ElectronicsGeek wrote:
A UK based one would be good, but I would hardly deem the calculator scene in the UK to be 'booming.' It's a shame really, because benryves is also from the UK, and I would consider him to be one of the rock gods of TI programming. This is a great idea though as it might even increase the popularity and audience of graphic calculators in Europe.
EDIT: Also, there was a massive home computer scene in the UK in the 1980's and a large amount of those computers were z80 based, which means there might still be some more z80 experts in the UK.
Well, UK is indeed interesting but seeing that most calculator programs live on the continent (France, Belgium, Germany...) I suppose that wouldn't be a good location. As for the other z80 experts, I suppose that meeting wouldn't be a calculator community only event then (not that that would be bad).
KermMartian wrote:
I tried to organize something like this about 6 years back for the American community, to be held in New York. In the end, it turned out most people were too young, too busy, or too poor for such an event, unfortunately. I considered having talks about best practices, social events to promote cooperation and camaraderie, and perhaps some power-coding sessions. I hope it works out if there's sufficient interest in Europe!
Indeed, if there would be the possibility to host power-coding sessions, people giving presentations and other similar things, it could be very interesting. I personally wouldn't mind giving Lua sessions or even programming in general. If we could plan to create a big enough event, there is a chance we could get sponsoring of TI.
ti83head wrote:
Interesting proposition...I was there when the early 80's home computer craze was at it height before IBM muscled in with the PC and it got all serious. So, yes - there are a lot of mature ex-Z80 (Spectrum, ZX81/80) hackers out there but probably not active - least of all with a Ti.
Age may be a problem as some will be young, perhaps too young to travel with study commitments as well. There are probably pockets of enthusiasts and lone programmers working in isolation so a regional group may work. It's always nice to names to the faces, but I guess social media does that already....
Yes, age is indeed a problem. As for study commitments, it would be a good idea to organize the event during the summer break.
DJ_O wrote:
it could work in small groups of people, like Kerm, Comic, Shaun and Elf meet up in NYC, Vermont, whatever. But getting large groups of people would be harder for financial reasons as mentionned above (people being too poor for example).
It also depends how popular calcs are in specific countries. For example, it would make no sense to hold a big event in Canada or UK, simply because there are not enough calc programmers from there. Of course it could be done if a bunch of people had a passport and planned to visit another country during Summer vacations, but otherwise, big calc cons need to be done in USA, France or as close to France as possible.
Yes, indeed the problem is traveling. At the moment Belgium/France is looking the most interesting (for most members to be able to join).
But the biggest problem might be that some people need a place to sleep. That might be hard to solve, as you can't require everyone to get a hotel...
[I posted this quickly, might still add some stuff later]
