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London MEGA 2012


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The reason you may not have heard about what happened with the finances from the first event was because at the time relations between GSP and UK cachers weren't at their best, and we thought that shouting from the rooftops about the amount we were donating to charity (events and charities are a known 'sticky topic' in this forum) wouldn't be a wise move.

 

I don't have the full accounts to hand, but could dig them out, but here's what I can recall.

 

Thanks to Robin's contacts, we got the hotel for next to nothing, but at the beginning as we didn't know how much we'd have to raise, we decided to bank the whole event on Geocoin sales.

As the run-up week started, we had sold sold enough coins to pay for the hire of the hotel, but not enough to cover the cost of the Geocoin production (oh that was a fun week for me), so the decision to hold raffles at the support events was taken.

 

The raffles covered the shortfall, but on the day all but 50ish of the remaining coins (1050 minted) were sold (thank you Steve and family), meaning we'd more than covered out costs.

 

After all bills were paid after the event, we had a surplus of £673.01.

£350 was presented to Children in Need, the other £323.01 to Diabetes Research.

 

Jamie (1st Mega Committee).

 

(edited to correct myself)

Edited by Jaz666
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Jamie replied quicker than I..

One other thing I would like to point out.

Although we had shipped loads of coins all over the world when we where setting up early on the day of the event we where still hundreds of pounds short of even breaking even never mind turning it into proffit.

It was probably about 2 hours into the event that I let Robin and the rest of the team know we where in the clear. We decided many months previously that we may have to take the whole thing "On the chin"

Hopefully as the events now have a longer planning period finances can be sorted earlier.

 

Steve 1st M-COM

Edited by Madyokel
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I may be a nutcase/idiot etc etc re mega 2012 to offer. But I may be able to offer advice if of help???? I 'run' a carnival and also have run for many years a large ish event in the Eastbourne area, so may have a little info of help. Would not think Eastbourne a brill place for a mega as Brighton has so much to offer in comparison. Other than advice I doubt my sanity/'spare' time can stretch to being on the committee sadly at this present time. Though my brain can be picked if anybody can find the cache I left it it :blink:

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not sure what format you have them in, but would it be worth getting them in an electronic format and making them available online? maybe on the MEGA website you used? Might save you getting lots of requests for them!

 

Dave

 

That seems a sensible suggestion to me - I will take it to the rest of the committee. I can't imagine any objections.

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Have been watching this discussion with interest and felt it was time to post.

 

First I don't feel central London is the right place for a Mega event in 2012, I've been at the last 2 Mega's and feel that a Mega in London in 2012 would be overshadowed by the Olympics, also a lot of travel and accomodations costs will have been inflated and you will lose out on visitors if it is too expensive.

 

Also the debate on whether the UK can host 2 Mega Events in a year. In the future I feel this can happen but at the moment I just don't think we have the cache headcount to be able to support two events. Personally I would probably only be able to afford the time and money to attend one and I'm sure other people would be the same.

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Hi All

i have missed a lot of this discussion, but i will try and catch up.

 

My current thoughts

 

Where in the country is the biggest cache saturation?

this would imply the largest concentration of cachers and hiders Yes/No

it would also allow for searches to be done a bit more low key, avoiding the cues of WSM

This area would also probably have longer running cachers with more experience, who might be willing to be part of such an exercise.

 

Now i know that there will be more than one location in the running, but the areas could then be canvassed for support.

these areas could then be looked in to and ruled in or out depending on facilities that are available.

 

Although i am still a relative newbie compared to some, i would be willing to help if a location close to me was chosen and i am sure there would be plenty of other people who feel the same around the country.

the problem these days is that people are scared to get involved when they dont understand, however we are all like minded people with similar goals. In my experience try and get as many bodies on side and it will make it easier for everyone.

 

From my experience of WSM, which was really good. You need to advertise more and offer more exclusive deals up front. a lot of attendees did not register up front, which could have raised a lot more revenue.

 

Maybe as a suggestion we could ask the reviewers to ask each setter to have a banner added to each cache page before it goes live, to advertise up coming megas. Just a thought.

 

Any way a really big thanks to those for this years and i am already planning our holidays round next years. :)

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Hi All

i have missed a lot of this discussion, but i will try and catch up.

 

My current thoughts

 

Where in the country is the biggest cache saturation?

this would imply the largest concentration of cachers and hiders Yes/No

 

 

I suspect that would be somewhere crammed full of trails of relatively high numbers of micros, hidden by relatively few cachers.

In which case, count me out :):D

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Hi All

i have missed a lot of this discussion, but i will try and catch up.

 

My current thoughts

 

Where in the country is the biggest cache saturation?

this would imply the largest concentration of cachers and hiders Yes/No

 

 

I suspect that would be somewhere crammed full of trails of relatively high numbers of micros, hidden by relatively few cachers.

In which case, count me out :):)

 

Hopefully not but it might be worth a look.

 

i recently saw a map here which showed cache density, which would be a possible starting place.

 

I was also hoping not to count anyone out :D

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I suspect that would be somewhere crammed full of trails of relatively high numbers of micros, hidden by relatively few cachers.

 

Isn't that just outside Bristol?

 

Teehee - further east, Wiltshire.

Hopefully far too close to WsM to be considered for a long, long time :):D

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I suspect that would be somewhere crammed full of trails of relatively high numbers of micros, hidden by relatively few cachers.

 

Isn't that just outside Bristol?

 

Teehee - further east, Wiltshire.

Hopefully far too close to WsM to be considered for a long, long time :):D

 

well, the SE has a good number of caches, including lots of circular walks of varying sizes, many of which aren't micros!

 

I think its predominantly down to who is willing to organise it, rather than picking an area and hoping someone there will step up to the plate!

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Since both MEGA and 2012 are under 5 characters long, I can't do a forum-search for other mentions of planned events for Summer 2012. If anyone had links to posts on this national forum, I'd appreciate seeing them. Thanks.

 

Apparently you can search these forums from the Google Search Box:

 

Into the box you type

 

whatever site: forums Groundspeak.com

 

(but replace 'whatever' with the word you wish to search for. You can search for 3 letters/digits.)

 

I haven't tried this myself but I read it on another part of the forums and made a note for future reference... I guess this is the future reference.

 

MrsB

Edited by The Blorenges
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I don't have a Google Search Box. Is it an IE thing? I'll try another browser and see if that shows anything useful. Thanks for the suggestion :)

 

Edit: Oh I see. You mean go to Google.co.uk and do a search there, including 'Geocaching forum United Kindom' as well as Mega and 2012. I blame the heat :)

Edited by Simply Paul
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Mmm, six posts. How did I miss that one? I accept that I did miss it though, but I note the NW Mega was 'confimed' (only as Summer, not with a specific date) on October the 21st. If preference were given on basis of announcement date... :) (It's not though)

 

And 25 votes for A NW Mega on the NW forum? That's a landslide! Sorry. 22 votes for, and 3 don't cares. It's still a groundswell of demand... I can keep sarcasm up all day. In truth, clearly the NW have been talking about their own Mega since October last year, but it's mostly been amongst them(your)selves.

 

Looks like it is going to be a fight for hearts and minds :)

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It would be a shame if 2012 became a competition between North and South (so far that's the vibe I'm getting from the posts on these forums :) ).

 

A mega takes a phenomenal amount of work to organise, and if we're going to see more than one mega event in 2012 (which appears to be increasingly likely as both committees are very keen), then both committees are going to have to work together. Personally I don't see why we couldn't support two megas that year, after all the first two UK megas both saw over 1000 attendees. Also the number of cachers out there is growing considerably. But if this is going to work, it needs co-operation on both sides, so that the two mega events complement rather than compete.

 

The idea of a NW mega is nothing new, it was being talked about in general terms as far back as Piratemania 2008.

 

Like a lot of people I would avoid London during the actual games. Personally I couldn't be doing with the extra costs and crowds. But there's no denying the year is a special one for London and it will lend a paticular vibe to any event held in the area.

 

If you organise it, people will come. Be that North, South or both!

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Ok having not attended any Mega Events some thoughts about location. Driving distances are not so important as times and speeds/ delays....

 

I have lived in various corners of the UK and commuted various places. The idea of a caching event in the SE is OK but its times.

 

The main problems to me for any journey are traffic hot spots, the SE for many of us is almost an island (that moat called London)... It can be so hard to get in and out of that people do not bother.

 

Peoples perception of a journey varies depending on where they live. In the SE Journey times are so much slower getting any where feels like hard work, with small problems creating huge hold ups. In Scotland people tend to travel further as they have to journey time or not...

 

I think London would be good for an event in a none Olympic year, or late in the year after wards?...

 

Urban caching is more acceptable in the winter :) ?

 

My thoughts of a Mega Event South or East of London (or North and East of London for many people) is its so difficult to get in and out of that area for many people.

 

Hold a Mega Event in the SE and I am sure you will get a lot of cachers from that area. Outsiders? having experienced the problems of getting there once or twice, I will probably miss it...

 

As for Perth this year for me, I have my 3 year old daughter and although she is an excellent traveler 12 up and down for me is a tad too far...

 

Then I enjoy Caching and cache events, but but I tend to set my caching round my diary not my diary round caching...

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I agree, which is why I'm trying to find a confirmed date for the NW event. Does anyone have one?

 

Please see my post on the Olympic coin thread - there is no confirmed date for the NW Mega yet because it depends on the availability of our venue, which has not been finalised (currently still looking at a shortlist of two).

 

As soon as we have it, I will announce it loudly and publicly!

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For a mega event in the UK to truly be a 'UK' mega event then it has to be held on such a date that all of the UK's can have an opportunity to get there. In my view due to the large amount of family cachers this has to be during school holidays. So for both of them to truly be UK events you wouldn't be able to hold both in the summer, as Scotland and the rest of the UK's holidays only overlap by about 3 weeks.

I would think that for 2 mega's to succeed in the UK then you would probably have to go for Easter and the summer as the two separate dates?

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Flights booked today, but airport transfer to Perth not yet sorted, taking some research - and no, we cannot hire a car.

 

Flight was a quid, but taxes raise the bar!

 

 

try this......

 

http://www.travelinescotland.com/journeypl...rJourneyPlan.do

 

 

or follow the Public Transport links here

 

 

http://www.megascotland.co.uk/

 

 

 

;)

 

Thanks, we have already exhausted both those options, and are finding public transport that is wheelchair friendly to be a tad tricky. From recollection of my last visit, even the Edinburgh Airport shuttles do not have an accessible vehicle.

 

I'm sure we will find a way, but as yet it is a tad elusive ;)

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Thanks, we have already exhausted both those options, and are finding public transport that is wheelchair friendly to be a tad tricky. From recollection of my last visit, even the Edinburgh Airport shuttles do not have an accessible vehicle.

 

I'm sure we will find a way, but as yet it is a tad elusive ;)

 

 

Found this link as well :-

 

http://www.travelinescotland.com/cms/Acces...ity/Index.xhtml

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And what a fantastic advertisement to the rest of the World this is proving for British caching harmony.

 

Would both factions please consider taking your arguments discussions on scheduling out of the forum, and maybe coming back with an agreed statement when you've both decided when and where the Mega(s) are going to be held in 2012.

 

Meanwhile, perhaps this years Scottish and next years Welsh Mega's can be given the attention they deserve without everybody else getting bogged down in your wranglings.

Edited by keehotee
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I think the thread name, as a clue to the topic, says it all keehotee.

 

have you not realised that this is spanning three different threads, if you had some common sense SP you may go and doo what keehotee is saying and sort things out instead of trying to provoke things further with what to me are smug comments

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I think the thread name, as a clue to the topic, says it all keehotee.

 

have you not realised that this is spanning three different threads, if you had some common sense SP you may go and doo what keehotee is saying and sort things out instead of trying to provoke things further with what to me are smug comments

 

...I wondered how long it would take for someone to make this a personal thing.

 

Common sense to call someone provocative and suggest their comments are smug then is it? Pot and kettle come to mind there. So please, leave your prejudices aside and let's talk about the main issue without resorting to name calling.

 

Why is it not possible for people to talk in terms of two mega events by 2012, it doesn't necessarily need to be an either or.

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Meanwhile, perhaps this years Scottish and next years Welsh Mega's can be given the attention they deserve without everybody else getting bogged down in your wranglings.

 

Deserved attention is totally warranted. But not on this thread! :rolleyes:

 

I've just checked. I don't feel at all smug.

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