About as awesome as a Porta-Potty can get IMHO:

http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...oneyBucket.jpg

Tee hee.

Well then lets face it, THAT'S the 'workaround' if these seminars really don;t want to ghettoized in a commercial forum and/or don't want to pay IB for advertising a commercial project.

CONSPIRACY
Seminar organizers (or ANY commercial player for that matter) or seminar surrogates or Seminar sponsors can seed C-buzz with pre/during/post event Dos (open to all) referencing event in title or post content or location to be held.

NON-CONSPIRACY
Well-meaning local where Seminar being held, but not attending, ON THEIR OWN, decide to offer a pre/post Do for Seminar (and of course any other FTers) just because they are on this person's home turf and want to offer hospitality

Well-meaning and maybe deep-pocketed Seminar attendee decides to offer a pre-/post DO.



Unrelated...since IB has other travel-relaed sites that could be of interest to Seminar attendees, maybe they could be invited as a sponsor to show off other sites in exchange for not just permission to be in C-Buzz, but even a more prominent and strategic marketing partner- like stickies across all threads for x amount of time. Then, IB can have some non-cash (other sites sponsorship/on premise exposure) means of leveraging these Seminars.

I apologize in advance if this scenario is not consistent with the marketing visions of ingy, tommy. Just trying to figure out win/wins here and not harass koko anymore!!!

What's awesome is that this is the second time in this thread that that porta-potty appears!!! :cool:

Well you do have to admit that this thread has dipped into the crapper on occasion. ;)

This thread is about Do's/seminars, not about me.

Besides (snark alert!!!!) haven't I gotten you enough free pub via this thread!? Any pub is good pub, after all! ^

I contragulate us both on your seminar's impending success. :D:D (this conclues our snark alert)

point well taken; in such spirit of community, i will try and bone up on my mandarin, hindi, arabic, swahili, italian, celtic, hebrew, etc. ;) !!

I disagree
 

This thread is about doing what is best for the community. Why else would someone with your number of "tee hee" posts start it. You are indeed concerned about the community aren't you? Or is there another motive behind your post?

Wanna volunteer to help the community?

For threads all about kokonutz in all his glory, please see:

Koko gets engaged

Koko goes a year without dying

Koko goes another year without dying

Hmm, maybe the REAL motives here are that these DOs, whatever they are, are taking attention away from one Mr. Nutz. @:-)

Tee hee

There was a point at which I was very close to making everything mandatory, since the back-and-forth about who was participating in what and trying to give accurate numbers to the vendors was getting to be very time-consuming. I'm sure I put at least 200 hours of work into planning and executing the DO.

It's such a fine line that I'm increasingly realizing it's not one that TalkBoard can really address.

And yes, I'm seeing that the "seminar" DOs are indeed building community.

Agree wholeheartedly--on both counts.

Absolutely! What's the difference between organizing an airport tour and sharing your knowledge of how to get to the airport on miles?

I've been to both and sadly experienced the same lack of appreciation. Does anyone remember Starwood Lurker's amazing Austin Do where the host Sheraton provided us a lavish buffet reception and free breakfast every morning? Their speaker was rewarded with embarrassing whining about the soft water in the hotel! And there was nothing wrong with it, same water that makes my hair fluffy in every Sheraton!

When I first heard about last year's Chicago seminar, I thought ingy was nuts....why do all that work for free? Because he's a very giving person, trailblazed a new concept and got an amazing array of speakers on board each one as generous as he is. And that goes for Sharon, too, who wanted too add a charity raffle and took it upon herself, logistically and financially.

FT needs a LIKE button. ^

I think everyone who hosts a DO should be hooked to a polygraph, because they may round up when splitting the check and either make a profit or pay $2 less than the other members. Even if not at a commercial establishment and holding a weenie roast in their backyard.

Either you are allowed to build community or you are not. Either you trust your members, or you don't.

Have I ever had any speaker at the Ann Arbor Art Fair DO pay for their dinner? No. The other attendees that benefited wouldn't let me. Everyone pitched in an extra buck or two. I guess AAAF DO should be added to the ban list as well.

I vote for changing the TOS, allowing commercial posts to CommunityBuzz and watch the crash and burn of those events, as people can tell which organizers are in it for the money and not to share the wealth of knowledge that has so freely been offered in the FT community. That's where the speakers got their knowledge.

Amen.

Let me take this opportunity to thank all of the Do organizers that have contributed to make happen each of the great events I have been to. I've heard there have been some bad events, but I"ve never been to any of those.

I personally know that many of you who have donated many, many hours to make events like the Chicago - aaheemm - Seminar (Do) and FTU happen. I can tell what your motivation is - and I appreciate your dedication to serving the community.

Hm. Maybe this thread is about me after all! ^

Hey! I've got a destination wedding coming up. Maybe I'll invite FTers in a CommunityBuzz thread and for the cost of their plate and open bar I'll have my best man explain Trick It to the rest of the guests! @:-):D

ingy, will you volunteer to help plan the wedding?

Will you do that?

RSVPs are coming in and so are wedding presents.

So will you volunteer? To help?

Plan the wedding?

Voluntarily? ;):D:p:eek:

Hey I may not be able to define what a DO is, but I know this ain't it! I demand immediate TalkBoard action!

Oh wait, maybe it is a DO, it's a wedding, there might be sex... and very little discussion of miles and points... Yep! Must be a DO!! :D