Uhhh.... Unicon?

[leo]

Originally Posted by leo

Unless it's the BMX worldchampionship of 1997, which was in an ice-hall with a floor identical of an ice-hall in Brixen, which didn't stop...

...rising X-game stars, who faded off the screen when there was no governing organization to prevent ESPN dropping the event off the schedule.

Originally Posted by tholub

do you really think you're going to get that into a TV news broadcast?

View-ratings are overrated. Youngsters simply don't want to watch it anymore. That's why ClearChannel nowadays sells a sticker at the back of a double-deck bus in London for more than a commercial at prime time at M-tv.
A you-tube clip with 1 millions views has more impact than 300 million viewings of a unicycle item on TV, because it gets a more dedicated audience (which also appreciates it better if someone is able to provide them more information than a quote of 3 seconds, or useless ghostwriter text mumbled from a teleprompter).

But to stick with the topic; I think it would be great if the IUF could realize a tour of demo teams that would go places/events to showcase unicycling as a sport. For example bike trade shows, or in Europe at the coast on summer-days while other events are attract a big crowd already. This is what I see happening in bicycle-trial.

Originally Posted by Julia B

someone in the IUF cancelled the entire competition. Then, (around 7 or 8 AM I guess) all of the participants and Olaf discovered this.

Someone within the IUF? A cancelation is new information to me.
Well, then I wasn't sleeping. In your description I miss the option of the space in front of the basketball / workshop gym, which was told to me to be the flat location. We could the least call it chaotic, but wasn't that the new location at that point in the timeline? In my experience only the location changed, but now it seems even more hectic then I thought it was.

Originally Posted by Julia B

Half of the junior/female competitors missed the competition, possibly because it got moved up so much.

If it moved in the other direction I would say yes, but I think more because of lack of a clear and decent communication. Either way; that seriously sucks. I did not knew the impact was that severe. I was told that only a few riders without serious interest in the event did not show up because of other priorities.

Originally Posted by Julia B

I don't think the organizers had anything to do with Spencer showing up as chief judge.

Ai, I named the wrong role. I was more talking about Conny (and Robin).

Originally Posted by Julia B

What? Indoor rainfalls?

Yes, well the rainclouds were outside, but the water was at the edge of the TJA but still within the boundaries. Although concrete falls harder, water on that blue plastic floor is no fun, especially when your competitors had better circumstances.

Originally Posted by Julia B

Second, a lot of that could have probably been prevented if there was somewhere provided for us to ride. As Chris (unicycledood) pointed out, we had nowhere to ride.

OK, but don't think freestyle riders had all they wished for. Where could they go if they wanted to do their daily 3 hours of practise, while an important event is coming up?
The few moments the hall was available outside competition, was more because the guy who was bashed allowed this with "closed eyes". And if not ALL of the gym rules were violated, then there was some more place than the organizer provided. Bonus, because of a friendly outsider. I'm aware (and acknowledged) you wisely stay out of this, and you certainly do not need to advocate here. Still I fail to see any justification why a hall owner who rents his hall for certain hours to an organizer deserved to receive this kind of shit in return.

Originally Posted by Nurse Ben

If I was an NAUCC organizer and read some of the complaints in this thread, I'd reconsider offering to help in the future. Even the most poorly organized event is better than no event at all, so consider the half full glass...

Exactly! And not just NAUCC... Not any UNICON was entirely perfect. Sarah Miller gave a good example. I can't recall reading such complaints then.
Also (like said before) I think we should consider that the amount of UNICON's events on the schedule is huge!
I think we focus a little bit much on the negative happenings; but I read a lot of constructive comments to.

Originally Posted by Julia B

You're comparing apples and oranges. BMX flatland riders use 20" tires built for smooth floors. Unicycle flatland riders use 19" tires built for rough terrain, which are utterly unsuitable for slick floors like the icehall.

a] I didn't come up with the suggestion (although I don't think it's that odd), b] don't think a BMX flatlander like Andrew Farris (or Matti Kuoppa, Trevor Meyer or the wild Jason Brown) consider such floor as ideal. Not any bicycle tyre is suitable for this. But they were pro enough to simply deal with such circumstances, that to them came the same way on their path.

The floor issue should have been resolved at day 1 or 2, and not at 8 AM. Still I don't know if it is entirely 100% fair to give the organizer all the blame, but I think they could have been more supportive in finding a solution. As I think they were obligated toward paying participants who expected the announced scheduled events.

Originally Posted by GizmoDuck

Someone needs to thank Olaf!

Sure! Twice. But not only him. Julia mentioned the men who were building up till much to late (and rather would have socialized). Invisible work. And there were countless other people helping out.

Originally Posted by GizmoDuck

Do you mean BMX? I recall being excited that Mountainbiking would be included in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, so this must be the 5th edition.

I remember indeed a friend of me participating in the female catagory in 1996.
London was the 2nd time BMX appeared at the Olympics, but the 1st time that BMX was an official event, as previously time it was a demonstration sport.

[Julia B]

Keep in mind that I'm not angry or upset. My competitions overall went great, and I had an amazing time at unicon. I just felt like I should share my opinions and experiences, which it seems that people don't do enough. Honestly I think that this mentality of "Unless you're an organizer, shut up and be thankful" isn't helping our sport at all. Of course not everyone with an opinion has the time or resources to host a unicon, but hopefully these opinions can be used for future organizers to improve the events.

Originally Posted by tholub

Jim and Eric don't live in Italy, either, yet they spent their time talking with locals about where the venues would be, how many courts would be there, how often they'd be opened up for practice, what the spectator area was like, etc.

UNICON provided a slab of flat ground. The flatlanders didn't like it. Maybe if you'd been more clear on what your requirements are, the organizers would have been better prepared. You can't tell how slippery the floor is by looking at past photos.

Blame it on my inexperience then. I've been riding a grand total of 4 years. I've been to 3 NAUCCs with good flatland locations, and yes, I assumed that my first unicon would be the same or better.

[Julia B]

Originally Posted by leo

Someone within the IUF? A cancelation is new information to me.
Well, then I wasn't sleeping. In your description I miss the option of the space in front of the basketball / workshop gym, which was told to me to be the flat location. We could the least call it chaotic, but wasn't that the new location at that point in the timeline? In my experience only the location changed, but now it seems even more hectic then I thought it was.

That location was thrown out 1-2 days before the competition, because it was supposedly illegal... I checked with Olaf the night before the competition, and he confirmed that it would be in the icehall. Of course, when I arrived the next morning everything had changed.

Originally Posted by leo

If it moved in the other direction I would say yes, but I think more because of lack of a clear and decent communication. Either way; that seriously sucks. I did not knew the impact was that severe. I was told that only a few riders without serious interest in the event did not show up because of other priorities.

It was 6 hours EARLIER than scheduled, so I don't know why it would have been worse in the other direction? But it was certainly unfortunate.

Originally Posted by leo

Yes, well the rainclouds were outside, but the water was at the edge of the TJA but still within the boundaries. Although concrete falls harder, water on that blue plastic floor is no fun, especially when your competitors had better circumstances.

...The gym was totally indoors. How did it get wet inside?

Originally Posted by leo

a] I didn't come up with the suggestion (although I don't think it's that odd), b] don't think a BMX flatlander like Andrew Farris (or Matti Kuoppa, Trevor Meyer or the wild Jason Brown) consider such floor as ideal. Not any bicycle tyre is suitable for this. But they were pro enough to simply deal with such circumstances, that to them came the same way on their path.

I don't know anything about that contest, so unless you have some insider information I don't think either of us knows enough to discuss it.

[unigoat]

Thanks for the good discussions.

Leo- on the topic of cycling insurance: from my attempts at talking to USA Cycling (which amounted to non-returned phone calls on their part), talking to an experienced event organizer, and reading the rulebook (all of this in 2010), I found that they at best weren't interested in unicyclists being part of their event. The definitions for acceptable cycles would definitely rule out any kind of bar end extensions for mass start races that distance riders frequently use. I would hope that at the international level the UCI would be more welcoming.

As for all of those who are current and past organizers, rulebook riders, and regular attenders of conventions: thank you for addressing not only the fact that our sport needs to evolve, but for proposing steps to do so. I'm glad that there's a realization that we're not a millions-of-dollars (or euros) sport, but that we're not settling for second rate. Volunteerism is at the core of our sport, which is a good thing. That doesn't mean that we need to settle for less than a professional job, however.

I'm also glad that we're seeing the convention aspect being discussed. Unicycling needs non-competitive as well as competitive aspects to it.

[tholub]

Originally Posted by leo

View-ratings are overrated. Youngsters simply don't want to watch it anymore. That's why ClearChannel nowadays sells a sticker at the back of a double-deck bus in London for more than a commercial at prime time at M-tv.
A you-tube clip with 1 millions views has more impact than 300 million viewings of a unicycle item on TV, because it gets a more dedicated audience (which also appreciates it better if someone is able to provide them more information than a quote of 3 seconds, or useless ghostwriter text mumbled from a teleprompter).

You're beating up a straw man here: "North American Unicycle Convention And Championships" is even worse in a YouTube video than it is on TV.

[tholub]

Originally Posted by Julia B

Keep in mind that I'm not angry or upset.

You should re-read your messages.

My competitions overall went great, and I had an amazing time at unicon. I just felt like I should share my opinions and experiences, which it seems that people don't do enough. Honestly I think that this mentality of "Unless you're an organizer, shut up and be thankful" isn't helping our sport at all.

How about the mentality of, "If your competitions overall went great, and you had an amazing time, don't bitch at the organizers"? You didn't start this thread with "here's a list of suggestions for next time"; you started it with "why did I pay so much money when the event had all these problems?"

Blame it on my inexperience then. I've been riding a grand total of 4 years. I've been to 3 NAUCCs with good flatland locations, and yes, I assumed that my first unicon would be the same or better.

Well, now you know; things don't get done because you assumed they would, they get done because someone did them.

[Julia B]

Originally Posted by tholub

You should re-read your messages.

Fine. You're right. I'm angry that Unicon cost more and I got less than at NAUCC. I'm angry that there weren't locations provided for my competitions. I'm angry that Olaf is organizing street and flatland basically by himself. I'm angry that unicon's budget isn't publicly available.

Originally Posted by tholub

How about the mentality of, "If your competitions overall went great, and you had an amazing time, don't bitch at the organizers"? You didn't start this thread with "here's a list of suggestions for next time"; you started it with "why did I pay so much money when the event had all these problems?"

My competitions overall went great because unpaid volunteers made them great. I had an amazing time because of all things unofficial. That's the point of this thread. Why did I pay so much money when the event had all these problems? Why did I pay so much money when the volunteers aren't getting any of it? Why did I pay so much money when the main organizers aren't getting paid? WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING? What I still want to know is: Why haven't the organizers made their expenditures public?

Originally Posted by tholub

Well, now you know; things don't get done because you assumed they would, they get done because someone did them.

See? Case in point. Without ridiculous attacks like this, organizers would probably get a lot more constructive criticism to improve the events for next time. Especially since I did contribute. I did almost everything I could EXCEPT pick a location, because that isn't really a feasible thing for me to do here in Texas.

[leo]

Originally Posted by unigoat

Leo- on the topic of cycling insurance: from my attempts at talking to USA Cycling (which amounted to non-returned phone calls on their part), talking to an experienced event organizer, and reading the rulebook (all of this in 2010), I found that they at best weren't interested in unicyclists being part of their event. The definitions for acceptable cycles would definitely rule out any kind of bar end extensions for mass start races that distance riders frequently use. I would hope that at the international level the UCI would be more welcoming.

So far they showed to be open towards unicycling. But they are not the national organizations, and not the organizer of certain events. But; if the IUF would have had taken care of the same system/model of licening/insurance then I think even there the resistance against it would at least already be a factor less.

Originally Posted by Julia B

It was 6 hours EARLIER than scheduled

Ah, aha; that explains. At one point I stopped using the program book, so I was unaware of that; I thought it was rescheduled to a later moment.

Originally Posted by Julia B

...The gym was totally indoors. How did it get wet inside?

I think the roof was made of wood that's supposed to increase when getting wet. That rainfail was probably to big for that to work, and so it rained inside. Even half the lights went off. Only the last competitor of the expert girls was affected a little, but still just to illustrate that here also unplanned factors kicked in, that even freestyle riders simply had to deal with.

Originally Posted by tholub

You're beating up a straw man here: "North American Unicycle Convention And Championships" is even worse in a YouTube video than it is on TV.

Haha, is it? OK, OK, I admit; I usually call it "North American Unicycle Championships", so in deed still not exactly that entire name. And very seldom I called it US Nationals (before last time it was in Canada), just so people understand what the event is about.

[hunterthompson]

I'm starting to feel really bad for the organizers. Despite it not necessarily going to what you personally feel is important, you need to agree that the organizers put in a tremendous amount of time and effort into making the event as best as they could.
I went to my first NAUCC this year (I agree, terrible name) and had an absolute blast. Did things run on time? No. Were the trials obstacles being built 30 minutes before the competition? Yes. Was the criterium course set up the day of? Yes. Did I have a great time anyway? Hell yes!
I understand that people feel ripped off because of the money and problems with the event but maybe you all need to adjust your expectations a little bit. Like others have said, a flawed event is way better than no event at all.
Also, some of you guys need to be a bit more constructive with your criticism. "The organizers could care less about flatland," is not as helpful as "______ should be contacted to help organize the flatland competition in Montreal."

[tholub]

Originally Posted by leo

OK, OK, I admit; I usually call it "North American Unicycle Championships", so in deed still not exactly that entire name. And very seldom I called it US Nationals (before last time it was in Canada), just so people understand what the event is about.

"North American Unicycle Championships" is still terrible. First of all, as you've noted, it's not really all of North America, so using that name diffuses the focus of the event without actually being descriptive. Then, you still have the problem that Unicycle=Circus, so until you've done more explaining, people will assume that the competitions will be things like juggling or bowl-flipping.

"Nationals" isn't bad; that's often what I use when speaking to non-unicyclists. ("I'm going to the unicycle basketball nationals/mountain unicycling nationals"). It at least gets across the idea of sport.

I'm not an expert on branding or anything, but I can say that "U Games" is better from a publicity standpoint than any of the other names in use. There are probably other reasonable event titles, but not the ones we're actually using.

Consider: I bet Travis Pastrana thinks "X Games" is a corny name.

[johnfoss]

Originally Posted by Hugo_Duguay

Please guys, don't scare us too much for Montreal 2014 !

Don't be scared. Discussions like these often lead to lots of good ideas, and motivate people to action they might not have considered otherwise. The people who really care will help. Julia will help if she's there. Some other people prefer to just criticize, and go blah, blah blah but do nothing. In time it becomes clear who those people are, and it's generally safe to ignore them. To run a big event like a uni convention you have to do what you believe is right, and be prepared for some people to bitch no matter what you do.

Originally Posted by tholub

Rolf came down with Karl last year and we had a great time riding. He was going to come down this year but Spencer was getting married the following weekend.

Married! When we went to the 2001 Muni Fest, he was but a wee lad, riding a bike with us. I'm glad Rolf was there enjoying the riding. I also hope to get back there one of these years...

Originally Posted by GizmoDuck

...it's a little subjective don't you think? What makes your disciplines less boring than standard skill?

Because they just are. Totally. Even if Tom's discipline is golf. And subjective? the object of Standard Skill is to be objective. Judging, that is. Not funny. Nothing about Standard Skill is funny, really.

Originally Posted by unicycledood

The competitors of standard skill don't even watch their own event.

That's right, because it's so boring! In fact, this reminds me of something I noticed at a German unicycling championship I went to in 1983. That consisted of 4 and 6-person groups doing essentially Standard Skill in patterns. I asked one team why they weren't watching their competitors. The girl replied "We have seen it all before". Standard Skill is based on the rules of Artistic Bicycling. Which is less boring; check it out on YouTube (Kunstfahren).

Originally Posted by tholub

Sure it's subjective. So what? If the event organizer doesn't want to run it, they shouldn't have to run it. If USA wants to insist that Standard Skill is run, they need to be the ones running the event, staffing it, and accepting the financial risk.

Technically, the U Games organization agreed to host a specific list of events when taking on the convention mantle. The best time to have that discussion is during the bid process, when the USA is often desperate to get someone to commit to the next convention. Then you have leverage.

That said, it's still pretty early in preparations for the 2013 convention (notice I don't call it NAUCC). It still might be a good time to ask. Or to arrange sufficient time and a space to run it, and offer the organizing job to whatever motivated people want to run it. And perhaps buy the medals.

Originally Posted by tholub

How many people would not show up at NAUCC if Standard Skills wasn't on offer?

I feel pretty safe betting that there would be zero effect on attendance.

Originally Posted by tholub

...the fact that a particular event was offered in UNICON in 1985 shouldn't be determining whether we offer it in 2012. [In my opinion.] The sport has changed radically since 1985.

Yup. The perceived need for Standard Skill was to have an "artistic" event with objective judging (rather than subjective), to help get us into the Olympics. Years later it's obvious that when unicycling does make it into the Olympics, Standard Skill won't be one of the disciplines that's considered. I think the majority of participants see it as a relatively easy way to bag another medal.

Originally Posted by GizmoDuck

What if UNICON organisers decided they did not want to run any MUni events?

In reality, this depends on the timing. At the time they win their bid, they have presumably committed to holding the "main" events (as described in the rulebook). If they announce a change of intent with enough lead time, interested volunteers might jump in and offer to run those events. This is how some of our events run now, though usually in a pre-planned way. The problem is in getting venues. It's hard enough to get competition venues for MUni even with a ton of lead time, so it could be difficult...

If a future host were to refuse to offer any MUni events, without having a good reason? Even I would seriously think twice about attending. I like MUni.

Originally Posted by GizmoDuck

There may be a time when we have to cull some events, as more keep being added without old events being dropped. But that's not for any one person with particular interests to decide.

Definitely. Even the Olympics have dropped some events over the years. The hard part is breaking the momentum. The slow races have been hard to kill precisely because they're another source for an "easy" medal, which makes them popular with vocal riders. The time to discuss culling events is always as early as possible.

Originally Posted by unigoat

Unicycling doesn't want to get involved with USA Cycling.

I think you got that backwards. From every report I've heard, USA Cycling doesn't want to have anything to do with unicycling. Back when they were the USCF, they never responded to any of my inquiries about unicycling. They still don't seem willing to consider thinking outside a two-wheeled box. It's kind of embarrassing, when the country that developed much of the IUF and Unicon's early structure can't even get an officially-recognized national unicycling organization (that is, connected to the UCI, FIAC or IOC).

Originally Posted by unigoat

There isn't a huge concentration of unicyclists looking to make a trip to just MUni or distance race on this coast.

This is still true. The best way to get lots of unicyclists together is to offer a variety of activities, not all of which are competition events. Or to have terrain like Moab.

Originally Posted by unigoat

I don't ride standard skills, and I'm not sure how they're even run, but I'm not sure they can just be dropped either.

You are currently the man in the drivers seat to pursue this effort. There may be videos of it on YouTube; if not, search on Kunstradfahren or Kunstfahren to see the two-wheeled version. Keep in mind the unicycle version moves slower and is less interesting to watch.

Originally Posted by unigoat

I can't speak for the UNICON level. What is the balance of championships vs. convention supposed to be at the world level?

Better. But this is a chronic problem. As more and ever-ambitious competition events get added to the schedule, even the strengthening of the convention aspect still keeps it in the back seat, filling the spaces between the competition events instead of running on their own schedule.

Originally Posted by unigoat

I don't see how the 10 year organizer would just leave them hanging- I'd hope he'd (or she'd) be willing to at least share notes on how to make the event happen.

I'm sure he would. He stopped doing it because he was exhausted! The event kept getting bigger and bigger every year; much as he loved it, it wasn't exactly what he had in mind when he started inviting people down to ride with him.

Originally Posted by unigoat

Hopefully as these newer forms of unicycling continue to take hold there are people who are willing to organize gatherings and competitions for the segments of unicycling they are passionate about.

Yup, that's how these large unicycle conventions got started.

Originally Posted by unigoat

At this point we need to also focus on changing the perceptions of the general public about unicycling.

My 32 years in this sport have taught me that it's less about perception and more about awareness. The vast majority of the population still doesn't perceive unicycling as a sport. The best way to dispel the "circus" stigma is to show bold examples of unicycling as a sport. More public events, better press, more material on YouTube. There's plenty of unicycling on YouTube, but almost all of it is within a few disciplines. There is very little of Freestyle, Basketball, etc.

Originally Posted by unigoat

The general public needs to know that MUni isn't watered down mountain biking. The general public needs to see how close Street, Trials, and Flatland are to what happens on the X-Games.

That's the ticket! Then you definitely want a name change as well.

Originally Posted by tholub

I would firmly suggest that you jettison the "NAUCC" name in your communications with non-unicyclists. Call it U Games, or come up with your own name, but "NAUCC" is a total loser for publicity.

Absolutely. And the previous names for the USA's annual event were equally bad (NUC, NUM). They don't mean a thing. Over the years I've come to learn that marketing is not understood by the average unicyclist (or person). I have worked at two different advertising agencies over the years so I have a bit more exposure to such things. Whatever you use as a name for your event MUST CONTAIN THE WORD UNICYCLE (or unicycling). The longer name for U Games did this also.

Even the IUF had a better name before we adopted "Unicon" for our second world championships. The first one was called "International Unicycling Convention". Nobody called it IUC.

At the risk of repeating stuff I've said and written many times before, these are the reasons why NAUCC sucks as a name:
1. Means nothing to the people we're supposedly trying to attract
2. The press never gets it right when they try to spell it out. This is usually because past organizers have called the thing NAUCC and not spelled it out in their official communications.
3. Even the spelled out string of words sucks. North American Championships? There's simply nothing to grab onto there. What about American Championships? Don't we even have one? No, we're being accommodating to the Canadians, who still haven't gotten together their own national organization.

Each of those reasons alone is enough to drop that icky name, yet people can't seem to get past the utility of it's being accurate. They aren't getting the point. The purpose of these events, aside from happening for all of us unicyclists, is to carry out the aims of the organization hosting them; in essence to promote unicycling, dammit. You don't do that with a name even a professional journalist can't get right.

The unicycle event I created, the California Mountain Unicycle Weekend, has always been marketed with its full name. Unicyclists have shortened it to CAMW or CalMUni and I've called it MUni Weekend informally, but never for publicity purposes. That event has outgrown its name, having been held in Nevada, Idaho, Canada and now New Mexico. The name is in flux at the moment...

Originally Posted by unigoat

Tom- thanks for the name suggestion, and the use of U Games. I'm not sure what we'll do yet.

BTW, whatever you call your event, you're not stepping on anybody's toes by using it. The "official" name of the event can still be that long, ugly string. After all, it's functionally accurate. U Games was like a brand, stuck on the front of the older name. Come up with something you like; I can see you're pointed in the right direction.

And it's all right to call it some form of "nationals". That's still a common short name people use. It's essentially the USA Nationals, with Canadians welcome to enter and win. And Puerto Ricans, Mexicans or people from anywhere else that's considered North America.[/quote]

Originally Posted by unigoat

I'm not so sure any headline can catch people's attention and draw them to the event.

Picture speak louder than words, especially about things people don't know how to picture, like unicycling. Encourage all media outlets to send photographers, or to use pictures provided by you (or me, or others).

[johnfoss]

Originally Posted by leo

Further I think the freestylers who had to ride between local inpredictable indoor rainfalls, were also as dissatisfied, and in the end had a more valid reason to complain.

I don't know what Leo's talking about either. There was no water on the Freestyle floor at any time I was present, which was during all Freestyle age groups. Did something happen during one of the breaks?

Originally Posted by leo

...but in stead shout F words and variants to this guy who overworked to more than 12 hours each day for our joy, fully justified because (quote) "this is a unicycle convention".

I'm glad I missed out on whatever that situation was. Convention attendees need to remember that they don't own the facilities, and neither do the hosts. The facilities are being rented (or donated) and may make, or change, their own rules. If Unicon has a contract that says a space is supposed to be open and they want to close it, that's between them and the convention organizers. Riders have nothing to do with it.

As for the Concierge/Custodian guy, he was being compensated for his time spent on the premises, and possibly overtime for any extra hours. He was one of the things your registration fees paid for. He was always polite and helpful to me, the Artistic Director.

Originally Posted by leo

...unless you use it un-abbreviated, which is what I do, as I find it better than U-games as that's just a silly name that span-off name of the X-games (and I find like imitation of a mass-media concept, in stead of relieng on our own unique power).

We have the unique power of being completely unknown to the public at large. Imitating the name of something that people do understand helps them grasp what our event is all about. Thanks, X-games. We'd call it the Unicycle Olympics if the IOC wouldn't come after us (apparently they own that word).

Originally Posted by leo

Further I'd like to slip in that I regret NAUCC was never in Mexico.

Me too. It's not like the USA is slighting Mexico or anything; as far as I know we haven't had anyone from Mexico at any of our conventions. Why? As far as I understand it, Mexico is included, and welcome, at NAUCC. If our liability insurance doesn't cover Mexico that's a separate problem, and not a rule we want.

Originally Posted by leo

Although; this will make some people panic! Contrary I say; the commercialization of the sport past 5 years (increased sponsoring), did not had any negative effect so far. Or did it?

I'm not aware of any negative impact from sponsoring. While it may change the motivation of some riders, the end product is still unicyclists trying to do better and push the boundaries of our sport.

Originally Posted by leo

Yes; I think there are some individuals who'd deserve compensation for the many hours they contribute into the sport, while they also need to make living. But I fear that once that will happen, other volunteers may become less motivated. So it should be done with care.

It's already being done. Organizers (and even the occasional competitor) have been compensated for various things over the years, up to and including all expenses paid. These people usually work all day nearly every day of the event, not to mention countless hours before it starts.

Originally Posted by leo

I think unicon 8 was unfortunately not so fortunate. But only heard rumours, and no details. But yes, you're right.

Unicon 8 was organized by four guys, of which I'm not sure if any of them had been to a Unicon before. They were way, way over their heads. None of the competition events would have happened had there not been a huge influx of volunteers to make everything run. I'm talking about the track, Freestyle events, nearly everything. I wonder what Julia would have thought of that!

Originally Posted by leo

...But mainly ones that contributed to a more complex rulebook -like me- wasting their time; as rules will never be perfect for everyone, and by now are good enough, while other things are more needed now.

This has actually been true for many years. But we still like playing with our rulebook and debating about 100mm vs. 102mm cranks. We let it take up too much of our time, keeping us from doing things that might be more important to the growth of the sport.

Originally Posted by leo

I think the rulebook commitee should be bound to a new rule: only simplification and deleting of "the official" guidelines of this sport (and removal of entire events as slow race: it does not help the sport at all, and only does damage to it's imago).

I'm with you on the Slow race, and agree with the general idea. But rules are like a growing plant; hard to keep them from continuing to grow. There are always new questions about how to handle situations, and new events that require new rules, etc.

Originally Posted by Julia B

For a lot of flat/street riders, the only reason they registered at all is their competition. Which they organized anyway. If the organizers tell them that to come, the riders also have to organize a distance race, they run the risk of loosing the registration money of that whole subsection.

So the secret is to not tell them until they get there.

Originally Posted by Julia B

But here's what I heard happened (from Olaf, among others): based on relentless complaints about the location (icehall), someone in the IUF cancelled the entire competition.

Technically, "The IUF" has no power to cancel an event, or otherwise override the convention host. So I call BS on that one. But apparently none of us knows how the situation actually developed, other than that it was clearly a cluster. I do know that the published location was supposed to be the ice hall. Have you ever ridden on an indoor concrete floor that wasn't slippery? I haven't. So riders should have been at least mentally prepared to ride on smooth concrete. That doesn't mean you have to like it, and that you can't campaign for a better location. But it's understandable that this can lead to unforeseen problems. Like picking a second location (near Workshop gym) and only later finding out it can't be used, etc.

Originally Posted by Julia B

The choices were the icehall or the skatepark. Either way, the competitors would be building the obstacles.

The published location for Street was supposed to be the skate park. But the Eventinstruction also implied that the courses would be provided. Having to build them is not new, but it helps if you let people know about it ahead of time. Again, somewhere, apparently someone dropped the ball and it became a last-minute panic that nobody wanted, especially the hosts. But a small group of heroes jumped in and made a sunny day out of a disaster. Good for them! At Unicon 12, a group of Trials experts were bussed up to the Trials course (3 hours away) and spent the day tweaking and/or building the obstacles. Then they spend the night there, to compete the next day. They were heroes as well.

Originally Posted by Julia B

The icehall was locked (as it was during most of unicon) so the decision was made for us.

That's odd. If I were running Unicon/renting those facilities, I'm sure I could get a building unlocked if I knew it needed to be unlocked. A breakdown in communications.

Originally Posted by Julia B

Half of the junior/female competitors missed the competition, possibly because it got moved up so much.

That's too bad. We had a similar situation in the Freestyle, where we wanted to start earlier because there were so many riders. But we didn't, because there was no way to guarantee the riders would get the message. So we ran until around 10:30pm with the Expert Individuals + awards.

Originally Posted by Julia B

So sure, 100 competitorsx200 Euros = 20,000 Euros. Someone got scammed on that bottled water.

You're still having a problem with your math. Your registration fee was for Unicon XVI, not for a Flatland competition. For the same price you had the option to participate in tons of other (better-organized) events, go to workshops, join in on day MUni or Road rides, etc. It was your choice to focus only on the one event and pretend not to have benefited from mixing with 2000 other unicyclists from around the world.

Originally Posted by Julia B

As Chris (unicycledood) pointed out, we had nowhere to ride. For the entire event we were either on the public bike path in front of the gym or wandering around Brixen getting kicked out of spots by police/angry business owners.

It sucks not to have dedicated space for non-competition riding; this should be a foundational element for any unicycle convention. The main gym was dominated by Freestyle, but should have been open to any type of floor-safe unicycling outside of Freestyle hours. Ultimately, one has at least one gym dedicated to random riding that is not taken up by competition events. But a great facility that's one gym short can be too good to pass up. It's another example of how the competitions take precedence over the convention side of things.

Originally Posted by Julia B

Unicycle flatland riders use 19" tires built for rough terrain, which are utterly unsuitable for slick floors like the icehall.

But you should have been expecting to ride in the ice hall, as that was the published venue. Why complain about a floor you knew about in advance, especially when you didn't end up using it?

Originally Posted by tholub

You can't tell how slippery the floor is by looking at past photos.

But you can tell how slippery a floor is if you know it's an indoor ice rink. Wooden gym floor? Expect slippery and you won't be disappointed if it isn't. Some grip great while others are like ice. Rubber gym floor? Awesome grip but high friction; a problem for some Freestyle tricks. Indoor concrete? Always smooth. But shouldn't be much of a problem if you prepared for it. Then you should be annoyed at riding on something else.

Originally Posted by Nurse Ben

Mountain Biking as an Olympic Sport just completed its second competition, but how many mountain bikers watch it in person or televised?

As stated above, we know that was BMX on its second showing. But what's the difference how many mountain bikers watch mountain biking on TV? That's not the audience. Mountain bikers already know about mountain biking. Non-mountain bikers get exposed to the sport. At the same time, that sport gains higher recognition and status by being in the Olympics, and by being on TV. Mountain biking is a TV sport (occasionally). Unicycling is not.

Originally Posted by Nurse Ben

Competition is not what unicycling is all about...

Of course not, but it's what a world championships is about. Find something that moves, and somebody else will figure out a way to race it. Think bathtubs, beds with wheels, tractors, etc. Competition drives innovation in the sport. To a small degree, even in unicycling it drives product innovation. It also pushes the boundaries of what "a unicyclist" can do. Not just a few exceptionally gifted individuals, but everyone who survived the Expert Downhill course shows that unicycling is even more hardcore than we thought. And competition can be fun if it's what you're into. If I'm not participating, I like to watch.

Originally Posted by Nurse Ben

...maybe there isn't sufficient critical mass to support a world event, maybe we need to look at this sport as less one of competition and more one of freindship, i.e. do the sport for the fun and thrill versus the claim to fame?

Mass we have. 2000 unicyclists? Unicon II had 50. We've come a long way. But of course Unicon II was held on a 3-day weekend, with a lot less different events. I don't know if it would be possible to get that same 2000 unicyclists to assemble strictly for a non-competitive convention.

That's okay; you've never been to one and the perceptions of an outsider are a welcome reminder of the majority of the world's unicyclists. I would like to see more non-competitive events at Unicon, and less age-groupy stuff. Focus the major events on the top riders. The become even better spectator events, and encourage the national and smaller events to cater to the up-and-coming riders.

One of the things I most looked forward to at Unicon XVI would be to go on a day MUni ride similar to the one I went on at Unicon XIII. It was the most beautiful MUni adventure I've ever been on, and it was but a perk to attendance at Unicon. There was at least one similar ride at this Unicon, but I think it was on one of the Freestyle days, where I was already committed. The group ride I tried to go on didn't start at the published location, so I missed it an ended up riding down Plose (with no brakes) the day before the Downhill race. Ouch!

Originally Posted by Nurse Ben

I will likely never attend a world event unless it's a place I'd go for vacation, but I will suport regional and national events since they are "reasonable" drives/flies.

Good thing you aren't applying that rule to the USA conventions; places like Saline, MI and Bowling Green, OH don't inspire the tourist. With Unicon, the difficulty is being able to take enough time to do Unicon and a decent job of seeing the locale. At the last two Unicons we spent about 2 weeks before the convention seeing the country and it was awesome. But it makes for quite a long trip!

[johnfoss]

Originally Posted by Lutz

Maybe flat and street have the problem that not that many parents our team mates are helping because this disziplines are more independent.

This is true. Flat and Street are so new, they are in their "first generation". There is no older generation of riders who are happy to run things and not compete. Events like Naucc are built on a unicycle club-based culture, where kids traditionally rode and parents made stuff happen. Over the years though, now lots of parents are the primary rider and, in some cases, drag their unicycling kids along but perhaps get more out of it than they do. Flat and Street are many years away from this situation, and it definitely affects the volunteer-pool for those events.

Originally Posted by leo

...rising X-game stars, who faded off the screen when there was no governing organization to prevent ESPN dropping the event off the schedule.

Uh, ESPN is a TV network. No sports organization tells a TV network what to present. The TV business (at least in America) is driven by advertising. Whatever programming sells the most advertising is the programming that will inevitably be shown. If those former X-games events were pulling in big, lucrative audiences, they would still be on TV.

And I guess that is one of the big obstacles unicycling will have to face to break into the TV world for more than brief appearances. To find a whole TV show dedicated to unicycling is extremely rare.

Originally Posted by leo

I think it would be great if the IUF could realize a tour of demo teams that would go places/events to showcase unicycling as a sport. For example bike trade shows, or in Europe at the coast on summer-days while other events are attract a big crowd already. This is what I see happening in bicycle-trial.

I think that would be great too. In fact I'd love to be one of the riders! But it sounds awfully expensive. This is where you need strong sponsors to fund it. Unicycling needs to be more attractive to sponsors.

Originally Posted by leo

Not any UNICON was entirely perfect. Sarah Miller gave a good example. I can't recall reading such complaints then.

Remember, these forums didn't even exist then. I think rec.sport.unicycling existed, but it was still pretty new and lots of unicyclists still didn't have Internet.

Originally Posted by Julia B

Keep in mind that I'm not angry or upset. My competitions overall went great, and I had an amazing time at unicon.

Oh, BTW, congratulations on your new title! But you really did come across as pretty pissed off. Everyone agrees there were major problems with the Flat and Street venues, but being constructive about it is a lot more, well, constructive.

Originally Posted by Julia B

Honestly I think that this mentality of "Unless you're an organizer, shut up and be thankful" isn't helping our sport at all.

Though it probably hurts it less than gratuitous complaining. Did anyone actually say that in this thread? That is, anyone who actually is willing to be an organizer? Ken's a past organizer. I guess that counts.

Originally Posted by Julia B

I've been to 3 NAUCCs with good flatland locations, and yes, I assumed that my first unicon would be the same or better.

It was better. You just happened to be involved with the events that had the worst problems with their venues.

There were plenty of other problems; Did you know the Marathon race was on the verge of being cancelled, minutes before it started? Because it was running too late in relation to the road closures and police presence, etc. Or the helicopter rescue on the mountain? No event organizer wants the word Medivac (or it's German/Italian version) to be spoken at their event. Fortunately apparently nobody was Medivaced but there were plenty of people with crutches and bandages!

Originally Posted by unigoat

I'm also glad that we're seeing the convention aspect being discussed. Unicycling needs non-competitive as well as competitive aspects to it.

Hear hear! Fight for what you think is right for the 2013 convention! Don't let the USA bully you. They can't make you run a Standard Skill competition...

Originally Posted by Julia B

I'm angry that unicon's budget isn't publicly available.

Be angry then. It was privately run. There were no promises of transparency with Unicon budgets. Hosts take a huge financial gamble to run these things, and it keeps getting huger as they get bigger. The choice if one doesn't like that is to not go.

While on the topic though, IUF finances should be transparent and I'm pretty sure the intent is to have them be that way. So far the money is sitting there, earning interest (since 2000; the last time IUF dues were collected). They are still working on how to use it.

Originally Posted by Julia B

Why did I pay so much money when the event had all these problems?

Because there is no such thing as a professional unicycle convention organizer. Now you know.

Originally Posted by Julia B

Why did I pay so much money when the volunteers aren't getting any of it?

Because then they wouldn't be volunteers, would they? If there was enough money, we would start to have professional unicycle convention organizer, I guess...

Originally Posted by Julia B

Why did I pay so much money when the main organizers aren't getting paid?

At least some of the main organizers did get paid. Do you know who any of those people are? I don't know any financial details; I just know that some of the major organizers were compensated for their work.

Originally Posted by Julia B

WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING? What I still want to know is: Why haven't the organizers made their expenditures public?

There was never any expectation for Unicon budgets to be public. They aren't going to be. But you can speculate about a lot of it, as has already been done in this thread. Remember, you paid to participate in Unicon XVI, not the Flatland World Championships, consisting of 50 riders all by themselves in Brixen.

Originally Posted by leo

At one point I stopped using the program book, so I was unaware of that; I thought it was rescheduled to a later moment.

I know what you mean. I was constantly being told to "read the info wall" to know what was going on. There was A LOT of stuff on that info wall, and no good way to figure out where the important stuff was. Schedule changes mid-stream are tough. In the past we've used a communication system where team leaders were given updates that they could distribute to their teams. Today's "teams" are less cohesive, and may have been spread around more sleeping places, but there must be a better way.

On the topic of rule changes, I am curious about what happened with the sudden "No clip-in pedals" rule. I will be first to say that you can't make up rules at the last minute. Especially when they appear to be targeted at one or more of the top riders in the effected event. The IUF has no rule about clip-in, clipless or toe-clip pedals. Neither did any of the published Unicon materials. I would like to know where this rule came from, and why, and how it should be handled if similar situations arise in the future. Because you can't just make up rules where your competitors end up showing up with the wrong shoes and pedals! Am I bitching? No, I'm asking.

Next time, organizers should have a special location on the event web site where schedule, venue and rule changes (not that there should be any of those) can be posted daily, so people can check them without making their way to the info wall, then waiting for people to move out of the way so they can read it.

Originally Posted by Leo

Only the last competitor of the expert girls was affected a little, but still just to illustrate that here also unplanned factors kicked in, that even freestyle riders simply had to deal with.

I still don't remember any of that happening. But we did have other problems; like a tripped circuit breaker one morning so we had no power to the sound system...

Originally Posted by hunterthompson

Did things run on time? No. Were the trials obstacles being built 30 minutes before the competition? Yes. Was the criterium course set up the day of? Yes. Did I have a great time anyway? Hell yes!

Sounds like a classic USA convention! In other words, stuff like that is not uncommon. I don't feel bad for the organizers; I feel bad for people who expect a professionally-run event for about 20 Euros/day.

Originally Posted by tholub

First of all, as you've noted, it's not really all of North America, so using that name diffuses the focus of the event without actually being descriptive.

Yes, but not for that reason. We don't really get all of the US or Canada either, but nobody's being excluded.

Originally Posted by tholub

I'm not an expert on branding or anything, but I can say that "U Games" is better from a publicity standpoint than any of the other names in use.

Based on past experience, you and I are experts on branding in the unicycling world.

[gagou9]

Originally Posted by Julia B

I'm angry that unicon's budget isn't publicly available.

as far as i know, it will soon be.
by soon, i mean few weeks.

[munirocks]

What was that helicopter story on the Plose? Someone on the downhill having a serious crash?