Competition Ammenities...

JD McGee said:

Hi folks...when you are competing at an event what would you like the sponsor to do for you in order to make the event a hit? I look back at a few venues last year and a couple stand out...

Langley...catered potluck, free beer, coffee & pastries, team goodie bags, live entertainment.

Duvall...free meats, charcoal, sauce for teams that vended to the public, team goodie bags, free water, free ice.

I am working with an event sponsor that wants to know what the teams are looking for...what will bring you back year after year...???

Thanks,

JD

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I may look at comps a little differently, but the goodie bags, free this and that, and things like live entertainment take a back seat to things like

• Some kind of free/discounted/delivered ice, even if it's one free bag a day. I don't mind paying for it either but don't gouge me to the tune of $8 per 10 lb bag.
• Plentiful porta pots. Competitor only pots in the comp area if possible.
• Local water, if not possible at every site then don't make us drag a bucket 1/4 mile each way. Same with gray water disposal.
• Parking at our site - Don't give me grief about parking my SUV (I sleep in it) at my site when there are RV's all around me.

water, good power, ice and parking with some room are all I care about. Usually too busy with ribs, pork and brisket to catch the breakfast although it is real nice to have a hot one Saturday morning like biscuts and gravy.

Don't really care for goodie bags as much as I usually don't use most of what's in them. I know from contest to contest they do some cool stuff but that money I would rather see ribbons to 10th place that don't look like something from 6th grade.

Clean conditions: site, powder room,
Spaceous: parking, site
Essentials: water, ice, gray disposal, etc.

This is what makes me happy at a comp.

Strict enforcement of noise curfew.
Ice at or near cost
Trash pick up
Power
Water delivery/access (somewhere)
Air conditioned/Heated hall for awards ceremony
Good communication from the promoter
Abundant Port-O-Cans
Fireant pre-treatment of team sites
Grass mowed not just shredded
Clear site boundary markings

Other rules I wish for

No personal vehicles allowed to operate during the event including golf carts and ATV type vehicles.

Teams must keep their generators in their own living space, not on my side of their RV or truck.

PA speakers must point into your own camp not outward towards other camps.

No Karaoke, EVER!

Kids under 18 need to be supervised by a parent at all times and be kept in their camp after dark.

No mudding on the two track exit road until all teams have left the grounds.

NO PETS!

No teenagers allowed to drive 4X4 trucks within the contest area.

Free electricity
Bring me water... don't point and say "it's over there"
Come get my trash and don't make me drag it across the area to a dumpster
At least give ribbons to 10th place
Pay out in prizes what we as teams pay for entry fees and don't use us to make money
!!!Enforce quiet hours!!!
Hold awards on time as scheduled

What a lot of organizers fail to realize is the cooks are the show. No cooks and you have no event. I know of one organizer one season (won't say here when) who had half the teams pissed off at her before noon on Friday! Her attitude of "we know what we're doing - we've done bigger events than BBQ before" (she actually told someone this) when it was a first year event failed to set well with many teams.

Pump out the porta potties daily is a huge one for me.

Enforced quiet hours.
Central located water/ ice
plenty of meat inspectors
Good electricity
Security to eyeball the crowd

This was our first year, so I only have 5 comps to go on, but here's my list:

• Good power- 30 amps if possible
• Water-available at several points or delivery
• Port-a-Potties- Cooks only pots
• Plenty of parking for team vehicles
• Frequent trash pick-up or close drop-off points
• Organizers that don't wait until 2 days before the comp. to send out a packet or instructions!
• Perfect weather- okay, that's a stretch!

Trucky1008 said:

This was our first year, so I only have 5 comps to go on, but here's my list:

• Good power- 30 amps if possible
• Water-available at several points or delivery
• Port-a-Potties- Cooks only pots
• Plenty of parking for team vehicles
• Frequent trash pick-up or close drop-off points
• Organizers that don't wait until 2 days before the comp. to send out a packet or instructions!
• Perfect weather- okay, that's a stretch!

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I don't mind some weather. It tends to weed out the weak and the sick!

ZILLA said:

Teams must keep their generators in their own living space, not on my side of their RV or truck.

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This.

Another one is good site management - If I call up and let the organizer know that I'm coming in later in the afternoon on Friday, don't stick me in a site where 25 people have to move all their EZ-UPs so I can get my cooker into my site. Leave enough isle space so that competitors can get in an out without disrupting everyone else.

I would have cooked an additional event last year if they had allowed pets, but they didn't. We take our dog with us where ever we go, and if an event didn't allow pets I wouldn't cook at it. So I'd request:
* allow pets

There is an event down here, and every year they make it hard to have our meat inspected. Last year it took us over 2 hours for someone to finally come to our site!!

Hot chicks in tank tops delivering the ice.

I've attended a few comps that were at campsites, that had showers available in
addition to bathrooms. This was NICE (to be able to grab a quick shower in the
morning). Breakfast was nice, but I usually had to send someone to grab some of
it for us...

Power
Water
Garbage pick up
Ice delivered, and at or close to cost
Clean porta potties, close proximity
Gray water disposal
Grease disposal
Showers available
Parking (right there, for RV's/etc)

If there's a crowd, 24 hour security would be nice (last competition twice had a
group of drunk kids [two different groups] rumble through our site)


Then, for cool factor, I've never been at a competition where they bought the
meat for you, other than for a peoples choice category. The free beer seemed
nice, but then we're usually not drinking that much beer unless it's after the
competition and we're allowed to camp Saturday night. THEN we tend to drink.
I'm not much for goodie bags. For the most part I've either given most of that
stuff away or thrown it away. At one comp they gave us one of those really
nice electric charcoal lighters; I gave that away too...

As to pets, we have dogs. If it's a close proximity competition I'll sometimes
just leave them at home (wife travels back and forth taking dogs out, etc).
However, farther than say an hour away and if pets aren't allowed, I'm not
going to pay to board them (in addition to the other expenses). IMHO,
for the teams that are dead set against them, there are about as many that
really want them allowed. Perhaps IF allowed put some serious rules/constraints
on them (ala. walked on a leash, picked up afterwards, etc) with enforcement
(like enforcing the quiet time).

WineMaster said:

Hot chicks in tank tops delivering the ice.

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Great idea!

The basics of:
water/ice delivery - til 9-10 pm and start back up at 6 am
free elect - at least 20 amp - 30 amp would be better
trash pick up
award calls for 10th place on down to 1st in all categories and overall - even if no prize exists (10th place should be getting something assuming its top third)

Additional bonuses:
a dispatch phone number for all deliveries, pick ups and meat inspection (or a flag to hang up so volunteers know who needs something)
fairly level sites that are well marked and are not stacked on top of each other so trailer teams can get rigs in
access to site Thursday night (helps teams with larger trailers when available)
central location of judging site - not in the corner of the area so some teams have a few feet and many others have to walk 1/2 mile. Grounds should try to put teams around the judging site on all 4 sites when possible

- Showers
- Lots of reliable power, 15 amps or more per site (contests at locations that have RV sites are ideal)
- Long sites (40' or more) that can handle RVs
- Grey water dump or tank pumping option
- Team breakfast is a nice touch, along with trash pickup and extended hours for ice availability