21th Birthday Party, 2019

Thread for discussion of next year's 21th Empeg Birthday Party.

I'd love to come, and I've marked it on my calendar. Not yet sure if I can come, but I'm going to try to plan for it.

Excellent! I will do my best to be there, life issues permitting.

Thanks Rob!

Calling All empeg Subjects

In common with Her Majesty the Queen of England, June 8th 2019 will mark empeg's official birthday. Note the weekend in your calendar and join us in Cambridge UK as your favourite historical car audio brand comes of age!

Plans for the best way to present empeg with its own key to the door will form over the coming months, and proposals for talks and activities will be gratefully received at the email address below. Please join in the thread to share your ideas or just to announce your interest in joining us for a weekend of frivolity, nostalgia and decent beer.

This could be the last party until empeg's 50th so let's make it a good one!

Rob
empeg ents officer
rvoisey at gmail dot com

It should now be possible to post in this thread.

If you want an invite to the Facebook event (where there's an active discussion) let me know!

Rob

-100 for FB. Ugh.

Besides, we do have this far more appropriate forum!

FB is the new AOL. Let's stick to this forum.

Okay, to say it here: I'm in.

Excellent! Hope to see you there, Thomas!

It's a long shot, but hit me with the Facebook link anyway.

Send the facebook link my way too please.

No facebook. We have a perfectly good and more appropriate forum here for such stuff.

Sorry Mark, it looks like organiser's prerogative

However it may amuse you to know that the FB event seems to have picked up Cambridge, UK as a business in Lisbon, Portugal.

If Rob's not managed to send an FB link to anyone (Shadowman, JBjorgen) then I'm David Greaves on there (my avatar has red horns) and if you friend me, I'll invite you to the event.

I don't do facebook.

Mark, I'll be happy to update this thread with important information if I get an invite to the FB event.

Thanks, John. If anything ever does happen there, I'm sure I'm not the only person without FB access/desire.

I actually tried to sign up for a FB account just to check on the party, and FB refused me claiming my name was not correct. WTF? But then I don't really mind that, as FB isn't a great idea in the first place.

Meanwhile, Rob Voisey did just email me this update:

So.. I doubt we have missed out on anything significant yet.

Cheers

FWIW, I don't do Facebook, either...

(And probably can't make the party, either.)

-jk

I acquired airline tickets today for travel to/from the UK, so I will definitely be there! Just me though, SWMBO can't make it this time around.

Cheers

To use my Nexus 5X (smartphone) in the UK, I've ordered a free SIM card from giffgaff (owned by the O2 operator in UK). They say no charge, and free shipping to me in Canada. Unlike many others, one can pay for a month plan with a non-UK credit card as well.

https://www.giffgaff.com/freesim-international

This may be of interest to others travelling from outside of EU/UK. Check out the above link. Pretty decent fees for a month of calls/texts with gigs of data included.

Cheers

Survey is up.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N9SSFKZ

Venue at Bletchley Park is 90% certain, although their event room only fits 40 people. I think 40 is optimistic but we'll see how that goes.

Rob

Excellent! Survey submitted!

I plan to visit Edinburgh during the week before the meet. If anyone else here happens to be around there at the same time, we could perhaps meet up for a scotch tasting or something.

60 days and counting!

Can't wait

30 days and counting!

The booking form will be going up on Monday.

Rob

The meet booking site is now online!

https://empegmeet.com/

If you previously filled in the questionnaire you must also complete the booking form.

Please complete the form as soon as possible and if you can settle the bill quickly that would also be appreciated as most of the activities have to be paid for in advance.

We still need talks and presentations, and almost any topic of interest to geeky/linuxy/empegy/audio-ey people would do! Any volunteers?

Rob

I'm thinking of heading up to Cambridge on the Friday. Is anyone arriving early and planning on being around?

My train gets in to Cambridge at 2:40pm on the Friday. We should definitely meet up. I will have a local UK mobile number by then to make things easier.

Great, signed-up thanks!

Note for others: pay close attention to the event times..

John G is thinking of having a get together at his place on the Friday evening.

As for the walking tour / makespace tour overlap - I'm going to look into booking another walking tour earlier in the day, or moving the existing one if nobody minds.

If you're planning to come and haven't booked yet please do so soon. I have to book and pay for the events and I'm not sure the final numbers are going to match the earlier survey.

Rob

I haven't been able to make a hotel group booking because I can't be sure we'll hit the numbers required. Instead I recommend everyone book at the Travelodge Cambridge Central which is basic but good value.

https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/255/Cambridge-Central-hotel

At this moment the rates are:

Friday: £61
Saturday: £113
Sunday: £46

The higher Saturday price implies its filling up so I'd book soon. If it does sell out I can suggest other nearby hotels.

The hotel has only very basic catering but there are several restaurants and coffee shops on the same plaza.

The minibus will pick up and drop off nearby to the Travelodge. It's a 30 minute walk from the hotel to Makespace, or 10 minutes in an Uber or taxi. Parking is £7 for 24 hours with validation.

Rob

Booked.

Slashdot linked to this story today, possibly relevant to attendees of this year's empeg meet: Three Geeks Rescue a 50-Year-Old IBM 360 Mainframe From an Abandoned Building.

Two weeks and counting!

I'm not going to be able to make it, alas. I hope you wonderful folks have a great time. Take lots of pictures!

If you're not on the Facebook event and would like an embroidered meet polo shirt please email me with your UK size. The shirts are unisex.

Size guide:

https://gyazo.com/adb4ad150a2de759bbcb8dac07a5f0fb

Rob

7-Days, but who's counting?

I'm counting!

See you there guys.

Less than a day now!

In Cambridge, checked into the Travelodge.
Wet outside, but looks to be clearing up shortly.
Bit of a mix for The Meet (wet morning, nicer afternoon),
and pretty good outlook for punting on Sunday.

Of course, this is Britain, so weather subject to frequent changes.

Let the meet begin!

Our M.C. in his element.

Party time!