(Geek Dinner) + (80 Degrees) + (No Air conditioning) != Good Idea
Thanks to everyone who came, next time I will pick a better environment to hold it in!
Taking Scoble's advice on organizing Geek dinners, I tried to get at least 3 big shots to come (fortunatly for Scoble - he is a big shot so he only needs to worry about 2 more people) Dave Platt (couldn't make it), Sam Gentile (who brought along Phil Stanhope - which made up for Dave) and Casey Chesnut. All in all I think it was a pretty good turn out for such a short notice (announced on Saturday and held on Tuesday) a total of 10 people showed up.
It was too bad that I picked a pub that decided open windows are better than actually turning on the air conditioning (maybe Casey felt more at home with the heat than the rest of us - since he is from Texas). I will have to remember to add that to the list.
Lessons learned from last night to add on to Scoble's Laws (see below) - which I need to follow closer next time --- listen to Scoble he knows what he is talking about:
- Air Conditioning! - especially if it is going to be close to 80
- Find a cheaper place than an Irish pub downtown Boston
- Loud (and bad) music in the background doesn't help the conversation
Scoble's Laws for holding a Geek dinner
- Have it in a place that can be scaled quickly without having much pain
- Be sensitive to the cost
- Name tags can help, particularly on a first meeting since no one knows each other
- If you get three "big names" to agree to come, then a lot of other people will come too