I think there's a few things that the Idols organizers do really well that other organizers might not even be aware of...small things that make all the difference.
1. Advance notice of things. Idols organizers usually give the teams advance notice of goings on and/or changes which makes it much less stressful on the teams.
2. Smoooooooooooooooooth operations backstage. Thanks to their volunteers things ran fairly seamlessly backstage in my opinion on the day of the show both during the show and during the all loved "tech time".
3. For out of town teams a lot of stuff was provided (rides, hotels, meals, etc.) so that was nice.
4. Judges meeting in advance...gave our team a lot of time to fix up some stuff that we were unclear on and adjust our routine accordingly. A DVD of this meeting was also given out in case someone forgot something.
5. DVDs and scorecards given to team captains before we left the venue. This invaluable information helps SO much regardless of if you placed or not, and getting it right away leaves no doubt in my mind that nothing has been altered at all.
6. Judges were available at the afterparty and one of them even emailed me his opinions about our routine when I asked him. They are approachable judges and because nothing fishy happened they are more than open to discussing your team's performance. Much appreciated.
All in all a great comp, once again congrats to the placing teams and thanks so much to everyone who came out and helped us win the "Best Spirit Squad" award!