Seeking feedback re timings, food, etc...

[arysteia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for another brilliant year, everyone. While there were a few small hitches, technical and otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with how things turned out. I had a great time catching up with everyone, and meeting new friends. Thanks also for being so great at cleaning up and packing out -- women get stuff done!

Obviously we had a couple of major changes this year, and while they were forced upon us this time, I think it's a good opportunity to look at new ideas and ways of doing things.

From my perspective, I really enjoyed the longer run time on Saturday. It made my day feel less pressured, and I felt positive about being able to have more breaks between scheduled items instead of rushing. I also thought the "pizza party" went very smoothly, and I want to take this opportunity to give a big thumbs up to everyone's ordering and cashing up skills. Sunday was less good for me; we were up against the clock, and we made the best of it, but it felt like a little bit of an anti climax. I would return to a full day here for preference. So my initial thought, then, is that I'd like to keep the long Saturday and return to normal Sunday, with a ~6pm finish and a closing dinner in the old style.

It was a bit of a marathon for me coming up with a way for us to spend Sunday afternoon together; I was very conscious that transport is an issue, as well as finding a venue that can handle a large boisterous group, and there really aren't a lot of combined restaurant/bars that are happy for people to sit around all afternoon. I actually thought the Cutting did the job well, given our limitations, and I quite enjoyed being able to have a couple of drinks before dinner. I know it's not the most salubrious of venues, however, and I'm open to all suggestions re preferences for Sunday dinner next year. Happy to crowdsource this sucker!

Any other genius ideas you might have, feel free to toss those in here too. Onwards and upwards!

Comments

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Saturday! I liked it long, too, and pub quiz & vids are actually pretty fun to have later. (I would have happily stuck around for the last five vids, personally.) I think the only thing I didn't like was pub quiz being broken up by dinner/eating off non-plates in the room. (This is because I am a nut who hates lap dinner.) I think I would have preferred it if a 30-minute dinner break had been scheduled in before or after pub quiz instead of in the middle just so I could stretch my legs a little bit, sit at the table and eat, etc. (I see there was an afternoon tea in there we didn't take - maybe if we moved that a bit later.)

Sunday I agree, it was a tad wee bit rushed. However, I quite liked the drink before dinner and I thought the food was very nice! (Although food is my 11th priority on g/t weekend.) So not all bad, and it did mean that people who were on their last legs/had trains and planes to catch could make it. I didn't even mind the Cutting - hilariously out of our usual scene but it was warm and dry and the drinks were very, very cheap. (On the other hand: somewhere slightly more central would have made staying later a bit more comfortable for me.) SO this is a tl;dr way to say yes please, extend the Sunday a bit, and I wouldn't at all mind/quite like keeping the late Saturday. Although it does mean less time to work on Sunday presentations :P