My fiance at the time took that picture. We live in Beaver County, just north of Pittsburgh, and we travel around Ohio/Pennsylvania/West Virginia for rabbit shows.

Southern Ontario.

I could try to get the BYOND staff involved, but there's a great chance that they wouldn't attend... being so busy and all.

Although we could always plan the location around one of them or something.

That idea sounds awesome enough to work!

The Naked Ninja wrote:

I could try to get the BYOND staff involved, but there's a great chance that they wouldn't attend... being so busy and all.

Although we could always plan the location around one of them or something.

Tom and Mike live close to each other. Place it in their city. DerDragon is also close. Not so sure on any of the others, and I haven't a clue where Lummox is stationed.

But I'm sure they'd get involved if you were serious. You'd have to set it up somewhat like CAD does Digital Overload.

Another possibility for travel: carpooling!

Of course, this requires a BYONDer or two who is already traveling a sizeable distance to drop by on a planned route to pick up other BYONDers along the way...

For example, let's say that the meeting is set to take place in Ohio (not that it would, but for the sake of illustration) Let's also say that BYONDer "A" lives in Florida, actually plans to drive the entire trip up, and has room to spare in his/her vehicle... BYONDers "B", "C", and "D" live in Georgia, Tennessee, and West Virginia, respectively... BYONDer "A" simply makes a winding trip to Ohio, passing through these other states, picking up "B", "C", and "D" along the way! (and hopefully will drop them off on the return trip...lol)

This might also work nicely for people who intend to fly, but might not be able to get a flight directly to the venue city, or even near enough to find travel arrangements to cover the rest of the way... They could plan to fly into a city near the carpool route, and they could be picked up right from the airport...

Again, though, this makes travel time rather lengthy (even lengthier than normal), would take a lot of careful planning, and requires the circumstances to be just right (along with a nice sized chunk of trust in relative strangers), but if the opportunity comes up it might work out well for the parties involved...

Not to mention it provides nice little pre- and post-meeting adventures, and the chance to get to know a small group of friends to help break the ice with the larger group at the meeting proper(hopefully, you'd all get along during the trip! it should be short enough that politeness holds out, if nothing else)

Anyways, I'd definitely like to come to a meeting, with roughly the same proviso others have mentioned: I doubt I'll be able to fly anywhere, and I don't want to spend days in the car...lol

As for location, chalk up a Northern Ohio for me!

I guess the best way to pick a place is to gather up the locations of all truly interested parties and try to find a suitable spot that is roughly in the middle of all of the points (of course, if our overseas friends skew things so much that it places this mid-point somewhere in the ocean, I guess this plan's out...lol)

We don't have to worry about breaking the ice. I'm sure if Vortezz brought his bass, and started jamming some tune, and I jumped in the middle of it all and started head banging like a mad man, it'd be hard to say something that would embarrass you more.

Put that in your ice and break it.

... then again, that might look so cool that everyone would think they would have to top it.

Pick a place, I'll start walking.

Incidentally, Unknown Person just got his license last week, if him and Crashed were interested, you could land here in Toronto, and we could all just drive out there.

P.S. Incidentally is a fun word, you should use it lots.

Hmmm, that brings up a very important aspect:

What would we all be doing at this meeting?

I mean, do we all just arrive, stand around staring at each other and making small talk for a little while, then turn around and head back home? lol

Hey! Maybe we can set up a LAN to play BYOND games on! (or, better yet, Chat!) lol

Nah... Any good "convention" comes with its own activities and events... This one would need some stuff planned, too...

Or it could be held at some location that comes with its own activities that everyone can just engage in together... Like an amusement park, or some big, touristy city...

Hell, maybe it could even be planned to just "crash" an existing con... We could all arrive wearing matching shirts or something...lol