The votes about the proposed urban exploration get together came in. The decision to meet up in Toronto was unanimous (all nine people voted for Toronto), and the name Office Products Expo 1994 won a majority. Most people were apathetic about the date so we went with 3-6 June. I hope that's good for the majority.

The convention will feature some social events and some expeditions, and that's about as much as is planned at this stage. Suggestions about the convention are welcome. Anyone (especially Torontonians) who wants to volunteer to participate in greater depth, please drop me a line by e-mail -- I don't intend to try to run the whole thing, but I'm happy to coordinate the group effort.

Ninj
http://www.infiltration.org

I think if we can get several Toronto explorers willing to lead some tours for out of towners to various places would be a good plan.

An important thing will be that all of us Ue'ers assess our own ability and be honest about it. Basically, if you couldn't talk your way out of something, don't ask to be part of a live infiltration, or if you can't climb, don't ask to get taken to a place requiring a 3 story climb... you get what I mean. Gotta be realistic and fair to the people volunteering to take us visitors out.

Some seminars by people that know their stuff in various aspects of UE would be great in my opinion. Climbing with proper gear, climbing without proper gear, stealth/camo, live infiltrating, drain safety, the list can go on and on. I know I'm always ready to learn from those with more experience in an area than myself.

There does seem to be a desire to have t_shirts, and I like the idea personally. But how would this be funded ? pay in advance ? I'm partial to the "get TMC to buy them all for us"...

Accomodations: Hostels would be a good plan, personally I'd prefer a campsite if there were any close enough to Toronto ?

Campsites are a great idea! Man, I can hardly wait.

Perhaps before we get a camp site we should get an idea os how many poeple may be going. It may be painfully difficult to give a seminar around a camp fire at night. Seeing as though no one has orginized such an event, it may benefit us to model it after similar events (unfortunately, the closest things I can think of to this would be the hacker cons [which I highly recommend going to btw]). For all intents and purposes a hotel would be the most practical (seating, multiple area's for seminars, nice acomodations, electricity, bathing and what not). This is something that has never been done in this community before, in my opinion it is critical for us to 'get it right' to give our beloved hobby the best possible representation and legitimacy.

I have been actively involved in putting together large and small coneventions, and while I am certainly no expert, I can share my experiences. This is just a little bit of the things that immiedately come to mind. I am very excited at the prospect as I sincerely wish for this to succede and will help in any way I can. Count me in for the head count. If you need a speaker on photography or web publishing, count me in as well. I can also donate a web site as I am in the process of putting my own up, and will certainly not use all of my available resources (I can also code the site as well since coding is my livelyhood in large part).

Do not hesitate to e-mail me personally, I have an 800 # if you need assistance on anything.

as for the campsite... it was not my intent to hold the convention at it, but to simply have a place to sleep... I didn't expect everyone to sleep at a campsite, some people would probably prefer a hostel or something...

1993: I don't intend to use this convention as an opportunity to "legitimize" urban exploration, since I don't think that's a worthwhile pursuit.

Be my guest if you want to try to do the organizing necessary to make an advance hotel booking... personally I'd prefer to just let people find their own places to stay (hotel, hostel, campsite, etc.) and then hold meetings wherever we can find some free space. This'll let us keep the whole thing free and flexible.

Ninj
http://www.infiltration.org

Toronto sounds great! I'm all for finding excuses to travel, and Toronto is definitely on my list -- Although I have to admit to being floored that it was a unanimous decision since user after user came out in favor of Minneapolis in the forum.

But no complaints here, I'm looking forward to partying like it's 1994! (Well, not partying, but you know). My only disappointment is that you'll all be spared my kick-ass prank.

Sounds great! Wow, 10 months away... I'll have something long-term to look forward to!

Yeah, we can take people to some Toronto-area attractions... like the malt plant, if it's not a music museum, or whitby. I dunno, we'll have to see.

Will be great meetin y'all!

Perhaps I should re-word that statement. I understand that this is not an attempt to proselytize the masses. But there are a number of reasons for selecting a centralized locale. First off this does NOT limit anyone to having to stay in said location. But one of the most important aspects here to deal with is excessive legal entanglements. I can not speak for Canadian law, but merely US law. Conspiracy laws are tircky (especially in the age of 'the war on terror'). I do not want to go 1000 miles from home only to be deported. Which is ironic, as I could have already violated US laws by now (if it can be construed that I want to go on an UE misson). Truth be told, it's not a huge concern as we are by and large very low profile, but an aspect to consider none the less. Much of this really depends on 1) how many people want to go, and 2) where they are from. If you have 10 people locally attending then, no, you probably dont need anything formal. If you have 50-100 people coming from around Canada and the US then maybe we should take this with the amount of professionalism we project into our hobby.

Posted by Jester as for the campsite... it was not my intent to hold the convention at it, but to simply have a place to sleep... I didn't expect everyone to sleep at a campsite, some people would probably prefer a hostel or something...

How about an abandoned building that people could camp at and/or use as a meeting center? Anything close to transportation that's relatively low key but not infested with homeless people? Probably too much to ask for.

This kinda sounds like a cool idea

I'm just worried about the obvious things like...cops..haha

But, I'm definatly interested.

Anything I can do to help?

-Ex

alot of Toronto hotels are still in total SARS scare mode, if you have enough heads you probably could get into a real hotel rather than squatting or camping for not much more than what it would cost everyone to camp.

Thoughts for accomodations: Check out some smaller or medium chain hotels, they will often give good discounts if we book 10-20 rooms or so, and a conference room. I know that's a bit formal, but hey, if it's not too expensive...It's not like we don't have 10 months to save a couple hundred bucks.

Hm, looks like cb and i just had the exact same idea

As for the weekend, since there was apathy, what about doors open 2004 weekend?

w00t! You can count on the PES crew to be there. Need anything about construction sites or anything of that nature, drk and I'd be happy to oblige, since it seems to be our specialty (or, rather, what's been available to us recently =P).
Also, for the t-shirts: If we could come up with some sort of design for the thing that was in 1-2 colors, most print shops would do bulk orders of them for relatively cheap. The more colors you want, the more times they have to screen and print each shirt, which ups the cost.
I've had a touch of experience planning semi-populous events, so if you'd like anyone to bounce ideas off of, I'd be more than happy to oblige - just email or whatnot ^_^

Posted by tunnelrat It's not like we don't have 10 months to save a couple hundred bucks.

You're blessed that you're where you are... for Pixie and I to get there, just transportation is going to be aprox $500 if we bus it, $1000 if we drive or fly, and the real kicker... Economy class on a train $2800

But we will be there, no doubt

I really don't care too much where we stay, I do like camping though, but only if it was convenient enough of a location. Anyone from Toronto have any campsite info to help out here ?

Hm, true, Jester, sorry. There are some airfare deals regularly on JetsGo or shit like that for $149-189 from Van to Tor so that could be an option. As for camping, you're likely looking outside of Toronto. Maybe check the KOA and see what they have.

Try here for hostels: http://all-hostels.com/hostels/canada/toronto_hostels/toronto.html

This is the closest campsite I could find, and it is outside of Toronto to the west, so you'd still need a ride: https://host.securelook.com/gensys/reservations.html

I would REALLY like to lobby for a board poll on the title of the con. I was really "all up ons" about something like UrbXcoN or UrbExCon... Office Products Expo 1994 just doesn't do anything for me... And I have the coolest sketches done too for it!! (FUTHAMUKIN SCANNER!!! ARGHH!!!!!!!)

T-shirts, name tags, bumper stickers. I've got loads of art done for them... Except they're still not up yet... Oh, I need a host for the art too, once it finally GETS scanned.

>_< Mochi, my hate for my scanner is like a truck.

This sounds great!! I'll definitely be draggin' the guys from UEQ (Urban Explorers Quinte) up...

Shotglazz
(insert evil laughter here)

Mochi, there's nothing stopping you from printing your own shirts and stickers and so forth with whatever you would like the convention to be called. I think the ultimate point, and why people seem to have gravitated to the name they did, is that it doesn't matter what the thing is called.