You can't see an LCD screen even in the shadow on a beach.

You have to wait for better eink screens (if it ever happens, I've been waiting for five++ years.)

Lot to be said in favor of a bar, on the beach, on a balmy afternoon. But then, I'd spend very little time attending to the Perl discussion and quite a lot of time looking at some of the more mobile attractions at the beach (I'm a straight male…)

Coffee houses are traditional places for discussions. Bars can be good places for discussions, but only insofar as "discussion" involves why the designated hitter was the first sign of the coming of Armageddon.

So, my vote goes to coffee house. Especially if they have free WiFi.

Sunlight... Also known as the daystar.

I agree with the above statement!

I agree about the sunlight!

But then again, the meeting doesn't have to be during daytime, does it? A campfire meeting with beer and barbecue would be nice.

Hmm, Beach party!

Only problem is, isnt a beach party a bit too "cool" an event for a bunch of us Geeks to pull off :-)


______________________
Remember that amateurs built Noah's Ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

I said much the same thing once to my Perl instructor after he told us to go out and see some sun during Spring Break. I told him, "Real programmers don't tan." :)
Useless trivia: In the 2004 Las Vegas phone book there are approximately 28 pages of ads for massage, but almost 200 for lawyers.

I've seem PM meetings in a few of these locations, as I've been in both bluegrass.pm and dc.pm. It probably varies with the intent of the PM group -- is it just a social group, or a learning thing, etc?

Bar

Fine for social events -- Can be a little too noisy for detailed conversations and/or training. Most of the DC.pm folks will move to a bar (which serves food) after the 'main' meeting.

Classroom

Well, it was more of a training room (at a tech company), but it worked rather well -- we had projectors, they let us order in food, network connections, flip charts / white boards, etc. No problems with conversation that everyone could hear.

Restaurant

If you can get a back room, it's not so bad for noise -- and if someone brings a flip chart, it can be okay for some sort of teaching meetings. It's less social than a bar, as with food involved, people are less likely to rearrange through the meeting. With large crowds, it can be dificult to hear everyone. (gnat came to a bluegrass.pm meeting, and we had a larger than normal turnout -- we were spread across multiple tables, and the 'backroom' was an upstairs balcony w/ bad acoustics.)

Library

Okay, it wasn't a PM meeting, it was DC-IA, but some libraries have rooms that people can reserve. (I don't know if there was a fee involved, or not, as they took donations, but that might've been to offset food/coffee, not the room.)

Tech company

I've couple of places have been gracious about space -- AGU has been hosting dc.pm for the last few years. It's nice to have a consistent location, presentation space as appropriate (either set up with a 'theatre' seating for talks, or as a more informal seats around tables for less formal things. bluegrass.pm would order food in; dc.pm tend to go find food afterwards.

Conference

I've never gone to Perl conferences, but I would think that PM meetings tend to be more local ... so I don't know how appropriate conferences are. (I've met w/ other programmers at conferences we were all going to, such as AAS/SPD or AGU, but we'd just find a place off to the side, and work on stuff that we tended to be presenting on)

As things go, I'd vote for classroom or conference room within a tech company, if you're holdings talks and training. If it's just social, a bar is probably better. (or go with dc.pm's model, and do both).

Correct me if I'm wrong!

There is a group in Boise. I don't know how active it is though.

Own back yard! Good thing to know. Who would have thunk it? Thanks Mr. Muskrat!

--hsm

"Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."

*Sniffle* ... God rest Chris Farley's soul, or more approriately, the motivational speaker character from SNL who has the aforementioned residence... :-)



--chargrill

---

$,=42;for(34,0,-3,9,-11,11,-17,7,-5){$*.=pack'c'=>$,+=$_}for(reverse s
+plit//=>$*
){$%++?$ %%2?push@C,$_,$":push@c,$_,$":(push@C,$_,$")&&push@c,$"}$C[$#
+C]=$/;($#C
>$#c)?($ c=\@C)&&($ C=\@c):($ c=\@c)&&($C=\@C);$%=$|;for(@$c){print$_^
+$$C[$%++]}
[download]

I second the Café (or coffee house, not shop...). Our's also is a restaurant, that's best for us.

Cheers, Sören

Obviously, bar near the beach is the good place to meet best mongers and we can cheer up there.. :-p

----:D

I vote for a bar that serves Belgian Ale and has on its menu mussels, and french fries and mayonaise.

A hash bar.

A hash bar.

Actually, I think the MS Vista management team has them booked. Afterall, look what it did for the XP GUI team.

--
tbone1, YAPS (Yet Another Perl Schlub)
And remember, if he succeeds, so what.
- Chick McGee

The las PerlMonger meeting I attended was combined with the Canberra Linux Users Group (CLUG) Programmers/Pancakes Special Interest Group (PSIG) at the local Pancake Parlour.

Of course, you've heard of this woman?

It's her real name, and her real bio.

emc

"Being forced to write comments actually improves code, because it is easier to fix a crock than to explain it. "
—G. Steele

How about the option IRC for the deeply cynical.

Are you kidding? You've got three that are fairly close: Csy.pm (website issues or AWOL?), Ny.pm (the original) and PerlSemNY.pm.

This is why the invented helicopters. Now, I admit that they can be pricey, but there are few entrances quite so impressive as rapelling [spelling?] from a helicopter onto the deck of a cruise ship, preferably while wearing a tuxedo.

emc

"Being forced to write comments actually improves code, because it is easier to fix a crock than to explain it. "
—G. Steele