Have any of you ever hosted a meet in a place you knew little to nothing about at the time you picked the site?
Both meets I've hosted were within an hour of where I grew up, so no.
I mean I'm not usually the type to want to be the host but it seems like no one else is willing to organize anything in Connecticut. :-D
I've organized meets where I made other people do the scouting - Montreal (Carl), Seattle (Jake Root). I had some familiarity with the area but not possibly enough local knowledge to put it together.
No. Everything I've done has been meticulously scouted, although I will admit to not having eaten prior to the meet meal at the venue chosen for Somerset, Ky. (I had eaten at another location of that regional franchise) or for Charleston, WV (I'd eaten at a couple of other QS&L locations). The tours were well-planned, however, because I've been to a few meets that seemed very disorganized and that's not the way I prefer them to be.
Probably the closest for me would be the Memphis Meet I hosted in the spring of 2012, now keep in mind I have been living in TN for nearly a decade at that point but Memphis\ west TN is the part of TN I know the least of, especailly around that time. With help from Cody Goodman I was able to scout out everything I needed to and picked a regional restaurant that was good but I never ate at prior to the meet. Overall it went well and I would like to put together another Memphis meet in the next few years once more of future I-269 opens up.
Nope. I've either 1) had enough familiarity to help back the scouting I did or put the time into the scouting.
Both Ottawa and Quebec City were done with no scouting. I didn't know Ottawa well enough to my satisfaction, either. In Quebec City's case, the plan was carefully crafted with searches on Québec 511 and news sites for possible road work and such, and indeed, the itinerary had to be changed in the last week prior to the meet.
The Upper and Middle St. Lawrence River mini-meet (with Duke87, place-saint-henri and Thomas Westphal) was completely blind in that it was unplanned and decisions were made over two-way radios or in gas stations.
The Tulsa meet was pulled out of my ass. I decided on a few landmarks which we visited but after that it was like "what do you want to do?" We went to some places and drove on some roads that I had never been on. So I would say it meets your criteria.
I should throw in Providence to this mix. I organized it based on past knowledge but had no way to scout before the meet. Baltimore is in fact the only meet I really did scout beforehand. All of the NJ ones were just based on knowing the state. The Cape May mini-meet had no plan behind it, and we in fact got interviewed by a friendly local officer when we all parked on NJ 162. Hell, the restaurant I picked wasn't even open.
The two meets I hosted in 2013, Monticello & Cleveland, were both with rudimentary or somewhat better knowledge of the roads and stuff. I usually do heavy research before the announcement to make sure I have enough.
I attended one a few years ago. (Won't say who planned it, but I don't think they're a member of this forum.) I suspect it was organized rather blindly.
Quote from: hbelkins on February 05, 2015, 10:19:43 PM
No. Everything I've done has been meticulously scouted, although I will admit to not having eaten prior to the meet meal at the venue chosen for Somerset, Ky. (I had eaten at another location of that regional franchise) or for Charleston, WV (I'd eaten at a couple of other QS&L locations). The tours were well-planned, however, because I've been to a few meets that seemed very disorganized and that's not the way I prefer them to be.
I have not organized a roadmeet before (though that may change fairly soon), but I have organized bus tours for a group of people with interests similar to ours. I drove the routes at least twice to be sure that it was appropriate and legal for a large bus, and checked on other things, such as where to stop for lunch (these trips start at 8 AM and come back around 4 or 5 PM).