What's the deal with owner's meets?
I would like to have one in Boston, Ma.
any takers ?

I'd be up for that. I have three of them, starting with my Mk1, but I don't have any of them installed (yet). Good installer suggestions?

There are two other guys at work that have empegs too. One of them has his installed in his car.

We work in Lexington, I live in Waltham.

Chris

I live in New York, but if you can get something going in Boston I'll be there.

I'm in southern NH. I'd being willing.

Im in for boston too!

Sounds like a plan to me.

I'm there!

hmmm.....Albany,NY......3 h drive......I guess it depends on the date.

Depending on the date I'd trek down from Concord, NH.

-Zeke

Well, what shall we do ? Do we meet at a hotel ?
Do we want to do something like Jillian's in Boston.
It's on Lansdowne street accross the street from Fenway Park.
They have private rooms there for functions and parties, etc,
(lots of) pool tables, gambling (for fun), darts, videogames, motion movies, dinner, etc. etc.

Sounds like it might be 10 or 20 of us ? plus guests, maybe 50 people ?
I don't know what might be appropriate for an owner's meet itenerary,

Probably a saturday afternon thing would make sense,
It'd still be daytime so people could show off their installs, etc,
There'd be a few hours of entertainment, cocktails, hors d'ouvres, etc.

Then people could have dinner on their own and/or stay in the city for the night, if they want.
OR
We could come up with an itenerary where dinner and hotel accomodations are prepaid.

The former could be arranged for something like $25/person.
The latter could get expensive, especially if it's in the city, but maybe not ?
If it was $150 a person, for dinner and a hotel room, not bad ?

Not too sure how crazy we'd want to go, maybe people could post their feelings ?

Let's hear what you think !

I might be willing to come from Cincinnati, Ohio depending on the date and the cost. I would need to stay the night.

I was hoping a meet closer to here would be arranged but nothing was really set up. I've never been to Boston before, might be fun.

This sounds really cool, I've always wanted to check out Jillian's Boston and "The Rack" is a pretty cool place too! When are you guys getting together?? It would be about a 6 hour drive for me, but I'm up for it... Maybe someone can write everyones nicknames down and keep a private message list as the date gets closer for the "Meet"???

Update !!
I called Jillian's and here's the deal...
A private room on the third floor that accomodates a maximum of 50 people, dinner, seating for 50 to dine, 4 pool tables, 2 of our own waitresses, plus a 7,000 point game card for each person for the video games on the second floor. (games are approx 475points each - the cards are rechargeable.)

Alternatively, we could have our own bar area that also accomodates 50 people,
we would lose out on our own waitresses, but so what, we'd have our own bar.
Seating, dinner, pool tables and game cards, still inclusive.

Either option is gonna be something like $60 per person, plus drinks.
Awaiting their return call for information on open bar.
I suspect that'll be somewhat expensive and force non drinkers to absorb cost,
so this may not be an option.

I haven't looked into hotels yet but on the low side, right near Jillian's on a saturday night,
I suspect something like $180 / room, double occupancy.
- the sky's the limit from there.

So, tentatively we're sitting at $150 per person for all above-mentioned amenities.

If we want to get fancier, we could also have polo shirts, hats & keychains,
probably around $25, $20 & $10 respectively, empeg allowing and prepaid, of course.

Also, if we put together more like 50 people,
we could also throw in another $10 per person and
maybe subsidize flights for far away empeg team members.

What do we think of all of this ?

The prices you quote seem reasonable. I will drink enough to even out the non-drinkers(J/K). You can count me in. I have driven to Boston and back in a single day once before, so I would probably do it again (not stay in hotel).

I would love to meet the Empeg folks so I would be willing to subsidize their flights.

I'm new here myself, but damn well willing to get together with other happy owners of these nice toys. Maybe swap some ideas/tips?

I would also like to meet some people around Boston that have empegs but personally I wouldn't be bringing a guest or making a night of it. What would be nice is to just meet somewhere that is convenient from a parking standpoint. Then whoever wants to go out from there can do so.

Jillian's is not a good place to be meeting if you want everyone's cars to be together so we can all see the installs. There is a garage nearby but even then you are not assured that we would all get to park near one another. Street parking is almost non-existent around there. You're lucky to get one spot, not to mention 10 or 15 in close proximity.

dcosta - you have definitely put some work into this so please don't let my comments taint your plans. If Jillian's is the place that everyone wants to go then go for it. It's definitely a fun place. If you want other suggestions from a parking standpoint then let me know. I've been living in the area going on 9 years now so I can help out in that department.

I hope this all works out. I would love to see people's installs (and maybe get some tips on changing mine...)

Agreed.
The only thing I haven't put too much into is the showing off of installs and I have decided to put off the hotel arrangements until I have a better idea of the participation level.

I know that there is a parking lot accross the street from Jillian's. I am going to see if there is a way to get them to let us use the lot for an hour or two. That way there, people can show up at say 3pm and just park right accross the street. We can all hang out for an hour, wait for everyone to show (there'll be straggler's) and go outside to show off the installs. After that's over, everyone could just move their car into one of the garages nearby, there are 3 that I know of within 1 block of the complex.
Not sure If I am dreaming here, but that would be ideal. If that's a no go, I'll see if maybe one of the parking garages will let us use their space, then no one would have to move their car. The garages might be a better option in the event of incliment weather.

Once we finish the install display thing, (those who have prepaid for) games, pool, dinner, etc. can go back in and those who did not can (pick up their shirts, hats and keychains and) leave. People can stay at Jillian's for the duration, for some of us, it might be a longer night than others (robricc you might even out the non-drinkers, but I'll see you sir, at the bar)
Later, those that want to stay at the hotel can and those that don't, won't.

Maybe 15 peopole have expressed interest in this Owners Meet and for this to work, we'll need (just about) double that. I am thinking it will be sometime in early May to give people plenty of advanced notice. I need to give Jillian's 3 weeks notice and in May the weather will only be getting better, so maybe 4 weeks notice would be a safer bet.
That gives us the rest of March to finalize the roster.

If you want to go to this meet, email me : dave@davecosta.com
In your message, please include :

• Your Name,
• Your Total Number Of Guests (including youself)
• Whether or not you plan to prepay (required) to attend the event at Jillians
• Whether or not you think you might stay at a hotel

I'll keep the running number of planned participants along with other Boston Empeg Owner's Meet Information on this page : http://davecosta.com/empeg

Everyone will be expected to prepay for the event at Jillian's. Earlier in this thread, I threw around the $50 per person number. This could climb to $75 per person (at most, anything more than that I think would be too much) but would include drink tokens, parking, flying in an empeg team member or two and possibly a party favour like a (free) keychain or hat, not sure on that, yet. I will need to talk to Jillian's some more. I was hoping Jillian's would let people call in with cedit cards, but people are going to have to send me a check or money order. More participation will also drive down cost, so If you have one of these things and you are even close to Boston, come on down.

As far as Shirts, Hats, Keychains, Mousepads & Frisbies...
Anyone want to help me with that?

Empeg team, anyone want to come to our meet?
I have suggested and others have seconded that we would help with travel arrangements.
An official atendee would certainly increase participation.
Still awaiting official response.

That's all for now.

actually dcosta, the more I think about it we may be able to pull off parking in the area. Just at the end of Landsdowne street(opposite end than Jillian's), directly across from Fenway Park is a huge parking lot that charges about $10 to park nightly. This may be a good place to have everyone drive to. The lot is big enough so that we would all be able to park near one another. The walk from there to Jillian's is all of 3 minutes.

I think we may be thinking of the same one, the one I'm thinking of is directly accross Lansdowne St. from Jake Ivory's which is right next door to Jillian's, in that lot the walk would be more like 19 seconds.

There is another lot up Lansdowne St. right next to Gold's Gym where The Sausage Guy sets up his shop at night on the weekends. That one charges the same prices usually...

My goal on the parking is to see if Jillian's will give me a break on the Parking. I figure since Lyons Group Management owns just about every bar on the street including Jillian's, they must own a parking lot. So I am going to see if they can give me a reduced rate on a bunch or prepaid parking that I will include with the price of admission.

Then mail everyone a confirmation packet with the parking voucher(s), the game card(s), the drink vouchers and maybe a keychain (if we get that project off the ground, still looking for volunteers).

Also, still waiting for an official guest, anyone !?

Just checked the BoSox schedule, they are away at Tampa Bay on Saturday, May 4 and away at Seattle on Saturday, May 11, so tentatively, I am setting this event for either of these days, please email me at dave@davecosta.com or post your preferred date, the more votes for either date, wins so get on your responses.

Mmmm.. this could be fun. I rock-climb a lot in NH, and a day-trip down I93 might be good. The weather could even cooperate (rain, in my case).

Was there a date proposed here anywhere? I must have missed it.

-ml

Ask and Ye shall recieve...
The (m)lord hath spoken and we'd love to have you join us on either Saturday, May 4 or Saturday, May 11.
What an honor.

45 guests is what we're going to need.
15 or so have at least expressed interest so far...
Email me if you want to go : dave@davecosta.com

Actually, the one I was thinking about is on Brookline Ave, right across from the Red Sox ticket window (next to Boston Beer Works). I do know the one you are talking about right across from Jillian's. The only issue I have with that one is that they block you in to park there and you have to leave your keys so they can move the cars around.

It's sounding like this is going to come together though. I am excited to meet everyone and see all those beautiful empegs!!

mlord - rain in NH would be good so you can join us but please don't bring the rain to Boston!!!

The date is going to be either Saturday, May 4 or Saturday, May 11, I will select one of these based upon emails to me and posts on this thread between now and the end of next week, then I will post & email all who replied to this message with the date on March 15.

21 replies total so far... we need 24 more guests (at least)
come on people, let's make it happen - email me, or post a reply saying that you are going.

Anyone Else ?

I'm still in the thinking stage since it's a longer drive than I thought and will take me 2 days to do it alone. So for me I have to consider the cost of 4 nights hotel stay. I would like to though.

1 round trip ticket might be cheaper than 4 nights hotel...
food for thought....
-dave

That is probably true. But then you don't get to see the sights like you do driving and then there would be the taxi or car rental fees. I hope to have mine installed by then and I couldn't show it off if I fly.

I like driving anyway.

If this were a group of folks around here, some local would have stepped up already and offered a room and/or local transport..

You just beat me to it, mlord, I was just thinking how I could pick Laura up at the airport and her empeg could take an honorary position in my dash for the day. If she is so inclined to accept... As far as a room goes, I just don't have suitable arrangements, sorry.

Also, see if you can fly into Manchester New Hampshire (MHT) usually greatly discounted flights into / out of there as compared to Logan.