This just in from Rhiannon Chatnoir:

With the encouragement of Desmond & the help of TriloByte Zanzibar, I am holding a planning meeting to discuss the idea of having a Caledon meetup event during SLCC (August 13-16 in San Francisco) & the possibility of planning a RL steampunk themed ball as one of the night’s events.

Please join us Wed., 3/29/09 at 6:30 PM SLT in Port Caledon at the attached landmark, if you are interested in helping out, attending or have ideas. Feel free to IM me, Rhiannon Chatnoir, for a teleport.

Much thanks

Thank you to all who took the time to complete the survey! The response rate was much, much higher than last year! I present these summaries for use by anyone who wishes to plan an event. I will release contact information upon request to those actively organizing special events at one of the two conventions or to those who may step forward to organize an independent meetup.

The numbers

There were 73 respondents to the survey as of 5:30pm SLT Tuesday, March 24, 2009.

62 said yes, if the event were at a convenient time and place, they would like to have a meetup with others from Second Life.

18 people said they are interested in attending SteamCon in Seattle, October 23-25

• No answer 9
• Yes 18
• No 34
• Uncertain 12

21 people said they are interested in attending SLCC in San Francisco, August 13-16

• No answer 7
• Yes 21
• No 32
• Uncertain 13

38 people said they want to attend an independent meetup.

• No answer 10
• Yes 38
• No 13
• Uncertain 12

The answers about helping out are much less clear (not everyone who answered they would help plan left contact information, for instance). 6 people said they would help plan specialized events at SteamCon, 10 people said they would help at SLCC, 10 said they would help organize an independent meetup. Oddly, 28 people provided some sort of answer to “What kinds of specialized events would you like to help organize?” Only 25 people offered any answer as to what kinds of specialized events they would like to attend.

25 people left contact information.

Individual answers about activities are after the cut.

Read the rest of this entry »

Feel free to use this post to coordinate activities.

Feel free to use this post to coordinate activities.

Feel free to use this post to coordinate activities.

Feel free to use the comments on this post to coordinate activities.

I will be creating posts for the use of people who are attending a convention or meetup to make that fact known and to coordinate activities if they wish. Please let me know if you are attending a convention and would like a post.

Several people have asked, either in one of the text fields in the survey, in a ning, or directly, “What about DragonCon?”

One of the weaknesses of our approach to planning meetups or cons is small sample sizes. Last year’s CaleCon was planned by a small group, and attended by about a dozen people. We had so much fun that we thought we’d encourage another coordinated event. While we come from three nations in RL, in SL we are mostly denizens of Caledon, and we mostly have little convention experience. Thus, our starting points for making connections are narrower than they might be.

That’s one reason why we aren’t proposing there be a “CaleCon,” and it’s also a reason for the particular choices we’ve presented in the survey. We do not, by any means, wish to limit people’s initiative and enjoyment of real life meetups! In fact, if you’re going to DragonCon or another event (Pennsic, anyone?), feel free to leave a comment here–or contact me at otenth.paderborn@gmail.com and I can set you up to add posts here.

Survey status as of 17 February, 6:22 pm SLT

27 respondents, of whom 21 say they would like to have a meetup (3 didn’t answer, 3 said no).

Preferences for attending:
SteamCon: 9 yes, 11 no, 5 uncertain, 2 did not answer
SLCC: 7 yes, 14 no, 5 uncertain, 1 did not answer
Independent: 13 yes, 6 no, 5 uncertain, 3 did not answer

Willingness to help plan:
SteamCon: 4 yes, 13 no, 4 uncertain, 6 no answer
SLCC: 4 yes, 17 no, 3 uncertain, 3 no answer
Independent: 3 yes, 9 no, 11 uncertain, 4 no answer

Please take a quick survey to help determine interest in meeting at SteamCon, Seattle Airport Marriott, Washington, October 23-25 or Second Life Community Convention, Marriott San Francisco, California, August 13-16.