Official Meetup 2019 Thread

[Zephyrus]

@walter
What are your concerns about feasibility?

 

[walter]

@Zephyrus

To be honest, that was really just an off the cuff remark. I imagine it'd be easier to have everyone go to an already organized event than to try and organize a trek to a campground somewhere, that's all. It'd certainly be interesting though, even if it takes a bit more work.

 

[yunomi]

Oh wow
that's close to me but should I go is the question 😄

 

[808bee]

You could also just have a meet and greet in the aisles of Barnes & Noble.

 

[waterflame]

> You could also just have a meet and greet in the aisles of Barnes & Noble.
I'm down with this Dex Flash mob!

 

[ptbrown121]

@Zephyrus

I can confirm that Cedar Point is a lot of fun. I'm not so sure about combining a Con weekend with a Cedar Point Weekend, but I would be down for one or the other.

Also +1 votes for anything camping related.

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

I'm not in the us but here's my two cents anyway.

I'm up for any of the three as long as the event is properly managed and is fun. I think the location should be planned around the events and not the other way around.

 

[Kerrik]

I feel that centering it around an existing con is our best bet. While it would be more cost effective to host at a campground near lets say Columbus, OH that would take a lot more planning on our part to generate events and interest. We would see a better turn out if we chose a con people want to visit anyways and then made the MD meetup an additional benefit of going to the con.

 

[ichigoteguz]

I like the live stream idea, for various reasons, I work an average of 16 hrs a day with only one day off every other week, so I doubt I'd be able to go even if it was right next door, I've been dying to go camping again though, Yuru Camp did a great job of that, I heard Japan's tourism income from camping sites spiked right after it aired even.

 

[Avindoth]

Sakuracon is one of my go to cons. It's in Seattle, Easter weekend. It's a bit short notice for this year, but maybe something to keep in mind going forward. Since it's right in the heart of downtown, there's a lot of options for activities as well. Plus, Seattle has a great international district, I think second only to San Francisco.

 

[theroachoftime]

a barely researched internet search gives me: liberty city anime con in nyc august 9-11, ny comic con october 3-6, and anime nyc november 15-17.
of course ny being expensive as all hell probably makes all these not very feasible, but I've got to throw in some suggestions for my geographic area.
hope it works out for whoever can show up wherever it ends up being.

 

[DrWhoCares]

Fucking weebs.

 

[OmegaDarkKnight]

> You could also just have a meet and greet in the aisles of Barnes & Noble.
>> I'm down with this Dex Flash mob!

Thus, Barnes and Noble sold more manga/Light Novels that day than any day in history.

 

[seekermoc]

The fact that camping with a group of people we've never met is seriously being considered makes me want to go back to the previous poll and change my vote to the axe murderer option.

I'd participate if we went with a con meetup, and it happens somewhere on the east coast (preferably the south-east).

 

[Jumballi]

Anime Expo is one of the largest conventions on the west coast, either that or one of the new york anime cons

 

[PervySageChuck]

For my two cents worth of advice, I would prefer to avoid any anime con in either California, Florida or New York due to the high cost of staying in any of those three tourist trap locations. Anywhere else would be fine with me as I would thoroughly enjoy a road trip on my Goldwing.

By the way, I live just north of Memphis, TN. Which puts me closer to the east coast, but only an extra day or two of riding to the west coast.

 

[Zephyrus]

While there haven't been a ton of users who have shared their thoughts and ideas in this thread, I believe that after reading the replies here, attending a convention is the safest and easiest way to get an MD meetup off the ground.

The problem is how to figure out where everyone is and then choosing a convention to attend without drowning everyone in polls. If you'll take a look at the map below:

Note that any place you see with a tint of blue means there's readers. In my home city alone, for example, there's at least 200 MD users of some kind. Clearly, our readers are mostly concentrated on the east and west coast, with the eastern half of the US slightly winning out in terms of population of readers.

To be as fair as possible, I'm thinking of creating a poll with several big name cons on the west coast, in mid-west, and on the east coast of the US to see where we'd all be willing to meet. While the con that I or other staff decide to attend will probably be the "official" meet up, there's no reason why others can't organize their own MD meetups if they wish!

Thoughts or general comments?

 

[seekermoc]

Possible venues:

https://awa-con.com/information/about-us/
http://www.sodacitycomiccon.com/index.html
http://www.incrediblecon.com/

In particular, AWA-con may be the best bet on the east coast if you're looking specifically for "big name cons," and it's relatively late in the year, which leaves you plenty of time to plan.

 

[TeslaCuil]

Just a quick note, if we did the combined anime con + camping idea, not everyone would have to camp. The camping is just a cheaper alternative to staying in a hotel.

 

[The0verlord]

I'd love to go but i'm only 15 (almost 16) AND im too broke so i can't. ;-;