Questions for Teams

What makes a good event for you? If we have fun.
What makes you attend a certain comp over another? Distance to travel to, timing with other events (personal and BBQ related), comments fom other from past experiences if it is not the first time.
Does the charity the organizers donate to,
make a difference to you? Sometimes.
Location of the event: grass, parking lot, field, streets? Yes!
Goodie bags/gifts you receive? No.
Number of teams:30 or more or 25-30
or does the prize money influence you? Yes and yes.

What is a turn off for an event? Not sure yet having only competing in 2 events
What makes you not go to an event? Distance, money, conflicts with other stuff.

wallace

What makes a good event for you? When the teams feel valued by the community.

What makes you attend a certain comp over another? Distance, cost, past experience, event reputation with other cooks & judges

Does the charity the organizers donate to, make a difference to you? Not unless it is offensive (i.e. PITA)

Location of the event: grass, parking lot, field, streets? Level grass is always preferred over pavement.

Goodie bags/gifts you receive? Appreciated if nice but not required. Rather receive a simple T-shirt than a bag full of ad specialities.

Number of teams:30 or more or 25-30 Fifty or less. Six or Seven tables (36-42) seems to be the sweet spot for decent prize money vs contest manageability.

or does the prize money influence you? Prefer deeper payouts over larger checks for the KCBS-specified minimum finishers. Not overly picky as long as payout is proportional to total fees collected (75-80%)

What is a turn off for an event? High entry cost, lack of power/water, invasive advertising or health department rules. Poor reputation in the BBQ community.

What makes you not go to an event? Schedule conflict on contest date. Expense or distance exceeds team capability. Bad previous experience at the event or poor reviews from multiple trusted sources.

I look at entry fee vs prize money payout. If you have to pay $300 entry fee and and GC pays out $1000. That is hard to justify. A competition takes a team a minimum of $1000 to enter, so you want to at least try and break even on a very good day!

I also look at location, we try not travel over 3-4 hours, gas is too expensive!

We appreciate locations at campgrounds where we can spend the night Saturday if we want instead of busting hump to pack up after the competition. Also campgrounds have showers which is always nice after the comp is over.

I don't care about goodie bags. I don't really care about the number of teams that enter either. I do look at if there is a highly competitive comp. the same weekend that might give us, a new team, a chance at another comp.

We will go back to competitions that are well organized. When you ask people where ice, water, parking, meat inspection, people need to know these details. Nothing frustrates you more when you get set-up and ask someone working at the comp. "where is the water?" and they shrug their shoulders.

Live bands Friday night is always fun to listen while prepping Friday night, not a deciding factor but always adds to the fun atmosphere.

Eggspert BBQ

What makes a good event for you? Large enough spaces to cater to our equipment (I don't mind paying extra for larger spaces), informed organizers that care about BBQ and the teams being there, reasonable times to load in/load out, reliable power and water, sometimes a breakfast or dinner for teams is a nice touch

What makes you attend a certain comp over another? the factors above, plus the date, location, and size.

Does the charity the organizers donate to,
make a difference to you? Not generally

Location of the event: grass, parking lot, field, streets? level grass always the preferred venue

Goodie bags/gifts you receive? nice to have, but i will attend a well run contest that has no goodie bags

Number of teams:30 or more or 25-30
or does the prize money influence you? 30-50 is ideal. 50+ is a crap shoot. 25 and you start wondering if there are a couple of no shows that make the contest a non-qualifier. Having the contest be a qualifier for The Jack and The Royal is important. We very rarely do unsanctioned events. Prize money should make it worth our while. Winning a category, or getting a couple of top 5 calls should cover the entry fee. I don't mind a higher entry if the money goes into the price pool. Meat, supplies, and transportation are often higher than the entry fee.

What is a turn off for an event? Lots of schedule changes that are not well communicated, crowded contests that are difficult to get in/out off, organizers that don't want the teams there, silly stuff like asking people not to drive on the grass when the contest is held on grass

What makes you not go to an event? the above, of course, and funny business with payouts, and simple date conflicts

I have a questions for all the teams..,
What makes a good event for you?
Something with local food within walking distance is nice. For that downtown locations on the street are great. Additional categories are fun too. We did desert and sauce at Madison IN and had a great time with those even if we didn't get a call.

Available 30amp power is awesome but if your going to charge me $30 for it I'll just use my generator as it has always worked and that is about what I'll spend on gas for it. Having sites of a decent size are great. Seems like the trend now is to charge for additional space for the %50 or so of teams using trailers.

What makes you attend a certain comp over another?
Proximity and timing.

Does the charity the organizers donate to,
make a difference to you?
Honestly not much but I wouldn't say it would never factor in.

Location of the event: grass, parking lot, field, streets?
Anything is fine. Grass in the rain and mud would not be a good thing though.

Goodie bags/gifts you receive? Not much, it seems like most is things that are really cheap and useful or donated by sponsors. I'm good with whatever.

Number of teams:30 or more or 25-30
or does the prize money influence you? I'd prefer something in the 30-50 range but really that is not my priority. We select contests on proximity and timing primarily.

What is a turn off for an event? extra money for power and a site to fit my trailer into.

What makes you not go to an event? Distance and time

when an organizer uses the search feature and reads one of the dozens of threads where I have expressed exactly what I look for in a contest.

What makes a good event for you? Distance and timing. Clean bathrooms - NO port-a-johns!!!!!!!
What makes you attend a certain comp over another? Distance and timing
Does the charity the organizers donate to, make a difference to you? Sometimes, but not usually
Location of the event: grass, parking lot, field, streets? not too much
Goodie bags/gifts you receive? NO!
Number of teams:30 or more or 25-30 or does the prize money influence you? BOTH! (fewer teams makes it more intimate and I feel I have a better shot at GC)

What is a turn off for an event? Some event organizers!
What makes you not go to an event? Distance and timimg and some event organizers.

What makes a good event for you?
Drive distance certainly is a primary factor. Being well organized (the volunteers know where stuff is), easy load in & out, clean bathrooms, good water and electric. Breakfast on Saturday morning is nice, even something simple like biscuits and coffee.

What makes you attend a certain comp over another?
Cost is a big factor, though I would gladly pay more to a competition I know is well run and the teams are taken care of. Bigger payouts, proximity.

Does the charity the organizers donate to,
make a difference to you?
No

Location of the event: grass, parking lot, field, streets?
Even though pavement gets hot during the summer I would always prefer to be on a paved surface, because if it rains it gets messy on grass/dirt. But this really isn't a factor if I go or not at the end of the day. Just a preference.

Goodie bags/gifts you receive?
Good ones are nice to have, but have no bearing on if we go or not.

Number of teams:30 or more or 25-30
or does the prize money influence you?
25-40 seems like a good number. Prize money is an influencing factor.

What is a turn off for an event?
Bad electric and or water. When the team space sizes end up being smaller when you get there. If you say they will be 20x20 (or whatever size) make sure they are at least that size. When the volunteers have no idea where stuff is.

What makes you not go to an event?
See previous question. Also hearing bad feedback from other teams on events I haven't been to.

I agree with almost everything you have gathered except as a newer team I DO appreciate the gift/goody bags, makes me feel appreciated so I will do those contests again. If it is useless stuff then No. But I did a contest that gave a camping chair with their logo on it. Useful. Another contest gave several bottles of water. Useful. Another contest gave chamber bucks that could be used at local restaurants, convenience stores etc. VERY useful.

I believe the answers to the questions have been covered, so I'll offer my take a two different contests. One we will definitely go back to and the other I can't see where we'll ever be back.

The one where we will go back...
We decided on Friday morning we wanted to cook this one since the contest was just 20 miles away. Didn't sign up for various reasons, but the urge hit us and we went. We didn't score well and placed worse, but the experience was great. First, they let us in at the last moment. They knew right away where our spot would and I was able to pull right in. The had water running all night and day. There were lots of volunteers and they went out of their way to make us feel welcome and wanted.

The other contest, also about 20 miles from home, we pulled in at 2:30 on Saturday afternoon. There were about 60 teams in the contest and about 40 were already there.

When somebody finally showed up at the check in area, they asked if we had a 30 amp electric or 20 and what size our space was. I told them we paid for the 30 amp with the bigger space, and they were disgusted by this. They said they only had 20 teams pay for the larger space and the 30 amps, but they already 30 of the teams in those spots. This was somehow my fault, even though I had my paperwork showing and confirming that I was accurate.

Then they didn't know where to put us, so our spot was right next to the garbage dumpsters and our camper door opened into the porta potty so we had about 5 feet of cooking space.

We did get moved at least. However, we were at least 100 feet from the power supply (not out of the contest area mind you) and the electrician was actually making the cords as teams arrived. The cord was more or less a long extension cord. 20 amps would have more than powered the air conditioner with no lights on in the camper, but it was not keeping up at all. When the band shut down, it did cool down a little bit. As soon as it started back up, though, it was right back to hot. Everyone around us had the same issues, so it wasn't just us.

So the moral of the story is lots of volunteers who want to be there. Actual working electricity and as CivilWar said, teams like it when the contest organizers act like they want you there.

Available electricity and water. My onan 6k loves gas! Bout $50+ for 2 days
Oh and Also for one team to not come over and try to start an arguement giving me the first degree on how my pits are illegal Because they hook to Electrical chords! Lol damn knuckle draggers!

What makes a good event for you? Easy in / Easy out. Nice location.
What makes you attend a certain comp over another? Mostly the timing and location of the event.
Does the charity the organizers donate to, make a difference to you? Not at all.
Location of the event: grass, parking lot, field, streets? Grass or parking lot are both attractive with enough room. I’m happy to pay for extra space.
Goodie bags/gifts you receive? Not important at all. A nice t-shirt would be cool.
Number of teams:30 or more or 25-30 or does the prize money influence you? Doesn’t matter to me. The more the merrier.
What is a turn off for an event? Events without water or electric. My biggest turn-off is when an organizer does not start the awards ceremony on time.
What makes you not go to an event? Tight competition spaces. Difficult easy in / easy out. Prior bad experience with an event.

I’d say in short, I look for events that don’t conflict with my work schedule that are in my geographic location. I’m there to compete and have fun with friends.

What makes a good event for you? Easy in / Easy out. Nice location.
What makes you attend a certain comp over another? Location Mostly
Does the charity the organizers donate to, make a difference to you? It can, I won't attend events affiliated with political parties.
Location of the event: grass, parking lot, field, streets? As long as it isn't loose dirt and it's mostly level
Goodie bags/gifts you receive? Not important at all.
Number of teams:30 or more or 25-30 or does the prize money influence you? I look at the prize pool / entry fee ratio. If an event is returning less than 50% of the entry fees as prizes (80% if they have major sponsors) I tend to pass.
What is a turn off for an event? Events where you have to haul water or drag ice and every volunteer has a golf cart. Events that won't allow vehicles in your space even though you have the room.
What makes you not goto an event? High entry fees, odd schedules, unreasonable load in / load out schedules, local government hassles (fire extinguisher permits / inspections, tent inspections, HD BS that kind of thing))
What makes you not go back to an event? Bad organizer attitude / communication, late awards, events where teams are treated as an afterthought. Mailed prize checks. SURPRISES (not the good kind)