Competition Expectations

[sulmoney]

Hi everybody,
This is a formal post so I will capitalize stuff haha. As I mentioned before, I will be helping to run a competition in Albany, NY on February 21, 2009 called Desi Dhamaka. It has been mostly a local show for the Albany colleges since 2003, but we are making it open to all and purely a bhangra competition, with a venue at The Egg, Albany's most distinctive and unique landmark. We plan on making this show for the teams, and what I wanted to ask everybody is, what do you expect the organizers to do for you, and what do you expect the organizers to NOT do for you. Please be specific, and not "be like Burgh" haha. Any and all feedback you provide will be greatly appreciated. I will get it started for an example:

Expect:
Food and drinks the day of the show, sufficient run time (what is sufficient time? 20 minutes?), free and quick access to pre/afterparties

Do NOT Expect:
No liaisons, non frequent communication leading up to the event

Thanks in advance again!

 

[Saleem]

I "manage projects" for a living, so i tend to think in terms of project plans and requirements documents. and to be honest, these would be helpful as a general guideline for competitions.

I think if you end up getting a bunch of responses to this, it would be good to collect it all into a big "Competition Checklist" that competitions should be sure that they've taken care of certains things, some for before the competition, some day of.

Anyway, to get you started
- Group rates at a reputable and close hotel (unlike: Sapna Bhangra)
- Do all teams have transportation between the hotel and venue? For before the show? After? (unlike: I forgot but it happens)
- What about transportation to/from the airport?
- Sound and lights crew - manage expectations between what the crew can give and what teams want
- Venue staff: how early can you secure the venue, give 100% buffer time for runthrus, etc (every NYC comp)
- Team Liasons for each team. When are they "on call" from and until?
- Food and snacks for teams before/during the show. Pizza is nice too
- Where will teams sit to see the show? Can they get there easily or will they be harassed by venue "security"?
- Venue: who is providing adequate security? (unlike: Royale)
- Judges: Are they announced beforehand? is the rubric announced? Where will they sit to get a good vantage point
- Judges: will they meet with teams afterwards
- Money: each team should get $5,000 for showing up.
- Team packages: do you have a welcome package for each team?
- Staff: Who is MC'ing. NOT YOU. You will be busy organizing (see Boston Bhangra for how it should be done, walkie-talkies and all)
- Staff: Do you have set staff for tickets, ushering, teams, selling stuff, etc. People will want to watch the show, make sure you have enough staff

 

[Temurzai]

I don't know how feasible this request is, but if you could at least try to pull this off I think it would help teams out just that much more.

Many teams would prefer to have somewhere they can practice, maybe a certain room in the official hotel set aside? Or if this is near a university or being affiliated with a certain university, maybe you guys could offer the teams practice space somewhere on campus?

Just a thought cause I know people practice in hallways and outside (pending weather) but a secluded room offering privacy would be CLUTCH.

Also, if you could manage to put all the teams in the hotel on the SAME FLOOR that would be most amazing I think, so that there are less complaints about noise and you won't have people walking around random floors tryin to find people = less chance for random damage. I always wondered why committee's never put evyerone on the same floor.

regards,
t-money

 

[Guppi Top Da]

Suggestion:

Escorts for winning team.

 

[Nikhil]

Whatup guys.

I think this thread is a great way for organizers to talk about what we've done, what we haven't and what we plan on fixing.
I will give a response based on my experience at AVAP.

AVAP planned for teams to expect:
-Confirmation of all final details regarding teams (are they coming? roster check? any extra or unusual issues of concern?)
-Knowledge of travel plans (itineraries, pick-up from airport) from all teams, judges and guests (including media personnel and sponsors)
-Confirmation that (a)reserved hotel rooms have been paid for by teams, or (b) that teams have made their own plans
-Food and water 24/7 for entire weekend of competition. This includes welcome basket, brunch basket, pizza, and full course indian dinner.
-Team liaisons (2 per team) on call 24/7 even at the afterparty. Thier duties were outlined on individualized ID badges that included Schedule of show and emergency contact info for all e-board members as well as all team capts. and all liaisons.
-Fluid organization and direct/immediate access with an e-board member.
-The Opportunity for accurate explanation of judging responses and criteria
-First Priority when it came to any any events of the weekend. The afterparty was included in this, however we did not expect there to be a problem on behalf of the selected venue based on its reputation and contractual agreement.


There are many more things that could be listed but these were the main expectations. Of course these expectations are what we as performers would want at other competitions, so it makes sense that we planned this as bhangra performers instead of business professionals!

I hope that helps Sulman.

 

[kinnell]

Expect:
> 1 hr dress rehearsal. It helped a lot at Midwest Masala and if you start at 8 AM as well as the night before, it's plausible. It increases the quality of the show.
> Be able to submit lighting cues before a dress rehearsal so lighting crew can be efficient.
> Teams can get into afterparty free of charge.
> The ability to play intro videos.
> A legit mixer. Easiest way to meet people from other teams and increases overall impression of competition.
> Start on time.
> Judging criteria should be available 2 weeks before competition.
> Judging criteria should be adhered to or Govind's rubric should be used (Top 3 scores taken into account and then top places awarded from those)
> A live-feed in the dressing rooms so other teams can watch the performances as they are going on EVEN though they are not in the audience. We had this at Raas Chaos and it was the shit. You don't have to wait forever to see how Team X did.

 

[sulmoney]

thanks guys, this does help much...keep suggestions coming in!

 

[Jimmy]

This is a great idea, everyone is giving some good susggestions

 

[Guppi Top Da]

This is a great idea, everyone is giving some good susggestions

thanks