(sorry for the colors-business, my inner geek couldn’t help it)
1) Picnic In The Park
informal, zero cost, can all bring our own stuff, as much space as we wantvery public, difficult to structure, refreshments/snacks not readily available
I agree with the greens, but as of the reds I don’t see why it should be a problem to structure it—it hadn’t got to be structured! Place, time, and basta, isn’t it? And the refreshments/snacks would have been bought/brought beforehand by the people…
2) Meet In Pub
Various options around this e.g. do we book pub (dependant on numbers), do we get nibbles laid on (people would need to pay up front). Also dependant on numbers. Couple of other variations on this… in the past I’ve organised both treasure hunts and/or quiz nights. Don’t worry neither are serious ones but they are a good way to get people talking, meeting up etc and both involve drinking !! For those that are non drinkers I can assure you, that you will not miss out on the fun.
informal, low cost, get our “own space”, easier to structuresomeone will need to organise, we will need to pay “up front”
I’m for as well! If we can take your venue Malc, or another one (although a central one is definitely preferable), we just have to leave 20 quids as an insurance of us coming, right?
And the quizz-part would be terrific, a 43 Things-quizz! With the help of the Robots, ask questions about the history of 43T. Or even better (additionally, could be another part of the quizz), a get-to-know-43-thingers: find someone in the room who got her nipple pierced (no, no reference), find someone in the room who wrote an entry about a 43T nightmare, etc.
3) Have a meal somewhere
always fun to eat out, good focus for the eventnumbers, difficult to find somewhere given peoples dietary restrictions, likes/dislikes
I fully agree, too difficult to organise. Except for the gigantic pic-nic, I suggest we split into smaller groups for restaurants.
4) The Full Monty
Lights, music, hotel conference facilities, the works. Maybe where we would like to eventually get to ?
The best for the best !!Too much too soon, high cost, lots of work
I don’t think it would be such a good idea either… I’m for keeping it as informal as possible, and if there is to be such a convention, maybe the Robots would have to play a more active part in it.
1) Someone will need to take responsibility to organise. I know I’m gonna regret saying this… I don’t mind doing… BUT… I will need some help and people will have to give a firm commitment (including paying up front if needed), people will have to trust and respect the decisions made by the organisers. Sorry I know that all sounds a little formal we will never be able to satisfy everyone on everything.
All true. I’m in as well, although being a student I’ll have difficulty with paying up-front, but I should be able to help as well. And we have plenty of time to get people’s opinion on this and that, so as to satisfy as many people as possible.
2) Paying Up Front. We can do this but it will need some ground rules i.e. “if you don’t pay, you don’t play”. It’s also linked to numbers. We could set up an account, and then it is down to trust. If you wanna turn up then you will need to pay by a certain date. Do people think that is fair ?? BTW on the trust issue I would go very public with my name, address, etc and would suggest that we set up needing two signatures to take money out. That way people should feel a little safer. Not an expert on all of this so if anyone has a better idea then let me know.
Basically, I’m against anything involving money too much, but in this case it’s linked to having a great time together. I don’t know for the bank account though, it’s very complicated and official, if there’s a problem and some weirdo decide to sue us… Well, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with it. On the other hand I have no better idea, so I’m Swiss on this one.
And definitely for the rule “don’t pay don’t play”—unluckily it has to be something like this to prevent the organizers from getting bankrupt after the event.
3) Travel/accomadation. I think this best left to individuals to sort out but maybe we could set up a blog or something to help people. Cost is obviously key consideration for many.
The possibilities would be:
- Individual booking (either in hotel, hostel, Couchsurfing Doesn’t matter, the orgs. wouldn’t take care of that)
- Group booking in a youth hostel (definitely by the orgs.)
- Locals hosting (set up a blog? a database? a wiki? Geez, the ‘Web 2.0’ should help us on that!)
4) The Robots. Not sure where they would sit on this but would be great if at least one could attend. So I think we should at least invite them. Hopefully the Co-Op would have enough pennies in the jar to fund a flight for one of them.
I know Daniel Spills ^ (spelling?) ^ would be interested in joining, if not Josh Petersen.
Right I really gonna go for it now. I’ll assume we will do over a weekend cos then less chance of conflict with work commitments and maybe something like the following would work…
I’d go for a week-end as well, it’s the simplest we can do.
Sat AM Travel to London(hé hé nothing’s sure yet :P)Sat PM Meet in pub with either treasure hunt, quiz as an event
Sun AM various options driven by individal interests e.g. art lovers could go to a gallery, photographers meet up and do a photo essay of London, shoppers hit Oxford Street etc etc
Sun Lunch all meet up for a picnic in park, cheers, hugs, kisses, maybe fun award ceremony and say our good byes
Sun PM Return home, reflect, wipe tears from eyes etc etc
I wouldn’t have said better. Of course depending on individuals they could arrive earlier, if they can be hosted etc., but the core thing not being longer than 2 days is great!
