Just out of interest...

I'm not suggesting anything at this very early stage, but would members of this fine forum be interested in a meet-up some time in the future? On another forum there was a small meetup in Edunburgh for a ghost-walk and it seemed to be a success (I had to back out due to funds... or lack thereof ), but if enough interest were generated I suppose there could be an event put on? Even if it were as simple as a pre-existing activity such as a ghost walk, or hiring a hall for a day and having a small conference (I say on a small scale!) where members here can take to the stage for short lectures on a given subject; from the whimsical to the deep and scientific. A sort of "members' forum" if you will.




Would anyone be interested in such a thing? I've been to a few conferences this year with my job, the best probably being a Scottish bird conference in Birnam hosted by the SOC; and that had a lot of varied content, as well as a couple second-hand book stalls.


Bit ambitious? Personally I don't think so (depending on costs, obviously).

I'd be interested in meeting up. It'll probably be difficult to get everyone to get together... tried that with another forum and it never worked out due to travel distances. I noticed there's quite a few members here in Scotland, maybe we can arrange something. (Just as long as I don't have to go into the Edinburgh Vaults ever again!! lol)

Inghinn

Trans-Atlantic travel is a bit out of my budget these days, but if you do seem to have lots of folks from Scotland in the group that might be more viable. On another forum, we found a quorum of folks who lived within a close enough radius to get together and we had a wonderful time. The only problem was that we kept using our forum names instead of our given names!

Ian and I have talked (for years) about a Mysterious Britain conference/event for some time in the future, which could be an opportunity for a meet if enough people were interested, probably some time after the launch of the new site. The most likely location would be Cumbria, but as always this is open to discusion.

Sounds good to me. Will there be beer? .

I'd love to meet up with other like-minded souls but I live in the deep South (any further South and you get wet!) . . . . any more softy Southerners out there

I think there are a few southerners on this site Forester. I really do think a meeting of some sort is a very good idea. I would love to hear some more opinions and suggestions, we'll be able to make a few decisions from there.

Was jsut thinkingtoday, as I flicked through the latest FT, it would be good to have something 'up north' that competes with (and indeed is better and perhaps more academic) FTs Unconvention. Perhaps some sort of partnership with one of the Universities. Edinburgh has the Koestler Unit, although some controversy there and they don't seem particularly organised. Carlisle has its uni, but not sure what the research interests are there and then there's Lancaster which use to have a few researchers.

It's just a pity that Highland Mysteryworld at Ballachulish no longer exists. That was a truly superb folklore centre and would have made a brilliant venue!

Can't believe they decided to close down just because of the Foot and Moth scare; it was on the main road to Fort William and everything... and now what's in its place? yet another water sports centre...

Does anyone know what happened to the props, and more importantly, is there any prospect of pushing someone like the Lottery Fund to re-establish the place?

I must admit I had never heard of Highland Mysteryworld before Urisk. I think a conference would be a good idea at some point, but you would need somewhere easily accessible with good road and rail routes I think.