Save the date, December 10, 2015, for the 5th Annual TechToledo GeekDinner HolidayMixer.
The Holiday Mixer idea:
- Several meet-ups and IT user groups make their December meetings “geek dinners”: they meet at a restaurant and each person pays for themselves, in place of a speaker or more formal meeting.
- Instead of having many separate, small geek dinners, the group organizers let Tech Toledo take care of the venue. They all select the same date/time for their dinner, making it a “mix” of groups. In addition to hanging out with the IT colleagues you know well, you get to meet new people.
Other IT community members, and people who just like to hang out and talk tech, also join us. This event will be a great place to announce new groups and to start collaborative plans for 2016.
If you are a veteran of the Holiday Mixer, here are the things that are staying the same:
- 2nd Thursday of December, in downtown Toledo, starting at 5:30pm.
- Same core groups will be invited, and some have already made plans to join us.
- Each group is still in charge of creating their own meet-up entries, collecting RSVPs for their group, etc. The RSVPs just help us estimate the crowd and are not considered a firm commitment. Many people RSVP but decide not to come (that is OK) and many people show up out of the blue (which is fantastic).
Because of the popularity of the Holiday Mixer the past few years, we needed to change venues. Packo’s at the Park’s 50-person room was not big enough.
We have booked The Blarney Event Center at 601 Monroe Street (there is a separate entrance from the pub). Each person is still responsible for paying for their own drinks and food.
Moving to The Blarney Event Center means we can try a few more things to make it an even better event:
- Have a microphone and projector, so each group can do a better presentation to the crowd.
- Invite more people. We will be reaching out to new groups who have not participated in the mixer in the past.
- Get some sponsors, to pay for the rental fees and perhaps pay for other upgrades to the event.
If you are an IT-related group leader, you can go ahead and start planning to join us on December 10th (starting at 5:30pm). The date is set and the venue has been booked. Start letting your members know and collecting RSVPs. There is no rush, of course: it is still only July. Any questions? Contact us.
If you are interesting in sponsoring the TechToledo GeekDinner HolidayMixer, please contact us. We have not figured out sponsorship packages yet. We are open to whatever you want to do to financially support the largest annual gathering of IT professionals in the region. about it