Young Elites Gathering
 

Since I've noticed these threads are starting to pop up again, and there tends to be a common theme of every so often getting young elites together, I figured sometime soon would be useful, especially with the mileage deals and hotel bonus point programs going on. I'm open for dates and locations. Supporters are also welcome

It should be noted that to be posted as a formal Do on FT, the gathering must be open to all. It may be targeted at a particular subset (e.g. Gaylas, airline board dos), but there can be no restrictions which would prevent FTers who wish to attend (for example age) from doing so. Any dos with such restrictions may not be posted on FT Communitybuzz! Please make clear that all FTers are welcome.

That's the official line said.

Now, a word of advice from an experienced Do organiser. I think that your opening post is too vague to generate much response. You haven't even given an indication of continent, or timing (e.g. are you expecting this soon, is it something for next year?). You will be more likely to get responses if you at least throw out some ideas there which people can discuss.

I do hope you will be able to get something off the ground - if you have any questions feel free to PM me :)

Jenbel
Co-moderator, Communitybuzz!

I think organizers of FlyerTalk gatherings are more likely to be successful if they have actually already attended some FT gatherings, or at least met up with a few other FTers! I'm guessing that with a March 2009 registration and 2 posts, the OP has not. (But of course I could be wrong.)

Also note the "must be open to all" proviso as mentioned by Jenbel above. You can't block anyone from attending on the basis of their (too old) age or non-elite status or anything else. However, you can always choose an activity (rave? frat house blowout? ;)) that you think would mainly appeal to the demographic you have in mind.

I'll be interested in helping with organizing something. I was the youngest flyertalker at our gathering in Paris last week which I organized.

I agree, we don't want to put any limitation in place to prevent people attending. Perhaps some of the older flyertalkers even want to hang out and to feel young again. ;) And they are very much welcome to attend.

Just throwing some ideas out since OP is located in the US. Why don't we do a US DO as a starting point? Perhaps LAS? Lots of clubs and bars for sure and I am sure it appeals to the younger flyertalk demographic.

OP, please let me know if you are still interested and PM me so we can discuss further and perhaps we can throw something together.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Did you miss the " ;) " that netfishpanda used? Or the "And they are very much welcome to attend" comment immediately following the part of the post that you quoted?

Please see also http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...ak-3-14-a.html

Agreed with Jenbel that you can't really create an exclusive event, but it's still easy to create some really fun events. You should definitely consider L.A. that's easy to get to from a lot of places, and has lots for everyone to do. Let me know if you need any help!

Does my 8 y.o. elite get to attend?

Sure! Perhaps we should pick a location where there's no legal drinking age. :p Also, nonelites can attend as well since everyone is welcome.

I'm certainly interested in this.

I'm often the youngest FTer at gatherings I go to. Even though at 24 I can say "back when I was your age..." to some younger FTers now.

I'll keep monitoring this thread.

Do pass more info in due time, although it probably needs to be 2010, seeing we're so late in 2009. Ya no legal drinking age will be great, still 20 for a few more months, thanks very much.

Alanw, the thread you link is partially 2 and 5 yrs old? but I don't think i'm quite enough of a partier for that anyway although i still drink

Very generous of you ^

Won't someone think of the children?

:D :D

My ears are still burning from all the Boo Doo gossip I've heard! ;)

I hate LAS, and if we're talking about "young elites" I think we should choose a city with more to do for those 18-21. Drinking age is 18 in Puerto Rico right? That's still technically the US. I've never been there though.

Old fogies DO
 

How about Sun City AZ in Jan

legal note - this is a joke ;)

Works for me!!

And one rule only.

You have to be older than my socks in order to attend. :)

Been trying to organize the geezer do for years ..... but my organizing committee keeps dying off before we can get all the details decided :D

Guys - there is a topic?

Thanks

Jenbel
Co-moderator, Communitybuzz!

chuck e cheese

and they serve beer :D

Since my last message was unclear, since I've just had to delete three posts, let me be quite explicit. The topic of this thread is the organisation of a Do targeted at the younger members of FT. If you are not directly addressing the topic, but being disruptive and taking the thread off-topic, please do not post. If you do go ahead and post, your post will be deleted and you may be at the wrong end of disciplinary action.

FT allows targeted Dos so long as all are welcome - or we wouldn't have the Gaylas or the Jewish Do which occurred last year. Since at the moment this is a pretty vague idea, and people are still trying to develop it, then I would suggest we give them the opportunity to do that, without all the off-topic interruptions which I would imagine are not helpful and may even be deterring people from contributing to the thread who may be interested.

Thanks for your co-operation

Jenbel,
co-moderator CommunityBuzz!

Well, Arizona or Southern Cal would be good for a winter gathering (and also a great mileage run opportunity for those of us east of the Mississippi). Ill admit I'm not opposed to LAS mainly for the opportunity to take in some of the shows (LAS from everything i've seen is a lot more family friendly, and tends to have cheap airfares along with cheap hotels). My main thing is that I need about 2 months notice so my bosses don't complain when I fly out for the DO versus being forced to stay onsite some weekends

How about memorial day long weekend (May 29-31) at LAS? I prefer LAS due to its cheap flights, hotels, shows, clubs, and no need for a rental car.

I forgot about the car issue, since I've reached the point with my rental company where even though I am supposed to be charged the underage surcharge for personal rentals, they never do. We should make a point of ensuring that no car is required for whatever we do, since we may very well have some in the 18-21 category that can not get a car in any way.

Memorial Day weekend should be fine for me, and that also has it free for some of our College elites to be able to enjoy the weekend.

We should focus on value, since quite a few attendees are tight on funds. I think we could get one of the chains to give us a great deal (and maybe even giveaways), since the target market is one that any travel company wants to hook into being loyal.

Great! As for activities, I am thinking about a dinner, a night for clubbing, and perhaps a show for those who are interested.

Any other suggestion locations? I know LAS tends to be a little polarizing, and although I would enjoy it, I also know it is not for everyone as has already been posted in this thread.

We can also do NYC. Hotels tend to be more expensive though.

I would consider NYC out of the running, just because I took a quick look at hotel prices for in the city (while I know staying outside of the city is doable, it does put a damper on any night time activities going after 1 am) and on the first page of results, the cheapest hotel was $178. For Memorial Day, I think just about anywhere would work, though I don't think anybody would turn down a mileage run opportunity ;)

What about BOS?

Not as bad as NYC, but still expensive for a nice hotel with good access to public transit. Just looking at IHG, they are wanting 150+ until you get out to a point where it is pushing walking distance just to get to the subway to get in town

Guys...if the idea is for a young gathering...it should be a place where we can all have fun up to a unreasonable hour. To me, that's 4am and since NYC is expensive for hotels...I suggest MIA.

I organize meets on a monthly basis here in NYC so if we are going to take this seriously, let me know and I will lend my expertise.

MIA would be interesting, and flights look fairly cheap. It would be great to have your experience

MIA is relatively cheap and is easy to reach on almost any alliance... also MIA is better than NYC in winter.. :D

Is rental car needed in MIA?

IMO yes it is. I have a great CDP for renting with Hertz so depending on the number of people who sign up, I could take out 2 cars and let the most responsible person after me be the other driver on the rental record.

If there are no objectives, I'm gonna call a few friends in Miami and push to make this happen.

Who's getting the points? :D

lol never did a 2nd driver so I'm not sure how it works as far as the points go but if it's going on my credit card then I'm guessing me.

I'm interested in Miami. I also get a good corporate rate so I'd be happy to be driver for a few people. I'll even stay sober too if I have to.

a bit of advice from an "old" FT do organizer. All this throwing around of options is going to get you a 10 page thread, and absolutely no progress.

Whoever is organizing (mowogo..I'm talkin to you ;) ) needs to pick a location and a date. Choose a few "young-elite-friendly" events, and see who responds. It may end up that only 4 of you show up, or there may be 40. You have to be ok with either outcome.

The most important thing is to pick events that YOU are going to enjoy, so that in case there ARE only 4 of you, you're at least doing something you like for the weekend.