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Bhangra At The Bell 2014- FEEDBACK

Bhangra At The Bell

New Member
Messages
45
First and foremost, I would like to THANK every single team for putting on an incredible show this past weekend!!! Thanks to our judges, Swi, Sapan Gandhi, Karmjot Grewal and Amitoj Singh. Each team brought a great set and we hope you guys enjoyed the show just as much as we did! Congrats to all the placing teams!!

As we wrap up everything for this year, and (hopefully) begin making preparations for next year, we kindly request everyone to provide us with some feedback, comprehensive review of the weekend or any critiques we can utilize in improving this competition. After a year in the books, as a second year competition we feel there were definitely improvements for the weekend, but there is room for improvement and we would love to hear that!

If teams would please provide feedback on this weekend it would be much appreciated and very helpful to assist in bringing this back again next year! Hope everyone had a fun and enjoyable weekend in the city of Brotherly Love!


(Special acknowledgements to the following individuals for all their hard work this weekend!)
Karishma Hemrajani
Dipen Patel
Badal Shah
Puneet Shahi
Mihir Patel
ALL OF THE LIASIONS

A special thanks to DJ/MC Gaurav and GTV !!

Best,
Rahul Hemrajani
Director of Operations

Bhangra At The Bell
 

ramv88

www.dholiram.com
Messages
198
Great weekend with the FCB brothers! I am still trying to recover from all the craziness and daylight savings. It was a lot of fun to meet and hang with the other teams. Congrats to FAUJ and NYPD on their respective placings! You guys always give the crowd a show with your choreo, gimmicks and swag!

Shout out to the committee (Rahul, Karishma and co.) for running a successful show. I can't comment on the mixer nor tech time as I came in later on Saturday last minute.

Here are my quick thoughts......
Shout out to Deepthi and Sanam (FCB liasons) for doing a great job for our team.

Competition was well run in my opinion. Timing---was pretty good. MC---Rahul---one of the best show mc's i have heard so far! No corny skits nor jokes....on point with the concise announcements! Other show MC's can learn from this!

Harjot Hundal (gtv)- enough said! Can't wait for the videos brotha!

Hotel was a good location from where the venue was. From what I heard, hotel security did a great job for handling what had transpired after the show @ the hotel. Afterparty---good time. a lot of space for us to move around.

Show can improve on the sound system but otherwise this has the makings of being a very good show for years to come.

Keep doing your thing in Philly guys! :)


- Dholi Ram
 

Saab

Today is a gift
Messages
991
Rather than do a timeline of events like most feedback sessions, Ill stick with a breakdown of critical aspects of the competition:

Mixer -

- Fun, but a little long. As a team needing to practice, I think a lot of the discussion with the captains about technical issues could have been conveyed to us in writing or in a brief announcement(where we could approach the organizers with followup questions)
- Don't mind the games, but the format kept things pretty long with the cross-pollination aspects of the competition.
- Food(Italian) is way better than the indian we normally get, but the annoying thing was there was soda everywhere at the start. Someone thought to grab water later, but it was a inconvenience a couple of the teams had to get through when they got their food

Tech Time -

- Tech time was fine for the most part, but sound sucked(more about that later), so that didn't help our tech.
- I realize you said we wouldn't get some lighting cues during our tech time, but someone decided to trip a bunch of random cues during our actual performance. When reviewing our tech-time run-thru, it seemed like our saap segment was being performed in the middle of heaven(there was so much white light...). It also threw some of our performers off(if you want do this, do this before we dance).
- The studio upstairs before was nice, but we were given a speaker with no bass(think of bohemian rhapsody acapella at 100 times the volume). The space was great and we didn't really NEED the speaker, but I wonder if other teams suffered for it.
- We had to wait outside for a bit for another teams to move props from the dressing area so we could drop our stuff off pre-tech. I would suggest looking into another area to store/build props on-site just to keep things punctual and smooth
- Tech time ran smooth, and their were no delays in time. It was pretty smart that the committee had built in extra time to accommodate delays, but we never felt rushed or delayed at any point once entering the building

**** Sound ****

- I am just going to leave this here, because it deserves its own topic. Sound was so bad during Bell, to the point no video our team took could accurately capture our mix(some of our members couldnt here it towards the back of the stage). It was diarrhea to our ears, and I would recommend looking into that for next year.




Show -


- Show ran on time, and Bell did an incredible job of keeping things on time. We were informed their might be a delay for letting people in, but were informed there would be a hard start time and Bell followed through. Everything seemed smooth and transitions between teams was also smooth.
- Show seemed to be at 75-80% capacity at the end(couldn't really see when we performed, Im blind like a mole without glasses). There was definitely a buzz about the bell, and that really reflected the buzz a lot of the staff had during the show.
- There was a slight delay from where it seemed the judges were done to announcing the results. I was informed that this had to do with Rahul tabulating some final scores, but one thing I would recommend would be to have Rahul/whoever is presenting the awards as close to the stage as possible when things are winding down. It just left an awkward gap at the end of the show.


Hotel -


- The Inn at Penn is a great hotel, by great places, and was STACKED for the price(130 for a room with ipads and state of the art electronics? Sign me up). Getting one floor almost completely blocked off was smart. Grabbing the hotel meeting room on the floor was also a smart choice, as it allowed the hub for communication to be located central to all teams in the hotel, minimizing communication issues.
- Whoever decided to have security on the floors(hotel,comp, mix of both) was incredibly smart to the goings on of a competition before an afterparty. Very good decision and kept teams focused on moving to the afterparty asap.
- Judges meeting at the hotel(and having that central room on the floor) was so clutch. It allowed our team personally to take enough time with judges and not have to account for all of our dancers/captains at any point during the weekend). The fact we weren't threatened with immediate removal from the venue was also a huge plus.
- Location to venue - huge plus


Afterparty -

- I don't know where it was, but it was SO dope. One of the best afterparties I have personally been too.
- Huge venue/ Lots of space/ minimal outside interference = great for teams.



Logistics -

- Getting to and from the venue, afterparty, and mixer was easy to do and easy to navigate.
- One helpful item to add -> please have one or two runners at the hotel ready to transport teams in case of emergency. Having a lot places in walking distance is great, but it means teams need to inherently know where things are or rely on other people to get them from A ->B, so that was a small annoyance.
- Groupme with team captains was great. Kept us informed
- Our liaisons were awesome, but we had limited time with them(seemed like they were liaising multiple teams). Get two for each team please, as we definitely could have used them more often!


One last thing -> the board was really approachable for everything we needed and everyone was either able to answer our questions or direct us to someone who knew something. Overall, bell was very well run and had a few minor hiccups + sound issues to deal with. Barring that, it was a huge success.
 

Bhangra At The Bell

New Member
Messages
45
Thanks for the feedback so far, we encourage other teams to please share with us.


Also we have been notified about the sound complaints at the venue, and just to confirm, each team did have 2 liaisons, but I am sure they could have just been helping with some other stuff, but no worries, appreciate the feedback thus far.
 

aneeshsahni

New Member
Messages
60
Overall it was a fantastic competition. Very well run, and it was a stress-free and fun weekend!

+’s
  • Everything was sooooo close together. That was AWESOME. No going from hotel to venue in a car trying to make sure your turla doesn’t get fucked up in your volkswagon beetle...official team vehicle
  • Rahul was very communicative/responsive beforehand, getting us info as needed
  • Committee was very accommodating of non-dancing team members and made sure that they had a great experience to the extent possible
  • Mixer started on time, team attendance was high, games were fun!
  • Opportunity to talk to judges pre-comp
  • choosing not to have an MC decision was a GREAT decision…kept the show relatively short and flowing quickly
  • GTV!
  • Hotel was nice+reasonably priced…even though hotel security was freaking out for no reason (at least on 4th floor I know teams were quiet)
  • captains+committee groupme was good
  • TV Asia airtime
  • Water, t-shirts, water bottles, granola bars, shot glasses for teams =)
  • Afterparty venue was big/lots of room to dance
-‘s
  • I wasn’t 100% clear on what the “studio rehearsal” was before the tech time….not sure if I was the only one unclear on that
  • Especially since most cues weren’t done the day of, it seems like there was room for mix+lighting to be submitted the day before Bell. We did hand ours in a couple days late anyway, but would’ve made a couple tweaks if we had until the day before
  • While Dipen did let us check out cues w/ mix and ours were fine, having them during tech time is highly preferred
  • audience wasn’t too full….I’m not sure what it was like last year, but I think it was spring break @ Penn? Maybe it’s more expensive to use auditorium during non-spring break hours though, not sure. Either way though, more peeps could’ve been in audience
  • Pre-setting order based on lineup (or picking out of a hat) for judges’ mtng order would’ve been nice
  • Liaisons staying until the whole team has left to leave for the afterparty (or finding a way to accommodate captains left behind bc judges meeting ran late….I mean we found a taxi pretty easily…it wasn’t really a big deal to be honest)
 

HarmanToor

Nachde Yaar Punjab De
Messages
487
Saab said:
**** Sound ****

- I am just going to leave this here, because it deserves its own topic. Sound was so bad during Bell, to the point no video our team took could accurately capture our mix(some of our members couldnt here it towards the back of the stage). It was diarrhea to our ears, and I would recommend looking into that for next year.
I think every organizer should take careful note of this comment because very few get it right. Mixers work very hard making quality mixes to compliment the dancing, but what's the point if the sound reinforcement is sub-par?

Pay the extra money to hire the right people with the right gear or at the very least book the competition in a venue that has a good in-house sound system. Bhangra Fusion is the only competition that I can think of that had an exceptional quality PA system and both the teams and the audience loved it.
 

Gsimz

Ne Asi Gabroo Desh Punjab De ;)
Messages
491
HarmanToor said:
Saab said:
**** Sound ****

- I am just going to leave this here, because it deserves its own topic. Sound was so bad during Bell, to the point no video our team took could accurately capture our mix(some of our members couldnt here it towards the back of the stage). It was diarrhea to our ears, and I would recommend looking into that for next year.
I think every organizer should take careful note of this comment because very few get it right. Mixers work very hard making quality mixes to compliment the dancing, but what's the point if the sound reinforcement is sub-par?

Pay the extra money to hire the right people with the right gear or at the very least book the competition in a venue that has a good in-house sound system. Bhangra Fusion is the only competition that I can think of that had a good quality PA system and both the teams and the audience loved it.
Couldn't of said it better!
 

mithu

Active Member
Messages
793
HarmanToor said:
Saab said:
**** Sound ****

- I am just going to leave this here, because it deserves its own topic. Sound was so bad during Bell, to the point no video our team took could accurately capture our mix(some of our members couldnt here it towards the back of the stage). It was diarrhea to our ears, and I would recommend looking into that for next year.
I think every organizer should take careful note of this comment because very few get it right. Mixers work very hard making quality mixes to compliment the dancing, but what's the point if the sound reinforcement is sub-par?

Pay the extra money to hire the right people with the right gear or at the very least book the competition in a venue that has a good in-house sound system. Bhangra Fusion is the only competition that I can think of that had an exceptional quality PA system and both the teams and the audience loved it.

Pao bhangra last year had an AMAZING sound system.
 

siddyp

Tough times never last, but tough people do.
Messages
1,270
Bell was an awesome weekend. A lot was done right and has been mentioned, so I'll only touch on things that I think should change:

It's kind of whatever, but take out one of the mixer games and make the mixer a bit shorter so teams can practice/do their nightly day before comp thing. It def seemed that the teams had a great time with the first mixer game and the second one was fun too, but it just dragged and took a while.

If you're going to do game number 2, pick a better song for the dance battle. It wasn't that hype...

Things that REALLY need to change IMO:

Tech time - We got to the venue, then went into one room to put down props, then got moved to another, then went downstairs to go upstairs to a studio, to then again go downstairs and wait side stage for a few minutes, then get on stage and have our 15 mins.

It was A LOT of stop go and movement. It didn't allow us to get any focus or rhythm for tech time. For next year, I would suggest not using the studio because the studio size doesn't resemble the stage and its a hassle to get there. (while carrying all of our props) The room right next to stage right would have been just fine and allowed us to do the necessary prep work we did in the studio. A suggested route is this: Go straight to the room next to stage, then on stage, then to the room to put down props.

Secondly, it was great that we got to sleep in, but starting tech times as late as they did, didn't really allow us to have any down time between tech time and us beginning to get dressed. It would be nice to have that time to relax/go over tech time mishaps some more etc. It'll also allow the later teams to get ready earlier so they can watch the beginning of the show.

And lastly, 15 mins on stage is a real tight window. If teams could get 20, that'd be a heck of a lot less stressful for when we are actually on stage.

Sound - has been touched on.

Lighting during tech time - find a way to make all the cues actually happen. If not, don't mess with the lighting while a team is on stage. If you need to "test" a lighting feature, do it where a team has it in their cues.

Other than that, Bell was SICK. Shout out to entire committee. Mixer was great, show ran smooth and quick, AP was BALLER, hotel was BALLER, security was a sick idea, that room on floor 3 for judges meeting was BALLER and much more!

Hope this helps the future BATB staff, and any other comp organizers reading this :)
 

Kaustubh

New Member
Messages
10
We had a terrific time at Bell, one of the best run competitions I've been to, and a lot of fun. A lot of the points have been made already, but a couple things that I wanted to touch on as well.


The mixer went on a little too long, and it was unclear what time the mixer started and ended, and therefore hard to say when we should be there and what time we could feasible go practice. The mixer games were pretty fun too, but it would be nice to have fewer or a little bit more interaction between teams.


Gift baskets when we got the hotel were excellent, helpful and cool stuff for the weekend, definitely keep that touch. The hotel itself was great, extra security was really good at keeping people in check.


Tech time went reasonably smoothly for us, though having lighting for tech time is key, especially if you ask us to submit lighting cues a week before the show. Our lighting turned out great in the performance (Shout out to Dipen) but it would be nice to know exactly how it was at tech time.


The show itself moved quickly and was organized well. Loved having an MC instead of a host to keep the show running, every comp should do this. It kept the show running quickly and kept the action on stage, which were the teams.


Afterparty venue was great, really big and lots of space at the bar and dance floor. Also liked having a separate entrance for teams, made it really easy for us.


We had a great time this weekend, congrats to all the teams, there was a lot of talent on stage. Great job by Rahul and the rest of the committee keeping it contact with the captains through the GroupMe, excellent idea.
 

aneeshsahni

New Member
Messages
60
siddyp said:
It was A LOT of stop go and movement. It didn't allow us to get any focus or rhythm for tech time. For next year, I would suggest not using the studio because the studio size doesn't resemble the stage and its a hassle to get there. (while carrying all of our props) The room right next to stage right would have been just fine and allowed us to do the necessary prep work we did in the studio. A suggested route is this: Go straight to the room next to stage, then on stage, then to the room to put down props.

Ya. Room next to stage would've been clutch for pre-tech time practice b/c of size.
 

Nirpaal

Member
Messages
159
Mixer:
- I'm a big fan of not having mixer games dictate your position in the lineup, the added 5 minutes of tech-time was a great way to keep teams competitive and yet still allowed everyone to feel loose and actually have fun at the mixer.
- I didn't mind the games, but I feel that the consensus was that after the first set of games the mixer just kept dragging on. Pasta was a wicked idea (not a fan of modern Indian food at mixers).
- One thing I did like was that everyone was able to get a practice space right after the mixer, the Drexel campus was a great spot and for the most part fairly private as well.


Tech Time:
- I found it pretty weird that we wouldn't get lighting cues during tech time... I mean we had 3 blackouts in our performance and one of the cues was a bit off which screwed me up on stage. Can't complain too much though the 5 minutes awarded to us for winning the mixer came clutch. Oh and as EVERYONE has said... the sound as absolutely terrible I was barely playing my saap on stage during tech time.
- I also liked the fact that we were given a studio before the actual tech-time, saved us from wasting precious minutes on stage.


Show:
- I was a bit worried when we walked into the venue and saw that all teams were put into one big room. Both us and FAUJ had at least 20 people each so props to whoever had the idea to move us out of there and into a larger room.
- I felt that everything ran very smooth, I was concerned when our tech-time was so late in the day that we would be stressing about it later, but we ended having more than enough time to get ready and prepare.
- On stage experience was better than I expected, I heard mixed reviews about how the crowd reaction but it didn't really bother me on stage (our teammates in the front row helped with that).
- As I mentioned previously the lack of lighting cues came back to bite us in the ass on stage (I couldn't see me switch for my daang on stage because the light went on early).


Afterparty:
- Shout out to Cornell for the boli session on the bus!
- The venue was awesome, my whole team thoroughly enjoyed the afterparty and it was fun kicking it with the other teams.


Hotel:
5 Minute Walking Distance from Venue = Clutch
Security on the floor = Clutch
Not getting kicked out for stupid reasons = Clutch
iPads= Clutch


Overall BATB 2 was a very well run competition. Rahul you did a tremendous job all weekend in trying to accommodate all of our demands haha.
 

sartajjudge

New Member
Messages
609
Nirpaal said:
Mixer:
- I'm a big fan of not having mixer games dictate your position in the lineup, the added 5 minutes of tech-time was a great way to keep teams competitive and yet still allowed everyone to feel loose and actually have fun at the mixer.
- I didn't mind the games, but I feel that the consensus was that after the first set of games the mixer just kept dragging on. Pasta was a wicked idea (not a fan of modern Indian food at mixers).
- One thing I did like was that everyone was able to get a practice space right after the mixer, the Drexel campus was a great spot and for the most part fairly private as well.


Tech Time:
- I found it pretty weird that we wouldn't get lighting cues during tech time... I mean we had 3 blackouts in our performance and one of the cues was a bit off which screwed me up on stage. Can't complain too much though the 5 minutes awarded to us for winning the mixer came clutch. Oh and as EVERYONE has said... the sound as absolutely terrible I was barely playing my saap on stage during tech time.
- I also liked the fact that we were given a studio before the actual tech-time, saved us from wasting precious minutes on stage.


Show:
- I was a bit worried when we walked into the venue and saw that all teams were put into one big room. Both us and FAUJ had at least 20 people each so props to whoever had the idea to move us out of there and into a larger room.
- I felt that everything ran very smooth, I was concerned when our tech-time was so late in the day that we would be stressing about it later, but we ended having more than enough time to get ready and prepare.
- On stage experience was better than I expected, I heard mixed reviews about how the crowd reaction but it didn't really bother me on stage (our teammates in the front row helped with that).
- As I mentioned previously the lack of lighting cues came back to bite us in the ass on stage (I couldn't see me switch for my daang on stage because the light went on early).


Afterparty:
- Shout out to Cornell for the boli session on the bus!
- The venue was awesome, my whole team thoroughly enjoyed the afterparty and it was fun kicking it with the other teams.


Hotel:
5 Minute Walking Distance from Venue = Clutch
Security on the floor = Clutch
Not getting kicked out for stupid reasons = Clutch
iPads= Clutch


Overall BATB 2 was a very well run competition. Rahul you did a tremendous job all weekend in trying to accommodate all of our demands haha.

What do you mean by iPads? I know what they are obviously but what do you mean exactly?
 

Nirpaal

Member
Messages
159
sartajjudge said:
Nirpaal said:
Mixer:
- I'm a big fan of not having mixer games dictate your position in the lineup, the added 5 minutes of tech-time was a great way to keep teams competitive and yet still allowed everyone to feel loose and actually have fun at the mixer.
- I didn't mind the games, but I feel that the consensus was that after the first set of games the mixer just kept dragging on. Pasta was a wicked idea (not a fan of modern Indian food at mixers).
- One thing I did like was that everyone was able to get a practice space right after the mixer, the Drexel campus was a great spot and for the most part fairly private as well.


Tech Time:
- I found it pretty weird that we wouldn't get lighting cues during tech time... I mean we had 3 blackouts in our performance and one of the cues was a bit off which screwed me up on stage. Can't complain too much though the 5 minutes awarded to us for winning the mixer came clutch. Oh and as EVERYONE has said... the sound as absolutely terrible I was barely playing my saap on stage during tech time.
- I also liked the fact that we were given a studio before the actual tech-time, saved us from wasting precious minutes on stage.


Show:
- I was a bit worried when we walked into the venue and saw that all teams were put into one big room. Both us and FAUJ had at least 20 people each so props to whoever had the idea to move us out of there and into a larger room.
- I felt that everything ran very smooth, I was concerned when our tech-time was so late in the day that we would be stressing about it later, but we ended having more than enough time to get ready and prepare.
- On stage experience was better than I expected, I heard mixed reviews about how the crowd reaction but it didn't really bother me on stage (our teammates in the front row helped with that).
- As I mentioned previously the lack of lighting cues came back to bite us in the ass on stage (I couldn't see me switch for my daang on stage because the light went on early).


Afterparty:
- Shout out to Cornell for the boli session on the bus!
- The venue was awesome, my whole team thoroughly enjoyed the afterparty and it was fun kicking it with the other teams.


Hotel:
5 Minute Walking Distance from Venue = Clutch
Security on the floor = Clutch
Not getting kicked out for stupid reasons = Clutch
iPads= Clutch


Overall BATB 2 was a very well run competition. Rahul you did a tremendous job all weekend in trying to accommodate all of our demands haha.

What do you mean by iPads? I know what they are obviously but what do you mean exactly?

The hotel rooms had iPads in each room, didn't really use them but I felt like a baller haha.
 
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