Pre PAX East Dinner Update

acumen101

UPDATE: So, initially, I had intended on running the dinner yet again this coming year, but with my job taking up time trying to find the right place and some plans that may conflict with the dinner itself, I can't dedicate to run it this year. If someone else is willing to take up the mantle this year, I'd be more than willing to offer advice. I'm sorry to disappoint others, but with this community, I'm sure someone else is willing and able to run it.

Hello all,

PAX East is coming. And, once again, I would like to do the dinner. Other than previous years, I'm getting a much earlier jump on planning said dinner. I want to know what YOU thought about the dinner and where you think it could be improved. You can go ahead and leave comments, but so I have a better way to analyze everything, I made a brief survey so that I can look at numbers instead of words (words only say so much).

So get to clicking and tell me what's what!

aBByNormaL

This will be my first Pax. Like the idea of a dinner to get to know people. Personally I cannot do a pub crawl as I will be travelling with my daughter but the idea of it sounded great!

acumen101

aBByNormaL wrote: »

This will be my first Pax. Like the idea of a dinner to get to know people. Personally I cannot do a pub crawl as I will be travelling with my daughter but the idea of it sounded great!

The pub crawl was set up by another group, but I want the dinner to be more of a get together for PAX first-timers and veterans alike.

Kaladin

acumen101 wrote: »

The pub crawl was set up by another group, but I want the dinner to be more of a get together for PAX first-timers and veterans alike.

That's good. I'll be a first-time attendeethis year as well, and having looked back tthrough the forums I haveto say the dinner always seems to be eenjoyable for everyone.

Jake Capps

Sounds fun!

jdixon1972

I'm really looking forward to this again for '14. Does anyone know the area well enough to suggest a venue other than Durgin Park? DP has a nice space, but the food is not good. I'd take Dicks or Fire and Ice again. Please, though, don't take this as a slam against the organizer. I appreciate everything you do with this. The Pre-Pax dinner is always something to look forward to.

acumen101

jdixon1972 wrote: »

Durgin Park has a nice space, but the food is not good. I'd take Dicks or Fire and Ice again. Please, though, don't take this as a slam against the organizer. I appreciate everything you do with this. The Pre-Pax dinner is always something to look forward to.

No offence taken! I only went with it, because Dicks wasn't widely regarded as a good choice after the previous organizer and her previous choice ran into issues. I also went with that area, because it was close for the PokeCrawl to start. If more than enough people are into just getting together for the dinner and not worrying about the crawl, then I'll see how available Fire & Ice are.

Raughn

I have been surveyed. I thought Durgin Park was fine and would like to try other menu items there in '14, but I'll likely follow the dinner wherever it goes, so do as you will. And thanks!

GhostDan

yea I didn't have a issue with Durgin, but other places are cool to try out too.

rascrush

just wondering do the dinner and the pub crawl happen at the same time or could you go to the dinner then head over to the crawl and not miss any of the crawl.

Traitorious

I believe the dinner leads into the pub crawl. So you can do both.

Frugus

Added this to the survey, figured I could post it here to see what other people think :

Not sure if this is possible, but have pre-arranged seating in a semi-random fashion. I don't consider myself to be shy but even I wondered where I should sit down to meet other people. Some of the seatings were limited to four people, making things either awkward for couples or limiting for small groups of people who end up sitting amongst each other without mingling with other people too much. Maybe some veterans would be willing to be put amongst people who are first comers. I would.

I would also encourage people to bring some quick line games, nothing fancy or messy (Zombie Dice, Cards against humanity) to kill the time while we get waited on. Big groups are hard to handle for restaurants after all! Wait... I bet people already did that

This is not a complaint, I think it's a wonderful activity and I hope to be there next time.

aBByNormaL

Frugus, like the idea!

rascrush

I like the idea as well have never been to a pax east but would rather have it be semi seating chart then having to find that random table just easier imo. As long as I would not miss the pub crawl and the dinner is near it I for sure would go to the dinner

aBByNormaL

I am somewhat foreclosed on the adult activities front as my daughter will be with me but the dinner sounds like a great way to connect before you get to the con.

acumen101

Frugus wrote: »

... have pre-arranged seating in a semi-random fashion. I don't consider myself to be shy but even I wondered where I should sit down to meet other people. Some of the seatings were limited to four people, making things either awkward for couples or limiting for small groups of people who end up sitting amongst each other without mingling with other people too much. Maybe some veterans would be willing to be put amongst people who are first comers. I would.

I would also encourage people to bring some quick line games, nothing fancy or messy (Zombie Dice, Cards against humanity) to kill the time while we get waited on. Big groups are hard to handle for restaurants after all! Wait... I bet people already did that

This is not a complaint, I think it's a wonderful activity and I hope to be there next time.

Excelent Idea! I'm thinking of moving away from Durgin-Park on 2014 to better accommodate something like this, but would come at the cost of the dinner immediately preceding the pub crawl (3/4 of those surveyed said that they didn't go to the crawl after the dinner).

rascrush

i would be more into going to the crawl then the dinner so having the dinner in a close by place that way i could go right there after is pretty importent. I would stay away from the dinner if it was one or the other. Does durgin park not allow semi pre arranged setting.

Frugus

acumen101 wrote: »

Frugus wrote: »

... have pre-arranged seating in a semi-random fashion. I don't consider myself to be shy but even I wondered where I should sit down to meet other people. Some of the seatings were limited to four people, making things either awkward for couples or limiting for small groups of people who end up sitting amongst each other without mingling with other people too much. Maybe some veterans would be willing to be put amongst people who are first comers. I would.

I would also encourage people to bring some quick line games, nothing fancy or messy (Zombie Dice, Cards against humanity) to kill the time while we get waited on. Big groups are hard to handle for restaurants after all! Wait... I bet people already did that

This is not a complaint, I think it's a wonderful activity and I hope to be there next time.

Excelent Idea! I'm thinking of moving away from Durgin-Park on 2014 to better accommodate something like this, but would come at the cost of the dinner immediately preceding the pub crawl (3/4 of those surveyed said that they didn't go to the crawl after the dinner).

Acumen101, can't wait to bump elbows again!

Hum, if I recall, finding a place that accommodated the Pub Crawler's was a pretty big deal on most years... Maybe it's possible to do manage some seating at Durgin's though? If I remember correctly there were larger tables near the center of the space where they allowed for us (also great). Maybe those could be new comer centric while the rest will be for people who don't necessarily want to mingle too much. That way everyone would be happy.

Just a thought of course! Durgin's has a legit Bostonian rep and it's close to literally everything

Also, even though I did not go to the last one, I heard you did great (again).

rascrush

just throwing out a idea maybe do teams should not be that hard to figure out if you do that and should not be that hard for the durgin to do. Say you have 50 people split them up into 3 teams or something like that. It would not really be arranged seating but you would know what team you were on before hand and really all the durgin would have to do is put the team name on a table and then you go to that table.

cadmia

Frugus - I made a similar suggestion when taking the survey - To have some kind of seating chart that would help facilitate getting to know people. My husband and I sat at a 4top last year we had one random person join us half way through. It just felt a bit awkward and I think a seating chart or even some kind of pre-dinner ice breaker kind of game could help break the tension.

aBByNormaL

One thing add in terms of seating. I am travelling with my daughter and obviously she will want to sit with me so I guess any arrangement for seating would have to be able to accommodate such requests

Sashan

I am not attending this year, but Durgin Park was a great location but let down with the food. Perhaps I had higher expectations or standards .... but yeah, definitely have to be better options from a foodie point of view.

Location does have to be pretty close for people attending the Pokecrawl (which I did and it was excellent... meet loads of people and have a great drunken laugh )

upstateny-dan

First time PAX'er. The dinner sounds like a great time! I would love to join in, I'm not that familiar with Boston, staying downtown at the Omni. Wife and baby will be in tow (killing two birds with one stone as we have friends/family in Boston). She's being awesome enough to let me completely geek out and immerse into the atmosphere.

kropotkin

I always attend the Pre PAX dinner at East, primarily to hand out the Forum Badges, but also to grab a bite to eat, chat about PAX with people and shrug off my Jetlag. I am not that keen on the food at DP and the staff can be somewhat short with people as they try to cater for so many of us. If there is a viable alternative venue then do please try to get one.

aBByNormaL

Question ... what exactly are Forum Badges???

zerzhul

aBByNormaL wrote: »

Question ... what exactly are Forum Badges???

http://wiki.paxcommunity.net/paxwiki/Forum_Badge

gigabrain

aBByNormaL wrote: »

Question ... what exactly are Forum Badges???

All shall be revealed in its proper place, at its proper time....

But seriously, Forum Badges are a special badge that @Kropotkin creates every PAX that look really awesome. Here's the thread from last East's badge to give you an example.

zerzhul

Side note, just updated that wiki page.

kropotkin

I've actually started work on it, but I won't upload anything until I'm happy with what I've created. Soon people, soon.

GhostDan

Random seating could be tough. Some of us go there to see people we haven't seen in a long time and want to sit near them and enjoy conversation.

I think the key to the shy people (and I can be very, very shy) is to try to open yourself up a little. The pre-pax dinner for me is my first attempt to get out of my introverted shell (sometimes second if I manage to hook up with MMT before). Last year I sat next to kropotkin, Lexicongirl and her hubby, along with a couple others and we had some great conversation. This is a great chance to start opening up without the full PAX East 'OMG LOOK AT SO MANY PEOPLE' hits

philler

I'd be excited for a Pre-PAX dinner! Went a couple years back to the con but never got to do a lot of meet and greets with the forumers.

Delaney

GhostDan wrote: »

Random seating could be tough. Some of us go there to see people we haven't seen in a long time and want to sit near them and enjoy conversation.

I think the key to the shy people (and I can be very, very shy) is to try to open yourself up a little. The pre-pax dinner for me is my first attempt to get out of my introverted shell (sometimes second if I manage to hook up with MMT before). Last year I sat next to kropotkin, Lexicongirl and her hubby, along with a couple others and we had some great conversation. This is a great chance to start opening up without the full PAX East 'OMG LOOK AT SO MANY PEOPLE' hits

I can completely understand the desire to say hi to old friends and be able to talk to them, and this is something that I would hope isn't stifled in any way. The thing is that for those people who are new, shy, solo, or all three, walking into the midst of everyone else enthusiastically greeting old friends and already split into their groups can make it rather more difficult to try to fit into any conversation. The people meeting old friends don't necessarily notice the newcomers and a shy newcomer is highly unlikely to barge into an ongoing reunion.

Would it be feasible to something like an open conversation area? Someplace where, if you sat there, you'd know you were welcome to talk to anyone else also sitting there as well as being free to listen in to ongoing conversation without feeling rude? If nothing else, at least the new people would have a place to try to meet others.

hobbseltoff

Around what time has the dinner been in years past? I'm interested in going but my flight doesn't get in until about 6:10.

cabsy

Delaney wrote: »

GhostDan wrote: »

Random seating could be tough. Some of us go there to see people we haven't seen in a long time and want to sit near them and enjoy conversation.

I think the key to the shy people (and I can be very, very shy) is to try to open yourself up a little. The pre-pax dinner for me is my first attempt to get out of my introverted shell (sometimes second if I manage to hook up with MMT before). Last year I sat next to kropotkin, Lexicongirl and her hubby, along with a couple others and we had some great conversation. This is a great chance to start opening up without the full PAX East 'OMG LOOK AT SO MANY PEOPLE' hits

I can completely understand the desire to say hi to old friends and be able to talk to them, and this is something that I would hope isn't stifled in any way. The thing is that for those people who are new, shy, solo, or all three, walking into the midst of everyone else enthusiastically greeting old friends and already split into their groups can make it rather more difficult to try to fit into any conversation. The people meeting old friends don't necessarily notice the newcomers and a shy newcomer is highly unlikely to barge into an ongoing reunion.

Would it be feasible to something like an open conversation area? Someplace where, if you sat there, you'd know you were welcome to talk to anyone else also sitting there as well as being free to listen in to ongoing conversation without feeling rude? If nothing else, at least the new people would have a place to try to meet others.

I've only been to one PrePD and that was at Prime but - yeah as a new person or something without a large friend group that is attending, it's a bit like walking into a high school cafeteria your first day at a new school. So many people already know each other and I was just like awkwardly unsure where to go and ended up spending all of my time outside with beta_angel and co while they checked people in because it was way more open congregation chatting space and less lunchroom where everyone knows everybody else.

aBByNormaL

as a first timer ... getting some pre-pax facetime would be great as I will know noone as well

fullofgrace

I enjoyed the dinner last year (it was out first one). First day at the cafeteria is a good way of describing it. Hubs & I weren't quite sure where to sit, so we ended up off to the side a little bit. No one's fault though, and it was still a nice time! A lot had to do with us being naturally quiet, so I really like the idea of group seating to not give us the 'choice' of being unnecessarily shy.

I'm looking forward to coming again, so I'm happy to eat wherever it ends up being hosted this year.

zerzhul

so @acumen101 edited his OP but apparently forgot to mention it, so nobody will notice unless I make this little bump...

NowHiringHenchmen

This is gonna be my first Pre-PAX dinner, and from the looks of this thread, it seems likes it going to be awesome. Is it usually held the night before PAX, or?

zerzhul

Yes, it's usually held the Thursday evening before PAX. Early enough so that people can get to the annual pokecrawl or the big boardgaming events at a couple of the hotels (both will also have threads forthcoming as pax approaches).

NowHiringHenchmen

zerzhul wrote: »

Yes, it's usually held the Thursday evening before PAX. Early enough so that people can get to the annual pokecrawl or the big boardgaming events at a couple of the hotels (both will also have threads forthcoming as pax approaches).

Yeah, I'm planning on going to one of the tabletop things, but thanks for the info!

Delaney

zerzhul wrote: »

so @acumen101 edited his OP but apparently forgot to mention it, so nobody will notice unless I make this little bump...

If it's a matter of someone calling the restaurants and coordinating that end of things, I could help with that part. I won't be in Boston until right before 5:00 p.m. Thursday, though, so someone else would need to handle the "hosting" end of things.

Anyone want to tag-team organize this?