Sweet Willie hosted my one and only mini-DO so far. I was nervous, hubby declined to go as he absolutely does not 'get it'. I arrived at the restaurant, and the hostess gestured forward saying that some in my party were here. I didn't panic, but explained that I had no idea what anyone looked like.... which of course elicited a strange look.

We had a fabulous time! I stayed far later than I had planned, chatted with people who spoke FT, and am very eager for the next one!

Enjoy your DO.

It was a fun time! Just a suggestion, always look at this thread to locate FT'ers by where they live: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...-all-live.html

Just so happens there are more than a few.^

-

After about two years of posting on FT, I attended my first Do.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...y-13-15-a.html

I had found FT Chat a few months earlier and had gotten to "know" many of the regulars there (Chat was much more active back then) and many of them were going to be at the Do. It was really nerve-wracking for me to show up to a bar and not know anyone there by sight or (in many cases) name. By the end of that weekend, I had made many friends, many of whom I'm happy to keep in touch with to this day. By my rough count, I've met 13 members who have posted in this thread at various DOs. Others have been kind enough to point out that I met the love of my life at a Do, so I guess I'll always be passionate about this particular topic. :)

Meeting FTers in person took FT to a whole new level of addiction for me and it made me really feel like I was part of a Community and just not a bunch of random posters. Isn't it amazing that there's this whole group of people out there from all walks of like, corners of the world, and holding just about every point of view there is and yet are all united in their love and appreciation for miles and points?

[QUOTE=SkiAdcock;14012704]

Since then I've attended small and large dos, organized a few, and attended a lot of meals & get-togethers. Until recently when I lived in LA, I got to see lots of FTers as LAX is a good mileage run location.
[QUOTE]

And one of those local LAX dinners was my very first "Baby Do." I think it was in 2003, at Siam. I probably only had less than 100 posts then and zero "street cred" on Flyertalk, and I was absolutely terrified to show up without knowing a soul. But I'm glad I went, because I met three of my closest Flyertalker friends there. (The other two being delacpa & Mr. delacpa.)

My first really big Flyertalk Do was Roachfest '04 in Philadelphia, with the US Airways forum crowd.

The more Do's you attend, the more people you meet, the better you get to know them......and the more Do's you ultimately get roped into attending because the people you have met at previous Do's will be there.

I sense a trend forming.

To the OP, I know there are some Norwegians because after a LOT of beers at StarMegaDo1, they wanted to put together a "Get Naked" Do for next month. Something about saunas & jumping into cold water. :confused: Hmm, it was a lot of beers. Maybe they were from Finland? ;) :D

On a more serious note, there are a lot of good people on FT that you'll meet at Dos, as well as some that you won't be as fond of, as SweetWillie pointed out, but will still have miles/points in common. It's like any community.

And FT does become like a family. When my sister had cancer a year ago, we started "Operation Postcard" and FTers from around the world sent postcards to me to send to her to keep her spirits up. There were literally hundreds of cards sent, and it meant a lot to both her and me. And when she died, missydarlin came to help me close out her house, and arrived with a gift basket, a gift card & some $$ to go towards my sister's dogs kennel bill, all collected from FTers. BTW - in closing out the house I found every single postcard that had been sent to Cheryl. She had kept them all. Recently I did a breast cancer walk in Cheryl's honor, and FTers generously donated to the cause to help me reach my goal.

So go to your first do, and enjoy yourself.

Cheers.

I can say there's only 1 person that I'm not fond of. Considering the multiple hundreds of Flyertalkers that I've met, my batting percentage is ^

FYI, the BRT in my sig below has hosted ~250 people over the years. :cool:

Mine was the New Years DO in NYC. It was full of warm, fun people as seriously interested in flying commercially as I that I'm hooked into going on SAMD2. A big factor is that the planning for DO's is as detail-oriented, thorough, and credible as we'd all expect them to be. Most of my friends can't travel because they just can't get down to details.

My first "real" FT Do was TLS as part of chrisxb's Tour De France back in '07 but there have been dozens of mini-FT Do's here in YEG and even one in YYC I've attended. SEADo last summer was also highly enjoyable all thanks to the mighty missy. ^

This was the first DO I ever attended. We had a tour of the ATC tower ( this was pre 9/11), saw how the dogs are trained, and had a great time. I was the only HP PLT present and took a lot of ribbing. My kids thought I was nuts to fly to SAN to meet with a bunch of strangers. One of those strangers I even ended up dating for a while ;). ( Pre my marriage to Evil_sensei of course :p)

You were the first Flyertalker I slept with ;)

But didn't you leave her and go to Nogales in search of sheep?

Hahahaha, not sure if I want to hear more! :-D

SkiAdcock: If saunas, jumping into cold water and beers were involved, it must have been some Finnish people! :-D

Xxx

Wow, do you speak Norwegian too? I didn't know there were an American School in Oslo, I have only heard about the International School which they also have in Bergen.

I can understand that NOBODY would like to go to a snowy, cold place. I wouldn't either! :) On the other hand... A DO at Svalbard or "Hurtigruten" would have been nice.... :)

Xxx.

that was the next day :)