If we have more than 16, this restaurant would have to split us up into two separate tables which really doesn't make sense for this gathering is structured. We all really need to be at the same table.
Is this because the dinner is structured similarly to the Extra Miler Club (EMC) Annual Meetings, where everyone goes around the room and talks about their adventures? I love that about EMC meets, but that is also in a ballroom where there is practically zero other noise. Trying to sit at a restaurant table and trying to hear someone all the way at the other end of a 16 person table in a noisy restaurant would be super challenging!!
I understand why you wouldn't want to break the group into two 8-10 person tables (because then not everyone gets to hear every single other person's adventures) but they're not going to hear them anyway if they have to compete with a bunch of other restaurant noises!!
The city meets I've attended have not followed that format. No organized opportunity to yak about our adventures. But the breakfast gathering (even before going into that restaurant) might allow that, as well as our breaking into groups between the breakfast and dinner gatherings to tour the Omaha area.
When I first came up with the idea for my "city meets", the intent, really, was for us to talk together at lunch about what we would each plan on seeing and doing throughout the afternoon. At my Providence meet in 2019, we were lucky because our large group had a private room and it was easy for everyone to go around the room and announce their sightseeing goals with the group. I actually got up in front of the group and asked everyone to go around the tables and share that. I think a really positive outcome of that was that the attendees got to form small groups when they heard that others had the same, or similar, sightseeing goals they had. With the lunch in the Outer Banks in 2022, we didn't really do this... but everyone sort of organically figured out where they wanted to go and whom they wanted to join. There wasn't an organized discussion or "round-robin" sharing of what everyone was planning to do. Everything worked out fine, though.
And then at our dinners (both in Providence in 2019 and the Outer Banks in 2022), I can't remember how organized our discussion was about what we'd seen during the afternoon. I know that it was all discussed... maybe not in the most organized of fashion, but it was still a good time overall.
In Omaha, I'm not sure how organized I will be in terms of having everyone go around the tables to share individually what they plan to see and do (and then, what they did/saw), but I think I'll play that by ear and see how things go. Sometimes it's hard to get a "round robin" like that started when folks are already in the midst of conversations at the table that they are enjoying.
My last message to A.J. had me down as a "maybe". Things have improved since then, especially with the aches and pains I brought back from Kentucky. So I'm more of a "yes" at this point. I'm concerned about the storms lately blowing through the upper Midwest, since I'm super-allergic about dodging tornadoes on the road. But AFAIK that's never canceled "Woodstock for Capitalists" (a/k/a the huge Berkshire Hathaway corporate annual meeting) in Omaha the weekend following our event.
I'm glad those aches and pains for you have improved, Oscar! That's really good news. Based on you saying that you are leaning toward "yes" in terms of joining us, I'm now seriously considering looking for a different restaurant that can handle a group larger than 16 at the same table. When selecting a restaurant, these are the main factors I consider: 1) will parking be easy, 2) are the reviews good, and 3) can they split up the check and allow each individual paying separately to have a separate check.
