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Re: LLorg/HTLAL in-person meetup event
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 4:07 pm
by aokoye
Vedun wrote:aokoye wrote:arthaey wrote:aokoye wrote:I'm going to selfishly vote for the North American event to be in Portland, OR (because you know - that's totally a central place...at least we have a nice airport) if only because of Powells Books. Also then I wouldn't have to fly anywhere but Powells is a perk and accommodations and food are cheaper than somewhere like Chicago or NYC.
(just watch, this'll happen in the summer at which point I'll be in Europe for a few months)
Portland might actually be a decent location: we can all raid Powell's foreign language section.
And yeah, way cheaper than a lot of the larger cities.
When are you in Europe, so we can avoid those dates?
I might also be at a conference in Berkeley right before I go to Europe so let's just say I'm free before July 1st and after October 1st. Other pros for Portland outside of Powells - a lot of good food that is relatively inexpensive (especially compared to any other logical place to have this in North America), public transportation isn't horrible and is pretty inexpensive, and lots of outdoorsy things to do.
Why not embrace those dates instead and make any eventual meetup in Europe after or a little after you're done with your work there?
Because unless it's in a city that I am already in I'd have to find the money to get to wherever it's located. Also, equally important, I have rather important responsibilities right after I get back from Europe - school. Outside of the fact that I'd have to find the money to stay in Europe I am already planning on getting back to the US less than a week before school starts.
If the meetup in North America happens to be while I'm out of town it won't be the end of the world. Disappointing yes, but not the end of the world.
Re: LLorg/HTLAL in-person meetup event
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 4:23 pm
by aokoye
rdearman wrote:Had a bit of time available today and looked into what might be interesting. There is an estate near London which has a cooking school where we could do an all day cooking class given by a professional chef, and extensive meeting rooms as well as a golf course (if you like that sort of thing). Or instead of meeting rooms inside you can get a huge tent out on the grounds and hire a DJ for entertainment. I haven't bothered to find out the prices because I don't know what everyone would want to do, or even dates.
But lets say end of July, or August? Also are we synchronising a UK & USA & (others) to the same weekend? Or would people prefer 2 days like Thursday & Friday? People interested in lectures like the Polyglot Gathering, or activities for meeting each other, like the cookery school, or wine tasting, etc?
(( I am actually getting worried asking questions and my idle curiosity is going to get me into trouble again. Being too bloody helpful got me this administration job.
))
I don't think we need to synchronize the different meetings. If we do have a meetup in PDX (portland) it'll probably be pretty low key (I'm assuming I'd be doing a lot of the organizing).
Re: LLorg/HTLAL in-person meetup event
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 5:32 pm
by Spoonary
Did someone say wine tasting?
What I had in mind was much less organised than what Rdearman is proposing. I don't think lectures are necessary at all, but some kind of activity might be a good idea.
Re: LLorg/HTLAL in-person meetup event
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 6:42 pm
by Xenops
I could probably make it to Portland.
Re: LLorg/HTLAL in-person meetup event
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 9:59 pm
by Elenia
rdearman wrote:(( I am actually getting worried asking questions and my idle curiosity is going to get me into trouble again. Being too bloody helpful got me this administration job.
))
Assuming I'm around I could probably get stuck in and help out a bit. I've never done this kind of thing before, and I don't think I'd be very good at it - but I also don't think I'm particularly good at managing people and I do that every day
if anyone else based in or near London is interested we can perhaps share the load?
Re: LLorg/HTLAL in-person meetup event
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 10:07 pm
by aokoye
I also wanted to mention that I get the anxiety that comes with meeting someone that you only know from an internet forum. I've done it a surprising amount of times given the nature of the main forum I'm on (Ravelry) but when I was first doing so my social anxiety was really bad and it was at a huge fiber festival so I was already having to deal with being surrounded by a bunch of other people on a unseasonably cold day (I was also sick - such a mess).
It's a lot easier for me now just because I've meet online people so many times at this point and my anxiety has gotten a lot less severe, but I do remember how it felt the first few times.
Actually now that I think of it the first time wasn't at the festival, it was meeting up at a knitting group in Vienna so it was new people plus meeting at a group where I was the least proficient German speaker in a group of primarily native speakers.
Re: LLorg/HTLAL in-person meetup event
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:17 am
by Iversen
rdearman wrote:London Stansted has a ton of discount airlines, and is generally a direct flight for most EU countries. (...) What do they do at Esperanto meetups?
1) A place near Stanstead would be excellent for me (thanks to Ryanair)
2) At the Esperanto world conferences people do actually mostly speak ESperanto to each other - but I have to admit that they feel somewhat less personal than the polyglot conferences and gatherings so in practice I listen more to speeches and speak less myself than I do at the polyglot events. As for smaller Esperanto events I suppose the participants speak more and listen less.
Re: LLorg/HTLAL in-person meetup event
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 3:13 pm
by MamaPata
If a London(ish) event was happening, I could help organise, but only after June.
Re: LLorg/HTLAL in-person meetup event
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 7:19 pm
by rdearman
I was thinking end of July or August?
Re: LLorg/HTLAL in-person meetup event
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 8:31 pm
by Vedun
rdearman wrote:I was thinking end of July or August?
End of July or begining of August and during the weekend? That'd be 29th and 30th of July or 5th and 6th of August. Very fine with that!