2008 USA Dance Nationals - feedback please

B

Borbala_Bunnett

New Member
Hello All,

Now that the 2008 Nationals is behind us, the Organizing Committee has turned its collective attention to the 2009 event.

To continue improving the Nationals experience, we seek input from competitors, spectators, and those who did not attend for one reason or another.

Please provide us with what you liked (and would like to keep for next year and going forward), and what you hated (must change for next year), and any other suggestions/ observations you care to share.

Looking for thoughts around location, venue, schedule, layout, floor, music, lighting, media presence, communications around the competition, registration, website - or anything else :-).

Thank you - look forward to your feedback -

Borbala
 
My thoughts -
Location - I was very happy with it being on the east coast being that I live on the east coast and I think it made for a larger competition bringing in more competitiors from the east

Venue - LOVED IT - yes the hotel was a bit expensive but it was a really nice hotel with a great mall attached to it, with lots of quick food options and a Starbucks that opened at 7am on Saturday!!

Schedule - I thought the schedule worked well, 7:30 on a Saturday was a little early.

Layout - The only issue I had with the layout was it was difficult for the spectators that had seats in the corner closest to the judges dais but on the opposite side from the enterance to get back and forth. Potential need to have multiple doors available for legal entering. I also think the back hall that was used for some of the on-deck area needs to be secured because it would have been easy to sneak in the doors on that side.

Floor - Although I only got to social dance on it once or twice, I heard lots of great comments about it.

Music - The music was the best that I've heard at a comp in a long time.

Lighting - It was good except for when people would walk in the area they weren't suppose to and turn off sections of lighting. Although need to be slightly careful with the mirrors and where they were reflecting some of the light back.

Media Presence - I think it's a great idea, however, they need to tape on a Friday or Saturday night when the crowd is larger.

Pricing - I know the pricing was great for those doing only one or two events, but for those that do a lot it became cost prohibitive. I would like to see a cap on the amount charged, like once you get up to four or five events, it becomes a unlimited package price. I also think that the admission prices were a bit high.

Costume checks - I think they need to be more consistant across ever division/level. Since there are rules and restrictions at all levels they need to be followed at all levels.

I think Borbala needs to run the on-deck area again because she was great and without that we would have never run as on-schedule as we did most of the time.

Oh...one last thing...I think we need on of the roll-aways in the Office for those volunteers that work the whole time to take an occassional power nap, but still be easily accessible if there are issues!! :)

That's about all for now...if I think of anything else, I'll post again.
 
I didn't attend this year, but I've attended in previous years and the things I consider important are:

Affordability (flight, hotel, entrance fees)
Destination (Is there other stuff to do in the area that would make it a fun place to be? Personally I prefer the west coast!)
Timing (Personally I liked it better in the summer but there isn't much that can be done there since we're working around the schedule of the various world championships)

I like Ithink's idea of Las Vegas -- though I suppose all of us dancers would need to avoid the buffets in order to stay in healthy shape for dancing. ;)
 
I thought this year's nationals was FANTASTIC in almost every respect:

-Great location (but I'm biased, because we live 45 mins away)

-Great venue

-Amazingly efficient and cheerful volunteers

-Good array of ticket options, from single-session to weekend packages.

-Comfortable and plentiful seating. (I like padded seats. Bleachers become uncomfortable after about the 2 hour mark.)

-Impressive judging panel.

-Very rapid posting of results online.

***
Suggestions (some minor and trivial):
-Better badge holders. (My worst moment of the weekend BY FAR was when I arrived back at the venue Friday night after leaving my child with her sitter only to realize that while I was still wearing my lanyard, the badge had fallen off. I really started to panic at the thought that I had lost a $200 pass after just one session. Thank goodness Daphna got me straightened out.)

-If possible, more flat rate parking. I appreciated the $10 rate at night. For the day sessions, I paid $21. My total parking this weekend: $72.

-Monitor in the practice room??? I loved the monitor near the registration desk showing what event was going on in the ballroom. Could there be a similar monitor in the practice room?

-More outreach to the community.
-Demos. It would be cool to have a demo where the greater community could see a sample of what is going on inside the hotel. (In the case of a locale like the Inner Harbor, weather-permitting, there could a demo outside. Lots of street performers, and they often draw crowds.)
-Class offered to local elementary or middle school students? Okay, I realize there is a logistical scheduling problem, but still....
-Maybe offer cheaper tickets for Sunday night (maybe $10 or $15?), when attendance was indeed light, and send around flyers advertising this to all local dance schools.

-Possibly additional seminar opportunities?

-Maybe pad the schedule a bit, so that the comp doesn't wind up running behind schedule...though I realize this is basically impossible, because all the events have to be fit in somewhere!!! Still, if it were possible, and if the comp were running on time, the breaks could always be general dance time....

I thought Nationals was extremely well-run. Many, many thanks to the organizers for a great weekend!
 
Feedback on Nationals

I thought that Nationals this year was a relatively well run event. There are a couple of items that I would like to note for next year:

1. The costume check was very efficient at check-in, but individuals running the on deck area were not aware of costuming rules at all, and did not enforce violations in the syllabus categories. The costuming check station was informed of this and they came in and quickly made some changes with competitors, but this should not be an after thought and someone from costume check should be at the on deck area to verify costumes are indeed what were originally checked before competitors move to the floor to compete.

2. Ribbons instead of medals. I preferred the very nice medals that were given out the previous year, and I especially liked how they varied in size based on your final placements. The Ribbons this year didn't seem to carry the same "oomph" and I heard many of the competitors groan about them. For an event as important as Nationals, the medals are really nice especailly when worn when you return for your "congratulatory" dance at your home studio.

3. The on deck area was too small. Given the amount of competitors, the on deck area was very small and hard to keep managed with all the lights of competitors needing to be on the floor. Thank goodness for the on deck personnel, as they did well in managing a situation that was on the brink of getting out of hand.

4. Water in competitors area kept going dry. I personally made a couple of requests when there was no water left, and we all know how important water is to all of our competitors :)

Overall, another fine Nationals event. It was a pleasure to dance this year at Nationals and hopefully Nationals will move to the west coast this following year (hint hint) :)

Leo
 
Standard Dancer said:
It would be nice for nationals to alternate coasts from year to year, so the same people wouldn't always have to travel to get there.
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Totally agree. We live in the west coast and have traveled 2 years in a roll. It takes almost a whole day to get to the location (with time difference) and is getting expensive. Would be nice to have next year's National somewhere on the west coast. Thanks.
 
thomasy said:
Totally agree. We live in the west coast and have traveled 2 years in a roll.
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So what? Before last year the East Coasters had to travel 2 years in a roll [sic]. And even last year, Kentucky still required significant travel for the majority of East Coast competitors (i.e. NY/NJ).
 
lmcardle said:
2. Ribbons instead of medals. I preferred the very nice medals that were given out the previous year, and I especially liked how they varied in size based on your final placements. The Ribbons this year didn't seem to carry the same "oomph" and I heard many of the competitors groan about them.
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I don't know about the other events, but the winners of my event got medals, possibly even the top 3.

3. The on deck area was too small. Given the amount of competitors, the on deck area was very small and hard to keep managed with all the lights of competitors needing to be on the floor. Thank goodness for the on deck personnel, as they did well in managing a situation that was on the brink of getting out of hand.
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A lot of the crowding in the on-deck area was the spectators and parents and coaches and general loiterers that were taking up space there.
 
Is there any way that we can have children's changing room and adults' changing room seperate? I just hate these children and their moms spraying hair spray and tanning spray right onto me and my costumes.
 
oh there was a changing room.. Once we lost teh hotel room I kept running to the bathroom to change?? where was it ??
 
Katarzyna said:
oh there was a changing room.. Once we lost teh hotel room I kept running to the bathroom to change?? where was it ??
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The changing rooms were on the other side of the elevators from the bathroom. After a comment like that I think we need to add better signage on the list of improvements for next year. :)
 
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