GooCon Scenarios

Scott Hardie | March 12, 2010
Plans for this year's edition of GooCon are coming together. I know where we'll have it, and I found us a great bargain on a rental house. There are exciting new activities planned. This is going to be a great time!

The biggest question remaining is how to arrange the schedule. I have heard from more than one guest that they want more "free time" in the agenda – time to enjoy the pool, go to the beach, see local attractions, eat leisurely meals out, or just have unstructured time to enjoy each other's company; stuff that has nothing to do with goo.tc. One person even suggested that the genders split up for a few hours – "the women go shopping" (her words), while the men "do some kind of guy stuff." I like all of those suggestions, enough to extend GooCon to a third day to make it all happen. I can't reduce the existing schedule enough to fit this "free time" into two days; I've already cut some activities from past years to make room for new things this year. However, not everybody can fly down for three days, or would want to. With that in mind, I'm tossing out two scenarios for discussion, and I'd appreciate your feedback. This discussion will probably decide what we do.

Scenario A - two "core" days with one "free" day
     Wednesday night - guests participating in the free day fly in
     Thursday daytime - free day featuring the activities described above
     Thursday night - remaining guests fly in
     Friday/Saturday - two full days of goo.tc-specific activities, with fewer and shorter breaks
     Sunday morning - guests fly out
This will be easier on your job and your wallet if you only want the core activities.

Scenario B - three integrated days
     Wednesday night - guests fly in
     Thursday/Friday/Saturday - three days of core activities with longer, more frequent breaks for "free time" activities described above
     Sunday morning - guests fly out
This will feel more like a relaxing getaway with friends, with a less hectic schedule.

What's your preference? Or do you have another idea? I'll be happy to take your comments in private if you prefer. Thanks for the help deciding this!

Matthew Preston | March 15, 2010
I'm actually cool with either one, but if I had to pick, I am a fan of Scenario B. I like that all of the activities would happen on Thursday/Friday/Saturday leaving Sunday as a travel day. It might be harder for some to get the time off of work, but it prevents what has happened the last two years, someone leaves before the final goo round is over.

Steve West | March 15, 2010
B for me, also - for similar reasons.

Scott Hardie | March 20, 2010
Thanks. Private feedback has also favored B. Overall B seems like the better choice, but we've had two incidents of people needing to depart early (not counting a third which was an unexpected emergency), so I wanted to put A out there in case it would be popular. Any fans of A out there? I'll leave this open to feedback for another week or two. I appreciate the help.

Aaron Shurtleff | March 21, 2010
B is good with me!!

I am 2 out of the three leaving earlies!! Yay me! :(

Scott Hardie | March 21, 2010
Not trying to single anybody out; just trying to make sure everybody gets their opinion heard, if they want it heard.