Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with event

Eurovision me, Montreal!

snorkmaiden — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:04:23 -0800

I really want to watch Eurovision on Saturday! Ideally, I'd like to do it in a divey bar, possibly a divey gay bar. Is it possible to live my dream in Montreal? It's available to stream online, but I'm looking for more of a community watching experience.

I've also discovered via Google that the Goethe-Institut is screening it, so in the absence of other options I'll go there. This is my first year in Montreal, and I don't know if this is something the Goethe-Institut does regularly... if it is, and if anyone has been in the past, I'd also be interested to know how it was. (Does it generate a good crowd? Is there a fun vibe? I'm imagining it being more like watching a movie in class, but am I wrong?)

Please, Montrealers, share with me your secret Eurovision night knowledge!

How do I manage a seating plan for a 2,500 seat theatre?

peppermintfreddo — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:04:52 -0800

My work is holding an event in a 2,500 seat theatre. The actual invitations and ticketing are not a problem, but we need a way to plan where the various VIPs, media, public etc will be sitting. Some of the allocations will be easy, as in ‘general public sits in this block’, but up to about 2,000 of the seats will need to be specifically allocated, and may need to be reshuffled several times.

Before the event, we will need to print a list of who is sitting where, and signs for many of the seats listing name, company and phone number.

The theatre has 3 levels (stalls, circle, balcony), and I have a pdf seating plan for each level.

At the moment I’m imagining spreadsheets, mail merges and cutting and pasting... please help me avoid that! Is there a (free or not-too-expensive) program I can download that will make this process easier?

Best Calendar EVAR!

xicana63 — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:47:56 -0800

I need a calendar that allows me to filter events by categories - additional requirements after the jump. I need this amazing calendar to

- be browser-based on desktop, since I work on a variety of laptops I can't install it as software on all these machines.
- to have an amazingly easy to use app for iPhone
- allow me to create my own categories and view by category
- and not required, but would love it if I could make a dump from my Outlook that I use for work and import into this calendar, even if its a manual process I would be perfectly okay with that.

I currently use a mixture of Outlook and Google Calendar but none if it goes and the Mail app on the iPhone doesn't allow me to filter by event labels.

Thanks so much for your help!

Brain Art Dance Thing Seeks Name

Gusaroo — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:57:48 -0800

Help name this event: It's a day long event starting with an art show, leading into an evening of music and experiential art, and it's aim is to celebrate the creative works of those with mental illness. The higher goal is to destigmatize mental illness and educate attendees about the services available in the community. I like Revisionary Ball but someone else has claimed "Revisionary". Any ideas out there?

Ideas for a singles event?

ceiba — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:13:12 -0800

Looking for activity ideas for a singles night in a small restaurant. What doesn't make you cringe? I'm helping a friend organize a singles night in her small organic restaurant. There will be a smallish indoor space, a bigger grassy back yard, and a flat surface / potential dance space in front.

We're looking for ideas of activities that will get people talking and mixing. It's a multicultural community of Latinos and anglos. Most attending will probably be in their 30s through their 50s.

Ideas that have been nixed:

- Speed dating or anything resembling it (roundly rejected by Latino friends)

- You have a lock and have to find the person who has the key(considered too likely to make you feel like you're stuck with that person)

- Open mic, karaoke, or anything like it

Ideas under consideration:

- Optional salsa or tango lessons. They could be going on in the dance area without interfering with mingling elsewhere.

- At some point, have everyone sit in a circle; go around that circle and spend a minute or two on each person to have them answer the question "Who are you?" however they want to answer it.

We're coming up short. What activities have you participated in that you thought were fun or at least useful? What activities should we avoid? Do we event want activities? Thanks!

Help me understand event handling in different browsers

steinsaltz — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:07:11 -0800

Question about Javascript, Backbone.js and clicking forms. I'm working with some hastily-written Backbone.js code that's supposed to catch clicks from a form, and then respond to those clicks. But the event handling isn't working across different browsers.

The key line of contention is this:

eventType = event.target.type;

Firefox says "event" isn't defined. As a newbie, I'm confused about how to make it see this event, which is bound to actions elsewhere in the code (in the View). Is there some standard way of doing this cross-browser, with jQuery, to make FF and IE alike deal well with this?

Any help much appreciated.

Analysis software for event planners?

lily_bart — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:51:41 -0800

I'm an event planner. How do I analyze my events? Two years ago, my career path sort of naturally flowed into event planning, and I've been keeping my head above water with just Google Calendar/Tasks, many Excel sheets, and many many Post-Its. It occurs to me now that there are probably other resources out there that I should think about incorporating into my arsenal.

Specifically, I would like to have a better way to analyze events after they're over--which events were better attended, which were more viewed on YouTube, with variables sussed out like time of day, topic keywords, and how much spent. I'm picturing something kind of like Mint.com's visual representations. I currently maintain task checklists, projected/actual budgets, and track attendance in separate Excel sheets (out of inertia--I had these handed to me by previous event planner). I also have a Word doc full of event ideas that I've been trying to translate into an Access database in my free time. Oh and I have more Excel sheets full of venues, caterers, etc. Is there a software into which I can dump my event-planning brain?

PS. I don't have a smart phone, and am unlikely to get one, so apps don't help.

PPS. I found this, this and this, to not much avail.

Find Me A Birthday Venue and Theme In Portland, OR

redsparkler — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 10:49:23 -0800

K. So my big 3-0 birthday is on Saturday, December 8th, and I'm looking for a good place in Portland (like a semi-private event room in a resturant/bar) to host folks for several hours. Let's say 7-10pm. More specifications inside...

Booze is optimal, but I'd like to avoid the dark bar atmosphere until later in the evening.

Good food is a definite plus.

All-ages would be amazing (but not required). My peeps with wee ones would be more likely to make an appearance.

Southeast Portland would be good; I'm hoping to get a big turnout, so a central location will help the carless folks make it out; Hawthorne/Belmont/Division would be great areas, Powell and Broadway would be on the outskirts of the area I'm hoping for.

It's a Saturday night, so the West side seems like it might be a little too crazy, but hey, if you've got a good idea, let me have it!

Probably not a lot of people at any given time. Let's say 20, at the most. I'm assuming people would come and go in little waves.

Oh! And any theme ideas would be appreciated, too. I was thinking of asking folks to bring a mix cd or tape for me, but then I thought that might be too much of a commitment and might scare folks off. Maybe I'll just make that an optional bonus.

Ultimate Schwag

saysthis — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 00:04:51 -0800

A client has asked me, of all people, to suggest some awesome schwag ideas for a major international advertising event next year. At this event, every booth has schwag, and we want the schwag that will outschwag all other schwag. The booth will be handling 800+ people a day, and focused on "interactivity", so the schwag in question should be customizable on the spot. We have 6+ months to get whatever it is ready. Essentially, the sky's the limit. Name your ideal schwag. This is actually for a magazine about advertising, at an advertising conference. So there's nothing thematically binding either. They're open to any crazy stunts that get attention, so long as they're not cheap and gimmicky, or unoriginal. So basically, anything. Take your wildest shot.

What are the must-hit events for a San Francisco Halloween?

anonymisc — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:26:12 -0800

Please help us experience an American-style Halloween in the San Francisco Bay Area (ages 20s-30s). For us I think this means finding the most highly recommend of: 1). A big event crammed with people in their best arty / sexy outfits (like SEAF Seduction, or Decompression if it were reinvented as a Halloween event), 2) An amazing haunted house, 3) Maybe a corn maze or similar? What are your strongest recommendations? For the costume event, I'm looking for the sort of thing that while not mainstream, is still big (ie much bigger than a nightclub, multiple dance areas, hopefully including a broad range of music (not just a repetitive beat that assumes you're on E)), everyone in amazing costumes, plenty of sexy, plenty of effort, lots of happy.

I don't really know what to look for (or where) in haunted houses, so I'm hoping for some recommendations!

Any other "must" events? Or locally-famous annual things?

(For all events, northern San Francisco (or Marin) would be better than south San Francisco or San Mateo, but if it's amazing enough, we can probably find a way there.)

Thank you all!

Super-important-room Names

halseyaa — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:34:57 -0800

The Situation Room. Mission Control. The Batcave. Give me some more super-important-room names. I am helping to name a venue that will host conference-style talks as well as fun events. I am looking for well-known names I can either use or modify (read: make stupid puns with). Hope me?

What, when, and where -- easily updated

Wild_Eep — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:19:31 -0800

Looking for software/service that will let us publish an event's schedule to mobile devices. Difficulty: the schedule isn't decided until the morning of the event. We hold a BarCamp event twice a year, and want to publish our schedule so that it can be subscribed to via iOS and Android devices. The nature of BarCamp is that the schedule isn't determined in advance. Presenters pick which room/time they are comfortable. It's possible, but not common, that a speaker will change their location/time.

So far, we've considered GuideBook, but found out that their round-trip time isn't tight enough to be useful.

It's essentially a single-day calendar, with time-slots that would be quadruple-booked. We want to be able to update it throughout the day in case of changes, and have those changes pushed out to attendees.

Attendees want a solution that is easy to set up, and stays current throughout the day.

Recovery from trauma - help me educate myself?

EatMyHat — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:50:05 -0800

I was in a traumatic event a few years ago which was followed by shock and near complete amnesia. Recently I've been getting memories back, and, following different triggers, experiencing physical and emotional exhaustion. Help me understand what to expect, and how best to deal with it ? (More specific qs after the cut) Antidepressants do not agree with me, so I'm just wondering - what (apart from therapy) can I do to deal with the physical and emotional symptoms?
If I go to therapy, what can I expect we will be speaking about (as it will only take a few sessions to cover everything I remember from the event)?
Can I expect therapy will make me emotional (I am pretty numb at the moment)?
Am I at risk of forgetting things again?
If you had a traumatic event - how long did it take you to recover?
If you had a traumatic event- did it help you to get out and about and keep busy, or stay home and take it easy?
Can anyone give me a guesstimate of how long it might take til I am more or less functional again?

Sorry if this is garbled - feel free to ask/memail me if you want more info!

I can do this. I once promoted a dinner party that got 15 people. So, I just need to do that again, times 100.

brenton — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 09:26:41 -0800

I suddenly find myself in a position where I am trying to promote an event to get thousands of participants. But I have never promoted an event before, and I have no budget! Help me get some ideas on how to get the word out. The event is a Hybrid (e.g. local and worldwide) Skillshare course that I'm teaching (on how to make a website). The minimum number of participants that Skillshare suggests is 1,000. I've never had to find my own students before, so it's terrifying--I'm not sure of how many people I could even get locally to sign up, let alone around the world.

Ok, I lied about budget, but I'm guessing most of my budget will go towards my venue, since I'm only charging $5 per participant. So any money spent on advertising must be really well targeted, and I've never done advertising like this before so I have no clue where to start.

Please help me come up with some strategies to promote my class both locally and in cities all over the place.

Just to show you how bad at this I am, here are some examples of the promotional activities that have occurred to me so far:

Locally (LA):
- Facebook spamming my friends
- Flyers in coffee shops and school bulletin boards
- Going downtown on my lunch break and shoving flyers in the faces of people who walk by (is there a way to do this that won't make everyone--including me--hate me?)
- Dressing entirely in meat to some public event to drum up publicity (the mechanics of how this sort of promotion works baffle me).

Worldwide:
- Craigslist advertisements
- Asking far-away friends to talk to their friends
- Starting a Twitter account that people love to follow to drum up publicity (the mechanics of how this sort of promotion works baffle me #butclearlyitdoes)

Well, that's it. I'm sure you have better ideas than me. No really, I'm sure of it.

How do you know to cancel an event if the rain hasn't started yet?

smirkyfodder — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 06:55:32 -0800

When should you cancel an outdoor event because of rain? When the chance of rain is 50%? 75%? When there is a little lightning bolt in the picture? I'm responsible for an outdoor event today that involves 10 participants, five of whom are children without their guardians. It's a walking tour and there's not really an option for staying under cover. The participants are all traveling a bit to get to this event, from up to an hour away. The weather forecast for my area isn't looking that great, but I don't know if it's so not-great that I should cancel the event.

So, I guess this question is a two-parter. The first part is specific: should I cancel the event today? For the hours of the event, the forecasts I've checked out all say "scattered T-storms." The chance of rain is listed as either 40%, 50% or 60%, depending on where I'm looking. It's not raining now, but it's looking slightly grumpy out there.

The second part is more specific: How do you know whether you should cancel an event for rain? Is there any sort of rule of thumb?

This is a work event and I'm hoping not to make the wrong call so your help is much appreciated. Please let me know if you need any additional info. Thanks for your help!

All dressed up and nowhere to go?

bilabial — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:51:46 -0800

Help me find or create a calendar of events in Orlando that would be suitable for a couple in a tuxedo and gown or cocktail dress. Not just things that are in the near future, but year round types of things! Help a couple I know who likes to get dressed up and is willing to eat a ~~crappy~~ "chicken or fish?" dinner and maybe donate some money to a good cause (like, $100 tops each at some point).

Not big drinkers. Fairly liberal. They like Ballet and Symphony and interesting speakers. They can each sort of dance a little, and are willing to improve their skills in that area!

Can Jimmy come out and play?

garlic — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:48:10 -0800

I've been failing on getting some friends to go out and do stuff with me, and need some help figuring out what I can do to get better success. Let's assume that they'd be just as interested watching the lecture on basket-weaving differences between the 14th and 15th century as I am.

How do you get your friends to come to events you're interested in going to with them? Is there a sweet spot on giving them enough notice that their schedule is free, but not so much that they'll forget about it? Is there a specific way to invite them that's more successful than others ( email / phonecalls / texts / facebook / twitter) ?

Help my audience avoid having to choose me over the Giants.

purplefiber — Sat, 12 May 2012 13:02:59 -0800

How do really good and thorough event planners find dates with the fewest conflicts? I am in San Francisco, planning music events, and would love to find a comprehensive calendar including major festivals, concerts, bridge closures, naked marathons, sporting events, etc. Failing a comprehensive calendar, what main Bay Area calendar resources would you use?

Planning a Non-Wedding Reception

youngergirl44 — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:40:12 -0800

Help me plan a 10-year anniversary party (to be on par with a wedding reception) for my boyfriend and myself. Specifically, what might our guests expect from the evening? I want to throw a big party for my boyfriend and I on our 10th anniversary. We will likely not get married as a personal preference, but I still want the drinking and dancing and cake and a fancy dress. Ten years together seems to be a cause for celebration and I also want to honor the wonderful friends and family we have. The party wouldn't be until 2014, so I'm just trying to hash out the very basic details.

Wedding receptions generally have the same traditions - speeches, first dance, cake cutting, garter toss, etc. - so the guests know sorta what to expect. I don't know what to expect if I were invited to a large anniversary party, let alone what our guests might expect, so I need some help!

I'm looking for thoughts or suggestions on:
* Speeches or toasts - I'd like to give one as the hostess, would it fit to ask anyone else to speak?
* A slide show of some sort - Would it be considered tacky as they're usually done at wedding events?
* Having the couple kiss when the guests clink their glasses - Will people be expecting this to happen?
* Gifts - I've often read that whether you want gifts or not, people will do what they want. Would people want to give gifts for an anniversary? Would they expect us to register?
* Other 'events' - What could we do in place of the first dance and garter toss type traditions?

I've already signed up for The Knot so I can use their budget and guest list tools. Any other non-wedding event planning advice would be helpful as well. Thanks!

Where to host an afternoon of boardgaming in Austin?

Zorz — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:23:04 -0800

Where in Austin can I host 25-45 people for boardgaming between 1-6 PM that will cost me less than $300? Birthday's coming up, and I haven't done anything special in a few years. Most of my friends enjoy boardgaming, so I've invited basically everyone I know in town to come spend the afternoon playing boardgames (it's a Saturday.) Problem: the location is listed as TBD. I'm still working to find a location that's large enough, available for long enough, and within my budget, preferably someplace that either serves food or can get food delivered. I haven't had a ton of luck googling, so I thought I'd try crowd-sourcing it. Any ideas?

How to serve alcohol at a semi-private event?

pieliza — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:40:12 -0800

I'm throwing an advertised dinner party for which guests will pay a fixed price. How can I serve alcohol? I have a catering license but not a liquor license, so I know it's technically illegal for me to sell alcohol. But is it possible to structure the event so that the alcohol portion of the dinner is paid for by suggested donations?

Alternatively, if we decide to partner with a non-profit and throw the event as a benefit, does that change anything?

Small time event insurance

transient — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:14:03 -0800

What can you tell me about event insurance requirements for a small-scale one-off theatre production in Ontario? I'm involved with planning a one-time performance in Toronto in a year and a half or so and am beginning to research insurance requirements. We're looking at small venues like church spaces or even pubs.

I am asking venues and insurance companies for advice and quotes, but would like some perspective from folks who have experience with this sort of thing (just because I'm sure what I will get from insurance companies is "yes, you must have maximum expensive insurance all the time").

Is insurance really needed for something like this? Would it be possible it would be covered by any insurance the venue would already have? If it is required, what could I reasonably expect to pay? Thanks for any perspectives.

Help me make sense of the facebook

gregr — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:04:34 -0800

I'm in charge of inviting people to Facebook events for a small nonprofit. We've started tracking the number of people that say they are going and maybe going on Facebook vs. the number of people who actually show up to the event. It looks like of the people that say they are going or maybe going to an event about 50% actually show up. Is this a normal show up rate? Has anyone done statistical study on this kind of data? Bonus: Does anyone have tips on getting a larger percentage of people to show up?

Something like CiviCRM/Events/Contribute but simpler...

sodium lights the horizon — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:15:59 -0800

I've been suckered in to finding a web app that will take a list of users, and flag up any who haven't paid subs by a set time. WorldPay (or similar) integration is required. My only thought is CiviCRM... can you suggest something better and easier to use? They currently have 500-1000 members, who take part in a regular event (quarterly, I think). Before each event, all members have to pay their subs for that period or they aren't allowed to go to the event.

Currently, they do it by breaking the list into groups and making a group leader hound all of the group members. Details tend to get lost and people can slip through the gaps.

What they want is a magical tool that will know who everyone is, deduct money from their bank account, and tell tales on anyone who hasn't paid by the deadline.

My first thought was to set up CiviCRM with Events and Contribute, but I remember the world of pain that caused me last time - both in setting it up and in getting the non-tech-savvy admins to use it correctly.

Can anyone recommend a nice simple and easy to use system that will take a list of users, send them a mail telling them to give money, drag them to a recognised payment provider (I happen to know WorldPay, but I'm open) and flag up anyone who doesn't bother?

Bonus marks if it can also send out newsletters in a massmailing kind of way...

Pick A Place To Party

The Whelk — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:52:48 -0800

I want to rent an event space in NYC. Where do I start? It's basically a wedding reception without the wedding, I'd like it to hold about eighty people, with an open bar and using my own caterers. It should be three hours booked at least. I'd like it in Manhattan but totally open to nearer Brooklyn and Queens. What do I need to know and where should I go in getting a space for late October? I've put on events before and been on the catering side of it but I've never actually been the booker and client for a non commercial event and I'd like to avoid stepping in shit, things I need to not do or know before hand? How can I make this as seamless as possible.

Also, costs I should expect? What's normal for a middleish, oh here's an open bar with some hot buffet THINGY in the area?