat and train, especially since I have no medals to show for all this pain.

2. That said, I like getting an event t-shirt, but spend some time making something nice. One from a few years ago even had a typo on it: "Ya'll Fence." It was just goofy.

3. Nice to have a "finals" area. Austin used the strips right in front of a set of fairly nice "bleachers." I thought it worked pretty well. The separate room in Greenville was OK, but rather snug - not enough room for everybody.

4. Give some thought to contacting a local tech company, and explain what a really big fencing tournament looks like. I can see someone knowing a little bit about computers offering to get involved in posting information from laptops onto computer projectors. True, the USFA computers run software that is...marginal...and someone might have to type data back in for display, but wouldn't it be cool if the pools and DE's were all in nice format projected onto the wall, and the data available for download out to a web page where people with some tech could download it all to their PDAs? Or for later reference? As it stands, that data just isn't available from the USFA software because it, well, it just isn't But someone from the LOC could type it back into another program for display. (And yes, there is a possibility for errors, so this is a big thing to ask for.)

5. Maybe an alternative is to buy an overhead projector, and have a copier that will enlarge images ready. Blow up the postings (pools, DEs, etc) and project them onto a wall for all to see. Put a tip jar next to this system, and I will gladly donate. Put a tip jar next to the USFA bout committee for a software upgrade fund, and I will gladly donate to get some useable tech into this tournament system.

6. If the USFA doesn't, please provide paper and pencil for refs to keep score on. If it was up to me, I provide each ref with a small pocket voice recorder that he could speak the enire bout into (including his descriptions of action and *score*) with time stamps for later replay. It is left to the readers to determine why it is this kinda pisses me off....

7. Maybe provide some sort of scrolling message display in the venue. The sound systems do not work. Ever. We can't hear the announcements. But if there was a large board that had official stuff on it, all you'd have to do is play a tone in the room when something new was posted, and then everyone would know to look at the display. Tell the computer company that might help with this that if they do it, they can put their ads and promos on it.

8. Maybe establish a local phone number with a a recording on it to post information. One event last year had to be delayed, and it would have been nice to check from your hotel room that the events were still running with the posted close of checkin times. Post this info to your web pages as well - most hotels have internet access in the room, and I usually bring a laptop.

9. Be good to the vendors. Somehow. Be sure they have power and access to telecom stuff for their credit card machines. (i.e. a phone line hookup, or be sure there is cell phone reception in the building.) I am glad they are there, for a number of reasons, and a happy vendor is one that has good prices and good stock.

10. Tell the community we are there. Dunno how big charlotte is, but it was evident at Greenville that the community wanted us there. It seemed like Austin didn't know we were there, or didn't care. It is great to be recognized, even if it is a special happy hour with cheap eats/drink one night for the fencers. It seems like the USFA doesn't really care much about the non-olympic bound athletes (with the reduction in qualifying paths for this year, it seems like the USFA is doing its level best to make the non-elite summer nationals much smaller) it sure feels good when a town does.

11. Provide some advance maps to the venue, including parking instructions.

12. Do something nice for the refs. A tired ref is one that can't count. (...*grrrrr*.....)

13. Have some folks available to police the "only fencers and refs and *one coach* area. Maybe this is a USFA deal, but nothing more irritating that having rules in place that no one enforces.

14. Please make some arrangements for making wheelchairs available/for rent for spectators. This is something of a personal request, since my elderly father likes to attend, but can't walk very far.

Gads, thats about enough. THANK YOU for asking the fencers what we'd like in our tournament. And fairly the USFA did ask for feedback at Palm Springs (there was a questionairre. distributed. Wonder what the responses were like?)

[Tireur]

Well, I consider it to be a pretty good fast food burger.

I did notice they did not have any "eucalyptus-grilled tofu burgers garnished with sauteed pine nuts and a portobello glace stacked on a bed of organic sea-kelp steamed in designer waters and sprinkled with asiago cheese, priced at USD25.

Perhaps that is why you did not care for it........California palettes are sooo much more....sophisticated, I guess is the word, than the rest of the world.

I know what good food is, I have found very little of it in CA, which has a skewed view of almost everything to begin with. Generally the food in NY is better than CA. CA does have some good Thai food tho.

What's really pathetic is to see "northern" restaurants try to do "southern" cooking. THAT is about as nasty as it gets

[mfp]

Originally posted by Dee EffEll
2. That said, I like getting an event t-shirt, but spend some time making something nice. One from a few years ago even had a typo on it: "Ya'll Fence." It was just goofy.

The event shirt for Palm Springs also should have been proof read -- the men's version included the name of a female epee fencer from San Francisco on it. The bad data originated from the USFA, but should have been pretty easy to catch on a quick proof.

Perhaps the USFA was trying to compensate for entering a male epee fencer from the same SF club into a veterans WE event a few NACs prior :-)

As for the LOC for Summer Nationals, I'd think a website that includes lots of the information suggested above on it would be great. Why should people have to wait and get to the venue to get access to the info? Web publishing answers to expected FAQs also would help get the organizing committee get their info organized. Taking email questions ahead of time could also prepare the locals for some of the types of questions they'll be asked at the event.

[Mo]

Originally posted by Inquartata
And hopefully those people at the desk know the area. I've asked questions like "Where can I get a good steak around here?" at a couple of NACs and gotten only I-don't-knows and vague well-somewhere-off-thataway-I-think-there's-an-Outback's...

You can afford steak?? You must not be a serious fencer.

[swordsen]

Hey, I liked the Ya'll Fence T-shirt. Now I grant you, in true southern it probalby would have been better to say, Fence ya'll but it worked. Dialects differ.

No good food in Florida, or the Carolinas? Must not be a fan of BBQ. Or Sea Food. (well you need to be near the coast to get the best sea food.) There is good food in Cali. Lots of good mexican resturants, (look for the places the mexicans go)If you are in the Monterey area go to Compagnos Deli and have a sandwich and a dessert that you will remember forever.

[Bob Farrow]

Originally posted by swordsen
No good food in Florida, or the Carolinas? Must not be a fan of BBQ.

Make that "Pit Cooked" BBQ!


(in Hawaii, but born and raised near Charlotte)