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Posted by: chast Feb 5 2009, 10:27 PM

Hey there!

I chatted with Tolek in MSN and we want to make that meeting reality.
To organise that we need to know the following things:

Who really is interessted and is willing to drive/fly/walk quite some kilometers ?
Where do you live ?
When do you have time ?

The meeting would be over one weekend speaking friday to sunday.
When there are enough replys, Tolek and I going to analyse where you guys live and look for a central point that we can meet at.
That's it for now.
There will follow some thread after we have enough information.

Cheers

edit: This thing is thought for Europe, if you live somewhere else and want to take part, no problem, but you have to come to Europe then

Posted by: Tolek Feb 5 2009, 10:31 PM

Thanks for launching it!

Money is an important aspect here. Of course we want to sleep somewhere, eat/drink something and jam a lot. So, we need a house/hall and amps (I guess that the guitar will be brought by you ). This is not really cheap. When the number of participants grows, the prize to pay for everyone is going to be smaller. As soon as we know who wants to come and when he can, we´ll publish some more details.

Posted by: enforcer Feb 5 2009, 10:37 PM

I live in Istanbul, Turkey I am not afraid to take plane to anywhere on the planet but costs will be astronomical if u want me to fly to USA

And also there is the matter of Visa too

Posted by: Fsgdjv Feb 5 2009, 10:42 PM

If it would be in Scandinavia I'd come, but since I'm not very wealthy I don't think I could go any further than that

Posted by: Muris Varajic Feb 5 2009, 10:44 PM

Chast can send you invitation letter and
you'll get tourist Visa pretty easy.

Posted by: Emir Hot Feb 5 2009, 10:51 PM

Let's meet in London hehe

Posted by: Muris Varajic Feb 5 2009, 10:53 PM

Agree...and come in chat btw.

Posted by: lcsdds Feb 5 2009, 10:53 PM

I was thinking Oregon Emir.

Posted by: Marek Rojewski Feb 5 2009, 10:54 PM

Depends when and where.. I could travel to Germany/Czech Republic/Slovakia by car, and I heard there are very cheap flights to Malmo ( Sweden ). But that also depends on time.

( also driving such a long way alone wouldn't be to nice, a bigger polish delegation would be appropriate:P )

Posted by: audiopaal Feb 5 2009, 10:55 PM

I'd go to London as well, would be awesome

Posted by: Marek Rojewski Feb 5 2009, 10:56 PM

Hmm isn't the Guitar Idol finals held in London? Would be nice to see instructors out there the same time:P

Posted by: Tolek Feb 5 2009, 10:58 PM

There´s always the problem "Where and when?". That´s why we opened this topic.
We want you to give us a list that shows which places are suitable for you and when you can come. Actually, summer period would be the best...

Posted by: sigma7 Feb 5 2009, 11:10 PM

id do it too but me and my fam are exactly wealthy, but id try to make a trip from America to London...also how bout during the suummer vacation...when does Europe have summer vacation? Is it true eruopes summer is 6 months apart than American summer?

Posted by: jer Feb 5 2009, 11:12 PM

See? The USA getting screwed again....

Man, we dont get anything fun.

Posted by: sigma7 Feb 5 2009, 11:14 PM

exactly...

Posted by: fatb0t Feb 5 2009, 11:15 PM

I just got my passport, I just graduated college, I have two weeks vacation in june, and I have savings since age 14. I realllllllllllllllly REALLY want to go to Europe. I would definitely create my vacation around a GMC meeting. Completely serious.

Posted by: Tolek Feb 5 2009, 11:15 PM

Why? We invite you, too. You´d only have to come to Europe because most of active members live there I think.

Posted by: besip Feb 5 2009, 11:15 PM

Chicago????
or Czech republic when i'm get home{but i'm don't know when}

Posted by: Tolek Feb 5 2009, 11:15 PM

Just great!

Posted by: sigma7 Feb 5 2009, 11:16 PM

maybe a super competition which pays for the trip?

Posted by: Tolek Feb 5 2009, 11:17 PM

What exactly?

Posted by: jer Feb 5 2009, 11:18 PM

I'm kidding.

You are right and it makes total sense.

I really need to move....

Posted by: Tolek Feb 5 2009, 11:19 PM

Ok!
I have something in mind to make costs a bit lower... but nothing sure...

Posted by: utak3r Feb 6 2009, 12:00 AM

Well, I'll tell you something.. you know, which country is in the middle of the Europe?... No? Then measure it for yourself

I'd vote for Szczecin, Poland hehe... or Berlin.

Posted by: berko Feb 6 2009, 12:36 AM

The exact geometrical centre of Europre is just near the Hungarian border in Ukraine (very close to you...).
But it would be a nightmare to get transported there... (It's actually somewhere in the mountains)

I would be up to London (or anything closer haha) but that really wouldn't be that cheap (accommodation and jamming space I mean).

I would take this pretty seriously and 2-3 days wouldn't hurt that much so keep this topic alive!

Posted by: ZakkWylde Feb 6 2009, 12:45 AM

Middle of Europe, so it has to be Germany!




Hehe, I am going to walk to the GMC meeting...

Posted by: Mrblomme Feb 6 2009, 12:58 AM

No kidding but the center of Europe is Belgium ...
Lets do it in Belgium!

Posted by: The Farmer Feb 6 2009, 01:07 AM

London sounds like a good place I´m in if it will be held there.

Posted by: sigma7 Feb 6 2009, 01:13 AM

maybe the competition could be who can bring the most people in to GMC

Posted by: 29a Feb 6 2009, 01:16 AM

Switzerland is neutral so let's do it there =P

And now more seriously, I'll be at the wacken openair (the biggest metal openair of the world?) again and I guess some other membery will be too. So we could meet there. Altough I think this year we won't have a power generator (we had that in the past, even with a guitar amp!). So no jamming there. But I guess I'll be too drunk to play anyway

- Jonas

Posted by: Mrblomme Feb 6 2009, 01:21 AM

Graspop Metal Meeting is also pretty good ... (Belgium)!

Posted by: Joruus Feb 6 2009, 03:13 AM

I would come!

Preferably sometime in summer.
England/Germany/Netherlands/Belgium sounds fine for the place:P

Posted by: UncleSkillet Feb 6 2009, 03:22 AM

What does everyone think about having to meetings? We could organize one in Europe and one in USA. I think this would give a better opportunity for successful results and a larger turn out. If they where done on the same days we could maybe even put together the biggest video jam ever across the world. Andrew could do a POD cast. Maybe we would even set a world record for largest jam session.

I think this could be a great promotional thing for GMC and the community.

Posted by: Koopid Feb 6 2009, 07:25 AM

This sounds like a great idea? What better evening activity than seeing the guitar IDOL finals for GMC members

Posted by: -Zion- Feb 6 2009, 07:54 AM

i would definately think about it, if it was held in either of the following places..

Sweden (Malmö, Lund, Helsingborg, maybe Stockholm)
Denmark (Copenhagen, odense, maybe Århus),
England (London, Camden town? love that place)

i would consider places south of denmark as well, but the above mentioned places would almost be a definate maybe..

Posted by: coloneldrew Feb 6 2009, 08:20 AM

You definitely hit the jackpot UncleSkillet!

Wow.. just imagine. If that were the case, USA would be far easier to travel to than Europe. At least for me.

I'm shaking with excitement if this ever happens

Posted by: Zephyr Feb 6 2009, 08:42 AM

This sounds so cool! The USA/Europe idea sounds good to me, shortens the distance for many people. Well, maybe not many, seeing as 80% of GMC seems to be in Europe, but, you know. Who know, I may even be able to come, depending on when and where it is.

Posted by: Alex87 Feb 6 2009, 08:46 AM

Why don't we just hold this GMC meeting in China? Then we all have to travel approximate the same distance

Posted by: Zynex Feb 6 2009, 10:08 AM

I would definitely be there . I think it's a great idea to meet . We should meet in the south of france or something. Its sunny there! Belgium and Germany are mostly rainy.. even in summer the weather can really suck .

Posted by: -Zion- Feb 6 2009, 10:14 AM

well.. i would agree with you if we were going on a beach vacation.. but thats not the case..

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Feb 6 2009, 11:09 AM

This is great thread and initiative Tolek.

I would love to see this happen sometime in the future.
Something cross my mind when I read your responses guys...

If you come to Serbia (Nis or Belgrade) I can organize us some CLUB just for us where we could have our own event there. So stage, we can do live playing tell jokes and storys whatever you feel like

Serbia is much cheaper compared to England for example when it comes to this kind of things. The only problem that I see for everybody is getting plane tickets to Belgrade as it may be a bit expensive.
When I was flying from Boston to Belgrade round trip used to go from 700$ (couple of years ago) all the way to 1000$ now.
Overall guys from Europe traveling will have not much price difference if you are flying to Prag, Belgrade, Athens, Rome etc as its all very close to each other and price may be 50 euro difference tops

Let me know what you think of that idea cause I can make that happen no problem.

Thanks

Posted by: superize Feb 6 2009, 11:28 AM

It sure is a great idea and if the distance is not to far for me i would love to come..... I really dont have enogh cash to travel far

I will see how this goes and where the meeting is taking place and then decide if i can go or not

Posted by: Zynex Feb 6 2009, 12:19 PM

Sounds great ....
Something just hit me while reading your post pedja.... (cheap beer?? )
btw how are the girls in serbia? (omg I shouldnt say that.. I have a girlfriend )

I think the best option for us is to go somewhere close to someone who is able to arrange things. It would be cool if it took place in Holland but.. Im not really good at arranging things like places to stay and stuff like that, so that would probably go wrong haha

Posted by: Vasilije Vukmirovic Feb 6 2009, 01:06 PM

Great idea. I will probably go to the euro trip(France, Italy, Spain...) in a 2 months, it would be so cool to meet someone from GMC.
Even better, what do you think about local GMC meetings(maybe communities), like GMC Serbia, GMC France, GMC Sweden, GMC Italy?

Cool idea!

Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Feb 6 2009, 01:18 PM

I can make it anywhere in world and very easily anywhere in europe. If it was in london i would laugh my chops off but see none of the world. Organise this and i will be there. Im in uk.

Posted by: kaznie_NL Feb 6 2009, 01:27 PM

Isn't the region Holland, Belgium, France and Germany the most central for us EU GMCers?

Posted by: Sensible Jones Feb 6 2009, 02:07 PM

Some people from another Guitar Site I use all decided to meet up a few years ago. We all met in Germany at the Jemfest in Cologne!!!!


I'd be up for meeting anywhere in Europe but my problem will be more Date related as I'm usually busy at Festivals during the Summer!!!

Posted by: DeepRoots Feb 6 2009, 02:13 PM

Just about the only place id be willing to travel to is London- dont have the money at the moment but give me 10 minutes to extend my bank overdraft and i'm there

Posted by: Mrblomme Feb 6 2009, 02:20 PM

Yes it is Kaznie, Brussels (the capital of Belgium) is called the center of Europe.
The big meetings of the European ministers are in Brussels etc...

So it's the center of Europe

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Feb 6 2009, 02:25 PM

I geuss I could go to Germany, Holland or similar for this. Depends a lot on time, price etc.

Posted by: Mrblomme Feb 6 2009, 02:28 PM

Same thing here, Belgium, England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, France, Germany, Luxembourg and maybe Spain or Portugal...

Posted by: enforcer Feb 6 2009, 03:56 PM

Belgrade sounds good

Posted by: sted Feb 6 2009, 06:11 PM

I have heard of a company in the uk doing guitar type vacations, all the interested parties pay a sum of money and meet up at a pre-arranged venue and jam for the day/weekend, i have considered going on one of these but it would be even better if it were our instructors. You would get a great group booking discount for say 30 members in a hotel and it would pay for the instructors time and expenses to hold some open seminars and the like.
You could even do a few a year (depending on the committments the instructors already have of course!) in and around europe (not forgetting our US cousins could adopt the idea too!).
People would have to arrange their own travel but if you had one within a 4-5 hour drive who wouldnt want to come? If enough people are interested you could even run a discounted rate for the younger members who would otherwise maybe miss out.
I bet you would even get some hardware companies and wholesalers interested in some form of participation and sponsorship.

Seriously guys, this is acheivable, I would definitley help set up something in the UK as a pilot, if the management will sanction something in the name of GMC!

Posted by: Velvet Roger Feb 6 2009, 06:11 PM

Awesome idea and I would certainly try to attend the meeting.

Preferred places for me would be Amsterdam , Belgium, Germany. France (north) or UK (London) would be fine too. I will just grab my car and drive to these places .

When: doesn't matter for me as I never have enough time anyways

Posted by: SonofDestiny Feb 6 2009, 06:31 PM

I'm definately in for something like this. Meetings are really cool. Maybe we can do like a weekend or 3 days?

To me, Holland would be best obviously. But England, Belgium, Germany, France are doable as well.

Oh yeah and I'm also willing to put some money in the jar if people don't have enough $$ to come


EDIT: This is a really cool idea. Even now that I'm ill I'm really enthousiastic about it. We should make a Meeting-Committee or something!

Posted by: berko Feb 6 2009, 06:36 PM

If Pedja could organize it... would be a great solution

Posted by: tonymiro Feb 6 2009, 06:56 PM

To give you guys some ideas of the costs etc...

We run courses training people in radio production. Courses are usually 5 days long, with classes for 8 hours per day, and limited to a maximum of 20 students. Students are placed in to accommodation in our local town on a bed and breakfast type basis plus an introductory 'getting to know you' event and a leaving meal. Student accommodation for B&B is about 25 Euros per night, plus cost of lunch and an evening meal which they pay direct to the B&B, restaurant or what ever - we don't get any thing. We are not responsible for travel costs etc.

To cover 20 students for classes we use all the rooms in our local 'Casa Cultura'/Music school (that's 4 teaching rooms) plus we also use other rooms elsewhere or break out events/teaching. We pay around 800Euros to hire the Casa for two weeks (1 week training plus extra days either way for set up and take down). In addition to this we then have to pay the full cost - travel, accommodation and wage, of any trainer/instructor. That is usually around 2500 Euros for 1 week (approx 300Euros per day excluding expenses - this is dependent on the experience and skills of the instructor and on how many sessions they lead though). We routinely use two full time trainers. So to generate a profit we routinely need to clear in excess of 5800Euros from 20 students.

So in my experience the major outlay re organising is the wage and expenses of an instructor. On top of that though the actual hire of suitable accommodation and equipment can quickly mount up.

WRT accommodation - it is actually surprisingly hard to find suitable accommodation for large parties of people. To get it you need to book it quite some time in advance.

Posted by: opeth.db Feb 6 2009, 07:04 PM

Lets hold it on the continent of Antartica. Same traveling for everyone!


And WE all bring our gear and MELT the polar ice caps!

Posted by: sted Feb 6 2009, 07:18 PM

The trouble with providing accommodation in the cost is that everyone will have different standards and some may have specific requirements, also as you say arranging for large parties can be difficult (I'd like 30 rooms for a load of guitarists please, yeah right!) i thin kit would be much better to leave accommodation and travel upto the individual who can then get something specific to their requirements, anyone with reasonable local knowledge of the area would help with this through the forums too. It would also keep the upfront costs down and not scare people off the idea, i see the cost of mounting something like this as follows:

Hire of venue
Instructors expenses (inc travel, board and any fees)
Catering
material publication for the event.

The website I have been looking at offers full weekend breaks for around 400 GBP but that is obviously with profit in mind and I reckon we could reduce this drastically by keeping it as "Not for profit" event.

Posted by: Fran Feb 6 2009, 07:40 PM

I love Brussels. Awesome beer. Now I imagine all you guys there... heaven!!

Posted by: tonymiro Feb 6 2009, 07:46 PM

I know what you mean although our experience is that you then end up potentially with people spread over a very large geographic area which in itself becomes problematic.

I do accept your point that people expect different standards/have differing needs - I've lost count of the number who, despite being asked many times in advance if they have any special requirements, turn up on the day and then announce that they are a non-smoking, gluten intolerant, vegan that is also allergic to mushrooms. We had one did that three years ago - given her very strict dietary requirements I was a bit miffed when she complained that the Gazpacho soup was the wrong colour pink. We also had one fool order an asparagus tortilla and complain because it had asparagus in it - er hello, what do you think will be in it? Anyway you get used to dealing with it - sort of .


'...anyone with reasonable local knowledge of the area would help with this through the forums too.'

Again from experience the point of contact often ends up doing an awful lot of running around. I've done this several times for up to 50 people and it is a lot of hassle since invariably a minority expect you to sort everything out for them. My worst experience was someone who expected to be picked up from Almeria (about 4 hours away) and driven to the accommodation that had been found and booked for her. Part way in she then expected us to arrange her onwards accommodation and travel when the course finished. She left one restaurant without paying her bill and on her final day she left without paying her accommodation - we spent nearly 4 months chasing her for it.

Anyway I can come out with a lot of stories like these. My two main points though are: i) That provided you avoid capital cities the accommodation is not usually the major cost element. The largest cost is reimbursing any professional fees/expenses/wages. ii) you need to organise the event - which requires a fair bit of time.

BTW - publicity for a GMC event - presumably at neglible cost via GMC if Kris was happy with it and hosted on this site. You'd need to check that with Kris though as it's just my opinion.

Cheers,
Tony

Posted by: Jose Mena Feb 6 2009, 07:48 PM

If it should be anywhere it should be in Miami

Posted by: Nazgul Feb 6 2009, 07:50 PM

This is a great idea but I would suggest a smaller town to locate. But anyways, I'd go to London.

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Feb 6 2009, 09:48 PM

Guys I've been at GMC for 5 months and I think Kristofer needs to think about this and make decision.
Having said that, if any of you wants to come to Serbia and have availability to do so, I will definitely be around to help you with everything and be awesome host

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Feb 6 2009, 10:16 PM

Wou!! This initiative is really cool! Unfortunately Buenos Aires is so far from Europe...
but if you come here I promess that you'll eat the best BBQ/Roast/Asado that you've ever taste.

Posted by: Sensible Jones Feb 6 2009, 10:21 PM

Do you happen to know anyone that lives there Jose?



I'd love to, but it's a long way JUST FOR A BBQ!!!!!!!

Posted by: Tolek Feb 7 2009, 08:33 PM

There are some nice suggestions, but the topic went a bit big.

Please post the place you live in http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=24339.

Posted by: Tolek Feb 8 2009, 12:31 AM

So far it seems that Germany is voted by most of people. My prediction is becoming true.
A new member is in the crew: Velvet Roger. Thanks for your help, Roger!

We plan to rent one or more rooms and some amps + mixer so that we can jam together. Everybody should take his guitar to the meeting. Of course playing only the guitar is a bit monoton, so we can together go to a music shop or a concert.

How long do you want to stay?

Posted by: Velvet Roger Feb 8 2009, 12:52 AM

Shall we just rent a music shop?

Posted by: Tolek Feb 8 2009, 12:58 AM

Is this serious? If yes, then you´re out of the team. Just kidding.

Posted by: Velvet Roger Feb 8 2009, 08:06 AM

I am crazy, you know that

Posted by: SonofDestiny Feb 8 2009, 09:35 AM

I think we should go for a weekend or maybe three days.

If you guys need me to make any phonecalls or look something up, tell me. I'm in a committee of my university as well and we're going to organize a similar thing. Will let you know how we do it.

Posted by: Piotr Kaczor Feb 8 2009, 09:54 AM

Maybe we should meet in Poland? I am offering pretty big scene with full backline and 6000 watt PA, 400 places auditorium. All available 20 hours per day So?

Posted by: SonofDestiny Feb 8 2009, 04:04 PM

Sounds good to me Piotr! I'm willing to go to Poland for that Do you happen to live near Wroclaw? Cause I'm gonna pay my ex a visit as well then haha.

Posted by: Piotr Kaczor Feb 8 2009, 04:46 PM

My town is over 500 km from Wrocław, but it has clear air and beautiful forests, so the atmosphere is ideal for wild guitar gigs

Posted by: audiopaal Feb 8 2009, 05:01 PM

Sounds awesome
That means I can play around on the drums as well, would be cool

I'm up for anything as long as it fits my schedule, so whatever you guys decide..

Posted by: Tolek Feb 9 2009, 12:03 AM

Yes, I know. We all are crazy.


Don´t be so kind. We can organize something similiar in other countries, too, so let´s just see what the results of the other topic says.


Glad to have you here as well.



Now, a maybe stupid question, but I think it is important to know:
What are your conditions of comfort for sleep?
a.) a bed
b.) a simple mat and a sleeping bag
(those conditions apply for 2-5 days maybe)

Please edit this answer in your post in the following topic: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=24339
Also, post the place you live and the places you are able to go to in the same topic, please.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Feb 9 2009, 01:04 AM

hmm really depends on who is the fan of the show

Posted by: Muris Varajic Feb 9 2009, 01:07 AM

I do need one thing if I'm gonna come, room for smokers.

Posted by: Tolek Feb 9 2009, 03:34 PM

Sorry, I don´t get it.


Should be no problem. If you don´t mind, you can smoke outside as well as it will be warm, I think.

Posted by: Mrblomme Feb 11 2009, 05:58 PM

Oops didnt see I was posting in the wrong topic Tolek.

Yeah Köln should be awesome to do and we have it all, an airport, a train station, ...

Posted by: blindwillie Feb 12 2009, 09:14 AM

ditto