What makes a good caching event?

[enfanta]

The people, of course.

 

But then, you knew that. I'm sure, however, you have more to add on that topic, especially as we're moving into picnic season.

 

So, besides the people, what makes (or breaks) a geocaching event?

[+Kouros]

Bear in mind that I've only been on one event cache, but...

 

I kinda like the idea of new, and unique caches placed for the meet (and kept in place afterwards, of course). If it's something special, it gives everyone something to talk about during the event.

 

On the one I did go on, a multicache was placed (unrecorded on the site... just for the meet) which was a little different, with an appropriately placed decoy... I'll say no more. But it was fun, and gave everyone something to chat about.

 

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An it harm none, do what ye will

[+briansnat]

Nice spot. Plenty of food. Perhaps some newly placed caches in the area for people to head out and look for. Good weather helps, but last year's NY/NJ Metro area picnic was on a rainy and cold day, so Harrald's tent was key and turnout was great, despite the weather.

 

"You can only protect your liberties in this world, by protecting the other man's freedom. "You can only be free if I am" -Clarence Darrow

[+Markwell]

Some historical threads (since my old links are broken )

 

Geocaching picnics

Planning a Geocaching Picnic...

 

We just had a fabulous event in February in Chicago, but the hosts put an AWFUL lot of work into it, including placing 20 new caches in the area.

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

[+Mudfrog]

This past weekend provided alot of us with a fantastic Event. Have to say that we had all you could wish for. Good weather, lots of good food, a great challenge, and to round it out, some of the nicest people you could ask for.

 

The logs at the link below speak for themselves Texas Challenge!

[+Renegade Knight]

Beer, yes, Beer and checking the handguns at the door.

 

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Wherever you go there you are.

[+Ltljon]

quote:

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Originally posted by Renegade Knight:

Beer, yes, Beer and checking the handguns at the door.

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What?? No handguns?? Sheesh!

[enfanta]

Thank you Markwell. Believe it or not, I went searching for this topic and got very little useful info back. So thanks.

 

X is for X, and X marks the spot, On the rug in the parlor, The sand in the lot, Where once you were standing, And now you are not.

[AlphaOp]

These comments are all regaurding "event caches," right?

 

I'd say planning and announcing it well ahead, it sounds like common sence, but sometimes it's the obvious that people overlook.

 

Central location, too.

 

I'm thinking about having a simple event cache sometime after school is over and the weather is better.

 

CODENAME: ALPHA OPERATOR

daedalus://govlink/secure/majestic/12.12.12/ops/throne/AO

MAJESTIC-12: THRONE G6 LEVEL AGENT

http://www.forumplanet.com/gamespy

[+RJFerret]

I haven't been to a cache event yet, but used to help run LARP weekends w/attendance up to 120... (Who had all paid to be entertained...)

 

Emotional weekends were the best/most memorable. I've noticed when people have emotional experiences cache hunting, they rank those as their "best ever" too (good OR bad).

 

That said, the upcoming nearby cache weekend features a nice element I didn't see in Markwell's links. The organizers requested interesting tidbits of info from attendees to incorporate into a scavenger hunt. This sounds (if it's like I'm picturing in my head) like a great way to get people interacting with each other.

 

Generally speaking, offering different elements to cater to different interests is necessary--that way everyone finds something they're happy with.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Randy

[+GeoGargoyle]

I've never been to an event and am looking forward to my first on the 27th here in Wichita, KS. Shane the evil twin is setting things up and is one of the areas driving forces behind the sport in Wichita. I was wondering though, if 30 people show up and there are 3-4 new caches to do. How do you keep people off of one another's back while searching for the new caches? Take turns?

 

To live in fear is not to live.

[+southdeltan]

This is slightly off topic...but I was wondering what sort of door prizes would would be cool for a caching event? There's one coming up and it mentions bring a door prize 'if' you can. I know it's not mandatory but I figure it'd be a nice thing to do.

 

So what kind of items have you seen as door prizes, and what kind do you think would make good door prizes?

 

SouthDeltan

[+MissJenn]

quote:

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Originally posted by Glisson:

if 30 people show up and there are 3-4 new caches to do. How do you keep people off of one another's back while searching for the new caches? Take turns?

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That, or just go in giant many-eyed groups in a big swath of the area and when one person finds the cache, y'all get very excited and take turns signing the log. That's a different kind of fun available at events - farting around with other people during the hunt!

 

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You must be present to win.

[+MissJenn]

enfanta already knows this, but I thought it might be good to add for others out there:

 

commemorative trinkets

Here is an exmaple from a 2002 picnic:

The name tags were created ahead of time by gnbrotz and were super helpful in encouraging people to talk to one another ("Hey, MissJenn, I saw you visited my cache recently...).

 

Also, Bob&Jill generously created these special keychains for all of us. They took our picture and placed it in the back side! Admittedly, these were expensive and not every group has the resources of Bob&Jill. However, you could also make cute commemorative trinkets out of rocks and some paint! The possibilities are endless!

 

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You must be present to win.

[Northern-Lights]

During our last Michigan social....we had name tags...it really helps putting a face to the name we kept seeing from the webpage or the logs. It really helped a lot in breaking the ice.

 

Earth First!!! We'll cache the other planets later!!

[Micqn]

Have lots of Travel Bugs!

 

Where you all at?

[+trippy1976]

Northern Lights forgot about the patches we had made too They weren't event-specific, but they were cool. Future event-specific ones are possibly in the future.

 

I like those keychains. Those look sweet.

 

The activities make an event interesting to me too. I like caching and I do that a lot on my own. I like activities that leverage having a group together.

 

At one event, Rusty put his GPSr on a known spot and let it average for an hour. This was before anyone arrived. When we got there, as an activity he gave us all the coordinates he had averaged that morning and gave us each a little flag. We then went out to where our GPSr said we were at as close to 0 feet as we could get and we staked our flag. The results were VERY interesting to see All these little flags dotting the ground. The flags all ended up in a pretty tight grouping, but the funny thing was we were all 35 feet off from the original coordinates. I thought that was a really cool experiment. I'd like to try it again sometime. But having a group of people there to stake their flags made it even more dramatic.

 

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trippy1976 - Team KKF2A

Saving geocaches - one golf ball at a time.

[+MissJenn]

If you want nametags but don't actually want to MAKE them for all those people that are attending, just have a NAMETAG CONTEST (set your criteria ahead of time, of course). That way, the work is spread out among the crowd.

 

Also, if you want to have giveaways on a very low budget, use the CITO film canister idea found here.

 

-- I recognize fun when I see it.