Midwest Pandora Fest Planning Thread

[Consequence_9]

Hi all! Coming out of lurk-mode for a bit here to help get the ball rolling on this. The dutch thread reminded me that we midwesterners were discussing having a get-together of our own a while back, and now that we've got a fair amount of units in the wild (and more on the way) I figured this would be a good time to start discussing details. =]

First off - location. I've gotta say Cleveland would be a good choice of city (and not just because I live there ;P). I know there are a significant number of board members in & around Cleveland & it's also a drivable distance from Michigan & other surrounding states. As for a specific place to meet up I'd suggest Tower City since it's easy to find/get to (plus there's stuff around there). Other suggestions are welcome though!

Second - Date & time. I'm thinking sometime in late July around 3 pm. Maybe the last saturday in the month?

Lets get a head count going & see where it takes us! I look forward to putting faces to names =]

 

[Gerix]

I live in the Midwest. Michigan in fact. But I'm not expecting my Pandora by late July. Plus, I'm going to be in Canada the last weekend of July. But don't let my schedule sway you.

 

[wermy]

I doubt I'd be able to go, but you may want to push it back a bit, especially with Craig's latest estimate of the last of the 4000 shipping in october.

 

[Poem58]

Akron here, just need a Pandora and I'm game for a meet up. However a bunch of geeks in the middle of a mall with unrecognizable hand held electronic gear might get us not just looked at but maybe even checked out by security/authorities. LOL

Sounds like it's going to be well into August for me (1550-1650 iirc) So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Grench]

[joke]

I'm sorry to break any illusions you may have gotten from the East coast driven media cartels. As far as they seem to be concerned, anything west of Newark is still the Wild West.

If you look at a map, Cleveland is clearly NOT in the midwest.
It is in the Eastern Time Zone.
It is 500 miles from New York - which since it is 2,907 miles from San Francisco to New York clearly places Cleveland in the eastern 1/5th of the country.

Frankly, if you're East of the Missouri river you are in the EAST half of the country.

The logical way to set it up is by terrain.
If someone is west of the Rocky Mountains they are in the West.
If they are between the Missouri river and the western edge of the Rocky Mountains - that is the Midwest.
If they are east of the Appalachian Trail they are in the East. Yes, this is a diagonal line running from Georgia to Maine - but it makes a nice break on mindset.

So, that puts Cleveland clearly in the area between the Missouri river and the Appalachian trail (Pocono "mountains"). Using the designations above, that places it firmly in the Mideast.

I keep hearing about all this trouble in the Mideast - you doing OK there?
[/joke]

Seriously - if you're going to do a 'Midwest gathering', you could at least hold it somewhere that actually qualifies as West - preferably somewhere with a hub airport. Denver maybe? St. Louis? Chicago even? Otherwise you may as well call it an 'Ohio gathering'.

 

[Poem58]

I never quite understood why we were considered "Midwest" in Ohio.
But click this link and we can let the ridiculousness of this designation rest.

http://198.66.224.63...lta/midwest.htm
Notice nothing south of Missouri. And the Southeast region goes all the way over to Louisiana, which is more to the west than Ohio yet is considered east!? Just another of those "whatever" things...


There are at least 1-2 others here in Akron who have/are getting Pandora's and Exo is in Cleveland. I expected a bit more response on this myself. But lack of Pandora's does make it hard to try to discuss a meet up given the last person who expresses interest may not get one until as mentioned above, October.

Consequence, I love the idea though. So once Panda's start a flowin' again, maybe the interest will be higher. Hopefully by then, I will be able to repay Exo that dinner I owe him, while I'd already be there. I hope he's not the steak and Lobster type

 

[mindlord]

"The midwest isn't a place, it's a way of life!"

Seriously though. I would come, but then end of this month is too soon to line up any sort of travel plans. Even though I'm only 3 hours away by car.

 

[aaronson911]

I am mostly a lurker here on these boards, but I live in Cleveland and I would go to a meet up. I am around order 1800 so I probably won’t have mine any time soon. Just a suggestion on the Venue the maker’s alliance ( http://www.makersalliance.org/) would probably let us meet up there for free if someone would ask them. I belong to the Cleveland videogame developers club and they let us have our meetings there. And the reason why it is called the Midwest was back in the day of 13 original colonies it was the ‘west’.

 

[Exophase]

Ha, I'm up for Cleveland of course, like Poem58 says. I can probably do Chicago too, if necessary.

I haven't heard of this Cleveland videogame developers club or Markers Alliance, pretty cool, maybe I should drop by some of this stuff too.

 

[DaMummy]

im in mentor right now, id be able to get to cleveland no problem, but im in late 3000s so no pandora for me yet

 

[Exophase]

By the way, if we get a room to meet up in it'd definitely be preferable if we had wifi. At least a router to let our Pandoras talk to each other, if not connect to the internet.

 

[MonkeyChops]

20 min from Cleveland here. Chicago is a good choice too. Megabus is only $1-$5 from Cleveland to Chicago if you get your ticket early enough. I have family in Chicago so this could work for me. LOL, just thought of telling my wife that I had a Pandora convention to go to during our vacation.

 

[Grench]

I'm in Omaha - and around order 1250. I might be able to meet up in Chicago - my wife has been bugging me to take her back there on vacation again.

Someplace with free internet access is a must. Does anyone know of a coffee shop in downtown Chicago that we could more or less take over for 2-4 hours on a Saturday afternoon?

 

[rum runner]

any chance of maybe Kansas City where as it is actually in the mid west just a thought its a nice big city not as big as Chicago but a good location that is actually in the mid west

 

[Exophase]

Being "actually in the mid west" is not actually relevant to anything >_< Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, etc are considered the "mid west" for historical reasons. There isn't some kind of tangible motivation to actually meet in the western half of the USA.

 

[MonkeyChops]

The Chicago Comic Con is Aug 19th-22nd. There'd be plenty of people to show off to there and also make a nice excuse for the wifes.

 

[aaronson911]

any chance of maybe Kansas City where as it is actually in the mid west just a thought its a nice big city not as big as Chicago but a good location that is actually in the mid west

Just because there is a meet up in the Midwest does not mean there can’t also be one in Kansas if there is enough interest. Hell there can be one in both Cleveland and Chicago and people could attend both if they really wanted. If no one wants to organize a meet up in Cleveland I might try to organize it assuming I can get at least 5 or 6 people who want to come.

 

[Consequence_9]

I totally spaced once it was off the first page. Looks like the general consensus is to have it sometime in august/when more pandoras are in the wild.

@aaronson911 - Well at least I'll be there for sure ;]

Come on ohioans! I know there's more of ya out there =P

 

[MonkeyChops]

I definitely will try to attend a Cleveland meet-up. I count for 2 also, my friend and fellow pandora owner has expressed interest in this. It would probably be a good idea to plan it for at least a month from now so that more people have a pandora in there hands for it.

What will we do at this meet-up anyways? If its just to get together and bs about the pandora and everyone is of age, I suggest meeting at a bar. Nothing goes with bs'ing better than beer

My favorite place in Cleveland for beer is The Winking Lizard (amazing selection).

[edit]
I may know of another person (ohioan) who has one. It was an ex-coworker of my wife's and she saw her (yes a woman but don't get crazy, she has a boyfriend ) post on face book about receiving a pandora. I'll see if I can get in touch with her. Who knows maybe she's lurking right now. h34r:

 

[Exophase]

My favorite place in Cleveland for beer is The Winking Lizard (amazing selection).

Oh, can we go to the one on Coventry in Cleveland Heights, that's very close to me ;D