@oraeles77 The reason we usually meet up in a room these days is that it's impossible to book a restaurant in London with space for 30-40 people & restaurants want a hard number of seats booked, whereas we generally cant give any concrete figures. We used to go to Wagamamas and Nando's back in the day but we stopped because there were real problems finding space for everyone as the meets grew in size and we would end up in situations where they could only seat a few people at a time and then would want you out the door pretty fast once you were finished, which leave no time to chat/socialise. In addition, we had a time where the meet ended up costing @marks, @almighty_gir & myself a bunch of money when a few people ordered £40 of food and drink each, without the means to pay & then left us to find the shortfall and tip for a 25 person group. Outside of charging everyone a set amount beforehand via a ticket system, which I really don't want to do, there isn't really a solution to this as the restaurants expect a party to be booked by a single person who is then responsible for the cost of the entire bill (assuming you can even get space, which isn't likely for more than a single large table of 5-10), which isn't something I'm willing to do again. Nando's wont even take bookings any more.
Historically, the Parcel Yard has been by far the easiest way to go (which is why we have been going there for the past 4-5 years) as we get the room for no deposit & there is hot food and a bar available. It's also in an easy to get to location and a private space where people can talk in relative peace and catch up. "Public" pubs are generally far too loud to talk about the technical aspects of game development, review folios and give/receive advice in my experience. :P
The only downside is that I'm personally responsible for the minimum spend at the bar (which is £3-400 last I checked), so if not enough people turn up then I have to pay. I don't mind this because it's a managed liability with a fixed potential cost and is unlikely to happen).
I will no doubt book the room again for a similar time as last year for the regular meetup ofc, as yearly seems to work the best for organisation/fatigue purposes. Some people are travelling from outside London etc. We have quite a few each year coming from mainland Europe, who have to organise hotels and flights etc.
@metalliandy I think you are getting a bit confused. last time Panda was in London we all met at a 'gamers bar' in Dalston. there was about 10 of us.
you are talking about that Parcelyard place at Kings Cross, which was after that 3d game dev conference thing, so that day always pulls in an abnormally large crowd of people.
yeah, Im just keen to have more regular meetups in London for the local game dev/3d crowd to meet up at. by all means you can keep doing that annual thing at Parcelyard. what im suggesting is a lot less people so dont worry.
that gamers bar is alright but Im keen to try out a pub crawl instead next time, keep us on our toes.
When is the next one of these? i have shown exceptional talent at missing every single one so far, but who knows, maybe i can muster the courage if there is another one happening soon?
Replies
@Wolfe Are you referring to EGX or the meet? The meet is on Saturday.
Or eat.
@oraeles77 The reason we usually meet up in a room these days is that it's impossible to book a restaurant in London with space for 30-40 people & restaurants want a hard number of seats booked, whereas we generally cant give any concrete figures. We used to go to Wagamamas and Nando's back in the day but we stopped because there were real problems finding space for everyone as the meets grew in size and we would end up in situations where they could only seat a few people at a time and then would want you out the door pretty fast once you were finished, which leave no time to chat/socialise. In addition, we had a time where the meet ended up costing @marks, @almighty_gir & myself a bunch of money when a few people ordered £40 of food and drink each, without the means to pay & then left us to find the shortfall and tip for a 25 person group. Outside of charging everyone a set amount beforehand via a ticket system, which I really don't want to do, there isn't really a solution to this as the restaurants expect a party to be booked by a single person who is then responsible for the cost of the entire bill (assuming you can even get space, which isn't likely for more than a single large table of 5-10), which isn't something I'm willing to do again. Nando's wont even take bookings any more.
Historically, the Parcel Yard has been by far the easiest way to go (which is why we have been going there for the past 4-5 years) as we get the room for no deposit & there is hot food and a bar available. It's also in an easy to get to location and a private space where people can talk in relative peace and catch up. "Public" pubs are generally far too loud to talk about the technical aspects of game development, review folios and give/receive advice in my experience. :P
The only downside is that I'm personally responsible for the minimum spend at the bar (which is £3-400 last I checked), so if not enough people turn up then I have to pay. I don't mind this because it's a managed liability with a fixed potential cost and is unlikely to happen).
I will no doubt book the room again for a similar time as last year for the regular meetup ofc, as yearly seems to work the best for organisation/fatigue purposes. Some people are travelling from outside London etc. We have quite a few each year coming from mainland Europe, who have to organise hotels and flights etc.
i have shown exceptional talent at missing every single one so far, but who knows, maybe i can muster the courage if there is another one happening soon?
Heck yea
glad to join if there's another one!