LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2008 BBQ

[crelf]

A huge thank you to everyone who attended this evening's LAVA / OpenG NI-Week 2008 BBQ and the Iron Works in Austin, TX! Beef was eaten, Shiner Bock was drunk, and prizes were won, and I'm sure a bunch of photos will be up in the gallery soon (oh, as well as the handful of people that video blogged the proceedings with their National Instruments vblog cameras - don't forget to link to those here!)

A big thank you to all the folks who donated the prizes - we had an awesome prize table this year with a Wii, Zunes, professional edition software licenses for both the Endevo GOOP Development System and JKI's VIPM, lava lamps, heaps of t-shirts ("retro" LAVA and VIPM), mousepads, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, a digital desk clock/calendar/thermometer/picture frame, an umbrella...

Attendance? I'm glad you asked: we needed to get 100 people there to cover the minimum, and then the Iron Works started charing by the head. As you all know, I was pushing to make sure we had the 100 there (otherwise my PayPal account was going to be a little light ), and to give you context: we got ~70 to our party last year. This year's attendance? 117, making it the biggest LAVA / OpenG NI-Week BBQ ever! We had a rush of "I'm not on the list, so can I please give you cash?" folks, and we filled the Iron Works to the brim. As for the financials, we don't look to make a profit off the BBQ - it's more about having a great time with good folks - our only financial motivation is to try not to loose money. I just did the rough financials, and we came up with a profit of approximately $60, so I'll be sending everyone ~50c in the mail (less the cost of the stamp and envelope). Seriously though - I'll get the left-over $ (once I work it out completely) to Mike to add to the ChipIn fund to help keep out LAVA servers going for a little while longer...

Thanks so much y'all - my work here is done ...until next year

cheers,

Chris

[pallen]

Great BBQ guys!

It was a real pleasure to finally meet a few of you in person. Not to mention that one never gets tired of hearing things like, "You're younger than I expected".

Here's hoping I bump into a few of you guys again sometime this week.

[crelf]

QUOTE (pallen @ Aug 6 2008, 10:33 AM)

"You're younger than I expected"

Rock on dude!

[Mark Balla]

QUOTE (pallen @ Aug 6 2008, 10:33 AM)

Here's hoping I bump into a few of you guys again sometime this week.

It would help if I knew what you looked like.

[pallen]

QUOTE (mballa @ Aug 6 2008, 12:47 PM)

It would help if I knew what you looked like.

I could probably upload a picture when I get back to the hotel. But a quick description would be tall, pony tail, sunglasses (I wear them most of the time) And today I'm wearing a Fastenal baseball cap. (I woke up with terminal bed-head)

[crelf]

QUOTE (crelf @ Aug 6 2008, 12:44 AM)

...we came up with a profit of approximately...

For those interested, the financials from the LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2008 BBQ are in - we made a profit of $145.51. As I've said before, we don't hold the barbie for profit - it's more about getting everyone together. That said, the extra few dollars is certainly appreciated to keep LAVA going As y'all know, LAVA's funded entirely by it's Premium Members, donations, corporate memberships and a little from click-through ads, so every $ helps...

[ASTDan]

QUOTE (crelf @ Sep 5 2008, 01:33 AM)

- we made a profit of $145.51.

Trips for LAVA BBQ organizers to Cancun have gone down this year