USA/Great Lakes/Meetups/2017 View history

Planning Committee

• Regional Coordinators
  • GizmoGuy411
  • SkiDooGuy (Assistant)
• Committee Chair
  • TerryPurdue
• Hotel Coordinator
  • fbisurveillancevan21 (if Indy)
  • ruggles76 (if Chicago)
• Raid Coordinators
  • RoadTechie
  • Enfcer74
  • ehepner1977
• Presentation Coordinators
  • Kartografer
  • zohar760
• Social Coordinators
  • solsmac
  • OhioStMusicMan

Planning Milestones

For details of the phases, see the Meetup Planning Recipe (will need to request access from TerryPurdue)

Planning Milestones Google Sheet

2016 Feedback

26 responses

Travel Arrangements

• 70% not applicable
• 23% 5/5 (excellent)
• 8% 4/5
• 0% for 1/5, 2/5, and 3/5

Comments

• Amir did a great job with arrangements. Even checked into possibilities of red-eye flights at my request. Alas, none available so ended up sticking with my original request. Still was nice that he tried.
• Travel agent contact did not take place until about a month after travel preferences were collected by Terry
• I guess I shouldn't complain about no driving reimbursement...even though I was getting edit area to improve Waze's data.
• Wanted a private helicopter
• the gentleman was great. asked directed question about what I wanted or needed and then booked accordingly.
• Given the large inconvenience flying to Indy - and Waze not paying for ground transportation - I suggest future GLR meetups be held at Hub Cities that would allow more people to fly. But that really just leaves Chicago as an option.
• Being an Indy local, travel arrangements were great!
• Travel agent was awesome! I gave him the flight numbers I wanted, and he was able to get me those fights!
• My 45 minute drive was quite nice :)
• My car was just excellent. Outstanding choice, including the custom plates. Would recommend using every day.
• Process was simple, Amir did all I could have asked of a travel agent. Picked flights they were booked next day. Great job

Hotel

Parking

• 46% not applicable
• 15% 5/5 (excellent)
• 15% 4/4
• 15% 3/5
• 7.7% 1/5 (unacceptable)

Comments

• Way too expensive
• Didn't park, but the valet was very good about arranging cab back to the airport. Overall, was VERY pleased with the service.
• Used the garage at the hotel with in and out service. It was a little pricy, but worth it overall to be able to come and go without worrying about finding something.
• Parking was very close to the hotel, the cash payment system was broken but it was kind of the help parking assistant to let me out for free.
• Didn't mind spending the money for the convenient parking.
• Parked my own and never needed it until I left.
• Free
• Rated 5 since I parked off site for a very reasonable downtown rate. Otherwise I'd rate parking a 1 since the hotel rate is usurious for Indy.
• I used the parking deck not the valet
• I was able to park my vehicle in my room. Can't get much more secure than that...
• Not a fan of paying for parking
• Yikes. The final cost of overnight parking in the parking garage was as much as the filet dinner.
• I thought the parking prices were absolutely ridiculous...now that said, it wasn't any more than other area hotels, however I would have hoped that for a decent group like we had, they could've lowered it a tiny bit. As for the time in bringing the car around, it was great! I absolutely loved the ability to text them when you were ready for your car - as I did that before I was leaving my room and it was there each time by the time I reached the street. They were very friendly too.

Check-in/-out

• 61% 5/5 (excellent)
• 19% 4/5
• 11.5% 3/5
• 3.8% 1/5 (needs improvement)
• 3.8% Not applicable

Comments

• No issues
• No issues
• Room was not available when I first got there, but to be fair was pretty early. Check-in is usually not until 3:00pm and they were very apologetic about not having room ready at 10:30 am 'ish. I wasn't worried about it as was more interested in getting to the meeting anyhow.
• Everything was fine
• Good
• Arrived early but did not have to wait long for room
• Front desk staff was not adequately trained in knowledge about the hotel. Got bad basic info about my room, and worse, it came from the staff person who was training someone else.
• I did have remind them that one night was covered by Waze

( Not a big deal, but the lack of automatic checkout was slightly annoying. I'm used to that with my business travel so I notice the inconvenience.

• The first room that we were assigned to was unacceptable because it was at the far end of the hall. With my wife's bad hip, it was to far to walk so they gave us another room that was just off the elevator.
• There was some confusion finding me during the check-in process, but thankfully it was cleared up quickly. I was accidentally booked for Sunday night.
• I checked in at 7:45am Saturday morning when I arrived back at the hotel, and the room was already ready!

( Very friendly staff. Although I have yet to see my credits back on my bill from the initial $50 charge for incidentals.

• I had the understanding the room would have been $159 for the extra night. The $20 dollars in taxes was a big surprise. Didn't make a big deal of it perhaps I misunderstood the arrangement. No biggie.

Room

• 69% 5/5 (excellent)
• 11.5% 4/5
• 11.5% 3/5
• 3.8% 1/5 (needs improvement)
• 3.8% Not applicable

Comments

• Amazing room
• Very nice accomodations. Only (very minor) complaint was the lack of readily available power plug at the desk for my laptop. There were various odd power strips in the desk, but none for std American power plug. Had to crawl behind desk to find available normal power outlet.
• Room was great, liked having a full size fridge for bringing my own drinks. Water pressure could use a boost. Everything was clean and comfortable.
• I thought it was a beautiful hotel. Better than I normally stay in on my dime.
• Good, no view
• Why the hell does it have a dedicated water heater if it ran out in 15 mins????
• only issue I had was housekeeping did not knock or announce herself. however the look on her face was priceless when she turned the corner and almost face planted with my fist because I was in the bathroom and did not know she was in there. my issue with this was I had the sign up NOT to come in, and it was not even checkout time, I had another 2 hours left on the clock.
• The room was exceptional.
• Using the lights was a learning experience, but it was nice nonetheless.
• Room was very, very nice!
• The modern art decor isn't really my thing but who can complain about a free hotel room for the wife and me and no kids?
• You already know about my room issues. And the fact that they upgraded me to the Pres suite - even though they were supposed to award that to one of our members anyway I thought was a bit "switch-aroo-esque"... Now the Pres suite was fantastic as you saw - minus the blood on the light switch! lol
• I never stayed in a classy hotel. So i cant compare to very much when it comes to this compared to red roof inns and days inns. The room was very nice. Lots of tv channels great picture. Clean remote. Bathroom clean, bed was comfy. Had an issue with the air condition not working properly upon returning from dinner the first night. it was fixed within an hour. Maint tech and desk staff were very apologetic. It did seem difficult to find a happy temp. It seemed to hot or to cold all night no middle. Snacks on the counter were a bit out of date. But that's to be expected who pays $9 for a handulful of popcorn.

Meetup

Communication

• 62% 5/5 (excellent)
• 27% 4/5
• 8% 3/5
• 4% 1/5 (needs improvement)

Comments

• Announcements were fine. Presentations were great. Honestly, was kinda glad that MR area was delayed as it forced some extra presentations. I was a little disappointed in myself for not making the rounds to meet everyone the first day, but that's on me. Setup was right, I just didn't take advantage of it. Sunday was really awesome. Despite several folx bailing early...got to meet and greet more.
• Hangouts are great, information distribution was great. Rarely had questions about what the schedule would be and when I did they were answered promptly.
• GHO was a well used tool for communication. A forum or place for important announcements without having too look through the GHO would have also been helpful
• I would have liked a more definite schedule. Maybe a one-page to print rather than recall all the various comments in the GHO. I took one wrong turn getting to the conference room first time. Maybe a sign at the top of the stairs to lead me down.
• Hey you're all volunteers, anything better than a "1" is to be commended.
• oh wow! what a wonderful group of people. everyone was more then happy to help.
• All good, except for that secretary person...
• I walked into a room of about 40 strangers and during the first day I only met or was introduced to about 4 people. I walked around to all of the tables but none of the attendees said anything to me. I spent most of the day sitting by myself. I only met and talked to about 10 people both days.
• It was great to interact and meet everyone.
• The GHO for the meetup was a very good resource. 1 suggestion would be to create a Google Doc with the loose itinerary for the event. I am a person who very much likes things planned ahead of time and likes to know said plans. Even if things aren't set in stone, having something that gives us a general idea of when things may happen is always better than nothing.
• The GHO was too chatty a venue for informing people of important information. No way I could leave it unmuted and so I feel like I missed a lot of stuff until right at the end. I'd recommend making a point of emailing all important information to participants and leave the GHO for smack-talking, general information and asking questions and such
• I seriously don't think there was anything that could have been done differently to make this part any better. It was very well hyped in the GHO and you as well as everyone who wanted to be able to be contacted were easily able to be through the GHO.
• The Google hangout, google sheet were a great idea. Pre meetup, during and post. Great idea. Everything seemed to work out well communication wise. Terry and all involved did a great job.

Conference Space

• 54% 5/5 (excellent)
• 39% 4/5
• 8% 1/5 (needs improvement)

Comments

• Not enough power connection
• Wireless speed was pretty impressive, actually. Plenty of power, but was kind of a pain digging under the tables for the power strips. Noticed that they had power strip plugged into power strip...no wonder they said we couldn't bring our own power strip.
• Round tables were actually better than rectangle, could see everyone, power strips in the floor led to a lot of crawling around though.
• Larger tables to get more people at each one might be a benefit to get more face to face discussion going.
• I would like Ethernet
• Wireless fine. Power adequate. Snacks wonderful. Maybe there should be enough tables to seat the number of raid groups with a # on each table. Or maybe that was a way to get people to wander around and bump into others.
• Perfect
• Not convinced that round tables are the best. However do see advantages for sub groupings.
• they ran out of diet pepsi, DIET PEPSI, I mean how dare they allow that to happen.was relieved to see shortly after bring it to their attention they doubled stacked it :D
• Wireless was good IMHO. Only negative was the power strip under the table setup. Most modern conference centers have tables set for power, usb, etc. It's not a big negative.
• When I arrived there did not appear to be any place to sit until they brought another table
• When the wifi worked, it worked well. Having an older laptop probably did not help me much.
• Even though we were told that we were limited to 1 outlet per person, a lot of us were able to expand that to 2.
• Quite impressed the wireless was able to handle that much load
• Nothing bad. Would have been nice to have better power distribution but only so many ways to do that. Mice on that table cloth was occasionally gnarly. A little more space to avoid drinks pressed against electronics would have been nice.
• The only reason I'm not rating it 5 was due to the power setup and the fact that another table wasn't set up from the start. The wireless speed, light, ambience, food setup etc.. was phenomenal.
• Room was nice. The wifi seemed plenty fast and convient. Room Seemed setup properly by the time we needed it. Staff was great setting up beverages and snacks.

Meeting Presentations

• 35% 5/5 (excellent)
• 31% 4/4
• 27% 3/5
• 4% 2/5
• 4% 1/5 (needs improvement)

Comments

• "Extra" presentations due to MR area delays were great. Breakout session on LAM project was particularly interesting to me. Highly recommend more breakout sessions next time.
• Presentations seemed like an afterthought. Good info from the NOLA meetup. Of course we would have liked to see more ;)
• I was only there for Sunday, I chose 5 for this answer
• The presentations given were good. Would like to have seen a few more topics presented though.
• Need staff there
• We shoulda done more
• Would have liked something from Waze staff, even remotely
• Make sure your presenters have an actual voice. Have 2nd mic to float room.
• I didn't have any specific expectations, nor did I have a comparison since this was my first meetup. It was nice to get some inside information.
• I was expecting formal discussions about various topics. There was very little presenter led discussion.
• I wanted to put a 0, because I missed the presentations. I'm sure they were awesome though!
• I enjoyed the presentations we had, but having staff there to give us some back-end presentations would have been nice. I know that they weren't able to come since they were in the states the weekend before, but maybe we could coordinate with their schedule next year to ensure we get someone.
• In my opinion we (and by we I especially mean Waze) could have benefited a lot more from the face-to-face time if there were more of an agenda. Map raids are great but to put it bluntly we can do map raids at home for a lot less (read: zero) expense to Waze/Google. I think there would be a lot more benefit to have organized 1 on 1 (or one on 2 or 3) mentoring, people lined up to give genuine presentations (whether in a small format of a single table or to the whole group) etc.
• Would have liked to have seen more of this. We can edit anywhere. If we had enough diversity at the meeting, SM only, SM/LAM, SM/LAM/AM breakouts might have been helpful. Particularly the SM to share 'management' ideas, etc. frustrations, ways different states may handle situations.
• I thought what was presented was done nicely. The only thing I would have liked to have seen is a few more targeted presentations regarding editing. During this time it would have been ideal for those who weren't interested to break out into smaller groups and work on things they wanted to address.
• I learned quite a bit. Don't really know what to expect this was my first time. I think most of the learning took place at the tables in groups. I will be more prepared nest meetup with questions and such. Some information was shared a few things discussed.

Meetup Raid

• 19% 5/5 (excellent)
• 39% 4/5
• 19% 3/5
• 15% 2/5
• 8% 1/5 (needs improvement)

Comments

• To be fair, no delusions here. I know the only point of the MR was so Waze/Google would pay for our trip...and I, personally, got a lot more out of the presentations and breakouts and just generally meeting my peers. That being said, I still don't know what the goals of the MR were. Also, would have helped to at least know the state if nothing else ahead of time in order to brush up on the relevant rules/policies. Would like to see a better distribution of senior to junior editors, but can only do what you can do with attendee's. I had originally envisioned groups of junior editors at tables with senior editors walking around, but seemed like we had more senior than junior at the meetup. :/
• Obvious answer about area. Typical map raids restrict the editor to the team area, possibly this was the result of the snafu in having the area ready.
• Raid seemed to be a side goal for the weekend, might have had to do with it being opened late. I don't think that is a negative since it was more important to get everyone together than gluing your face to a laptop when that kind of raid could be done at home.
• Delay in opening areas.Would have also liked to have started earlier than 10:00 AM (at least doing some optional work or breakouts before the rest of the attendees arrived)
• I wasn't registered but working with the other editors was nice and they all had a good size of area
• Not sure what the goals were beyond "clean it up". Area was OK...didn't run out of things to work on, but also didn't get close to done. Maybe if the area were announced ahead of time (with an "on your honor, no editing before meetup") would give us a chance to scope things out. Also would force you to get the area open for us in time.
• Besides the late start with the areas (Waze's issue, not ours), I don't think an actual goal was given. Just, here's your area, go fix stuff. Would have like to hear a more specific goal for the raid.
• More edits for me
• Not clear if we were working base maps, URs, speed limits, PURs, all the above?
• My bad....
• Would have been nice if Waze had actually had the areas set up!
• A. the raid was late in getting opened. B. even when it opened, it still took me another hour to get. C. no extension time after the raid. :(
• Obvious issue with the delay going live. There wasn't much coordination and we were left to ourselves - or we wander about to see what others were doing and listening in on problems and unique discussion. Aside from having active area, maybe we could identify some mentors with specific goals or problems to be solved.
• What I did at the "Meetup Raid" I could have done from home
• My muddy experience is probably due to my joining mid-way. I was happy with the team distributions and amount of area. The efficient/experienced had plenty of ground to cover, and the slower/less-experienced could focus on small patches (usually) without stepping on the bigger toes. Regarding clear goals, I only focused on updating county road naming conventions, as that was the goal stated to me. Nice and simple. If there were team goals, I was unaware of them. If there were overall raid goals, I was unaware of them. The mentorship was overwhelmingly beneficial, and was arguably the best part (to me) of the whole meetup.
• In all honesty, people were floating between regions. Personally, I went to different areas that had more to do since my area had very little to do.
• Was a raid complete with all the normal challenges.
• The only reason I didn't rate a 5 is due to the fact we weren't even sure if we were going to have the area until almost 2 in the afternoon (I think). I thought that could have been set up better. Now don't get me wrong, I know there was a SHIT ton being done behind the scenes to make it happen even when it did, but I'm not sure how many others knew that.
• Would have been nice to get the raid area on time. Don't know where the hold up was but the time allotted to raid wasn't very much. Perhaps there was a better more hands on raid Sunday but some had to leave earlier in the morning.

Meetup Lunch

• 78% 5/5 (excellent)
• 8% 4/5
• 8% 3/5
• 8% Not applicable

Comments

• Lunch was outstanding! Hotel did right by us on that one by far!
• Better than I expected given the available snootieness of the menu.
• Good selection of food options, snacks, coffee, soda, etc
• Exceeded expectations.
• The staff was excellent at helping me with my food allergies and their food was delicious!
• Plenty for lunch. Maybe more water for Sunday would have been nice.
• Actually preferred over NA 2016
• OMG! those little square cakes was so freaking good, 2-3 of us went head to head. good thing we shared like big kids. could have been gruesome. P.S the strawberry ones was the BOMB!
• We did not lack for food.
• I did not try anything but my wife told me it was excellent
• Missed out. Hope it was delicious!
• Lunch was fantastic
• Yogurt and granola next time? :)
• I thought lunch was great! It was truly the first time in my life that I felt extremely satiated after "Throwing Myself at Men!"
• Maybe a bacon salad next time.
• Lunch could have hung around longer. I myself wasn't aware there was going to be such a spread so early. Most had just finished with breakfast. There was more than enough food it just seems the staff was quick to collect the food back up.

Social

"Unscheduled" Socializing

• 35% 5/5 (excellent)
• 31% 4/5
• 12% 3/5
• 8% 1/5 (needs improvement)
• 15% Not applicable/no opinion

Comments

• Missed Friday due to work schedule. Unfortunately missed most of Saturday, but that's on me. Wasn't feeling too great so skipped Palominos and hit the sack early. From what I read (later) on the GHO, seems like most had a pretty good time and imho, unplanned events are best left unplanned.
• Not everyone is on the same budget, mandating an event where the attendee has to pay out of pocket is difficult. Allowing people to pick a venue and ask if anyone else is interested was good. A list of nearby recommended Places might have helped.
• The hotel bar was a good meeting place, open to everyone
• Probably OK...but didn't draw me in. Just wanted to go to my room and relax.
• I thought it was just fine. I joined in with some and not others. Since it wasn't 'scheduled' it didn't feel pressured to be there.
• this was good enough for me, but I did noticed some that did not attend but went to dinner with us. so maybe something that everyone can agree on would be best. but I like the whole meeting at a bar and seeing people fall off of the table they was sitting on,however they did not spill any. Kudos for them, very proud moment
• It would have been cool if there was a large group activity planned. Like a local baseball game, putt putt, bumper cars, etc. Logistics is hard with 50 people. Maybe more unstructured for Friday and something planned on Saturday?
• I don't usually go to a bar, but I was not invited either.
• I was grateful for the unscheduled socializing. I don't think I would have really met anyone otherwise.
• I personally prefer when things are pre-planned, so I know what to expect. I think having options availble but exact details not yet decided would be fine.
• Not big on hanging out in a hotel bar, but wasn't there Friday. Saturday,
• I think with our group it was definitely sufficient...however, that being said, I'm not sure * I would count on other groups to be near as social as we were. I think it would be a great idea to have something of this nature planned or to at least offer a few suggestions beforehand to make everyone aware of the possibilities.
• The system worked great! No problems here.

Saturday Night Dinner (Palomino's)

• 39% 5/5 (excellent)
• 23% 4/5
• 8% 3/5
• 4% 1/5 (needs improvement)
• 27% Not applicable

Comments

• Wasn't feeling so good so skipped Palomino's. Will definitely attend next time, though.
• 20th anniversary discount was a nice surprise. Food was good.
• Maybe a little more notice but I also understand if that location wasn't picked until Saturday.
• Timing was fine. Too bad about the extra long wait to get in because they screwed up the seating. Food was tastey, but service wasn't the best because of such a large group.
• Had some trouble getting back from the restaurant, but that has to do with poilicing, crime and the parking situation
• For getting 30 people seated and served, while prom attendees were there also. Nice job
• I did my own thing biiiiitch!
• Tough to do a dinner this size on a busy night in the city. Despite the reservation issues, though, the choice was good and everything worked. I'm not sure many restaurants could have done much better with the service under the circumstances.
• Nice place. And the post dinner entertainment was fun! Just glad nobody was shot.
• I chose not to attend because of the high carb menu.
• Again, hope it was delicious!
• The heads up was during that day, but it's not like I had anything else planned so it was fine for me. Honestly, I wasn't very happy with their dinner service. I understand that it was the same night as prom, but it took us longer to get in than it should have with a standing reservation, and I had to ask my server 4 times for a glass of water. Food was good, but our server was absolutely terrible.
• Great choice Terry!
• Pocket book hit... my own fault tho.
• No suggestions here..I thought it worked out very well.
• Possibly a dedicated room since we have enough attendees.
• Enjoyed the restaurant waitor was a dick. Again never ate at anything that fancy but I didn't have to attend if I didn't want to. :) all was well.

Overall

• 85% 5/5 (excellent)
• 12% 4/5
• 4% 3/5

Comments

• Actually might attend.
• Overall I would say it was an OUTSTANDING event. Great presentations and awesome people. Was great meeting everyone face to face. Particularly liked the breakout session for the ongoing LAM project. I'm just an interloper from neighbor region, but very pleased to have been included. Thank you all for this meetup.
• Overall I think it was a great experience. I hope to attend again next time.
• Some additional lecture topics, more editing time, on-time swag
• Having faces to names is very helpful. Having a meetup is very beneficial to the community and creates a better sense of community and creates memories.
• Obviously have the raid area ready at the start. But you know that. If presentations are known ahead of time, would be nice to have a list of presenters and topics. If topics are sensitive, just something like "Gizmo - Remarks". Have a sheet of "state-specific edit rules" that the SMs would like us to know that I can review and memorize before the meetup.
• Good
• Tell Waze to start raid area a day or 2 earlier. Then it will be on time. Like the break between speeches. Do 1 or 2, break to edit, then do another. Don't know how we can show everyone a solution to a question. There might have been something to learn at table 1, but table 7 didn't hear it. Maybe with a laptop connected to screen, someone can stand up and address the whole group?
• Presentations were off the cuff as raid area was not ready on time but still very good given that. That is about the only area needing work for next year. Loved the experience and getting to meet all from all over and all ranks.
• I only wish it had been longer
• I'm pretty
• I'd like to see 1-2 breakout sessions where more senior editors cover specific topics with less senior ones. As an R4 I could have both benefited from this on a few advanced topics, and helped out on some of the more basic ones. We did this informally with each other, but I think it could be formalized a little bit, at least as an option.
• place setting would have been good so each group would have been together. but, it was not a problem how the seating worked out.
• First one. Had a blast. Educational and entertaining. Next time I would plan to come earlier. Sounds like a lot of fun was had on Friday. Can't think of anything not already mentioned. I appreciate the work that went into organizing this.
• All attendees should be required to wear name tags at all times. Late on Sunday, one of my state managers was pointed out to me and I had to go introduce myself to him or I would not have met him because he didn't have his name tag on.
• While I consider myself a pretty knowledgable editor, I was somewhat confused by some of the discussions and presentations. I'm sure that there were others in the room that were also mystified by the long strings of acronyms. The presenter should talk down to the least experienced person and not presume that everyone is as familiar with the subject as them.
• I would like to see brief discussions, led by a presenter, that cover and clarify some of the editing issues that we see. An open discussion , with examples, would provide a learning experience
• A schedule of events should be available so we would know in advance what to expect. Just sitting in a room for two days was not what I expected.
• I have a bit of a hearing problem in a crowded noisy room. From where I was sitting, there were times when I couldn't hear.
• Perhaps I missed it, but everyone should have been asked to introduce themselves. Even though I arrived late, I should have been asked to say something.
• Since this was my first time I'm hesitant to comment. I only have other conferences that I've taken to reference, but in those cases the itinerary was much more visible to everyone, and available at least a week or two before the event. Overall it was great, glad I did it, and look forward to next year.
• I enjoyed the venue, though I'm easy to appease and entertain. Though, someplace with easier/closer access via public transportation would be preferred. I'm also open to trying other cities/states, though (at this time) that would significantly decrease the likelihood of my participation.
• As my first meetup, I had an absolute blast! Overall in my mind, this was a huge success, thanks to our awesome planning committee!
• I think this was great for a first time event, nothing I've said previously should indicate dissatisfaction with anything as I certainly greatly enjoyed meeting everyone. All opinions expressed are from the perspective of giving greater value to Waze and to the attending editors in future meetups
• Parking...either lowered rate/comp'd, or closer to reasonably priced option. Power outlet availability - at least 2/person, hopefully 3. This was definitely the most fun I've had all year. It solidified relationships and really ingrained a camaraderie type feel within the editing community. I can't wait to do this again next year!
• Setting up the raid area ahead of time will be helpful. I think everyone did a great job from start to end. I can't wait until next year! Also we should request Waze swag today for next year. It would be so much easier to promote Waze with some cool swag!