Australia's First MEGA EVENT ???

Bewilderbeest · Post by **Bewilderbeest** » 24 July 08 9:22 pm

Yeah, I reckon it needs to be near Sydney or Melbourne as major transport hubs...however I also reckon that a regional centre just outside the city is a better option.

As mentioned by Team Piggy, you can get commitment from local organisations without the competing events that might be happening in the city. It has a closer, more community feel to it, its easier to negotiate group discounts on accommodation etc, stuff like that.

I' be prepared to drag my family from Canberra to somewhere near either Sydney or Melbourne (and thats considering we have the free accom option of staying with relo's in Melbourne!).

Cheers

Team Piggy · Post by **Team Piggy** » 24 July 08 10:23 pm

Actually, stupid as it may sound, I would highly suggest Hay as an opportune town for the event.

The infrastructure for big events like this was great, council bent over backwards as did the local tourism commision, local farmers supplied paddocks and porta loos etc.

The town certainly appreciated the turnover that the event supplied as well to the coffers.
They even shut off streets and allowed a vehicle procession to disrupt the main street on a Saturday morning!

Food for thought.. Its kinda middle to a lot of places too.

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 25 July 08 6:53 pm

Piggy's idea of a country town has merit. Though somewhat bigger back in day's gone by OTC used to hold a Melbourne vs Sydney "sporting" weekend at Wagga each year with 2-3 coachloads from each direction converging on the town. The locals were very supportive with events organised at local pubs, use of sporting facilities, and we had the final night function at the Golf Club (they knew they were going to make a healthy bar profit). This was always around Australia Day.

Well, of course the sport actually played very little part in most people's activities over the weekend and the bus trip home was somewhat more subdued than the one down!

Spruce Mooses · Post by **Spruce Mooses** » 26 July 08 9:15 am

Where the hell is Hay?

*note, I actually do know, but the town produced this on a sticker, which I really liked

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » 26 July 08 11:27 am

The suggestion has merit.

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=-34.5005 ... =0&src=msl

Hay - Melbourne = 415k's (5 hours)
Hay - Sydney = 726k's (7 3/4 hours)
Hay - Adelaide = 685k's (7 3/4 hours)

Hay is situated halfway between Sydney and Adelaide and much better to cache around than a city.

Country hospitaliaty would certianly make for a very nice weekend / week or what ever.

There is still that problem for Sydneysiders though of that hill they have to get over.

Udderchaos · Post by **Udderchaos** » 26 July 08 11:44 am

we have to drive 450ks just to get to a hospital with specilist services. I'm sure 700 for a recreational event shouldnt be a problem

murf · Post by **murf** » 26 July 08 11:49 am

Well at 1hr20min drive, Hay would definitely suit me...
Just curious though, is the fact that there are no active cachers and very few caches in Hay a percived issue to anyone at all?

GhostGums · Post by **GhostGums** » 26 July 08 12:44 pm

From Brisbane Hay is like 1400km and 17hrs driving. Perhaps making it closer say to Dubbo might make it more attractive for qldr's especially as there is the Western Plains Zoo, to make more of a trip of it,

Just a suggestion.

cheers

paegle boy · Post by **paegle boy** » 14 October 08 1:07 pm

can we have it in act

Alansee · Post by **Alansee** » 16 October 08 3:47 pm

IMHO the real issue is where are there sufficient workers to put on such an event?

rhinogeo · Post by **rhinogeo** » 17 October 08 12:25 am

Only 294km to Hay for me

... though I seriously doubt that we have the critical mass of geocachers for a Mega Event to succeed in Oz

zactyl · Post by **zactyl** » 17 October 08 2:37 am

Maybe if we got a sponsor and some publicity...

2dudez · Post by **2dudez** » 17 October 08 8:25 am

Can't we just put this one to bed for another couple years until we have governing bodies (like GTI and GNSW) in every state to oversee organizing/fundraising for an event of this size.
As it has been discussed in depth 3 months ago, I'll try not to repeat too much, but our State Based organizations (current and future) would have more influence attracting sponsors, finding a town that will open it's doors to us, arrange public liability, liaise with local authorities (I'm sure local cops would get sick of calls about suspicious people lurking in bushes, they'd need to be in the loop).
A couple of years will also allow the Australian caching population (and the amount of people who would actually travel halfway across the country) to grow to a number sufficent enough to have a Mega event.
Sorry this sounds a bit negative or defeatist, but i'm just being realistic.

For the record, I would travel to attend a mega event but I really cant see this happening any time soon.

Webguy · Post by **Webguy** » 17 October 08 9:26 am

Nobody will ever agree on a central location. personally, as far as I am concerned, it can only every be in ACT.

1) It has a good sized airport, regular flights from all over.
2) Masses of all levels of accommodation.
3) Masses of caches for all types and levels and colours.
4) Plenty of places that can hold a huge amount of people for a conference.
5) Easy to drive to from a lot of places/states.

Now what has Hay got?

Oh, cool, 2 caches!

I hear crickets chirping personally.

With ACT, at least with say 500 people wandering around caching, you won't be lining up for 2 hours in the sign the logbook Q. Plus, even though a lot of caches will be getting a LOT of people doing them, it won't be as condensed up and attract as much attention.

A Mega event over a weekend is not just about the social side, if people are going to travel any distance, they are going to want to do caches. Now, if you said to someone, hey, lets drive 1000km's so we can attend an event and do 2 caches, or, lets drive 1000km's and have access to 600+ caches, hmmm, what would you pick?

Don't get me wrong, if a Mega event ever happens, if it's in the right spot, I'll be there, Hay, is just not the right spot, sorry.

Webguy · Post by **Webguy** » 17 October 08 1:35 pm

Amongst the multitude of things to consider, is also, whether cache owners want upwards of 2-400 people doing their cache in a 2-4 day period. Log books won't last that long, locations will get trashed, caches will be compromised, contents will go from ok/good to crap, loads of bugs and coins will be in limbo.

So much to take into consideration.