The Sword and Laser discussion

Well I know there are folk planning to meet at Loncon, so that is a start, and I'm keen to hear how that goes.

Anyone else with ideas? As I've said before, I'm from Lancashire and, for me, Manchester would be a great place to meet, but I'm happy to hear any other suggestions too.

Also, I named the thread UK for ease, but maybe it should just be England, and other places in the Uk want their own thread instead, though I'm always happy to head up to Edinburgh when I can afford to.

Ruth,
I have to say I like your thinking...good excuse for travel. I live in North London and am going to Loncon.

I would very much like to set up a regular UK meet of some kind. Perhaps even an irregular one.

For me a regular meet would ideally be somewhere on the Northern Line between central London and High Barnet.

I'm just across the Pennines, in Sheffield - but hopefully you won't hold that against me ;)

Wish I could get down to Loncon, but no chance of getting time off work. Organising some sort of event sounds like an excellent idea, though!

I'm in Oxford, a very Sword city, what with Tolkien, CS Lewis, Philip Pullman etc. I could probably get as far as Birmingham or London at a pinch, but cost is the primary travel restriction.

We could do a google meetup. Each get a glass of wine / beer / lemonade !

Paul 'Pezski' wrote: "I'm just across the Pennines, in Sheffield - but hopefully you won't hold that against me ;)"

I had a tutor from Sheffield when I was studying in Japan, and he became a dear friend. We differed on the subject of rose colour, but bonded over our mutual Northernness. ;) I'm sure we'll get along. :D

Tim, cost is a restriction for me too. I'd love to be able to skip about all over the country (several countries, for that matter), but money doesn't ever stretch far enough. Birmingham might be possible in the future (I'd have to do some number crunching), but I'd be reluctant to go to London based on cost and travel time, though if funds improve, I'd give it a go. I'd guess most of us would be in the same boat, willing, but not always able.

Phil, I'm beginning to wonder if a semi-regular meet up, but at different locations each time, might be something we can all work with. Then even if we can't make it to each, there should be some that are convenient, cost and travel wise? Might be an idea to consider?

But the google meetup idea requires no such considerations. Sounds fun!

I'm from Yorkshire so can make meet ups in Sheffield or Manchester. Would be so great to meet some people from here.

I will also be at Loncon and am hoping that meet up happens but I will be running around like a crazy person so don't know if that will happen.

but hangouts could be a way forward.

Be very keen for suggestions on what looks good for Loncon. Just not had time to review. I should download the App really.
called "Grenadine Event Guide" then sign in to "loncon"

I'm in Tewkesbury near Gloucester and Worcester, any one else in the general vicinity?

Great to see talk of UK meetups! I am in South London; whilst I won't be at Loncon, I would be up for a meetup another time.

How central is Birmingham for everyone? Once WorldCon is over and done with we should meet up!

certainly a possibility . perhaps A Friday night? drinks and dinner?

We seem to have many options. A meetup at Loncon, a google hangout, a west midlands meet in B'ham and perhaps a London one.

Decisions, decisions. All sound good.

I'd be keen on regular London meet-ups. I'm in SW London, but I can be more or less anywhere in Central London for about 18:00 of a weekday evening.

I live a 20 minute bus ride from Birmingham, so that's totally doable for me.

I propose that we need to find as many UK S&L members and then we can organise some meet ups in multiple areas of the UK. Any thoughts?

I'm in Clare in Suffolk.

Can't find the Loncon thread now. Was a time set for a meet up? Will be offline as of tomorrow morning for the duration (as I have no portable computer devises but I do have scale mail. I'm into my swords more than my lasers)

Looks like there are a few people for Birmingham, and a few for London, plus some more bit further North ;). Would it be worth doing a Google Hangout with everyone first, as Phil suggested? Then we could discuss dates / times.

Would also be happy to set up a London meet, if we have enough people.

I'm split my time between London and Oxford so an occasional meetup in either place would work for me. It looks like (as usual) there are more people based in the London area, so it definitely looks like a London meetup should be possible. I like the idea of a google hangout first to set up the details.

However, Manchester is also a fantastic city and I'd be happy to head up there every once in a while too - train tickets can be pretty cheap if I know to book in advance. It's not fair to always expect everyone to come south, especially when money is tight for most people I know right now.

I vote for the google hangout first (great idea guys) and then a sometimes south, sometimes north meetup so people can choose the one to attend that is easier/affordable for them.

I'm pretty flexible to get to London and Birmingham, I'm sort of in the middle so they are the easiest places for me to get to. I completely agree about the Google hangout, that is probably the easiest way for us all to coordinate and plan stuff.

Vickstar - good point about moving the location around! Makes sense.

Do we want to do a google hangout asap, or at the end of this month?

Maybe google hangout post LonCon, so end of this month? I think I'm about to be pretty distracted for the next few days!

Yeah, let's do the end of the month cause I'm preparing myself for LonCon this week!

Eleanor wrote: "Can't find the Loncon thread now. Was a time set for a meet up? Will be offline as of tomorrow morning for the duration (as I have no portable computer devises but I do have scale mail. I'm into my..."

The thread is here (if this works) https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

But I think the consensus was maybe a Thursday meetup and definitely a Saturday at 8pm meetup. Not sure of venue yet.

perhaps meet in the Loncon bar sometime Friday? what time suits?

Google hangout at the end of August, I would suggest an evening, say. 8:30pm. First Monday after wrap up podcast? Views?

Maybe the Sunday evening after the wrap-up? Week nights may get interfered with by work schedules for those of us who work nights/shifts.

I'm in Nottingham and UK meetups sounds like a super idea! But I agree that money is an issue so London might not be do-able as a regular thing. I like the idea of changing locations, and maybe starting with google hangouts, etc.

I am going to try and organise a London meetup. I appreciate that this may be like herding cats!

So Friday 19th or Saturday 20th of September?
Somewhere in the vicinity of Tottenham Court Road?

Any takers?
If we can make this work, then we can perhaps consider heading up north to the wilds!
Regards
Phil

Great idea Phil - thanks for arranging this.

I am definately up for a London meetup, however, at the risk of being the first cat: I can't make the 19th or 20th. I could do Thursday 18th, or the previous Friday, the 12th.

Even if I can't make this one, count me in for future!

Yay Phil for being organized! This is a great start and hopefully we can head up north next time as well.

I can do the 19th or the 20th (and even the 18th) but the week before I'm away at a conference so wouldn't be able to make it.

The Angel is near Tottenham Court Rd tube and has lots of little cosy rooms so I'm sure we could take one over. It is a Sam Smith's pub though, so it's cheap but some people don't like Sam Smith's pints. Any objections? The Bloomsbury Tavern also has a cosy upstairs (but it's much smaller) and is nearby.

I would love to get into London but I'm busy that weekend. I am very excited for any ventures more up north! Any plans for a Google hangout?

Guy, go ahead and organise something. Even if it is just a trial run :-)

I'd be up for trying to organise a meeting up north. The cities easiest for me are Leeds, Manchester or Sheffield. If anyone is interested in a meet up in any of these places please let me know. If enough people are interested we can then try and set a date.

Good luck with the London meet up guys. Hope it goes well.

How about this a Google Hangout this Sunday evening (30th). Or alternativley next Sunday (7th)?

Oooh, sounds like plans are beginning to form. Good good. Did folk meet at all at Loncon? I haven't checked in in a while.

I can't do a google hangout this Sunday, as I have plans, but next Sunday, the 7th, would work for me.

For face to face, I'd love to meet up in Manchester or Leeds, and there seemed to be a few of us that would work for. I guess we are splitting off into different regions for this, but we can keep the google hangout for all. Anyone actually tried those, by the way? I'm used to using skype, but that is all.

I'm good to sort that out. Everyone that wants to do a Google hangout add me on Google+ and we can start doing some hangouts together.

Just tried to find you on Google+, but couldn't quite figure it out. Guy, could you post a google hangout link? If you schedule one for next week or so. That'll make it easier to find you.

I am on the south east coast (Hastings) so could make London but further away would probably be a bit to much.

I would potentially be able to make the 18th or the 20th if the Tottenham Court Road thing is still a viable thing.

Let's set a date!

7pm, Friday 19th September, London, The Angel (Pub) St Giles High Street (Western end of High Holborn).

Nearest Tubes are Tottenham Court Road, Holborn & Leicester Square. 100 yards from Forbidden Planet!

I will be there!

Oooh, I might actually be in London for that date! Yey! I've just moved back to the UK after living in Switzerland for 9 years. I'm based in Sheffield. Would love to go to a S&L meet up.

That's 3 of us. Bring a friend or a book buddy. Victoria & I met at Loncon. I can vouch that she is quite normal. Don't be shy all welcome.
Phil

September. Thank you EJ

7pm, Friday 19th September, London, The Angel (Pub) St Giles High Street (Western end of High Holborn).

Nearest Tubes are Tottenham Court Road, Holborn & Leicester Square. 100 yards from Forbidden Planet!

I will be there! (I shall post again as a reminder)

Huh! I may actually be in London again at that date.

Fredrik wrote: "Huh! I may actually be in London again at that date."
Come along. I may be the only person there!

Phil wrote: "Fredrik wrote: "Huh! I may actually be in London again at that date."
Come along. I may be the only person there!"
I'll see how my schedules shake out!

I will not be able to get to London. Actually, right now, money is so tight, even Manchester would be tricky.

So, the google hang out thing. I'm guessing no one attempted that? I totally forgot in any case. Is a Sunday hangout still a plan?

I've made a Google+ community for this here: https://plus.google.com/communities/1...

If you're interested in doing a hangout, feel free to join. Looking to host the hangout on the 28th, a week on Sunday, probably in the evening, about 7pm-ish