^Coming from somebody in the Bay Area? LOL i was in San Fran last June. Hands down, most gays lol.

 

What about Cali area like San Fran or Walnut Creek or something

 

im pretty sure a west coast meet in vegas can produce at least 200 cars easily, just at the last sedan meet which included VQs we had over 80 cars. Plus if we make this an all VQ meet 200 cars from the west coast will be easy. The major fact is having a person from each forum and each representable area to organize with each other to coordinate this event. Also the fact that we do need a car friendly area, we would have to coordinate with the local po po's to tell them we will have a meet so they wont just pull us over for no reason. Like i suggested we should have a West and East coast meet before end of next year if anything to help see how we can coordinate between forums and with other members. Then after that we can discuss again a good location and time for this mega meet event.

Also the fact no matter what, is that some of us / or most of us will have to be willing to drive roughly 300 to 1500+ miles to meet up for this mega event.

 

how about central cali? fresno?

 

something else that no one is mentioning... you are looking at $500-$1K (at least) considering gas, lodging, food, misc + whatever funds the meet itself is going to require.

That in and of itself is going to limit the turnout tremendously. Most people are going to say "I can get (enter mod here) for that much money".

When it's regional (relatively close) - people can get to and from quicker, cheaper, easier = better turnout.

 

g35papa and I already looked into that... we thought about Fresno, but ended up looking coastal instead (Cambria, then Paso Robles)...

Ditched the entire idea because like my post above said - it would have cost more than I know people would be willing to pay ($500 for 2 days)

That alone took a sh!tload of research, phone calls, planning - had location, lodging, food/banquet room ,etc... and didn't even do the event.

Like I said before, I don't think most people understand how much is involved to do a meet like this.

 

There's a sizable community of Zs and Gs in Vegas that already meets regularly. We've got our hooks in pretty well in town, so I don't think it'd be a big issue to secure venue, lodging, etc. We pulled this off before in 2004, as well (this time I won't get everyone pulled over, I swear). I'm pretty sure our company would be happy to some level of sponsorship as well.

If there's a timeframe and level of commitment, I'm happy to help.

G

 

^^^ that sounds good, maybe get a big west coast meet to test the waters and see how many people can roll out and commit

 

so a west coast meet in vegas around sept.

 

I'll chime in with my experience and recommendations. Over at Maxima.org, they put on a thing called Maxus, which obviously is a large Maxima gathering. There is a HUGE Maxima following with far more owners than what we have here on Driver. They do the annual Maxus event throughout the country. One year in Dallas, then Chicago, then DC, etc. Even large member base, the vehicle turn out is only around 200 cars or so. To even put on event like that takes serious planning and most importantly money.

Money. That's the driver here. You've got to get people to pay some sort of fee up front to lock in a site for the event. Then there's catering, tents, mobile restroom facilities. A lot of these annual events include a 1/4 mile facility rental which is usually $2500-4000/daily. Sometimes a mobile dyno is brought in, tents/areas setup for parts installs, etc.

You'll basically need some sort of commitee to get the ball rolling and manage the event. Here's what I'd recommend.

1) Event centrally located such as Kansas City, St. Louis, or Dallas. Yes, it's a haul for the CA and NE groups, but their member base is huge and they have meets all the time. It's up to them if they want to make the drive. Keeping the event centrally located would keep most travel times to within a really long day. I can get to Atlanta from Kansas City within 14hrs driving the speed limits. That's really not that bad of drive. Anything within 900 miles is a day drive, IMO.

2) Designate a planning/organizing commitee using respected and trusted members of this site. You'll need to have people looking at hotels, event sites, catering, facilities, permits (possibly).

3) Get sponsors to provide some event funds and let them sell products/services at the event.

4) Keep the event simple and to two days. I'd suggest renting a 1/4 mile strip for 2 days (9am till 8pm+). Have a car show at the same time and then coordinate with a nearby dyno shop so that people can leave the strip and dyno, then come back. Get a mobile dyno if possible. The strip will have food so catering won't be needed. Rent tents. With a track rental, you'd most likely need to rent it on a Sunday/Monday or Thursday/Friday. That means people will need to use a day or two of vacation, but traffic shouldn't be as bad plus your weekend won't be completely wrecked. Renting the track for 2 days plus other event costs would probably require an event fee of around $80/per G owner and maybe $20 for a spouse/friend. Assuming 200 G owners plus 60 spouses/friend, you're looking at $17,200. That should easily cover the track rental, tents, and awards.

5) Make sure the event is in the summer so it's easier for college students to attend.

6) Design a t-shirt and use some of the sales to support the event.

Again, keep it simple. I've attended events where they try to cram too much crap in and it just doesn't work. They'll have drag racing, auto-x, scenic drives, late night bar hoping, amusement park stuff, etc. What most people really want is a place to gather, hang out, set out a chair, and geek-out about their cars. Renting a drag strip for the entire event is probably easiest way to do it and many strips would jump at the chance to have a full two day rental.

I can't speak for STL or Dallas, but I live in Kansas City and I know my track (Kansas City International Raceway) has daily rentals. It's large enough to hold well over 800 cars if needed. The strip is also within 30-45 minutes of 3 good performance/dyno shops. Driving across Kansas City is easy thanks to having the most miles of highway in a metro area. There are plenty of hotels in southwest Kansas City (Johnson County area) which is extremely safe and is one of the wealthiest counties in the country. At night, there is no shortage of night life, espeically in Kansas City's Power & Light District. Then there's the BBQ.

And no, I'm not planning this event I've got way too much going on with my job and family.

 

^ Wow! Great post. Trouble is... it makes too much sense. We don't take kindly to people posting things that are realistic and make sense in this thread. I suggest posting something more like "Vegas FTW!!!" or "Ur stupid " or "This will never happen"


In all seriousness though, Dave is right about the way this event should be done. And if it does end up being in Vegas the first year, it should be on the East Coast the 2nd, although it would be nice if we could meet in the middle like Dave said. Would also give the West Coast vendors on this site a chance to show off their products to potential buyers from the East Coast We could have a booth giving classes on how to fit an entire body kit in a sedan

 

no offense - but a meet the way Dave is describing takes several years of building up to that level. Meets that size with that much going on simply don't happen from scratch.

It seems fine and dandy - until the reality sets in...

Good luck though

 

okay, back on topic... Vegas West Coast Mega Meet, J/K hadda do it, LOL

 

I don't see that. Get two commited people to make phone calls to the strip, get blocks of hotels reserved, reserve a dyno shop (super easy on a weekday), rent a handful of tents, order awards for various classes at the car show (if people want something like that), get commitments from sponsors, have someone design a shirt (tons will sell, even those not attending), and take care of some other loose ends. It's a matter of a day's worth of phone calls to get an idea on overall costs. I do much more elaborate project planning daily at work. It's easy.

When it comes to hotels, the only thing you're offering are available hotel rooms and a phone number to call. If you do this early enough, hotels will block off lots of rooms for free. You'd probably need contact at least two hotels. Once all rooms are reserved, everyone else is on their own.

The hardest part will be getting people to commit to the money. Set up a system via PayPal which should be pretty easy. Make the event fee non-refundable and set a deadline. If you don't get needed amount of attendees, refund 95%+ of the money (the 5% would be to cover the PayPal fees, planning time/effort).

 

I wanna design the shirts!!!