I am looking to hold my own geocaching.com event in a couple of months time. No date set in stone yet. I have attended a few events since I started caching, all have been fun, but some have been more fun than others. At this time all I have is a general idea of what I will do, and where I will hold it.
If anyone who has held an event before can offer any general good advice they have learnt from doing so, it would be welcomed. Any 'must dos' or any 'never do thats'?
If anyone has attended an event and really enjoyed an aspect of it, or not, I would love to hear about those experiences.
One thing I have learnt through a few people who have tried to host an event, is to not to leave it too long before you submit it for publication. I have attended a couple of non-official events (events that were never published) because of late submissions.
I think that I always enjoy pub events - simple is sometimes far better than complicated!
I always enjoy CacheWalker events most, they are on a whole other level to other events I've attended ;D I'm honored to have helped with the last couple, of course, but I've still not managed to finish planning my own event yet (non-CacheWalker) - been postponing it since 2010
I was planning for the event to be at a local pub, and not to go too complex with the arrangements for my first one. Pubs are something we have a plentiful amount in Cirencester, I have quite a few choices. Just need to chose one that welcomes young people as a lot of very local cachers have children.
At a pub event I went to hosted by Lord Maythorn and Rosie&T they made up stickers with people's caching names on to wear as soon as they signed the log book. Having names stuck on us seemed to help conversations get started. Don't know what you think about doing that? I haven't seen that done at other events before.
They do it at Mega events always. I've only seen them do it at one event I've been to. I always wear a badge myself at events so people know who I am though
One of the best events I've been to was just that - a pub event, in Oxford, plenty of chat etc - more than two years ago? Scary how fast time passes!
All good info both of you, thank you, am making notes.
'Good parking' is an interesting one. I would of liked to have in the centre of Cirencester. There is plenty of parking, but of late there is not plenty of 'free' parking, which doesn't make it quite so 'good' in my eyes. The Tunnel House is one of my options though, just a few a miles from the centre of Ciren, quite walkable. That one has plenty of free parking, and few caches very close by too. I have been to a non-official event there, so I know they can accommodate, but I will still talk with them too.
Good question. Do you have any questions relating to that question?
I was thinking of calling it a Cotswold Caching Event. Is there anything I should be thinking of specifically if I do it as a group event, other than asking here for dates people prefer and if they would like to do anything specifically at the event? I do not want to go over the top on arranging activities for my first one, or something will go wrong fore sure
I have only managed to attend one event so far which was a pub event at the Railway Inn in Cheltenham. It was an enjoyable evening.
I'm not sure I can really add much but your ideas sound good.
The biggest difficulty for me personally has been timing given I work in Cirencester and live in Cheltenham. All too often weeknight events have started too early in Cheltenham for me to attend (I fully understand that the organisers don't want to be there all night).
Work is quite an issue for me too. More than likely I will do on a weekend day, it will be a lot less stressful if I do not have to deal with work prior to, and manage to get away from in time to be at my own event. But it looks a weekend day in or near Ciren is not the ideal scenario for you in regards your work
I've been to one event at the Railway Inn. They do good sausage dinners there I believe, but I didn't eat there myself that evening.
I went to a pub one in Bath earlier this year. It was really good as I met most of the local geocachers, we swapped stories for hours and somebody brought in their geocoin collectibles. They also supplied a logbook so you could officially log the event as a find. Will need to attend an event sometime to enable me to complete The Somerset Well rounded cacher. GC22QHC. Also a good place to swap / discover trackables
At a pub event I went to hosted by Lord Maythorn and Rosie&T they made up stickers with people's caching names on to wear as soon as they signed the log book. Having names stuck on us seemed to help conversations get started. Don't know what you think about doing that? I haven't seen that done at other events before.
At her event in The Bayshill (Cheltenham), Fianccetto came armed with a "cheat sheet" of cacher names and points to remember them by. That made for interesting conversation -- "what do you mean, I'm the one whose caches rival bog-snorkelling for the mud?" -- and could've been good quiz fodder if you're into that sort of thing.