A poll to gauge response of Emepegians in North America

Possibility of an Empeg North America meet, location TBD
Yes, lets make a meet somewhere in NA, I will drive there!
Yes, I like the idea, but NA is too big to drive, but I would consider flying there.
No, you are all crazy and I never want to see even one of you!

Just a thought.

Smoker_Man
#080000449 MkII - 36Gb Blue

I think you might need to be a little more specific than North America. So far there seem to be a bunch of people around southern CA, some up in WA and a few in the south east that have previously expressed an interest in a meet.

Either Santa Clara or Vancouver WA would be good from our point of view

Unfortunately it seems that whilst this topic is aired every few weeks, no one individual has yet been motivated to make it happen. Rob Schofield took the plunge in northern europe and made a great job of it, so anyone considering organising a meet should probably get some tips from him.

Rob

Thanks for the info, I am just currently seeing if there is interest. Though I would try to involve the few in Texas and try to make the meet happen in Las Vegas or something, that way we could get a good mix of westerners driving to the meet. And those Easterners who wish to come for the fun, could fly. (And besides, you guys would need to have some fun if you came along!)

Smoker_Man
#080000449 MkII - 36Gb Blue

Vancouver, WA?

Brian H. Johnson
MK2 36GB Blue
"There are no Clam eyes to cry Clam tears..."

Personally I'd much prefer California (as I haven't actually visited corporate HQ yet!) but Vegas may be a good location. Make sure there are no major conventions at the time.

Rob

> Vancouver, WA?

The Rio division of SONICblue are based there. Actually they're about to move across the river, but same general area.

Rob

Hey Boys, how about a meet in Canada? You guys would drool at a cool city like Toronto or Vancouver (BC that is)...Doesn't have to be in the US now does it????

Technoweenie
12 GB Blue / Red MK2

eek.. all this talk about a west coast thing.. that's quite a roadtrip from Minnesota.. I was hoping for maybe a chicago thing ;)

12gig red mk2 -- 080000125

Anywhere with bass fishing close by and I'll make the drive from Texas.
South Florida has some big fish...

Dave Clark
Austin, Texas
12g Amber

I had expressed interest in a meet in Virginia, but I don't think there's enough people in the surrounding states to get that going. Although, the town I'm in now (Williamsburg) is partly a college town (that's why I'm here) so naturally we do have an all-you-can-eat Mongolian/Chinese buffet. I believe this was a requirement of the empeg staff . What's more, it's only $8 for ALOT of food and free refills on your drinks!

Anyway, regardless of a large meet, I think ClemsonJeep and I were planning on getting DC-Metro area people together for a smaller meet. I definitely still want to do that when I'm in the area.

DiGNAN

OK, now thats a discussion!!
so, the needed location should have:
- bass fishing close by
- someplace that pretty much everyone would drive to
- someplace with a good exchange rate, so the americans can buy lots of stuff, the Brit's can get lots of stuff, and the Canadians wont complain about how expensive everything is.

So that pretty much narrows is down to Canada (or Mexico, but I am not too sure about the fishing there!)

well, to keep everyone happy, I guess we could go central Canada, someplace in Saskatchewan or Manitoba, but then flights there would be difficult, the fishing excellent, and the prices of hotels, booze, and take-home trinkets very, very low.
However, not to slag those locations too much, but perhaps a larger urban centre would be preferential!
I would be willing to drive to Vegas, perhaps Toronto (but that is a stretch, that is more than 36 hours of straight driving)And I am about 12 hours from the west coast.

Thats why I am thinking of Vegas, it's close enough for Western Canada, Western USA, and Southern USA - for the most part. The easterners (no slag intended!) could either fly, and to Vegas its pretty cheap! Or drive, but I would do my best to try and get a few prizes organised to those who drove the farthest (and exceeded their leases!)

As I said previously, this is to gauge interest. If we did have a fairly large userbase of interested folks, I would then take on the task of organising this.
So, to keep nearly everyone comfortable, prices low, synch everyones schedules, we could set this up for late summer, early fall? Say late August or early September ish?

Or has everyone already planned their summer vacations?
Perhaps even in early winter? Perhaps the week before/after Comdex (November)? I am sure Rob and company would probably be there, so an extra few days shouldn't hurt them too much (their expense accounts maybe?) But Vegas should empty out the week after Comdex. (I think...)

Smoker_Man
#080000449 MkII - 36Gb Blue

yea.. Minneapolis has a small (2 store) chain of all-you-can eat mongolian, it's a little more expensive.. ($12 or so) but very good.

12gig red mk2 -- 080000125

I was thinking half the fun of the meet would be seeing everyones install! I'm still all for the Bay Area meet. I think it's just that none of us have the time to get it together.


|| loren.cox || 080000446 ||

I was thinking half the fun of the meet would be seeing everyones install! I'm still all for the Bay Area meet. I think it's just that none of us have the time to get it together.

I'm all for it, too. I'd attend a Bay area meet. I just live too far away from there to organize it myself.

___________
Tony Fabris

I agree that it would probably be more fun if most people could drive there.

Vegas or the Bay area are both possibilities for me as I live in L.A.

-D


---
reg. #10798 - blue 40gig MK2 #764

Smoker_Man: Though I would try to involve the few in Texas and try to make the meet happen in Las Vegas or something

Umm... as part of the "few in Texas" I don't really see myself driving the car all the way to Vegas for an empeg love-in. I imagine we'd need to have a look at empeg sales records to know where a good "center" would be. Austin is roughly the center of Texas, as far as major Texas cities go, but if you want to include New Orleans folks, the center shifts over to Houston.

I'm sure the San Francisco Bay Area has its own critical mass.

Actually, the best answer might be to see if mp3.com hosts another MP3 Summit. San Diego in June last year was absolutely beautiful. I got to see the empeg car player for the first time in person and I got some nifty empeg bumper stickers (now collectors items!). I'd imagine other empeg owners would equally enjoy the MP3 Summit if it were to happen again and would actually ponder flying out for it.

Meanwhile, anybody who cares can check out the Webcast from last year.
http://www.mp3.com/summit/webcasts.html

(If you click on "The Truth about Security", I think that's the talk I gave about various security standards, SDMI, and all that. Their streaming media server thing isn't working right now, so I can't check for sure.)

Yep. I'm up for anywhere in the Southeast-ish region. I know there are a few DC area (Northern VA, Southern Maryland) empeg peeps that have expressed an interest in getting together. I make frequent trips to Clemson, SC (my alma mater, and where my parents and a bunch of friends still live) so I'm not really tied that much to this location.

I do believe the entire point of this GTG would be to show off installs, so maybe since it seems people are very spread out over the US, one GTG would not be feasable. Maybe a west coast GTG and an east coast GTG could be seperately planned?

(O|||||O)

Toronto is nice, but maybe give it a few more months to warm up a bit

Rob

Two meets would be ideal, since I know there's almost no chance of me making it to Vegas (from Florida). But the Virginias or Carolinas would certainly be doable...

Bill B.
Mk.2 SN 080000183 - 38 GB / Green

Hey, I thought I was the only one in Southern Cali with an empeg player. Are you in San Diego. Maybe I can still claim I'm the only one in San Diego with an empeg player.


MkII Serial # 080000457

Well i'm In Orange County CA. that makes 3 total?

One more for Bay Area (also too lazy/busy to help organize however).

-Mike

I'd show up for a Bay Area meet as well... Unfortunately I'm too busy to try and organize one:(
-mark

...proud to have owned an Empeg since 00287

How about the NY/NJ/PA Area? I know 3 people with empegs including my self, that makes 4 in my area. They are not part of this board, i don't think. Then i remember seeing a few people from that area. I would not mind driving a few hours... so maybe DC would be ok. Its about 7 hours for me. how about NYC area???

Anything in North East close to NYC would be good. I'm actually in North Jersey.

I like the idea of showing off your install! In fact, i'm wroking on an install now. look here.

-CHiP

I'm up for participating--I live in Philadelphia and work in NJ.

Krampster
Mark 1: #354 10 gig/green
Mark 2: #155 36 gig/red

Blimey, you lot are really enthusiastic, aren't you? If you all sit there waiting for someone else to organise it, it's gonna be a looooong wait....

Just do it! State a time and place, organise a few pots of coffee, and sit there. If someone turns up, it's a bonus.

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Just do it! State a time and place, organise a few pots of coffee, and sit there. If someone turns up, it's a bonus.

You have a point.

But what would really be great would be to have an Amersfoort-like meet, with some of the Empeg people in attendance (bearing swag, of course).

We should arrange it to coincide with one of their stateside visits or something.

___________
Tony Fabris

That sounds like the best way to do it. Rob or Hugo... When is the nest time you guys are gonna be in or around CA? We'll just arrange it around that.


|| loren.cox || 080000446 ||

I'm in the DC area too. Maybe we can have a local meet even if a big one doesn't pan out. Got a Mk1 installed, and a Mk2 to install soon in another car.

We're not likely to be in or around CA any time soon - Rio are in WA, and I haven't yet thought of a reason for visiting SONICblue.

Nonetheless, if you put a meet together I would think it likely that someone from empeg will make it. How about the idea that was tendered before, that we could have a chat with SONICblue about using their parking lot and a meeting room. I'm sure Andy (CTO) would be happy to show off his empeg equipped S2000.

Rob

MARCH 3rd, Northern California meet could be at Boulevard Bar & Grill at 17285 Skyline Blvd, across from the famous "Alice's Restaurant". This is in beautiful Woodside, CA. http://www.blvdbar-grill.com/

They have a great outdoor deck in the back where we could congregate. They have volleyball and stuff, good food and drink, etc. If we reach consensous here, I'll go down there and make the necessary arrangements (make sure we have ample power, reserve a bunch of space, etc).

What do y'all think?

- Jon

Good man! Go for it!

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Bummer, I'll still be in Bosnia then...couldn't it be sometime in the summer?????

Technoweenie
12 GB Blue / Red MK2

Hey, John, do it.

I'm going to be in Santa Clara for a Filk convention that weekend, so taking part of Saturday off to drive to an Empeg meet would be great.

How far away from Santa Clara is Woodside?

___________
Tony Fabris

CHIP im around new brunswick nj.. went to school at west chest u in pa..

So lets get something going in this area!!

-CHiP

This is so cool.

DiGNAN

Well anyone interested in this area? i'll help out where i can.

-CHiP

Well, why not read the reports of the event now, and then when you get back, organise a small summer meet yourself? I would have thought that there are enough owners Stateside to mean that you'll never get bored of owner meets...

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Since no one wants to come to Minnesota, I guess i could trek to NYC.. I know a couple people there, so I have more than just empeg events to goto.

what month would this go on?

12gig red mk2 -- 080000125

I would suggest a time when it gets a little warmer, but not too hot. We need to decide what kind of meeting it will be. I don't konw of any meeting place in NYC that we could show our installs at. Maybe a hotel packing lot in NJ? What did they do at the last meet? Have a bbq? What else? What makes it worth the trip?

-CHiP