2003 Championship Welcome Letter

FIRST Robotics Competition Championship
April 10-12, 2003
Reliant Park - Houston, TX

FIRST is very excited to be holding the 2003 Championship event at Reliant Park in Houston, Texas. The "Super Bowl of Smarts" comes to the home of the 2004 Super Bowl! Imagine the exhilaration of putting your brainpower and robot "muscle" to the test when you compete in the action-packed final elimination rounds in the newest state of the art, high-tech domed stadium in the NFL. FIRST teams will continue to experience Lone Star excitement when Houston's premier family theme park, Six Flags AstroWorld, opens exclusively for your enjoyment on Friday night. Six Flags will again serve up some Texas-sized fun on Saturday night when FIRST attendees are welcomed back for the team dinner.

The city of Houston has welcomed FIRST with open arms. FIRST and The Meeting Company have been working with the Houston business community to offer Championship travel packages that will make competing in Houston affordable and convenient. We are in the process of loading all of the data into the reservation system and plan to open reservations to teams as soon as possible (target date is December 23, 2002). The packages are VERY cost effective and we feel they will provide an exceptional value to FIRST teams. Detailed information and instructions on the reservation system will be sent to all Team Travel Coordinators prior to opening reservations.

FIRST and the Meeting Company have also secured the partnership of Continental airlines to be the official air carrier for the Championship event. Continental Airlines is headquartered in Houston and has offered special discounted airfares to FIRST Championship attendees. All FIRST participants, whether you are an individual traveler or a group traveler (10 or more passengers on the same flight) will be able to access special rates through a designated code. To access these special rates and instructions for making airline reservations with Continental Airlines please use the link below.

Special Rates and Instructions for Continental Airlines (pdf)

FIRST sincerely thanks everyone for being patient over the past weeks as we were finalizing arrangements for this exciting new 2003 Championship location. We hope that you'll agree that these arrangements have been worth the wait! We encourage everyone to use these packages to make the 2003 Championship competition a success for everyone involved.

Registration for the Championship will open at 9:00 AM EST on Monday, December 9, 2002.