[Deanrover]

There have been a few previous attempts at organising a BBO "reunion". Official stuff, hotels etc. I think they suffered from lack of demand.

BBO has expanded v. much over the past year. I suspect that there now exists demand for a well attended BBO holiday.

Assume a central location such as East Coast USA or Western Europe. Perhaps England is best 1 week long, bridge planned for every day but optional excursions to Stonehenge, Cambridge etc. Stay in a nice country hotel.

[sceptic]

Hi Dean,

I have seen what you are talking about organised from Yahoo social lounge, where the opportunity for likeminded people to meet and play bridge, drink and eat and anything else they want to do really.

I know of about 4 or 5 in the US over the last few years and 2 in Canada have attracted about 30 - 40+ people, they were held in a hotel and took a fair bit of organising.

I my self organised one for yahoo social In England 2 years ago, I had 25 people in total attend, most for the weekend and most stayed in the hotel where I had organised it (Milton Keyens).

If you are going to organise one or (I know one may be in the pipeline in the UK next year) I found a few lessons were learnt.

Get a hotel with a website and tell people to book their own accomadation (this is suprissingly simple to do and efficient)

Book a hall or large function room (consider how many you expect to turn up. this was the most costly item I had to conted with)

Hire tables, bid boxes etc from ur local club or the English Bridge Union do this I believe)

Then you need to talk to people to generate interest.

If you need to cover the cost of the hall/room and card tables etc, put a costing to the people you are inviting.

Also make it available to people that want to day visit and not stay overnight.

I think a week is for hard core and generally viewed as too long (what if you have never been and dont like it)

I think a weekend (fri sat night stop over and sunday depart) is ideal, from the sucess of this you can look at longer options.

I had people come from all over, Austria, Denmark, US, so it may be worth booking it somewhere near London as a few stopped on afterwards for a bit of sightseeing.

Timing.......There is never a right time, people will always say can you make it a few weeks early or a few weeks late.. decide on a date that suits you, if you are organising it, this was the biggest obstacle I had to contend with... you CANT please everybody.

[Deanrover]

I don't think two nights is enough to entice people from, say, New York to UK. Maybe 3 or 4 nights would be a good compromise.

I think Cambridge would make a fantastic venue. It is a historic, gorgeous and quaint city. It is close to Stanstead and London. Say, summer 2005?

[flytoox]

Deanrover, on Nov 7 2004, 05:10 PM, said:

I don't think two nights is enough to entice people from, say, New York to UK. Maybe 3 or 4 nights would be a good compromise.

I think Cambridge would make a fantastic venue. It is a historic, gorgeous and quaint city. It is close to Stanstead and London. Say, summer 2005?

two days or one day event is good as well. Oxford would be nice:)

[luke warm]

long ago on the zone, there used to be (probably still is) a yearly tournament... last one i remember was played in texas somewhere... was a weeklong affair (barely a pun intended)

[the hog]

"was a weeklong affair "

Hmm on that basis you could talk me into it.

[sceptic]

One thing I found was that those from a far, wanted a few days meeting people and a few days in London doing their own thing, with theior friends, but I suppose it is up to the organisers

[luke warm]

The_Hog, on Nov 9 2004, 05:51 AM, said:

"was a weeklong affair "

Hmm on that basis you could talk me into it.

he he he... that's why i said *barely* a pun intended