Advice for Organizing Local Nerdfighter Gatherings?

Booknookgirl2013

The discussion title pretty much says it all.  I've never organized a NF event before, but I'm interested in doing so.  All ideas welcome

emiliarmus

Make sure you know what the people you're meeting look like, have a very small area to meet, and have a way to contact others if you can't find them  

Booknookgirl2013

What sort of activities do you do?

valerie2776

I just organized my first event a few weeks ago. It hasn't actually happened yet, but hopefully everything will work out well! We're going to be meeting at/exploring a newly-opened museum and then going somewhere to eat.

If you have other people who are interested in going (like before making the event I posted in my local nf facebook group to see if there was interest), I'd suggest talking to them to see what types of activities they'd be interested and what days or times would work for them.

Things that are free or very little cost work best. Game or craft nights, nature exploring, going out to lunch, the zoo, etc. Sometimes it's easier to plan to meet before or after an already existing event like a concert.

The main thing I would suggest is to make sure there are people who say they can go to the event before you make it! Posting a thread on here with tentative details and times or in your local nerdfighter group on facebook, if you have one, really helps coordinate things and will allow everyone to work together to come up with an event that will work best for everyone.

rainglobule

In the Boston Nerdfighter group some of our gatherings will be actual events that we go to like a concert or ice skating or the movies but most of our gatherings, and our best attended ones, are when we just get together and hang out. If it is nice out we meet in the park and if not food courts are really good hang out spots. Going around in a circle and having people do ice breaker question is a good way to get people talking (we've got a big beach ball with questions written on it that we throw around if there are a lot of new people) and good outdoor games are tag or ninja and inside apples to apples, 20 questions, a card game or something, also going to bookstores and leaving nerdfighter notes or getting food, having sing alongs. And we always have fun just sitting around and talking to fellow denizens of the internet if nothing else! 

Hope I could be of some help and the gathering goes well!

apple

I have no experience in organizing nerdfighter gatherings, but I do have A LOT of experience organazing things and gathering people and so on.

1. Gather information! Create a gDoc, where you can store information about the people who want to attend - names, phone numbers, preferences and suggestions (what they want to do, etc). I suggest a simple sign-up form - it's easier for everyone. You can then print this doc and have everything in one place, which will be crucial if someone is missing or you need to check if everyone has arrived. 

2. Have a plan. No brainer, right? Meeting awesome people is great, but awesome people tend to have a lot of ideas - which is totally fine in most cases, but it can get very hard to choose what to do/where to go when ideas are flowing and there are a ton of people around. Create a simple agenda, explain it to everyone and try to stick to it - this answers the question "what are we going to do next" and helps prevent chaos. Another important point is to give everyone the opportunity to suggest an activity - think about the best way to choose from these suggestions. And as usual - always have a Plan B and a Plan C - things go wrong all the time.

3. Set expectations - what type of gathering do people want? Do they want to chat, do they want to do something fun together? Make sure you know the answers to these questions (and a lot more). 

4. Think about ice breakers and conversation startes - if there are a lot of newcomers or you don't know each other very well, it's always a good idea to have some ice breaking games in the beginning. Google ice breakers and team building activities, there are tons of them online - just choose the ones you like best and go for it! It may be a bit weird in the beginning, but after that people would feel much better. This is also a great opportunity to get straight with everyone's names and learn something about them. 

5. Be prepared. Another no brainer, right? If you're going to get some food, call the restaurant and make reservations. (Also, choose a decent restaurant with good customer service). If you're going to a museum or something like that - make a research and figure out the best way to get the tickets (and also if you can get a group discount). 

Organizing a gathering is amazing - you are creating experiences for other people and there is no greater feeling than seeing people enjoy themselves and make memories. Good luck and if you have more questions - go ahead and ask! I am a bit of a nerd when it comes to those sort of things =D

SirRealist

This is great stuff. There have been two Big B(ay) A(rea) N(erdfighter) G(atherings), in the last 12 months, and have been way fun.  Increasing the visiblity of the events is important, for that you want targetted messages, that won't be irrelevant for a lot of the readers, so haveing "NerdFighters By County" information can be very useful in planning. I look forward to reading more. must zzz.  -=DaveBo (SirRealist)  Thanks for the great ideas.

SirRealist

Oh, and what we did: was plan to see a movie, meet. do introductions, and what you are enjoying now, then we played some ninja, (at another meetup we traded  logic puzzles and enjoyed slides, and traded munchies), and generally just talked and enjoyed each others company... games events have been talked about, but haven't seen one yet.  We saw "Hugo" in 3d (that's the title right?).. was good. Then dinner. was grand.

ScotJesica

Going around in a circle and having people do ice breaker question.

WhiteNora

I would like to further develop Grilled Cheese Theory, and would appreciate you bright folks' input on the matter.

misskatiemarieee

i like apple's thing, tbh.