10th to 12th of January 2013 -Mechatrons RoD Dublin, Ireland

[robotwars]

Hiya,

Cant sleep.....

Had a bit of thought about this, and a few things to consider. Not being negative, been here before with logistics of moving teams around thats all and its not that simple.

We get a ferry paid, and on average the £100 expenses, so those figures are correct.
Its easy, we get in the car and drive to the ferry play robots come home again.

The other option has bits missing.

Does anyone own a large van and trailer we can use? Someone must have one?? And dont underestimate how much space it takes, when you consider 8 teams would generally each have a car fully loaded, on average most teams take 2 heavies, ( we take 3 ) thats a lot of space and weight to consider. So you are talking potentially 20 heavies, plus boxers, plus mechanoids and everyones tools and spares.

If not we have to hire one, Say £80 a day inc trailer for 7 days = £560 And thats cheap for the size of van we'd need.

That van has to collect all the robots, that€™s 1 persons job a whole day collecting, and a day delivering back, and all the logistics of doing that. Someone has to do that.

Cost of diesel for that 2 x £150 = £300

Or everyone has to deliver their robots to the van in a central place. Again logistics, time, and cost for everyone.

If we fly, those flights are from London Airports im assuming, so we have to travel down there, again cost to do this, and when we get there we have to pay to park the car for 5 days.

Is the flight one of those cheapo flights with no luggage allowance? Something to consider, I don€™t fly very often so not sure.

So I totalled it as:

Fuel and ferry £540
Van hire £560
Deisel pickup / delivery £300
Flights x 8 x £107 = £856
Car parking 8 x 20?? = £160
Expenses allowance £50? = £400

Total for 8 teams = £2816 + a logistical nightmare + probably costs more personally to each team due to not getting as much expenses covered.

More thoughts, and possibly a volunteer with a large van and trailer .

John
http://www.RoamingRobots.co.uk

[teamstorm]

Guys if people don't want to do it then let's not do it, I am just very aware that the organisers (who pay for you all to attend) get frustrated that the same old robots turn up every year so there was an element of safeguarding the future of the event as well as trying to allow more teams to attend.

If people want it to work then yes it might involve a little more effort, and perhaps it's not a surprise that it's the one of the established teams that go every year that are flagging up it might take a little more effort to do than they are used to - but at the expense of allowing a wider audience. Maybe asking the other teams if they would be willing to put in that effort would be more interesting ?

I can't be bothered - where there is a will there is a way, I was just trying to think up something for the better of the community.

Bottom line - yes those teams that go every year might have to take a slightly less advantageous package of expenses .... it would be a shame if that was enough to conclude allowing more/different people in the community to take part was too much effort. Is it a as much of free trip for a few as possible, or is there benefit in looking at the funding differently and getting as many as possible over as a community ?

[mechatrons]

Just like to clear up a few things here.

First off we don't have the same teams every year. There are a few who come over every year but that is because of number/type of machine that they bring vs cost. We run a different type of show to what most are used to (its only 20 minutes long) so we have certain criteria for the types of robots that we need.

Second off, the organisers are not frustrated that the same old robots turn up every year. This is simply not true and frankly, defamatory. We have never had an event with no new robots. The actual report from the stakeholders at last January's show was fully positive, and I quote the end line, you've upped your game again this year. Furthermore, we have a full house for every show and have to turn half of the queue away as we don't have the capacity for them. We have been running the event for 13 years and our audience is growing every year so clearly the audience like the selection of robots and the show we put on.

Finally, I do not believe that it is a free trip for anyone. We do our best with very limited funding to get as many robots over as we can. But we don't pay for everything and while our funding helps, I know that every participant is ultimately out of pocket.

With that all said, I do believe that we could bring more over if we could share some space. i.e. if a couple of roboteers had big vans, and a couple had MPVs then all could meet up at Holyhead and vanpool/carpool the rest of the journey. BTW, I don't think flights would be a runner. Without even considering the logistic headache, it would cost more to collect everyone from the airport (on the other side of the city) and then transit to-from accommodation every day.

Also, like I say every year, if you can fund your own trip or get it sponsored, as long as you meet the FRA safety requirements, you are welcome to come over. I know some teams receive good sponsorship and are well able to fund their own way over. We have no problem displaying advertising for your sponsor if it helps you get over as long as it doesn't conflict with our event sponsors.

Either way, we still need the applications to come in so we can start our selection process!

[teamstorm]

No need to get so defensive - not what I was expecting as the person who was willing to try to coordinate things differently and of considering putting hand in the Team Storm Academy funding if needed

Although you have kinda proved the point being made, it is the way the logistics are looked at each year that is driving the same teams to go every year.

Team Storm have applied and will use our own sponsor funding to attend so we don't draw on any central pool to attend and reduce the number of robots.

I had no idea that sharing the idea of doing things differently (and the reasons behind the suggestion) would create such an outcry - a real shame, especially considering I was one of those stakeholders you refer to !

I'll leave it here, don't want to fall out with anyone - and all my comments were made in good faith

[robotwars]

I wasn't being negative.

Just highlighting some things you'd missed off the costings and thought about the practicality of the logistics of organising such a thing. And I only thought about because I was considering to help organise it with you.

In principle the idea of a van sounds like the perfect solution but reality says its not.

Anyway Nobody has come forward with a large van, no one has come forward offering to drive a van either !! There can't be this pool of people wanting to come or it wouldn't just be me and you talking about :-) interesting !!


John
Www.roamingrobots.co.uk

[teamstorm]

John I'll talk to you !

The maths can easily be dealt with :-)

[teamstorm]

Pete, have spoken to John (and others) on this over the weekend.

If you want the roboteers to try to organise things more efficiently could you PM me with the budget that you have allocated to getting teams over and accomodating them, and the number of robots that this got over last year (which I know included Daleks and Skelly).

We'll then do the maths, and we're confident that we can build a more efficient model.

This is about demonstrating that the event can deliver more robots with the same money through being more efficient, and that's something any sponsor wants to see.

If that's not what you want to do, then that's fine, its your event after all, but we tried to help.

[robotwars]

Be great to have more robots attend.

Lets see if we can get more teams over.

John
www.roamingrobots.co.uk

[blazerbotics]

I think more machines/teams would be a benefit to the show and to the regular teams that attend. Last year i was really struggling to keep 3 heavies, a Dalek and a Mechanoid running for each show, having a few extra robots there would take the pressure off, plus would add abit more variety to the show. I think it was last year when we had a couple of heavies break down and we were struggling to have enough machines for the shows.

I can understand why it is ran the way it is, it is a very different style of event with limited space and fights. However a few more teams wouldn't go a miss, but i can see why you wouldn't want lots of teams turning up.

Just my thoughts as an EO looking in, but its your event and your free to do it whatever way you think works best.

[teamstorm]

John/Alan - the power is in Pete's hands now, I'm willing to ensure that we have something that works financially if we know what budgets we're working with, and importantly works for the teams, we've done it before and we can do it again

Pete - over to you.