Ref post #19, I wonder if as a separate matter we have a quorum for something more minimalist & local to Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties?
e.g a weekend lunch or any evening beer & meal call? Heck if all the would-be attendees are retired or have flex schedules we could do lunch any day, not just weekends. That could also be much shorter notice than an event in Orlando that needs air travel and room reservations.
I’m not trying to sabotage enthusiasm for an Orlando con, but it seems like we’ve got a couple very different populations with very different ideas here. So why not two events? Assuming the SoEastFL contingent is big enough.
I’m a 99’er from Indiana and have never been to a Dopefest, but I will be in the Orlando area the week starting on the 27th. I’ll be there with a group of college soccer players and I would guess they won’t want to hang out with me the whole time (I just provide the free accommodations).
I’ll be at Orange Lake Country Club which is close to Disney, but other than that I really don’t know the area (but I have a Garmin). I’ve been around the world at Epcot before, but will be in a rental car so if that is the plan I may have to bring the soccer team to drive me home (I’m not as young as I used to be).
I’ve thought about the idea for a while. Maybe we can let this thread happen, and after things calm down for a few days, we can start a S. Florida Fest thread and see if there’s interest? I think we have a few other Miami people, and someone from the middle keys. I know there are a few Dopers who travel down here regularly - some with family here, and some who just like it as a destination.
Back on topic - it occurs to me that I have friends who just moved to the Orlando area too, and have been asking me when I’m going up to visit. So…I’ll keep watching the details here to see if anything works out.
I attended a few DopeFests in the Cleveland area when I lived there.
Would love to meet my fellow FloriDopers now that I’ve made my home in the Sunshine State.
Last weekend of Feb and first two weekends in March are bad for me as I’ve already got conflicts
Did we hit Winter Park Village once? I just found out that a friend works at a game store there so that is back on my list of possibilities again because I could visit the game store as well.
In fact, that Irish place was okay too in that it was uncrowded and didn’t mind us hanging out for awhile. So pretty much the only place I’d prefer not to go to is Old Town.
If I knew of a place on Disney property that was similarly uncrowded and laid back (and had alcohol), then I’d suggest that because then it may be more accessible for the people from out of town staying on Disney property without transportation (because you can take shuttle busses to most places on the property). But I’m unaware of such a place.
I’m just going to say, y’all are making a big mistake not coming to Disney World and including me in the Floridope.
I was going to bring my home-made pigs-in-a-blanket. It’s an old family recipe brought to the new world when my ancestors came over on a dingy towed by the the Mayflower (the tow line broke a few miles from Plymouth Rock and drifted ashore in New Jersey).
For entertainment, I was going to bring my ukulele! Granted, I can’t play it very well…but, I can strum a few bars of Tiptoe Through the Tulips. I can’t sing in falsetto, but it actually sounds better in baritone.
I think we probably have large enough contingents in Miamish and Orlandoish to do two separate events; I guess we could do something in the middle but it just seems a bit impractical. I guess if the SoDopeFest winds up happening after the central Florida one I might make it to that too.
So ivy can’t make the 27th. Spud, will you still be here on the 5th?
We did Winter Park Village last-but-one time, I think. There was one at Fiddler’s Green after that, but if I recall correctly there were only like five of us.
Never having attended one, I’m looking for some expectation of what goes on.
If we’re talking a locals-only event, where everybody lives within [del]crawling[/del] driving distance for a half-day trip, it’s pretty obvious how a group of 5 to 15 gets together at some random restaurant, has a meal, a few drinks, and a lot of scintillating yak yak.
But I’m at a bit of a loss about how that scales to an event people expect to travel to and spend a night or two in a hotel. The logistics are simple enough. It’s the “what do we do after the first 2 hours?” part that has me baffled.
Anyone with experience care to enlighten the socially unimaginative?
Nobody came in from fa’, fa’ away at the ones I’ve been to. I think maybe Tampa/St. Pete at most. Well, Blue Mood came from the UK but she was already here for something else.
If Disney Springs sounds like a good location, may I suggest Benihana across the street at the Hilton? I am enthused about it because I have been to the sushi bar there three times but have never seen their teppan-yaki show. When I’ve been there the sushi bar has been real slow so I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if we moved there if we wanted to talk a bit more, or we could do something at Disney Springs if we felt like it.