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Is it a meet or is it an event?


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In my opinion there is a big difference between a meet and an event

 

A meet is where a dozen or so cachers meet up at a pub for a natter and a drink and are only at a designated place for an hour or two a meet takes very little if any organising.

I would class any pub or indoor gathering as a meet.

 

An event is where a large number of cachers meet up at a designated place for 2 or 3 days and it will take the event organiser months to organise the event.

I would class Piratemania/the Mega/a weekend away camping ect as events.

 

In the same breath my Teddy Bears Picnic and Duck Race events 2 year ago both had over 100 attendees but were one day events but they took me months to organise :o

 

So do you think there is a difference between a meet and an event and what do you think that differnce is?

 

Should they be seperate things?

 

Should an organiser have the choice of holding a meet or an event, and should they have seperate statuses?

 

M :D

Edited by Us 4 and Jess
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In my opinion there is a big difference between a meet and an event

 

A meet is where a dozen or so cachers meet up at a pub for a natter and a drink and are only at a designated place for an hour or two a meet takes very little if any organising.

I would class any pub or indoor event as a meet.

 

An event is where a large number of cachers meet up at a designated place for 2 or 3 days and it will take the event organiser months to organise the event.

I would class Piratemania/the Mega/a weekend away camping ect as events.

 

In the same breath my Teddy Bears Picnic and Duck Race events 2 year ago both had over 100 attendees but were one day events they took me months to organise :o

 

So do you think there is a difference between a meet and an event and what do you think that differnce is?

 

Should they be seperate things?

 

Should an organiser have the choice of holding a meet or an event, and should they have seperate statuses?

 

M :D

 

There's no such thing as a "meet" that can be listed here.

 

There are "events" and "mega events". Both are clearly defined in the Guidelines:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx

 

Oh, and CITO events. Oops.

 

What you are calling a "meet" is the definition of an "event". I don't see the need to introduce new terminology.

 

 

B.

Edited by Pup Patrol
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Maybe I worded my opening thread badly I know there is no such thing as a "meet"

 

OK then lets be pedantic....12 folks meeting for a natter and pint in a pub is an event, 3,000 folks attending The Mega is an event, but the difference in people attending and the difference in the organisation of these events is huge...

 

So should we have 2 different statuses for them (say maybe "meets and "events")?

 

M :D

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Maybe I worded my opening thread badly I know there is no such thing as a "meet"

 

OK then lets be pedantic....12 folks meeting for a natter and pint in a pub is an event, 3,000 folks attending The Mega is an event, but the difference in people attending and the difference in the organisation of these events is huge...

 

So should we have 2 different statuses for them (say maybe "meets and "events")?

 

M :D

 

They are already have 2 differnt statuses. One is an "event", the other is a "MegaEvent".

 

I agree that the term "event" makes things sound much grander than they usually are, but that's what Groundspeak has termed them. "Meets" would be a much friendlier term, and convey a more simple approach. I think a lot of new folks are afraid to host "events" because it sounds like there's a lot more to it than a bunch of folks showing up and have a meal and nattering.

 

 

B.

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Maybe I worded my opening thread badly I know there is no such thing as a "meet"

 

OK then lets be pedantic....12 folks meeting for a natter and pint in a pub is an event, 3,000 folks attending The Mega is an event, but the difference in people attending and the difference in the organisation of these events is huge...

 

So should we have 2 different statuses for them (say maybe "meets and "events")?

 

M :D

If I understand your suggestion properly, it sounds like you imagine that the "effort" of planning should become a factor in the "type" of event cache on geocaching.com.

 

While I recognize that some events take more effort and planning than others, the definition of "event caches" is pretty clear. Even a "meet" is an event, so long as you take the effort to post it as a geocaching event on this website.

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The term 'event' was introduced very early on in geocaching history. You were lucky in the early days if you got 20 people to attend an event. I remember one of my events being the first in Scotland to attract over 50 people. That number is the norm now. Events have grown, but the original principles haven't. No need for a new category in my opinion.

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Is this thread just another way to show us all your event achievements? :anitongue:

And maybe more of your achievements for the coming year.

Are you a lady version of Simply Paulo?

Either way I don't see the point.

 

Not at all, I have been quite ill for the last year and all of my locals know I am not well enough to hold an event in the foreseeable future, and believe me our game is much better for the likes of Paul and many of the "oldtimers" some of the noobs need to start taking the reins instead of just sitting back and take take taking :mad:

Edited by Us 4 and Jess
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Maybe I worded my opening thread badly I know there is no such thing as a "meet"

 

OK then lets be pedantic....12 folks meeting for a natter and pint in a pub is an event, 3,000 folks attending The Mega is an event, but the difference in people attending and the difference in the organisation of these events is huge...

 

So should we have 2 different statuses for them (say maybe "meets and "events")?

 

M :D

If I understand your suggestion properly, it sounds like you imagine that the "effort" of planning should become a factor in the "type" of event cache on geocaching.com.

 

While I recognize that some events take more effort and planning than others, the definition of "event caches" is pretty clear. Even a "meet" is an event, so long as you take the effort to post it as a geocaching event on this website.

 

Yes and no, lets forget the Mega altogether as that already has it's own status...

 

A meet would let locals and newbies know it was a small gathering of cachers an event would let the same folks know it would be a much larger gathering

 

Going back to the amount of effort put into an event..I think it would be nice acknowledge the effort shown by there being "events" and "meets"

 

Mandy :)

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The term 'event' was introduced very early on in geocaching history. You were lucky in the early days if you got 20 people to attend an event. I remember one of my events being the first in Scotland to attract over 50 people. That number is the norm now. Events have grown, but the original principles haven't. No need for a new category in my opinion.

 

I know you do a big CITO each year Dave and the Hunt and Munch and I can appreciate how much work must go into those, do you think these events of yours are on the same level as a person whos event is sitting in a pub for an hour?

 

BTW don't brag about how many people were at your event Dave or you will be classed in the same league as Paul and myself :laughing::o

 

Mandy :D

Edited by Us 4 and Jess
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If just the wife and I turn up, would that be a nano?

 

Seriously, we're actually thinking of organising our first 'event' which will be of the 'go to the pub, have a few drinks and a chat' type. The last one of those we went to was attended by two people who host 'big but not mega' events annually (think I have that correct). There is no way in the world that we would compare the effort that we're planning to put in to their effort. Their effort is, I'm certain, very highly appreciated by the people who attend. And surely that itself is the reward.

 

I have to ask what benefit to the geocaching world there is in differentiating between more event types.

Edited by TheOldfields
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Is this thread just another way to show us all your event achievements? :anitongue:

And maybe more of your achievements for the coming year.

Are you a lady version of Simply Paulo?

Either way I don't see the point.

I see something. I'm not sure if it's a point though, JoLuc. Contrast Us 4 and Jess. And to think, they say you get out of the game what you put in... To make my point as clear as possible, in your case that's 4 caches logged (nothing in over a year though), none placed/organised and 93 mostly snotty forum posts. Are you quite sure you're not an outlawed trolly sock-puppet? :Yawning Smiley:

 

To stay on topic, I have some sympathy with U4+J's feelings. An Event sounds grand, special and memorable. A meet sounds like a gathering, a chat, a low-key get-together. But the effort involved in organising it isn't always a reflection of its ambition, scale or 'quality'. One of the biggest, most memorable Events I went to was a flashmob organised in less time than the 15 minutes it took to hold. One of the most memorable meets I ever attended cost £550 to get to, took months to organise and featured 8 cachers. Given the great variety of event types, from Megas to CITOs and a world of creative hosting styles in between, I'm not sure subdividing them more - in an official, listing sense - would be beneficial to the game. With the possible exception of flashmobs, which I don't personally feel fully fulfil the 'gather, swap TBs and caching tales' requirement of 'regular cache events'. They're fun, but to me, they're their own beast.

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Dare I say that is nowhere near the amount of events we have held Paul, as my signature says most of our events/caches/travellers that have expired are now in a different name...and if you count the Durham monthly meets we held every month for over 7 year...and the 300/500 caches I have not logged....well we wouldn't want to brag now would we :P:o:lol:;)

 

I never come on here to start a thread and hope everyone will agree with me, years of experience in this forum have taught me that is never going to happen, the meet/event idea was just one of those things that popped into my head and I wondered what the rest of the community thought about it.

We have different sized caches so why not different sized events?

 

I very nearly worded it like Bear and Ragged did, my thought s being something like..

 

Meet (pub/hall ect) 1-25 attendees

Event (camping/stay on site) 25-100 attendees

Mega Event (what the braver than me organise :o) 500+ attendees

 

And as TheOldfields said if no bugga turns up a Nano :lol:

 

M :)

Edited by Us 4 and Jess
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The term 'event' was introduced very early on in geocaching history. You were lucky in the early days if you got 20 people to attend an event. I remember one of my events being the first in Scotland to attract over 50 people. That number is the norm now. Events have grown, but the original principles haven't. No need for a new category in my opinion.

 

I know you do a big CITO each year Dave and the Hunt and Munch and I can appreciate how much work must go into those, do you think these events of yours are on the same level as a person whos event is sitting in a pub for an hour?

 

BTW don't brag about how many people were at your event Dave or you will be classed in the same league as Paul and myself :laughing::o

 

Mandy :D

My CITO's aren't actually that big, they usually attract around 40 to 50 people. The Hunt & Munch is around 55 people actively taking part. The event I quoted before was sitting in a pub, granted there was a little bit of other stuff, but nothing significant.

Being someone who has organised events sitting in pubs, I have to agree that the main two which I organise do tend to have more put into them. But does that make them better or worse than any other event? I would like to think so, but it doesn't mean it does.

 

I very nearly worded it like Bear and Ragged did, my thought s being something like..

 

Meet (pub/hall ect) 1-25 attendees

Event (camping/stay on site) 25-100 attendees

Mega Event (what the braver than me organise :o) 500+ attendees

 

And as TheOldfields said if no bugga turns up a Nano :lol:

 

M :)

At the present moment Groundspeak may upgrade your event to a Mega if you can prove that 500+ people turned up. I expect they do this as there won't be many each year that fall into this category and doesn't really take up a lot of administration time. Now given the fact that you never really know how many people will turn up for your event, it is extremely difficult to list it correctly. I can't see Groundspeak willing to upgrade/downgrade events on a regular basis, or policing them for that matter.

 

I can see where you are coming from, but I think you are wasting your time, as it will never be implemented. With that said though, I did hear about a new category for event that may be called something like Super Mega and it will be something like over 5,000 people.

 

But please don't quote me on that as I might have just made it up!!! :unsure::blink:

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Meet (pub/hall ect) 1-25 attendees

Event (camping/stay on site) 25-100 attendees

Mega Event (what the braver than me organise :o) 500+ attendees

 

I think my definitions would be:

 

Meet: Pub etc, no new caches eg Brummie Meets or stanthews's monthly Wiltshire Events where attendees generally just talk about caching

 

Event: Outdoors but where new caches are placed/released and attendees actually go caching eg Coming of age 3. (Camping events would fit in this category :) )

 

Mega Event: 500+ attendees

 

Thanks

Mark

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I hear ya, you can't submit an event just to go caching and you can't submit unless it's about caching. So we play the game to list it as caching and then we all meet.

 

CITO events are good, but I like the let's get together and then go tackle the caches you wouldn't have attempted on your own. I call them POG cache events. Named after the Pot of Gold cache get-together that ultimately started the Iowa club.

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Surely if an event is so small and casual that you barely need to organise it, you don't need to publish it as an Event Cache anyway. You can simply e-mail everyone that's likely to be interested, and/or make up a Facebook page to publicise it (sharing it to your local geocaching group if you want to widen the audience). The latter would take about twenty minutes all in. So that's your "meet".

That would also mean that you are free to design the meet however you see fit, without regard to Groundspeak's royal and ancient Regulations. You could even meet up at a pub, have a chat, and then all go caching.

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Not everyone uses Facebook - I can't stand it, personally - but pretty much every cacher uses GC.com, so the right place to promote events (or more casual gatherings) remains this site I think. Additional promotion through social media and forums seems wise too, as GC's weekly emails aren't read by everyone either.

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Not everyone uses Facebook - I can't stand it, personally - but pretty much every cacher uses GC.com, so the right place to promote events (or more casual gatherings) remains this site I think. Additional promotion through social media and forums seems wise too, as GC's weekly emails aren't read by everyone either.

Well, some people might not use FB but you can't please everyone. If you choose not to use it then you just accept that you miss various events, caching-related and otherwise. Fair enough, if you're not bothered anyway. :-)

 

GC.com has its own problems and when it comes to events they're quite big problems, as we can see from this discussion.

I tended to miss out on events a lot because I don't bother to search for them on GC.com; but because I can see them on FB, I can now at least choose not to go to them, a step up from not even knowing they exist!

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Not everyone uses Facebook - I can't stand it, personally - but pretty much every cacher uses GC.com, so the right place to promote events (or more casual gatherings) remains this site I think. Additional promotion through social media and forums seems wise too, as GC's weekly emails aren't read by everyone either.

Well, some people might not use FB but you can't please everyone. If you choose not to use it then you just accept that you miss various events, caching-related and otherwise. Fair enough, if you're not bothered anyway. :-)

 

GC.com has its own problems and when it comes to events they're quite big problems, as we can see from this discussion.

I tended to miss out on events a lot because I don't bother to search for them on GC.com; but because I can see them on FB, I can now at least choose not to go to them, a step up from not even knowing they exist!

 

This reminds me of the guy in a restaurant who ordered apple pie without custard, only for the waiter to reply that they didn't offer it with custard so he would have to have it without ice cream.

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GC.com has its own problems and when it comes to events they're quite big problems, as we can see from this discussion.

I tended to miss out on events a lot because I don't bother to search for them on GC.com; but because I can see them on FB, I can now at least choose not to go to them, a step up from not even knowing they exist!

My tip for an easy way to find out events in an area is to set up a PQ of not found caches. All the events will be there along with a smattering of new caches. I don't generate the PQ, just go to the preview which is a fixed link, so can be added to favourites. Since events have to be published 2 weeks in advance it is easy to plan!

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GC.com has its own problems and when it comes to events they're quite big problems, as we can see from this discussion.

I tended to miss out on events a lot because I don't bother to search for them on GC.com; but because I can see them on FB, I can now at least choose not to go to them, a step up from not even knowing they exist!

My tip for an easy way to find out events in an area is to set up a PQ of not found caches. All the events will be there along with a smattering of new caches. I don't generate the PQ, just go to the preview which is a fixed link, so can be added to favourites. Since events have to be published 2 weeks in advance it is easy to plan!

 

Or you could set up a query to only show event caches within whatever radius you'd consider travelling.

 

Just out of curiosity I just set up a pocket query to show me events that were enabled and that I hadn't already found, and the 1000 cache limit covered as far out as Bordeaux, Hamburg and Inverness (that's starting from London). I doubt I'll be going that far for a cache event any time soon.

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Or you could set up a query to only show event caches within whatever radius you'd consider travelling.

I'm not saying that gc.com doesn't have a way of showing Events, or that you can't find a workaround. It's just that you don't need a workaround with FB: the events are just there anyway. But the main point is that you can set up a "meet" for geocaching easily and efficiently, without having to jump through hoops.

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