Austin Mega Do 3.0: Do Harder - February 20-23, 2014
 

Welcome to the discussion thread for the 2014 Austin Mega Do. :cool:

As always, the website (http://www.ausmegado.com) will have the latest and greatest information in the not unlikely event that I forget to update this post. :) We announced the event dates last week (February 20-23, 2014) and today we've released the Event Schedule. Please note that the events that have a capacity control on them show 0 spots available; this does not mean that the events are already sold out. Those numbers will be updated to reflect actual capacity as we get closer to registration.

First and foremost, we will be returning to Franklin Barbecue for a private dinner event. This event is happening thanks to continued gracious sponsorship by Milepoint and Randy Petersen. We're also doing an event at the Alamo Drafthouse featuring HeckleVision (you text your one-liners and jokes and they appear on the screen with the movie) and we'll be visiting the offices of LIVESTRONG here in Austin for a live concert and charity auction. More details about all of those things are available on the events page at the website. Here's a brief rundown of what we have planned for 2014:

Schedule of Events (tentative)
Thursday, February 20, 2014
12:00PM Noon - Lunch at Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew
2:00PM - Visit Pinballz Arcade.
3:00PM - Pickup ID badge and sacred tome at the Sheraton.
7:00PM - Private event at The Flying Saucer.

Friday, February 21, 2014
9:00AM - Depart the Sheraton Austin
10:30AM - Tour Garrison Brothers Distillery
12:30PM - Lunch at Pecan Street Brewing
2:30PM - Tour Real Ale Brewing
5:00PM - Reception at Sheraton Austin (Sponsored by Starwood Preferred Guest)
7:30PM - Private dinner at Franklin Barbecue (Sponsored by Milepoint)

Saturday, February 22, 2014
10:00AM - HeckleVision with Die Hard 2 at Alamo Drafthouse Ritz
1:30PM - Rainey Street Pub Crawl
7:00PM - Visit LIVESTRONG offices for live concert and charity raffle

Sunday, February 23, 2014
11:00AM - Brunch buffet with open mimosa bar at Z Tejas on 6th Street

Hotel Information
The official hotel for the 2014 Austin Mega Do is the Sheraton Austin. The room block is sold out, but cancelations do occur so please contact me if you'd like to be notified of an available room for the event weekend.

Registration will open October 30, 2013 at 7PM Eastern Time. Stay tuned to the website, this thread, and the Facebook group for more details as they're released.

We look forward to seeing everyone in February 2014! http://c-cproductions.org/sa/emoticons/emot-dance.gif

Later today, there will be a few updates to the ausmegado.com website. Namely, the DNS will change to a new host. The change should be seamless for you, but if anyone encounters errors, please let me know and I'll look into it. If you'd like all the gory technical details about the various changes, see below.

Additionally, I added a new feature down on the right rail called Who's Coming. You can click the text to toggle display of the registered attendees for the 2014 event. This was something that we've gotten feedback on as we don't use these threads on MilePoint and FlyerTalk to fully plan the event the way that other Do's and community events tend to do. This way you can see who has registered after event registration opens. Until then, it will remain empty.

***BEWARE Gory Technical Details Below. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.***

Because I get asked by some people for all the behind the scenes junk, here's the details: As you may or may not be aware, the Austin Mega Do has, heretofore, used Google Checkout to handle all registration payments for events that are prepaid in nature. Google Checkout was chosen for the ease of integration, allowing HTML shopping carts to be constructed and submitted without a bunch of trouble, programmatically speaking.

Of course, as with all good things, this one is coming to an end. Google Checkout in its current form is being shut down in November so they can focus on digital transactions through Google Play and whatnot. Gee, thanks Google. :rolleyes:

Given that, I had to find a new payment gateway. Luckily I located one that would work, and thankfully it's not Paypal. It's called WePay, and they have cart SDKs for submitting credit cards securely, which is great. What is not so great is that the SDK is written in PHP, and the Austin Mega Do website is written in ColdFusion. If you're familiar with ColdFusion, yes, it is ok to laugh.

So I've had to undertake recoding the entire ausmegado.com site in PHP. Thankfully, one of the few smart moves I made was to templatize the layout and backend code so that the changes for everything other than the signup form were fairly straightforward. The signup page itself, on the other hand, is an unwieldy slagbeast from beyond the fiery pits of the sixth concentric circle of hell; combine that with PHP's syntactical proclivities that lean toward the stupid, and it's a daunting task. So if anyone needs me, I'll be spending the next month going through that nasty mess and testing thoroughly.

And before I get another ten PM's asking if you can help me test in order to get early access to register for the private dinner at Franklin's, thanks for the offer, but we're covered. ;)

***END TECHNICAL JUNK. The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night.***

The Sheraton booking link will be released at 12:00PM (Noon) Eastern time tomorrow, so make sure you jump on that quickly as space is limited. :)

The booking link for the Sheraton Austin is now available! Head over to the website (http://www.ausmegado.com) to grab it and reserve your room. :cool:

Welp, that one sold out so a second one is available at a slightly higher price point. The details are at the website, http://www.ausmegado.com.

We've had a minor change to one of the Thursday events, but I think you'll agree that we're in no way trading down. As such, after lunch at Stiles Switch, we'll be heading over to Pinballz Arcade. We'll have a private room and the arcade is BYOB. All the details are over at the website.

On the hotel front, we have just five rooms left in the second block. If you're on the fence, hop down off of it because the availability won't be around forever. The booking link is available at the website as well. :)

Geez, how'd this wind up on page 5? :)

I know there hasn't been a lot in the way of updates lately, but that certainly doesn't mean things haven't been moving forward. We're still working out a few details but I'm happy to report that one of our big ticket items, a live band for the event at the LIVESTRONG offices, has been taken care of. Hopefully will be able to release those details and a few others in a couple of weeks, along with the official registration start date. :cool:

Also, if you haven't booked your room at the Sheraton yet, there are only two left, so get on it! The booking link is available on the website, http://www.ausmegado.com.

Registration Announcement!

Registration will open on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 7:00PM Eastern time! Head over to the website (http://www.ausmegado.com) for all the details.

I've got one room available for Thursday through Sunday. Contact me if you're interested.

I hope to make it this time.

Who else is going?

I'll be there. ;)

I also added a handy feature to the website on the right nav where you can see who's coming once registration commences.

I hope to make it myself, need to get an idea of my winter class schedule (I'm almost certain I can't make it for Thursday but I'll try for Friday-Sunday). I've always wanted to go to one of these.

Your instincts are correct. 'Tis a good time. :D

It was? I was so drunk last time that I don't recall whether it was. :p:p:p

I'm proud of the Alaska dos, but I must say that there's nothing that can beat stuffing yourself with the best BBQ on planet earth and chasing that down with copious amounts of adult beverages. In one word: GO!

Ha, I wish it were so simple. Going means missing work and income and of course, classes. I need to see what my Friday class schedule is like next year, missing a core class is something I try to avoid doing. In two words: I'll try!