[SWLUG] Re: Quietest Meeting Ever

[Martyn Loughran]

Telsa - very sorry to hear about your evening - but I liked the  
picture you conjured up! I can't really express an opinion on the  
Swansea meetings since I've only been for organized events. Tis a  
shame though.

With regards to Carmarthen I'd like to second the vote for 3rd  
Tuesday (or any Tuesday for that matter) - Thursdays aren't great for  
me although I will admit that the curry is an advantage. Whichever  
day it is I think a fixed schedule is very important. If it's going  
to be complicated there should at least be an ical file on the  
website so that dates can automatically appear in people's calendar  
app. Good as RSS is it's not so useful for reminding me that there is  
a meeting tonight!

Regarding discussion regarding meeting up in other locations, here's  
my take for what it's worth: Most people coming to these meeting have  
been sitting in front of computers all day, so do we really want to  
travel some distance to come to some noisy computer room just to sit  
in front of computers some more? The meetings can be a way of getting  
away from the details and seeing the bigger picture - details take  
time and google is good at that kind of thing. This also makes the  
meetings accessible to a much wider audience - totally disagree with  
the remark that meetings could be about technical oneupmanship.  
Laptops of course can be used anywhere and are much better suited to  
quick demos - and someone will likely have one on them. A venue with  
cheap / free wireless would be a definite plus for this kind of thing  
but is rarely needed imo.

Pubs with food work well. Generally any comfortable informal venue  
gets my vote. People's houses usually have free wireless, but I'm not  
offering mine! Just please don't make it a computer lab unless it's  
for a special event with a special purpose that requires it!

Regards,
-- 
Martyn
My contact details:
http://www.nytram.me.uk/contact/