[Yaaarc] Penguicon 5.0: April 20-22; Troy, MI

[Keith Mc. (Route-To YAR)]

Neal Probert <nprobert at probestar.com> wrote:
> For those of you who don't know, Penguicon 5.0 (www.penguicon.org) is a cool and fun open source software and science fiction convention.
> 
> Open source software as in stuff like Linux, *BSD and lots of other free software equivalents (and sometimes better than or equal to) to expensive commercial software (like Microsoft's).
> 
> Competition
> -----------
> Any ideas for a competition?  Lego based?  Sumobot?  A US First demo?

Having a FIRST robot there WOULD be cool.

FYI though, if you want a *current* FIRST robot, demos are VERY hard
to arrange for THAT date.  It can take from six to ten weeks to get 
a team's current robot shipped back from their last regional, or the 
Championship.  The Regionals start in March, and this year the 
Championships are the week before (Apr 11th-14th). That means you'd 
only be able to find current robots from teams that ended their 
season fairly early, say after the first couple of weeks of Regional 
competitions (and no Championships for them).  Even then, it's "iffy".
Most teams couldn't promise anything... (Everyone that attends the 
Championships won't see their robot back until the end of MAY, or 
start of June, so they're out!)

Now if you don't mind OLDER robots, you MAY be able to find a team
that'll show then.  BUT, you're going to have to give the team passes!

Is that possible to obtain?  (I don't know of many teams that'll 
PAY for the "honor" or showing their bot.) If so, I can ask around
for you, if you wish.  I'd need more details on what you propose
before I ask. (Exact date/time, length of demo, format desired, 
demo space available, etc...)  

If you wish to pursue this, let me know.

- Keith Mc.
FIRST Liaison Officer, YAAARC