Dreamwidth meetup at Worldcon

[liv]

OK, I've left it really late to organize things. So, what I'm proposing is: I'm going to hang out in the Fan Village after my panel with some kind of DW sign. Anyone is welcome to stop by and chat; it will be noisy, because it's the middle of the con, but hopefully this will be inclusive to people who don't want to travel outside the convention centre.

Please feel free to spread the word:

Informal Dreamwidth meet at Worldcon

Friday 3:15 pm, Fan Village
I'll stay until 5 but it'll basically go on until people drift away
All welcome, if you've heard of Dreamwidth at all and you're going to be at Worldcon, you're invited. Bring friends.

Several people expressed interest in going out for a meal; I'm going to add a poll and do my best to organize something. Depending on numbers and requirements it might be somewhere fairly generic eg a Wagamammas or a big Weatherspoons. I'm going to suggest 1 pm Saturday unless there are strenuous objections, because finding a consensus time that suits everybody is never going to happen, so I'm just going to pick.

ETA: results visible to me only cos you might not want to put access needs right out there in public. Also I mis-spelled Worldcon in the title of the poll, yay proofreading...

Poll #15751 Worlcon lunch plans

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 7

I would like to join you and DW people for lunch on Saturday 16th August

Yes please
5 (100.0%)

My party includes this many adults:

Mean: 1.40 Median: 1 Std. Dev 0.49

1		3 (60.0%)
2		2 (40.0%)
3		0 (0.0%)
4		0 (0.0%)
5		0 (0.0%)
6		0 (0.0%)
7		0 (0.0%)
8		0 (0.0%)
9		0 (0.0%)
10		0 (0.0%)

My party includes this many children:

Mean: 0.00 Median: 0 Std. Dev 0.00

1		0 (0.0%)
2		0 (0.0%)
3		0 (0.0%)
4		0 (0.0%)
5		0 (0.0%)
6		0 (0.0%)
7		0 (0.0%)
8		0 (0.0%)
9		0 (0.0%)
10		0 (0.0%)

I am willing to travel:

for up to half an hour
3 (60.0%)

for up to an hour
3 (60.0%)

by Tube
5 (100.0%)

by bus
5 (100.0%)

on foot or otherwise under my own power
3 (60.0%)

on foor or otherwise under my own power for short distances only
1 (20.0%)

My dietary requirements are:

vegetarian
2 (66.7%)

vegan
0 (0.0%)

gluten free
0 (0.0%)

dairy free
0 (0.0%)

strictly avoiding any exposure to allergens
0 (0.0%)

avoiding particular ingredients in dishes
1 (33.3%)

I have some other dietary requirement you haven't mentioned, namely:

My access requirements are:

Quiet
2 (66.7%)

Welcomes babies / young children
0 (0.0%)

Welcomes service animals
0 (0.0%)

Level access
1 (33.3%)

No more than a couple of steps
1 (33.3%)

Space for a wheelchair
1 (33.3%)

Space for a larger mobility device eg scooter
0 (0.0%)

Low light
0 (0.0%)

Other lighting requirements
0 (0.0%)

I have some other access requirement you haven't mentioned, namely:

I'm not coming to lunch but I want a box to tick

Ticky!
2 (100.0%)

If you have any suggestions for venues please do speak up! I will aim to book something by the end of this week, though I'm sure it's fine if a few extra people show up or some drop out. My plan is to simply publicize the venue and show up at the agreed time, rather than trying to organize to travel as a group.

Comments

[sfred]

I intend to come to the meetup!
Would it be OK to decide nearer the time about lunch?

[liv]

Yay awesome, I look forward to meeting you in person. Deciding nearer the time about lunch is fine, I just want to know if I'm looking at a party of 6-ish or a party of 30-ish, basically.

[sfred]

Makes sense!

[cxcvi]

Not certain I'll be there yet (largely because 1pm is rather early for me), but I'd like to be there.

[liv]

It'd be really nice if you could make it, but you don't have to make a firm commitment, I'm just trying to get a rough idea of numbers. I'm sorry it's a bit early; I think the thing with cons is that a lot of the main socializing starts about 9 pm and goes on until the small hours, which means that people aren't free in the evenings and also aren't awake at all in the mornings. So I decided to pick a meet-up time of typical "lunchtime" in the hope that the maximum number of people would be awake and the maximum number of restaurants would be open. If it's too early for you it's too early; the on-site meetup is later in the afternoon, but I realize that socializing within the con may not be ideal for you either.

[emperor]

I've not looked at the programme yet, but if there's not something I Must Do then, I'd like to make the meetup. Meal would be cool, but I should check with atreic first.

[liv]

I'm glad it's not just me that hasn't looked at the programme! I think basically the con is full of must do things, and I'm simply not going to be able to do all of them. I know I'll need a break from the intense con atmosphere about halfway through, so I'm heading off into London to get real, non-hotel food and I might as well make a social of it. If you can't make it you can't make it; it would be lovely to have you and atreic but I do manage to see you both when it's not the middle of the con, so either way is good.

[ceb]

Not that I hate you but I will probably be living in the con...

[liv]

I'm glad you don't hate me, and also not at all surprised you're going to be mega, mega busy during the con. Hopefully we will continue our habit of spending time together not in the middle of a con where you're a very involved volunteer, so no worries.

[nou]

I'm not free on the Saturday so sadly I won't be able to make lunch.

If you hadn't already seen it — the Loncon restaurant guide is available as part of the Pocket Programme Guide (PDF) on the Loncon website. Let me know if you have any questions about any of the venues listed there, as I may well know things there wasn't room to include.

[liv]

Your restaurant guide is amaaaaaaazing, I almost want to nominate it for Best Related Work! Thank you so much for doing that. It's a shame the time I arbitrarily picked doesn't work for you, I had hoped you'd be able to join us. But it's all good. I will indeed ask you about venues if I need more detail, but if I get an idea of people's requirements I can probably pick a sensible option from your amazing guide, and call a couple if I need to whittle down the shortlist further.

[nou]

Glad you like it! Other people helped with it too — in particular, Petra Bulic made probably around a hundred phone calls to find out opening hours (which I needed to know in order to plan my surveys) and Liz Zitzow wrote the O2 part (though sadly some of her phrasing got cut/changed when we got the last-minute news that we'd have to drastically cut our word count).

[swaldman]

Oooh! Kab just pointed me at this, for I was not aware of it. If you want to attract people who don't know you, or at least don't read your journal, consider putting something in the "uk" community? It's nearly zero-traffic, but I imagine lots of people may be subscribed to it....

Programme-permitting, I shall try to come to the meet. I may or may not be interested in food; 'fraid I can't really predict that now.

[seekingferret]

Ooh. I should be at the Friday meetup. Shomer Shabbos/Kashrus, so will not be at the Saturday meetup.