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1st Int'l Geocaching Conference??


Guest bigkid

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I'm checking to see if there would be any interest for a geocaching conference at the end of summer (Aug) in the states.

 

I'd like a yeah or nay and if you say yeah, then I'd like to know what you would like to see at the conference.

 

(i.e. contest, industry talks, top geocache finders and hiders, Jeremy, etc.)

 

Thanks!

 

-bigkid

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Guest maps-r-us

Great Idea! We can think of lots of ideas but for starters:

 

  • invite government officials to discuss geocaching on public lands
  • Jeremy,of course, to discuss the web site, future plans, etc.
  • GPS manufacturers to discuss their latest recreationl software/hardware
  • regional reps from every country or region in the US to give reports
  • games and contests including a major geocache or two. Tours to the local geocaches!
  • vendors to help underwrite the costs and let them talk about and sell stuff like, GPSrs, mapping software, army surplus, outdoor gear, etc.

 

If you have it in September, you should consider Portland, OR as the home. That way you could ride the coattails of the GPS 2000 conference to be held there on Sept. 23-27 at the Oregon Convention Center. It is a GPS techno junkies nirvana with over 2000 folks from over 40 countries coming to talk GPS. Learn more at http://www.ion.org. At $465 most of us wouldn't go to their event but it would broing over 100 vendors of GPS technology to town and they could all come over and talk to us at some smaller venue.

icon_biggrin.gif

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Guest treemoss2

I think it is a good idea, with one reservation. That is the opening up of the lands management people directly into the geocaching world.

There has been a lot of chatter about use of lands by geocachers on the discussion board recently. It seem as if geocachers are the newest abusers of the forest, etc. New targets.

The inclusion of land management people in a conference could end up going either way for geocaching. That said, I think it would be a snub (and unfair) to not include them. I would certainly like to see their agendas for their presentations before they had access. The first conference would not need a big negative slant.

I think that a national conference of this sort is a huge undertaking. Unless you are prepared to do a LOT of work to achieve this, it may be better to focus on a smaller scale meeting.

For instance. A local REI or outdoor store could have a product, GPS, mapping, vendor expo in their store of even in parking lot, with maybe a series of speakers in one meeting room scheduled throughout the day.

Or the a local hotel could be used and you could speak with their conference reps about cost issues on renting of conference rooms.

This seems more doable (to me) than organization of a national conference.

There is, for such a conference, a huge assortment of people to draw on for very interesting things.

All GPS manufacturers.

Local outdoor shops - for those essential GPC search needs - hiking stuff.

Local parks depts.

Topozone, Mapquest, and all other online or mapping businesses.

The orienteering community.

The adventure racing community.

The trail running community.

The mountain bike comunity.

All the assorted needs manufacturers and vendors associated with the above.

 

Then again, does geocaching need this at all? Will it just expand the community and possibly bring too many people either into geocaching itself, or into organized opposition to it. There are consequences to bring geocaching into a more public light.

In the end it could be most advantageous to just stay slightly underground as it is now.

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Guest bigkid

Cool ideas, so how much do you think this conference should cost? In other words, what would you pay to go to a conference and what must it have to be of value?

 

-John

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quote:
Originally posted by bigkid:

how much do you think this conference should cost? In other words, what would you pay to go to a conferenc


I dunno what number to put up here, but just please remember that a company won't be reimbursing any of us if we go to THIS conference. icon_cool.gif it'd have to be cheaper than your usual "official" work-type conference..... At the risk of being too early to give a number, here I go:

say, $100 or even much less.

 

-----

dartfrogsmall.jpg Nothing is foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

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I tend to agree with J&B Super Sleuths & Treemoss2. Maybe it would be a good idea to do a smaller scale conference. Foreign and out of state cachers could still be welcome of course but instead of making it so public keep it to a smaller scale. Advertise it in this forum and in the yahoo forums that different states have formed for themselves. Also, people who arrange various event caches in their local area's can advertise the conference by putting up flyers etc. Arrange a hotel with conference rooms and invite the vendors, Jeremy etc. I agree with most of the idea's people have put out as to things we can do during the conference. They are very good idea's. And it will be alot of fun. Just take it slow. If geocaching grows to fast then were going to have some serious growing pains.

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Thanks for the responses, looks like we'll have to keep fine-tuning this idea to see if we can make it work. I think regional is a good idea, I think combined with a large event like the GPS Gold Rush may also be a draw. Look for an event coming in the summer of 2003 and please let me know if you have other ideas of what would bring you out...

 

bigkid, CEO of PlayTime Inc.

The Official Geocaching Corporate Team Building and Event Provider

http://www.playtimeinc.com

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quote:

There is, for such a conference, a huge assortment of people to draw on for very interesting things.

All GPS manufacturers.

Local outdoor shops - for those essential GPC search needs - hiking stuff.

Local parks depts.

Topozone, Mapquest, and all other online or mapping businesses.

The orienteering community.

The adventure racing community.

The trail running community.

The mountain bike comunity.

All the assorted needs manufacturers and vendors associated with the above.

 

Then again, does geocaching need this at all? Will it just expand the community and possibly bring too many people either into geocaching itself, or into organized opposition to it. There are consequences to bring geocaching into a more public light.

In the end it could be most advantageous to just stay slightly underground as it is now.


 

not to sound snobby or anything but i wouldnt want trail runners and mountain bikers and "other sports" people there. if its a geocaching conference i would want it to be about geocaching. to add that many other sports which are completely and totally unrelated, and more well known in the general comunity you would end up with a geocaching conference with like 6 running booths 10 mountain biking booths and one or to little tables in the back dedicated to geocaching. instead, how about no biking or running booths but all geocaching booths... and invite the public.. the more the merrier, as long as they dont mess up the natural surroundings and destroy parks etc. more people simply means more caches... and the more the better.

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If this were a voting thing, my vote is to stay underground, for lack of a better term. When you organize these events around an activity, it seems to draw such a huge amount of commercial attention.

This is already happening, with it being incorporated into corporate team building businesses, no offense to any such businesses.

Garmin is using geocaching as an advertising tool. Magellan as well. Attention can have positive and negative affects.

Why screw with an already good thing.

And access to public lands for this activity is already being scrutinized, restricted, outlawed.

But, we know the American way is to strive for bigger, better, more attention, etc.

 

"There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

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An event like this would be very expensive. Keep the first one to maybe one day of lectures and other presentations and a dealers room. Rent space in the dealers room for outdoor equipment dealers to sell products. To bring in guest speakers you would have to pay their cost. You could have geocahers show ways of putting a cache together, Ways to camoflage a cache and so on. This type of event would work if you started out small. The second day have a geocache contest set up with a large quanity of caches set up with a time limit, maybe 4 hours to find as many as you can.

 

The hard part would be to find local geocachers to set it all up. icon_biggrin.gif

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hey i think everyone understands the pitfalls of fame. but there is no reason we still couldnt have a conference with out "coming out". think about it, if people can have underground parties roaming poker games etc etc. there is no reason we couldnt have a conference that was widly known to cachers, yet "underground" to the rest of the world. i do think that the underground bit is part of the fun. the "I know something about this park that most people dont" thing is kind of adventurous in a way. so lets strive to get together and share ideas, but keep it on the down low, as they would say in the hood. (sorry i couldnt resist.)

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I am the Geocaching Coodinator for Cleveland Metroparks. My guess is that this summer or fall is a little ambitious for a national or international conference to happen. You might be better off looking to next spring or summer. I have presented on the topic of geocaching at several professional conferences. (National Association for Interpretation's region IV and National conferences, Ohio Parks and Recreation Association and the Great Lakes Park Training Institute). My presentation includes an over view of geocaching but focuses on parks and public land agencies dealing with the sport happening on thier land, including how to get involved. If time permits I would be glad to present. Also, if I can do anything else that would be helpful, please feel free to contact me.

Carly Martin

geocaching@clevelandmetroparks.com

(440) 247-7075

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I think an evcent like this would be very good for the the geocaching community. I dont think going public like this will cause anymore of a problem than having geocaching on the news and on the travel chanel. what it would do is help organize the sport better. if everybody is still interested in doing this I would be more than willing to help organize it since I have experience in puttting events like this together.

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I still vote to keep it underground, this seems to be part of the appeal for many, as discussed on a previous thread.

But as with any activity that rises to attention, soon something else 'new' and 'cool' comes along, and scatters the former into obscurity.. ..back underground.

 

In a discussion with a psychologist friend I have, he divulged that people sometimes seek attention for their activites from the public to acheive some sort of inward approval or maybe justification of what we're doing. Like the 'what GPS'r is the best'discussion. There is a tendency to recommend what WE own, or use, to justify it as our choice, prove it's worthiness to ourselves.

..or maybe I misunderstood him..

 

That will be 5 cents, please..... icon_wink.gif

 

"There's no need to be afraid of strange noises in the night. Anything that intends you harm will stalk you silently."

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Yea

I would love to see something like this happen.

I see that everyone has covered the most important areas but a

TEAM building Goal for all the current and future and members of Geocaching would be a good idea.

I know we have a good repore and would like to keep it that way.

 

Till then Happy................ Geotrails

 

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Hi, I would be interested in going to a geocaching conference. Things that I would like to see at a conference is workshops for people who are new to caching giving helpful hints and teaching some of the terminology that geocachers use. I would also like to see information tables from each state/country giving information about different clubs, gatherings,etc. in each state. Of course, geocaching contests, drawings, entertainment, vendors (like different companies that make gps system, perhaps they could sponsor the event)? I would suggest having a convention in each region of the country as well because some people will not be able to go cross country for a national convention? These are just some of my suggestionicon_smile.gif

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