Florida Creatives Barbecue/Picnic
Submitted by ryanprice on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 08:24.
I've thrown this idea out there in the past, but never put any serious time our thought behind it.
The Holiday Party in December was a pretty decent success, so I was thinking we could do a barbecue or Creative Picnic of some kind.
We have several new friends in Brevard, so for myself it would be nice to get out of Orlando and hit the coast for a little sea air and some good food, good conversaton, and geeking out.
For the sake of leaving enough time to plan and get people RSVPing, I was thinking the last weekend of July or first weekend of August - pretty much the worst weather ever then, huh?
The next Happy Hour is July 21st in Orlando. I'd like to have something figured out before then so we can announce it.
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We're happy to host and meet you folks, but we haven't even had our own first meetup yet so I don't know if you want to count on us. Rudloff hasn't even had a chance to join yet (although he assures me he will) and he's our fearless hero because he and Ryan did this for so long.
We're hoping he'll teach us to use the ways of the force.
Meanwhile, I've sent out over 100 emails inviting folks, so we'll see who loves community - and who doesn't.
After we get 20 registered on the site, we'll try and have our first meetup here - no telling how long that could take though. Maybe after that first one, we'll start to get a clue.
After that, and once we decide on some kind of semi-regular meeting place/time, I'll probably print up some flyers on some smokin' hot pink paper from Kinko's and physically distribute them to a lot of people in Brevard. Why? Because I'm trying to support our economy with $4/gal gasoline? No, that's not it. Ah... we'll see. Probably just because some people learn from seeing, some from doing, something like that.
Anyway, we'll be secretly observing your every move in Orlando to become jedi happy hour creatives like you folks!
But if you want to hit the beach in July, be my guest. Tourists!
The first Happy Hour at Dexter's had exactly eight persons... the trick is to publicize it in publicly googlable places - upcoming.org brought us Marc Rapp, whom none of us knew, and is now starting up the Jacksonville group... go figure.
Not a lot of thought, but a lot more consensus, has gone into all these moves. If your quorum is 4, then that's as big as you can get (today), and as long as a majority of those 4 folks agree, then just go ahead and do it.
Orlando is a small town, and we regularly run into people who were not invited to the event at our regular meeting place (The Crooked Bayou). I think we just happened to chose a place that was just cool enough, but lacked the sort of pop-appeal to be jam-packed on a Monday.
The short version: don't wait for 20. Schedule something before you get them. If you pick a bad location, date, or other configuration, the citizens will speak (we've seen that with Doterati for sure).
BTW, if Alex and I are Jedi, whom did we study under? I guess our involvement in social or community service organizations in college was a little bit of a help, but... just a little. Mostly, we do what feels natural. One reason this event was as successful as it is at the second meeting and several subsequent drink-ups is because Alex has a lot of geeky friends. Having a few super-delegates on the list, or a few folks with blogs read all over the country, for some of those third- and fourth-degree connections - that might be one way to help.
You guys are also in a unique place because not only have lots of people heard about Florida Creatives, but you are also in the nuclear fall-out zone of Orlando, so it's likely that more people in your area have heard about it than you think.
Ryan Price
You mean, you and Alex didn't study under a Master? If my studies serve well, this can only mean you two are rogue jedi and will soon be won over by the Dark Side. And if that happens, we are all doomed!
Also, we really aren't in the fall-out zone. With a lovely coastal seabreeze coming inland nearly all the time, the mushroom cloud will likely blow toward Tampa where, in my humble opinion, it should rightly fall anyway.
Of course, the reality is that with Brevard having both NASA and two Air Force installations, and O-town losing it's Naval base, we will be nuked first anyway. Plus, we also have the second largest port in the southeast.
BTW, what in heaven's name is that joke of a development at the old Navy training base? Little tiny roads, houses jammed together like Mr. Roger's neighborhood, cute little shop-ettes? I got lost in there about six months ago trying to shortcut my way to W.P. from Hwy 50. I kept thinking, "We off'd the Navy base... for this???" and "People actually live here??" Then, while lost in that muppet village, I heard Jim Philips promoting it like it was some sort of Mecca. I laughed so hard I had to pull over and wipe the tears out of my eyes.
Seriously, we will try and have a meetup soon. And what's with the use of the word quorum? What did I do to deserve that tone of voice? Man... I feel like I've been sentenced to a cubicle.
Quorum - meaning you've got enough of your membership to count for a vote, or otherwise have a meeting. It's Latin! Don't be afraid of a dead language...
Ryan Price
Unless it's perl. :D
--
Eric Marden
http://xentek.net
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