AO OD - Time for something fresh.

[shartley]

Originally posted by Ronin 23


Something to ponder. What if we can get both done at the same time?

[cphilip]

From my observations you see a rather good amount of group interaction at the evening thing than you do during the play day. During the day people tend to group up around thier base of operation. And clique more with thier surrounding neighbors. But in the evening that group gets larger. And even as a croud it stays rather large interactive group. What I learned from that is that you MUST plan the activities around a central place and you MUST keep the group together for the evening for that interaction to have a chance to occur. But no matter how many people are there they are going to concentrate into groups for some of it. Thats a human nature effect. It doesn't seem to matter how many people are there. They group up anyway at times. Just more groups. But when the event is organized to have a central activity then they readily come and form a group and enjoy that part as much as the play during the day. So the events AFTER the day of play are as key to the events success as the days play in group interaction.

[Thordic]

Originally posted by Suede
But REALISTICALLY speaking, people will not fly cross country let alone across the world to attend a simple BBQ--unless, that is, it's being held at someplace like the skating rink in Rockerfeller Center in which case it would be a destination/vacation unto itself.

Well, realistically, we had someone travel almost 30 hours by bus and car simply to attend NJ AO 3. TNS lives up in northern Ontario and it took him 29 hours to get to NJ on thursday/friday, he hung out friday night, played ball on saturday, hung out saturday night, and then it took him 27 hours to get home on sunday/monday.

FunkMunky and Potatoboy drove in front Detroit, which is a 9 hour drive.

Phil and Fatman drove up from SC for NJ AO 2, a 13 hour drive.

We've had groups drive from NJ to the SC meets on both occasions.

My point being, AO Days as they are now, people WILL travel long distances to attend. AO'er are dedicated to the events and willing to travel to attend them, even without lots of hype and flair and whatnot.

We had someone at NJAO from Australia, but he didn't come in just for the event he happened to be vacationing here at the time so I won't count him.

[cphilip]

Thord is right! They travel far and wide.

This past SE AO day we had Manike come in from England. Although he was coming over anyway he left in time to stop over for the 2 days and he chose to come into Atlanta rather than into New York where he was to end up so he could make it. Load drove all the way back to Atlanta to get him.

We had some from Canada, California, Michigan, Texas, Pittsburg Penn, Chicago, New Jersey, New York, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia (and I might have forgotten a few states even) and of course our own SC residents as well.

They will travel to these larger events from far and wide. Not in huge numbers but they do.... NJ guys travel best and in sort of packs...

[shartley]

[cphilip]

Originally posted by shartley

Get out the snow blower Sam! Enjoy!

Yep. The far travelers do not make up the entire lot. Perhaps 20% or so come from what you might consider far away. I think anything over 8 hours drive would meet that criteria. And they do so if it fits thier schedule.

And again... yep! Plenty of them shoudl happen! Because sometimes the large regional is out of someones reach or time constraints or even monetary constraints. So they need something local for them. So do em as they are the heart and soul of it all. So its possible for all to go to one and meet AOers. However the few larger ones, which I will call "Regionals" are were we can get the most diverse Celebs there. Because they cannot afford to go to all the little ones and I think thats obvious. Its like an opportunity for you to meet with them if you can but brought into an area that is reasonable driving distance once a year. So if you can then its available for you. So really you kind of need both. The smaller regular ones and a large regional one somewhat near you so you can visit with AGD and all. If you chose to and can.

[shartley]

Originally posted by cphilip


Get out the snow blower Sam! Enjoy!

LOL I DID get it out. I am now done with the largest parts. I got done quicker than I thought I would.

The cleanup around some edges and a couple paths will be left for Jay when he gets home from school! I would not want to deprive him of that.