How to Organize and Run a Meet....Suggestions Welcome
Feb 4, 2016 at 7:44 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 4

crazychile

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The title says it all. I'm trying to get a meet together in a more sparsely populated area where there may only be a hand full of attendees. Twenty would be a stellar turnout.
 
Looking for advice on how to run a meet. I've never been to one.
 
-Do you charge a small registration fee or take donations to recoup some of the costs of a room?
 
-Music ...Do people usually just load up USB drives with their favorite music?
 
-Any security concerns?
 
-Does anyone ever try to get loaners from manufacturers to ensure a wider variety of gear is available to demo?
 
 
Thanks in advance,
 
Feb 4, 2016 at 7:08 PM Post #2 of 4
You may want to do a simple interest check here first as you may not have enough interest to justify holding down a venue.
 
That said lock down a venue and it does not have to be anything super special. We had a local meet in a library conference room that had a cost of $70.
 
Check with the venue before you lock it down if they can supply tables and chairs. Depending on the size I suggest dividing the man # of members by 3 and that is the # of tables you will need.
 
Go check out the venue and make sure they have a decent layout and plenty of easily accessible outlets. At our meet we had over 40 people, 10 tables, and probably 20 chairs. In the middle of the room were four 6-outlet plugins that made setting up really easy.
 
If all that checks out go ahead and lock down the venue and pay.
 
Post the meet here on head-fi and with any local friends /etc.
 
Include instructions for people wishing to attend to say so in the meet thread and add their names to the list as attendance grows. Be sure to include any gear they / you will bring.
 
Generally it is a good idea not to have food and drink in and around the gear so set a separate table or two up off to the side/back for that.
 
General rules:
Have those wanting to listen walk around the room such that they are not tripping over power cords. We ran ours with listeners on the side of a circle of tables which worked very well. People displaying gear stayed to the outside of the circle. This depends on the room setup of course so just use logic and ensure tripping is NOT an issue.
 
No touching other people's gear without permission. This can damage headphones and other gear.
 
Keep hygiene to clean as in no hair products, makeup, etc to keep headphones clean. If you eat food wash or clean off your hands before touching gear.
 
No fighting / buying / selling gear as this is usually not permitted by the vendor
 
Watch for theft and declare you are not responsible for broken / stolen property. Keep an eye out for suspicious characters.
 
Oh, one word on the venue, the room might heat up as more people and gear enter so having a room with ventilation or AC is key.
 
Nametags are encouraged especially a sign near anything bringing gear so people in the room can find whomever the gears belongs to and ask if they can take a listen.
 
Music
Almost everyone brings their own music and this is key if you want to audition gear using your own tunes. People generally bring a laptop using their favorite player like Foobar2000 and they bring the various cables to get that up and running with whatever gear people bring.
 
TEST YOUR SETUP BEFORE YOU GO TO THE MEET
Install the necessary drivers, bring an optical cable, bring a USB cable, bring all the power strips necessary ( usually at least 1 per set of gear ). Bring an RCA-3.55 Y-cable so people can plug in their portable device to your gear. The adapters needed are pretty endless, but having something on hand that can take the output from say a phone to a DAC or amp is super handy.
 
Be respectful and encourage people to attend even if they are not bringing anything.
 
Take pictures and post them in the meet thread.
 
Help each other out if problems arise. We had some driver issues with Windows for example.
 
If you want to recoup any of the cost ask in the meet thread, but do not expect anyone to help.
 
Bring some bottles of water or tell people where they can stop by, near the venue, to grab a drink or some food.
 
Ask for help if you want it for breaking down the venue ( i.e. putting stuff back and returning the room back to normal )
 
That is all I can think of for now. Most of all have fun.
 
Feb 4, 2016 at 10:02 PM Post #3 of 4
Awesome post thanks for all the info!

The interest check has been ongoing, and is slowly gaining momentum.

Love the library idea. We have a shiny new one, paid for by federal tax dollars, thanks to the grand flood of '08.
 

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