The Birth of a Player Meet

Not at all final, early, first try, etc.

So this weekend my wife and I had a nutty idea, why not create and host an Eve Player Meet right here in Pittsburgh? We talked about the idea a lot this past weekend and we are committed to making it happen. As usual, I'll be talking about it here in these pages. Not only to promote the actual event, but to also illuminate the thought process and procedures, hurdles, challenges, and updates along the way. Should be an interesting journey.

Keep in mind this idea was literally born on Saturday morning in the car on the way to see this thing. Which, due to bad planning on our part, also happened to coincide with the opening game of the Pitt Panthers college football season. So no parking for you!!

We decided early on that it should be a way off, it would be extremely difficult to get it up and running between now and Fanfest. And we also thought it would be better to have it in the Summer months, to give more people a chance to work it into their schedules. So we landed on sometime in late June, probably the weekend after Father's Day. But the time and date are still TBD.

We have about six or so potential sites that we think would work. We visited two of them ourselves this weekend, mostly because we had never been to those two before. One is in Lawrenceville, which is a great neighborhood down from the Strip District here in Pittsburgh. The location is a newly renovated theater that seats 83, along with a beer room and downstairs bar that (in total) could fit about 120 people in it. The neighborhood is full of bars and great restaurants, so that is also a consideration as well. The other location is in Braddock, which is a bit further away from downtown. Braddock is a town decimated by the decline in the steel industry which is trying very hard to make a come-back. The Brew Gentlemen Pub is an awesome place, but I think the location would make it difficult for our out-of-town guests.

At this point the challenge is essentially trying to figure out just how many people to expect? What size crowd do you plan for? If the venue is to small that is a problem, and if it is to large, that is also a problem. Tricky. Luckily we have the time to try and figure some of those things out before we have to commit to a location.

I also have some ideas brewing to make the event something unique and special for those attending, but those are in the early stages right now. More about those as they develop.

It is a long road until next June (TBD), but we are both excited about the event and look forward to hosting as many Eve players as possible. These are the very early stages right now and we have a long way to go yet, but I think this could be a lot of fun to do.

Onward and upward.