QL Is 30

[dilwyn]

2014 will be the QL's 30th birthday.

With the 2013 Quanta workshop and AGM having just been I am kee to see an early start on planning for this important QL milestone next year.

So, let's have a good early discussion to let us plan for a great celebration next year.

A couple of possible venues have been mooted and ideas such as looking at whether we could go into partnership with another retro-computing organisation to run our event in partnership and in parallel with them to save costs and probably even draw in retro enthusiasts to the QL event to see if, for example, we might add some new users to the user base, e.g. ZX81 and Spectrum users who might want to add another Sinclair Computer (QL) to their range of interests when they see there is still a valid QL organisation and user base. And of course people who have a QL in their collection of old computers but who simply don't know there's QL activity out there.

QL Forum have already been very successful at bringing new users on board and I very much hope that we can involve you all here, member or not. Being part of organisations like QL Forum and Quanta will become even more important once QL Today is no longer around.

Absolutely nothing about any event next year has been decided or costed yet and we welcome ideas with open arms.

[vanpeebles]

QL Forum stands ready!

[Dave]

Let's see what we can do to make it an exciting year!

[tofro]

Dilwyn has been on a Quanta AGM:

He writes sentences more complicated than the Quanta statutes Nearly lost my breath when I read your post

But, good idea to start early. I would propose a web site celebrating the QL birthday, programming contests, virtual QL museum maybe.

It would also make sense to announce any event not as a Quanta-owned celebration but rather as a community effort sponsored by Quanta - This could possibly attract non Quanta-members as well.

Tobias

PS: Taking Quanta's proven daggers-drawn relationship towards web sites into account, the above might sound a bit sarcastic. No, it was meant in earnest. Dave is just setting up a web server - Maybe he would be willing to lend a hand?

[Dave]

The server is set up and the software is installed and being set up. I'm distracted right now by the attack in Boston...

I would be happy to help and/or cooperate with Quanta and the QL Forum in any useful way.

[RWAP]

I have already made some suggestions and contacted a few people who may be able to provide talks - I think that it should not be an event run by Quanta, but one sponsored by Quanta.

It makes sense to hold it as part of another wider event too - I would like it to be a "Sinclair Celebration Event" which we could run in conjunction with one of the computer museums.

Trouble is that it always comes back to location.

Wherever you hold it in the UK, people around London just do not seem to be willing to travel to it unless it's their side of the M25 - anywhere north of Watford Gap and they will not travel.

Anyone else in the UK or the world will travel to the location - BUT it is pointless holding it in and around London because of the cost!

My suggestion is to hold the event as a section of the annual event run by the Retro Computer Museum at Snibston Discovery Museum (Leicester) - it is not exactly local to me, but at least it is fairly central and they already ran a successful retro computing event there earlier this year. The RCM have booked next Easter for their event.

[dilwyn]

Dilwyn has been on a Quanta AGM:

He writes sentences more complicated than the Quanta statutes Nearly lost my breath when I read your post

Umm, yes, I think I swallowed a dictionary instead of my breakfast by mistake

[dilwyn]

I have already made some suggestions and contacted a few people who may be able to provide talks - I think that it should not be an event run by Quanta, but one sponsored by Quanta.

It makes sense to hold it as part of another wider event too - I would like it to be a "Sinclair Celebration Event" which we could run in conjunction with one of the computer museums.

Trouble is that it always comes back to location.

Wherever you hold it in the UK, people around London just do not seem to be willing to travel to it unless it's their side of the M25 - anywhere north of Watford Gap and they will not travel.

Anyone else in the UK or the world will travel to the location - BUT it is pointless holding it in and around London because of the cost!

My suggestion is to hold the event as a section of the annual event run by the Retro Computer Museum at Snibston Discovery Museum (Leicester) - it is not exactly local to me, but at least it is fairly central and they already ran a successful retro computing event there earlier this year. The RCM have booked next Easter for their event.

"not run by Quanta but sponsored by Quanta..." - does that mean you just want Quanta's money ?
That was a joke, but reading it again it could possibly be seen that way. Actually, it's not that bad an idea - someone else also suggested that non-Quanta involvement might bring in non-Quanta visitors. Privatising Quanta workshops?

The museum Rich mentions is just 4 miles from the M1 motorway, so presumably easy to get to if travelling from North or South (well, when the M1 isn't in "Car Park" mode). It's not far from Leicester, which is regarded as the geographical centre of the country.

I wasn't going to mention that particular venue just yet in case it stopped others suggesting suitable venues for "QL Is 30" (anyone got a better name?). Rich and I discussed it briefly before the Quanta AGM, so I took the details with me to our committee meeting there and it seemed to be seen as quite worthy of consideration. Rich has contacts with retro organisations through his dealings with ZX81 and Spectrum computers, so we greatly value his input and expertise, and of course it wouldn't be fair to leave it all to him either.

With 12 months to go, an event sometime around next Easter (Good Friday is 18th April 2014) gives us ample time to plan a great event and QL users can of course plan ahead to visit a great celebration of the QL's 30th anniversary. Dare I ask how many on this Forum would consider attending if they were available at the time?

[RWAP]

Would love to have suggestions of other venues as I am not certain that Snibston is the best venue - especially as they seem to lack a small room in which to hold intimate talks and the Quanta AGM (maybe the AGM could be in the pub afterwards?)

It's not so much as just wanting Quanta's money for the event - if anything it should ideally be cost neutral (by selling tickets) - I am just not certain how much time the Quanta committee will have to sorting out a venue / speakers / tables / etc... so a privatised event probably makes more sense.

[Mr_Navigator]

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Just some ideas