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[LUG] Organizing meetings was Re: plymouth geeks meetup on the 18th of feb?

 

Paul Sutton wrote:
> 
> I still think the deal is if we want to do a big meeting somewhere like
> we did in hte early days of the lug we need to pay.

A couple of the big meeting never got billed for their venues!

One of the big meetings I did at Exeter University made a small surplus.

So experience says one can do a fairly big meeting (conference style) on
goodwill, and the seat of one's pants, if someone is prepared to take
the hit on the venue booking if it doesn't work out. At the time working
as a consultant on a sensible rate, risking a few hundred quid was
probably worth it for the contacts I made although I didn't derive any
work directly from that (I've had job offers since from people I met
through organizing those, but not for working from near Exeter alas).

On the other hand they did take a lot of organising, at the time I had
an under-worked(?) employee to take care of my organizing. Which is why
we had things like agendas, name badges, posters AND tape, sponsors etc.

I think Cornwall suffers the same way the group does generally, it is
about the half the size, and half the population of Devon. I've done
plenty of meets for such groups in Devon with 3 people attending, if you
scale it down by a factor of two sitting in the pub with another person
one time in two isn't much fun (at least half the time).

On the other hand we've got a lot of folk out to Launceston. Probably a
good area to book a venue, simply because the North Devon folk (who also
feel left out sometimes, can make it). And the keener folk from Plymouth
and elsewhere.

So I'd say look for a venue Launceston way.

I'm not sure about pub meetings, they tend to exclude younger members.
We've generally had better attendance at non-pub meetings, I can only
think of one very well attended pub meeting. Of course something like
the Rugby club, with a meeting room, and a bar close by is ideal.
Parents are less concerned about taking children to Rugby clubs than
pubs, whether that is rational or not isn't important to ensuring good
attendance. Meetings at schools, and Universities have also worked out
well, and been well attended.

Oh and thanks to Paul for organizing all the recent meetings!

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