Review: Battle of Champions 2012 (Toledo, OH)

THE MEET

http://www.battleofchamps.com/
This was our third year attending this meet.  It was again held at the SeaGate Convention Centre in downtown Toledo.  It was easy enough to locate and attached by walkway to a parking garage It wasn't deserted like it was last year.  Still not a lot of activity but some, at least.

• Awards: The award decorations were better than last year by a small margin.  They were held in the lobby area of the convention center.  This year the TVs weren't turned on luckily.  The windows are behind the girls but don't seem to cause flash bounceback.  The ceiling is low in one area and high in another so you cannot bounce the flash off the ceiling easily.  Award stands were used for the gymnasts but they were still low to the floor.  It's also very dark in that areas with respect to taking pictures.  Last year, I recommended possibly not using an external flash but this time I sat under the area with the lower ceiling and bounced the flash off of it using a diffuser.  That worked well.  One unique thing this meet does is give the girls plaques with a spot for each event and AA.  As they receive their awards, they are given the metal plate that says the event and sticks on to the plaque.  The other oddity is that they place everyone so you can scratch an event and still place and still receive an AA.

• Concessions: One group selling meet t-shirts and the convention center coffee bar was available again.  This year, there was another concession stand inside the meet area which was a welcome addition.  The food was not great but there was popcorn and hot pretzels.  T-shirts were given to the gymnasts and they could add iron-ons at a cost.  That was good but the process was slow.  There isn't anything easily accessible immediately around the center for food.

• Seating: Bleacher seating was plentiful, however, the meet is held in one side of a convention hall with the dividing wall behind closed behind the gym.  We entered in the middle of the hall with the gym ahead and built-in bleachers to the left and right.  While the elevation was good for visibility, it meant that to see vault and bars from a reasonable distance, you had to be sitting on the left side and to see floor, you had to be sitting on the right.  This, of course, let to people getting up and moving around quite a bit which was annoying.  There was no change in this for 2012.

THE HOTEL

This was a driving meet for us so no hotel was involved.

DINING

This year we finished fairly late but still headed to dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse which is the only place close that is open late and can accomodate a large group www.meatballs.com.  They don't take reservations but they fit us in fairly quickly and easily, despite having around 22 people.  Service was somewhat slow.  To speed it up, all the kids got spaghetti and salads and so did most of the adults because our waiter told us it was the quickest meal and fastest to do the same for everyone.  Unfortunately, it was still slow.  The quality of food is acceptable.  It's not the best Italian food I've ever had but it was reasonably good.  Prices were reasonable and in line with the quality, in my opinion.

ACTIVITIES

While we were not there for any length of time, The only activities I am aware of in Toledo are summer ones.  The science center is now gone which is a shame.  The zoo is excellent and probably open in the winter if you're so inclined.  Feel free to add anything in the comments if you know of any activities.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Camera: Canon 7D
Lenses: 200mm F 2.8 Telephoto, 50mm F 1.8 prime (neither is image stabilized)
ISO: 5000 using an F-stop of 2.8 on the 200mm lens and shutter speed of 640
White Balance: Auto
Settings: Manual mode, center focus point only, autofocus=AI Servo
Testing has shown that I can drop my shutter speed as low as 1/500 and still avoid blur so I reduced my ISO

Review: Cereal City 2011 (Kalamazoo, MI)

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THE MEET

As last year, the meet was held in the recreation center on Western Michigan University's campus in Kalamazoo.  The meet itself was well run and on time and the lighting and seating were reasonably good although when photographing, you discover that the light is not as good as your first impression. Seating is spread around the gym in shallow bleachers.  This is fairly good but be aware that you may want or need to move around to get the best view of your gymnast.

AWARDS

Although the room was nothing to get excited over, the awards were done very quickly and accurately.  We were just in some sort of small side gym and there were no real decorations which was the same for the meet itself.   There wasn't a curtain or backdrop behind the award stands either.  The upside was that there was plenty of room for everyone.

THE HOTEL

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Kalamazoo West.  My first impression was that this was an old Holidome hotel that had been renovated.  That impression was confirmed by it's design, low ceilings and old doors.  The room was fine as was the rest of the hotel however, when it came to sleeping, there was trouble.  Our room not only opened to the hallway but also had a window and door the opened to the Holidome recreation area in the center of the hotel.  We happened to be near the arcade area.  Interestingly, the arcade wasn't the real problem.  One of the games is a basketball game for shooting hoops like we've all seen.  The wonderfully creative kids were taking the basketball out of the game and playing basketball in the open floor space which was RIGHT outside of our room.  There were kids getting body-checked into our door, basketballs bouncing off the door, window and walls, etc. until around 11:00.  Had it continued any later, I would have called the desk.  I highly recommend not getting a room in this area of the hotel.  Assuming you have a gymnast sleeping in the room, the noise level may lead to trouble.

DINING

N/A for this trip.

ACTIVITIES

Once again, due to competition times, we did not look for any activities.  I have also had previous posts that covered the nearby mall.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Camera: Canon 7D
Lenses: 200mm F 2.8 Telephoto, 50mm F 1.8 prime (neither is image stabilized)
ISO: 6400 using an F-stop of 3.2 on the 200mm lens and shutter speed of 500
White Balance: Auto
Settings: Manual mode, center focus point only, autofocus=AI Servo
Lighting was a low but my lens was fast enough to avoid blur at a shutter speed of 500.

Flash: Speedlight 580EX II Monopod: Velbon Neopod 6 (carbon fiber) Monopod head: Manfrotto 3229 (locking swivel tilt with quick release) Camera Backpack: LowePro Rover AW II

Lighting is acceptable but much of it comes from exterior windows.  If it is cloudy or dark outside, it affects the available light.

Review: Circle of Stars 2011 (Indianapolis, IN)

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THE MEET

http://www.circleofstars.org

• Venue: Held at the RCA Dome/Indianapolis Convention Center, it is an easy venue to get around with multiple competition areas running at the same time in different rooms. The meet was run very smoothly like always.  The organizers continued with the elimination of admission fees again this year. This is still the only meet we've ever been to that we didn't have to pay to get in.
  
• Awards: The awards stages were similar to previous years and nicely decorated, as always.
• Seating: Seating is plentiful with seatback seating instead of bleachers which is a nice departure from the norm.  The events at the back are far away in some of the rooms.  You may want to bring binoculars for viewing.  Some spaces were better than others depending on the room and the equipment layout.  Photography tip: Get down to the floor for photographs.  The bleachers shake every time someone walks up the stairs, making it difficult to stay focused, at best and causing blur, at worst.
• Concessions: The selection of vendors seemed weaker than in previous years and with less variety.  As in previous years, the convention center's food court provided some expensive but good quality options for coffee and food like sandwiches, chicken fingers and pizza. Portions are large and reasonable for the venue. I paid $8.00 for a meal.

THE HOTEL

This year, we stayed in the Marriott connected to the convention center. It is a beautiful hotel with a Starbucks in the lobby.  Great place to get oatmeal for breakfast but the line gets long. The pool was reasonably sized and fairly well ventilated.  There is also a hot tub.  Breakfast is not included.  Parking is in the structure across the street.  There is a walkway but you need to try to park near it and it's still a long walk even once you get into the hotel itself.  Then you have to go down a floor to get to the lobby..  The hotel is connected to the RCA Dome and the Circle shopping mall through covered walkways which is great in the winter.

DINING

Previously, we've eaten at the Alcatraz Brewery  and Buffalo Wings and Rings but not this year. This time, due to competition times, we only stayed one night and ate dinner at the convention center food court.

PHOTOGRAPHY


Camera: Canon 7D
Lenses: 200mm F 2.8 Telephoto, 50mm F 1.8 prime (neither is image stabilized)
ISO: 3200 using an F-stop of 2.8 on the 200mm lens and shutter speed of 800
White Balance: Auto
Settings: Manual mode, center focus point only, autofocus=AI Servo
Lighting was low but my lens was fast enough to avoid blur at a shutter speed of 800.

Flash: Speedlight 580EX II Monopod: Velbon Neopod 6 (carbon fiber) Monopod head: Manfrotto 3229 (locking swivel tilt with quick release) Camera Backpack: LowePro Rover AW II

Lighting is very good, however, because you may be quite far from the events, the longer focal length negates the better lighting with many lenses. You will probably use a telephoto or zoom lens for all shots, even floor and beam which were right in front of the bleachers for us. This is mostly because you will get better shots by getting out of the bleachers and standing on the floor to the left or right of the bleachers to get your shot. I found that standing out of the way usually leads to using a telephoto or zoom lens. I was able to take some excellent shots of floor from the corner this way though.

Book review: Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki

For those of you who check back here from time to time, you will be surprised to find this book review on this site.  Because my blog is listed on Alltop.com, of which Guy Kawasaki is a co-founder, I was offered the unique opportunity to review his latest book.  I follow Guy on Twitter and his blog via RSS feed because he is an interesting person and he has valuable points of view on a wide range of business and technology topics.  (He also shares a lot of great links)  This latest book of his in a string of 10 is available for sale starting March 8th.  You can find it on Amazon here.

Guy has subtitled his book "The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions".  While it's tempting to think of this as a guidebook for small businesses, I think the subtitle subtly points out that it's not just about business:  Yes, I found it to be an excellent read for a small business owner, particularly since I am in the throes of starting one myself, however, I also see its broad applicability to a very large corporation or what I refer to as my "day job".  I think that it's also important not to miss the ways these same lessons can be applied in one's personal life.  I know I have gone away from this book with some new views on both my personal and professional relationships.

I should mention that I listen to more books than I read these days.  Lately, I have found that I enjoy a good business book mixed in and that I prefer to read those than listen to them so that I can re-read sections.  I found Enchantment to be an easy read although not simplistic.  I have never read one of Guy's previous books so I have no comparison but I will certainly be searching out some of his other books after reading this one.  Guy has a way of breaking  the topics into easily digestible components.  This makes them easier to remember but, maybe more importantly, it keeps the reader from having to digest large concepts and means that you can put the book down at any point or time and easily pick it back up and start again.  Probably my biggest pet peeve about conceptually large theories in books is that I no longer have the time to read in long stretches.  This makes it difficult if not impossible to absorb large, convoluted topics. 

As I read through Enchantment, I took notes to refer back to for this review.  To my surprise, I also found myself writing notes about how I could apply these topics to The Community Tutors, a company I just launched.  As Charlie "Curve" Wollborg would say, it's a form of "altruistic capitalism" or, in short, a tutoring firm that uses some profits to provide free services to poor children.  Despite the lofty goal, I know full well that it's not enough by itself and Guy confirms that fact.  Enchantment  has given me some thoughts about using stories, checklists and images to enchant visitors, as well as a list of things that can be done utilizing Facebook in order to maximize its impact.  I was happy to discover that I was already doing some enchanting things but also pleased to find more that I can do. 

A few things that I found surprising or refreshing in Enchantment I thought I'd note here.  There are many more and their interest to you will vary depending on your specific circumstances but you're certain to enjoy the stories of enchantment scattered throughout the book.  One of the enchanting things about his book is how broad a range of experiences it actually covers.  In one section, Guy discusses how to enchant through the judicious use of swearing; how it can make an impact and how it can work in your favor. In another section he discusses his concept of "baking a bigger pie".  The idea is that there are two kids of people/organizations in the world: eaters and bakers.  The baker is the one that wants to make a bigger pie because that way, everyone can win where the eater thinks that someone else has to lose for him to win.  Bakers are more enchanting for reasons that Guy details but you'll have to read the book yourself.  Maybe the most interesting theory to me was conducting a "premortem" when launching a project.  As an MBA finance teacher, I discuss scenario analysis with my students all the time.  A "premortem" is similar in concept but designed for more than just a capital budgeting project.  The idea is that you use the launch team to imagine that your project has failed and list the reasons for its failure.  Once you've identified the reasons, you go about determining how to prevent them from happening.  Scenario analysis is one of my favorite finance tools and one that I think is often overlooked in favor of ease.  I enjoyed seeing a similar form of thinking brought to the forefront in Enchantment.

The long and the short of it is that I enjoyed Enchantment quite a bit and found a lot of useful knowledge within, most of which there is no space to discuss here.  Pick the book up yourself at the link above and drop a comment here to let me know how you liked it.  If you'd like to take the Enchantment test on Facebook, click here to find out how enchanting you are already.


FOLLOW GUY

Facebook: Enchantment fan page
  http://www.facebook.com/enchantment
Twitter: @guykawasaki
  http://twitter.com/#!/GuyKawasaki
Blog: American Express Open Forum
  http://www.openforum.com/connectodex/how-to-change-the-world


THE DETAILS


Name: Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions
Page count: 224
Suggested retail price: $US 26.95
2011
ISBN: 9781591843795

Review: Battle of Champions 2011 (Toledo, OH)

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THE MEET

http://www.battleofchamps.com/
This was our second time attending this meet.  It was held at the SeaGate Convention Centre in downtown Toledo.  It was easy enough to locate and attached by walkway to a parking garage It wasn't deserted like it was last year.  Still not a lot of activity but some, at least. 

• Awards: The award decorations were better than last year by a small margin.  They were held in the lobby area of the convention center with a TV in the background with a game on, which was distracting.  The windows were behind them but didn't seem to cause flash bounceback but it may have been because we were off at an angle.  The ceiling is low in one area and high in another so you cannot bounce the flash off the ceiling easily.  Award stands were used for the gymnasts but they were still low to the floor.  It's also very dark in that areas with respect to taking pictures.  I used an external flash but it was probably a mistake this time.  With my new equipment, I could have gone without flash which would have produced better pictures.

• Concessions: One group selling meet t-shirts and the convention center coffee bar was available again.  This year, there was another concession stand around the corner which was good.  There isn't anything easily accessible immediately around the center.

• Seating: Bleacher seating was plentiful, however, the meet was held in one side of a convention hall with the dividing wall behind closed behind the gym.  We entered in the middle of the hall with the gym ahead and built-in bleachers to the left and right.  While the elevation was good for visibility, it meant that to see vault and bars from a reasonable distance, you had to be sitting on the left side and to see floor, you had to be sitting on the right.  This, of course, let to people getting up and moving around quite a bit which was annoying.  There was no change in this for 2011.

THE HOTEL

This was a driving meet for us so no hotel was involved.

DINING

This year we finished early enough to head to dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse www.meatballs.com.  They didn't take reservations but it was late enough that they fit us in quickly and easily, despite having around 26 people.  Service was good considering our party size and most food came out close together and hot.  The quality of food is acceptable.  It's not the best Italian food I've ever had but it was reasonably good.  Prices were reasonable and in line with the quality, in my opinion.

ACTIVITIES

While we were not there for any length of time, The only activities I am aware of in Toledo are summer ones.  The science center is now gone which is a shame.  The zoo is excellent and probably open in the winter if you're so inclined.  Feel free to add anything in the comments if you know of any activities.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Camera: Canon 7D
Lenses: 200mm F 2.8 Telephoto, 50mm F 1.8 prime (neither is image stabilized)
ISO: 6400 using an F-stop of 2.8 on the 200mm lens and shutter speed of 800
White Balance: Auto
Settings: Manual mode, center focus point only, autofocus=AI Servo
Lighting was a low but my lens was fast enough to avoid blur at a shutter speed of 800.