I've been reading through the survey comments which vary from one extreme to another. Everyone's experience is different. While I might be setting myself up, a few personal comments. Ofest website It does need a better explanation of some of the events. Granted. Although I got very few phone calls needing assistance on registering. Online registration While it would be nice to have a shopping cart type of checkout, the problem lies with packages. It would require a lot of logic to calculate the total registration fee since some packages include multiple events and it changes from year to year. Multiple registrations Each person needs their own record and their registration fees are often different. I like the ability to generate real time lists on the Ofest website so people can see their names under each event. I don't know of any event registration system that will allow for that without costing a lot of money. And it would have to be redesigned every year. Onsite registration Having multiple sites are always difficult. Large hotels are generally not located next to race tracks with the exception of Road America and even there we moved registration. We need to consider those who are towing vehicles. Currently the plan is to have registration at the host hotel in Monterey all week. Each night I went through packets to determine where the person might be the following day. Long time members will remember when you registered for an entire week so this really wasn't so much of an issue. Most people either registered Sunday night or Monday morning. Driving School Having 3 sessions as opposed to 4 shorter ones actually may give you more track time. Less time to transition one group off and the next on. Response to voice mail messages With so many people having smartphones we did all we could do to keep up with email, let alone getting back to voice mails. Host Hotel Not many convention style hotels are located next to race tracks. People want one central host hotel with a big parking lot close to everything. I think people forget that even in Greensboro, VIR was more than an hour away. Road America spoiled us. Watkins Glen could not support enough people and we needed to find other facilities for our dinners.
Steven: Considering how much of the effort in setting up and running O-fest is volunteer, I think it was pretty well organized overall. It was my first one, and while there are always things you'd like to see be nicer, easier, closer, faster, bigger, smaller, etc. I think a very good event was delivered. THANK YOU and all of the others who worked so hard to pull it off!!
Having been to ten O'Fests and worked on two, I'll agree that Road America has pretty much spoiled it for everyone else. It's simply an amazing convergence of facilities that's unmatched anywhere. I hope we can do another one soon. That said, the only other comment I would have is on the driver school sessions. Don't micromanage them from afar or with a blanket national rule. The local operators are the ones who know how to get cars on and off in the most efficient manner, they know how many cars their tracks can handle, and they know how long their sessions should be. Let them do that job.
I'm always curious of a first timer's impression. Thanks. It was the chapter, not National who recommended 3 longer run groups as opposed to 4 shorter ones. Made sense.
I'm with Krieger on this one. Whichever chapter manages the Laguna Seca schools next year---probably Golden Gate---will have the same West Coast cadre of instructors and marshals, who have worked out the most efficient use of Gooney after many years. This is probably the wrong forum, but let's remind would-be students with non-OEM exhaust systems that Gooney's 92-dB limit is very, very strictly enforced....
