1st UK Puzzlers Convention. 19/2/2011 ** All Welcome!

[PuzzleScot]

Greetings fellow puzzlers...

All puzzle enthusiasts are cordially invited to the first UK Puzzlers convention!
(You do not have to be British to attend!)

Whether you are interested in representing the UK at the World Puzzle (or Sudoku) Championships, or just have a passing interest in WPC/WSC style puzzles, come along and meet like-minded individuals.

Time: Saturday 19 February 1200-1700 (Apologies for short notice!)

Venue:
Crows Nest Suite, Conference Centre
National Motorcycle Museum,
Coventry Road,
Bickenhill,
Solihull,
West Midlands,
B92 0EJ

http://www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk

Getting there:
By car. M42 J6 off the exit roundabout. Plenty of parking on-site.
By train. Birmingham International Station. It's within a couple of miles by taxi.
By air. Birmingham International Airport.It's within a couple of miles by taxi.
If you want to stay overnight there is a hotel on-site.

Food/drink:
There is a restaurant on-site which is open 0930 - 1730; you can eat there or buy takeaways to bring to the room.
There will also be tea/coffee/biscuits in the room.

Agenda:
The idea is for it to be pretty informal and everyone is encouraged to contribute:

- There will be plenty of space, so please bring along things of interest to show to the others (physical/paper puzzles)
- WiFi access will be available if you want to show something online
- Please let Mike (secretary@ukpuzzles.org) know if you'd like a time slot to give a talk on something or have a discussion on a topic
- A couple of people will be preparing WPC-style puzzle contests for everyone who wishes to participate to do so.

If you would like to come along please inform secretary@ukpuzzles.org so we can have an idea of numbers.
There will be an nominal charge for attendance, to help cover the cost of the venue hire, approx £5 per person.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Alan O'Donnell
Chairman, UK Puzzle Association

[dickoon]

Sounds great! I have long pondered as to what such an event might contain.

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to attend this one, but only due to the cost of travel - no cheap trains, no cheap coaches - unless I can find a ride, or give a ride to someone (or, ideally, some more-than-one) who would be willing to share the petrol costs. This seems unlikely, but you never know. Would anyone be interested?

I would be travelling down from Teesside in North-East England, and would probably go A1-M1-M42, but could be convinced to go A1-M1-M62-M6 instead. Or A66-M6, or any one of several other reasonable routes.

I apologise for my grumbling to Mr. McNeill, who has every right to look down on my complaints given that his journey involves, you know, crossing water!

[Janix]

Chris

Really hope you can find a way to get there as it has been a long time since we last met, and I haven't been able to congratulate you on your married status yet.

I just booked my ticket for a whole £21! OK - I arrive an hour too early and leave a couple of hours later (dinner anyone?) than I would like to, but I think that's a good price considering it includes an across London leg, plus train travel into London.

Ken

[PuzzleScot]

Dang! I had a £70 return fare on the cards, but it just jumped up to £110. Oh well... Booked.

[Maxelkat]

Sounds interesting. And nice and local for myself and Tom Collyer.

By coincidence I recently attended a seminar (for some software that I use in my job) in that exact suite!

I'm hoping to attend. I'll let you know for certain nearer the time.

[Maxelkat]

Alan,
Is it okay if I repost this on the Mensa forum Puzzle Corner?
Elliott

[PuzzleScot]

Sure, so long as you link to here in some way.

[dickoon]

I wish I could have been there. Please take lots of photos and make lots of posts about what happened for the benefit of those of us who couldn't attend!

Chris
(broke, and working the night shift tonight as cover for a colleague on paternity leave)

[PuzzleScot]

It was well worth the long trip. Being able to put names to faces now is marvellous!

I took a camera, but time got the better of us, and missed the opportunity to take a group picture. Just one candid photo from the day, which I'll put somewhere sometime soon...

We discussed lots of items in a way that just isn't possible online, so that was great too. Gareth and Steve produced a couple of marvellous short contests, which I'm sure they'll share here for all to enjoy.

We had 3 non-members attending too, which only added to the occasion.

Great fun, and a very worthwhile exercise. I hope more can make next year's event, which can't be any less structured than this one was!

[puzzlemad]

As Alan said, definitely worthwhile making the trip meeting up with both familiar faces and putting names to those others. It amazing how those mental pictures that you have of people are totally different to real life - Gareth - I realise where mine of you came from, it's one of the other blokes that works with me that I see once in a blue moon!

Thanks to Mike for organising and everyone for turning up.

Looking forward to the next already.

[sf2l]

It was a very good meeting, thanks for allowing me to take part.

Alan, the link we were talking about is the following http://sudokucup.com/node/648
Stefano

[DDG29]

How was the convention? I'm thinking about putting together a puzzle fest here in the Washington D.C. area later this year. I'd welcome any suggestions or advice...