nice to have the time to sit and read this thread.. sean and i enjoyed hosting two weekend events when we lived in Asia, notably the Shanghai weekend, which as it required a certain amount of advance planning to attend, meant that the attendees were seriously keen.

however, once we moved to the middle east, the do hosting ceased, but we've had lots of lunches and dinners with FTers passing by, which has been good.

now we are mving to spain.. let's see, might see a return to do hosting, or maybe sean will some common sense to the matter, and we'll just participate in others' events..