Europe meet-up. Would you be interested?

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That pm must have been a hoax:
Autscape is the largest annual Aspie-Europen Gathering. As such, Autscape should get as much publicity as possible.

What is the maximum number of participants that Autscape 2009 can have?

i looked at autreat- the link told me registration was not open.

a school (liek the school last year's autreat venue) or uni would be a good venue, as there would be grounds to camp in, as well as normal accomdation.

lots of people wont want to share a room,and i personally dont like the idea of sleeping in a rented bed- have you ever seen one of those documentaties about sweat, seamen etc on hotel beds ???
also- camping is cheaper.
and chic-er.

Did you mean Autscape? ( Autreat is in the USA ). No, it doesn't tend to be open until nearer the time, because at this stage they are still organising.


I was wondering about that. Posssibly certain universities might allow camping if it was very well organised, but I suspect that most, perhaps all, would have to refuse to allow it because of the insurance factor/risks to person and property involved in such a freestyle form of accommodation.


Yes, that is why a university campus would be a good idea because have "reasonably" cheap rates for single ensuite rooms; Keele for example is £31.15 ( plus VAT ), for a single ensuite room, including English breakfast. And that might even be reduced if we had a really big gathering, ( next year maybe ! ).


I personally don't like the idea of camping, having had a bad experience of it just a couple of times too often. ( noise, including snoring from neighbouring tents, mosquitoes, ants, poor toilet facilities, and bad weather ). I will do it if I absolutely cannot afford to do otherwise, like hitching if can't afford transport somewhere, but I much prefer not to.

But I can understand you having hygiene issues; my sister won't touch the doorhandles in public/restaurant toilets anymore for the same reason, ( wraps a paper tissue round her hand before doing so ), and is very fussy about cleanliness in hotels.

But I think if we scouted/asked around we could avoid the worst places. Nottingham Uni campus was rather slated earlier in this thread for that reason, among others, ( including the food ).

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I asked Lotusblossom about it. She said that it was a pm on behalf of someone else who can be very difficult. Not sure whether it might have been "just" mudslinging, or whether it expresses someone's real experience of the event, from whatever position.

I have been wondering about the total absence of references to Autscape, and Autreat, on WP till now, apart from your own posts and threads on the subject, and am feeling puzzled by the lack of interest shown by Autscape organisers in posting their experiences of the event on here, or at least adding a reference to it on a more frequent/regular basis than your own contributions allow for.

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I have also been wondering about it for a while (back in 2006 - 2007), but then I realised the organisers were very busy with organisational tasks, so they didn't have the time/energy to publicise on WP.
Therefore, I started publicising Autreat & Autscape myself.

By the way, Alex Plank (WP's owner) presented at Autreat 2008, so I would expect him to help promote Autreat himself, but he is probably also too busy for that.

And wow, is it expensive! 80€ seems to be the cheapest single room rate, and 100€ for a double.

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What about all the non-organisers, all the happy Autscape attendees? Surely you can't be the only one who wants to encourage other people to come to it.

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During the last day of Autscape 2006, we voted whether to aspire to substantially increase Autscape's participancy, or to leave it as a small scale event. I was so excited about enlarging Autscape's attendancy, that I actually jumped on my feet and waved back and forth. To my astonishment, most other attendees voted in favour of leaving Autscape as a small scale event.

While I do appreciate the intimacy and cosiness of small events, I find it highly important that the Aspie-European community has its own annual gathering, which, in my opinion, should draw at least a few hundreds of participants each year. (and grow substantially from year to year). As long as Autscape is the only option, I vote for making Autscape as large as possible. If you are serious about starting an annual Aspie-European gathering to compete with Autscape, I may go along with you. (As long as we agree on aiming to attract as many Aspies as we can).

Yesssss!! ! [ Edit; I just removed bounce smilies; they're a bit hard on the eyes.]

Yes, yes, yes. Definitely. I completely identify with your jumping up and waving at the possibility.

OK, I'm in -
While I do hope to be at Autscape during August 18-21, I will attend your alternative Aspie-European gathering wherever it is, whenever it is

We can't call it a 'WP' gathering, though -
1) The gathering is not formally endorsed by WP's ownership (Alex Plank & Co.)
2) The name 'WP' has a negative connotation.

We could call it 'The Big Aspie-European Gathering', 'Autistic Carnival', 'Aspie Festival', 'EurAspiedom Gathering', etc. etc. etc.

I think my vote goes for the French countryside, sipping wine and watching the sunset...like someone mentioned a few pages back.

Preferably a private room, no camping...(I did that in my younger days).

I don't know how large it, ( or "they", if we hold two, one in London and one elsewhere ), is likely to be this year, probably closer to 15 people, ( at the outside ), than the 50 + I imagined earlier in this thread when e-mailing university campuses for information, but several of us think that this year could be like a trial run, and that having met each other we might be able to organise something bigger next year. We have time to plan for that.


That is obviously something that we would have to discuss with Alex before organising next year's meeting, but this year I don't think we need an "official" name for it.


I disagree, as I have said in my reply to your thread elsewhere on General Autism discussion, at least for the moment. I don't rule out being convinced otherwise by the right argument.

I actually think that Wrong Planet is a very powerful name, far more inspiring than Autscape for instance. And that the Wrong Planet community has exactly the kind of energy which might manage to create a really big event for AS. I think it would be a shame to discard the very thing, the bond/sense of belonging and support that this site provides, which may be necessary to pull this off, unless there were legal reasons for doing so.

At least not without lengthy discussion, which your thread would perhaps provide the space for.

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It seems that there is going to be about 40 people going.

Great! I look forward to meeting you.


Yessss , 36 "maybe, probably, definitely's" at last count, and 4 "Yes, but only if's".

But we don't know whether everyone will want, or be able, to go to the same place and at the same time, which is why I keep saying there might be only 5 - 10 - 15 people, in case many people can't make the same time and place, and why, ( after discussion with people on this thread ), I have posted two new polls to find out when and where those 40 people, ( and anyone else who is interested, obviously ), can go.

"Where in Europe Would You Go for a WP Meet?" is at:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt90902.html

and "When/Which Month Would You Prefer for a WP Meet?" is at:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt90899

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not realy