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Originally Posted by philodox  I think that the idea of having other simultaneous meets in Canada, Europe, etc and then networking them all together is brilliant... Shouldn't be THAT hard to arrange.
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Bad idea if you ask me, it makes co-ordination an additional pressure on top of the already difficult aspects of planning. It also means that vendors have to chose which of the simultaneous events to attend when if there were two or three, they might like to attend all of them. Justin wanted to come to the UK meet last year but it was on the same weekend as the Florida meet. (I'd probably have gone to Florida too if I had the means though
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Originally Posted by boomana Only if he doesn't have cheese on his knees.
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YouTube - Ivor Cutler _ Pickle Your Knees
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Originally Posted by krmathis Ok, I hear you and it sort of makes sense.
Someone down there in central Europe need to arrange a larger Euro meeting. Invite some interesting vendors (Sennheiser, Stax, HeadAmp, RSA, Rudistor, , ...). In short make it worth traveling 2-3000km, crossing 3-4 borders to get there
I am sure there are more like me out there who REALLY would like to attend a meeting. But would like a minimum number of attenders (20-30) before going though all the hassle of crossing borders and traveling long distances.
Too bad I am the only active (relative) Head-Fi'er up here in the north..
I can always hope!  |
As regards the meets over stateside the time of year the national meet takes place is another catch-22 and a double barrelled one at that. If you hold that sort of event in exam season, you kill off the student demographic considerably as they're all submitting dissertations and revising for their exams, or even sitting them. Move it out of that time slot and then all of student-fi can make it if they want, but then that includes young-students. And if there's a lot of younger members wanting to go that leads to a whole new barrel of problems.
I'd like to generate a bigger momentum in order to achieve a larger scale UK meet before stepping up to the Europe meet. Last years UK meet was good fun but there's certainly room to scale it larger even within the UK. A great many UK head-fiers didn't go who might have and 30 people should be easily doable. The problem is partly one of socially relative scaling. In America 100 years is a long time and in Britain 100 miles is a long way.
Everyone wants these sort of events to be their back garden but it simply isnt possible, and so you have to hold one in a population centre. Manchester was an excellent pick because its a population centre in itself but isnt as far south as the major centre which is London. Whose from other English cities could relatively easily journey to Manchester (and lets remember that in the UK, England is the bulk of the population) which left IIRC, three of us coming down from Scotland, in Milkpowder's case, on the day itself via the train.
A two-day event would also be an idea that I would embrace. 9-5 is 8 hours but that vanishes quickly indeed once you factor in set up times, pack up times and banter with everyone else.
There are vendors based in europe, and I'm sure that there are non-headphone companies who would be interested in having their products at an event of any significant size (We had a G08 from Meridian last year, but the whole company employee bringing it helped out no small amount).
But there's Sugden Audio, Precide, Sennhieser, AKG, Rega, NWA, Naim, Meier Audio and Goldring, all of whom are Europe based and make products for the headphone market. I've probably missed some too, probably 50 cable companies for a start.
And yes, if an event is in another country, you want it to be of a certain size before you'll take the time and trouble and expense to attend yourself. krmathis might want 30 people before he will go, but if another 15 head-fiers say the same thing, and then only 15 turn up, then what would be a 30 person meet has dissolved because of everyone interested operating on a you first-me after attendance philosophy. This is a tough nut to crack and getting vendors on board is a way of solving it, trouble is vendors don't want to turn up unless they know that there's going to be a certain attendance level for them to show their stuff off to. Didn't anyone order fries with that Catch-22?
People who have said the same thing in this thread are all quite correct when they say that there needs to be a proven enthusiasm and momentum behind this sort of thing before you can step it up to the next level. You can't just start the car in 5th, you'll stall and lurch and have to start again where you're supposed to. I'd like to be involved in getting the car up to speed but my geographical position fundamentally eliminates me from much of the planning process that would be necessary for any event. At least until the end of next academic year. I've no idea where I'll be after graduation, although Edinburgh is looking most likely at the minute.
I hugely support the idea of an annual UK meet, and hopefully we can get more behind it each time it takes place and as it grows, others from mainland Europe and Ireland (and Iceland) might deem it of enough significance to come too. I know that I've wanted to go down to a few of the meets that have taken place on the continent though for me its not a lack of enthusiasm, its a lack of money. I'd like to see another UK meet this year and I'd like to see it longer (two days, or a more extended 1 day) and I'd like to see it larger (more members bringing more gear of their own, more rigs, even without vendors, or with only a few, and ill bet you could get at least a few interested. Indeed, I'll bet a few mainland head-fiers would be interested too.
Long cut short. Europe as an international setting isn't just something that can be declared, its going to have to be earned, and that's going to take time. I'm prepared to work towards it but others are going to have to be too, and not just sit back asking for it.
