Geocoinfest 2010 - GC20TB6

[Mechman]

Just came across this listing while looking for caches in the Mall of America area.
It's a mega event, so sure to be a lot of people there.
September 19-21
Not much there in terms of website content yet, but it sounds like it could be fun!

Can anyone say ROAD TRIP??

[Wandering_Man]

Wow that looks like it would be quite the event! 

[Mechman]

Website has a few more details - go to

http://www.geocoinfest2010.com/

I have signed up and paid up for the event, and looking forward to it.  Anyone else thinking of going down?

[ChrisDom]

I am still thinking of going.  Hoping to double up to split the cost of the gas and room.  Are you going for the full event? 

[UpNorthTracks]

Damn, I think that would be one heck of a road trip from here.
If I am not a vendor at a geocaching event that weekend, I think I'll talk the wife into going.

[Mechman]

We will be leaving on Friday, and coming back Monday AM - so yes - pretty much the full event.

I am not sure why they closed registration so early....but perhaps you can e-mail the organizers and see what's up??

[ChrisDom]

I guess I am not going; I thought I had until August to register.

[Mechman]

Here is the official response from their forums.

As with all geocaching event, you can just show up. But by registering, you will get a custom lanyard and some swag, and give us a better ideal of how many to expect.

If you just show up you will get a stick on name tag. As has happen with past event and I am excepting to happen again, I am prepared to be screamed and yelled at by people that just show up and expect to get everything that someone who has register got. That's what I get, but they will still just get the stick on name tag, with my apology for their lack of registration. Grin

I hope that answered your question. Let me know if you have any others.

See you soon.

[Mechman]

Getting closer to the date!  I see that H-K have signed up!!  For those of you that are looking for a little excitement without being there....there are a couple of things that you can do.

If you have an unactivated geocoin, and would like to trade it in a "blind" trade for an unknown unactivated coin of similar size, you can give it to me and I'll submit it in for the exchange.

Also there is a travelbug/geocoin swap table.  If you have a geocoin or travelbug that you would like me to bring down and either leave there or exchange for another, let me know and we can hook up so I can get it from you.  Two requests for you though...put it in a baggie, and print out the goal/mission page, and put it in the baggie with the TB or geocoin.

If anyone has any pathtags (other than NWOG ones - I'll have enough of them) that they would like to trade in the speed pathtag trading I'll also do that for you.

If anyone has any geocoin requests from any vendors that are there or would like a coin from the event, please let me know that too and provide me with some cash up front.

Rooms are still available.

See GC20TB6 or http://www.geocoinfest2010.com/index.html for details, and links to some of the 3 official other events, there is a bonfire, a meet and greet, a poker tourney, a silent auction, a couple of lectures, and a coffee meet-up....lots to do..should be interesting to see how nuts some people go over this stuff!!

[hunter-killer]

We pre ordered and pre paid for the set of 4 Minnesota geocoins which includes a  Minnesota Geocaching Association members only coin and a  Geocoinfest geocoin and will pick them up at the event. I am sure there are going to be many unique coins for sale so I guess a big bag of U.S Funds is going to be needed.

[Mechman]

Should be fun having you guys down there with us!!  We are not so much into the coin trading, but more interested in seeing the extreme that others go to to get rare coins...I\ll be participating in the Pathtag speed trading...I've got 40 or so NWOG tags that are ready to trade...will be attending all the lead up events...s'mores, cup o joe, and the meet and greet...there are a few caches around the venue that we'll be trying to get over the weekend (you are welcome to accompany us), including a relatively new puzzle one at MoA (GC28F7P), and some new ones in the "American Boulevard" series.  So far no one has replied to my Blind Trade offer, so that will be easy!  Not sure if we are going to get in on any of the caching runs...got tickets to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Science Museum of Minesota (http://www.smm.org/scrolls/) for 2:00 on Saturday.  Also going to stop at Hawk Ridge in Duluth (http://www.hawkridge.org/events/hawkweekend.html) on the way down on Friday to see the migrating raptors.  Really neat if you haven't seen it before!  Plans for it to be a busy weekend - probably a few caches on the way home.  Should be a fun event!!!

Mech

[Mechman]

Well a quick road trip report for my first MEGAevent!!  All I can say is WOW - there a quite a few crazy coin collectors out there!!!  I talked to one guy who's collection was at one point up to 10,000 coins..

Day 1 - S'mores event - about 250 or so cachers, at the Crosby nature preserve near the airport.  Met-up with H-K, who were busy figuring out how to sort out the 31 caches (over a nice coors light), that they had found that day.  Had a bite to eat, are a few smores, found 1 cache, and generally smhoozed around, meeting other cachers.  Met Minnesota's infamous cacher King Boreas (who hosted this event).  This guy has hidden over 2000 caches, and has some interesting challenges - look him up!!  Lots of TB decals in windows.

Day 2 - Coffee event at Mall of America in AM - nice start to the AM.  Mama and kids went shopping after this, and I took H-K to get a couple caches nearby the mall.  Dropped them back at aquarium, then I went to get 4 or 5 more nearby caches on American Boulevard.  Met back up with the crew, had some lunch, went to the Science Center to see some pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Returned back to the Mall to drop kids and mama off, and I went onto the evening social event back at the Holiday Inn.  Again a mixer and mingling.  Beer was involved instead of coffee..met the organizer of the whole event, and also met Sir Z Man and Super R. They do a podcache about minnesota geocaching.  He had a coin that was just given to him that I discovered - it was the groundspeak lackey coin.  Apparently there was a lackey there - and as I was retiring back to my room I met her in the elevator - barely had time to say hi, before I got to my floor...

Day 3 - The main event - many events today - mostly trading in the main room, there were vendors (about 10) set up around the room, some of which were OakCoins, Pathtags.com, and Geocoin Club.  There were guys with books and books of coins laid out on tables..for discovering and trading.  There was a pathtag speed trading where I got about 20 new tags or so, and gave away NWOG ones.  There were a couple of coin design seminars (that we skipped), the kids got a nice goodie bag of stuff and there was a room for them to keep them busy designing "coins".  There were a couple of caching runs that were prepared, and if you found 5 (of the 15 or so listed) then you qualified for a draw.  There were door prizes for about 50 cachers, and that was kind of the end of it all about 4:30.  There was a poker tourney in the evening, but not sure how that went, stuck my head in, but seemed too quiet to stay.

It was a well organized event, and we were never really waiting for anything, or wanting anything.  Kudos to the organizers!!
Glad that we were not the only NWOG members there!  Also met some cachers from Winnipeg!

Our first MEGA event - and hopefully not our last.

[hunter-killer]

It also should be noted that in that one room the dollar value of the Geo-coins available for sale was estimated at over one Million dollars, just to get a sense of how huge this event was. There were of course shirts, stickers, pathtags,and caches of all types for sale also.

Caching was simple with so many to choose from, the events were top notch and all run well each with hundreds of attendees, and the MegaEvent estimated to go over 500, with some geocaching accounts having up to 6 people in a group.

The good thing about it was the hotel were this event was held discounted the room rate for as many days as a cacher wanted to stay, not just the night before and after the event, so it was very affordable trip in a 5 star luxury hotel. 10th floor overlooking the twin glass towers and Health Partners building was so cool, a plane every minute flying by those buildings looked like they were flying into the buildings every time one went by.

With so much to do at the Mall of America, The Football Game and a Baseball game both on the same day there was no end  for something to do, but the highlight at least for me was driving North west of Minneapolis, to Rogers Minnesota to the giant Cabella's out door store. That was just a dream for me, that turned into reality this trip. Awesome place if you are a sportsman, or sportswomen.

We enjoyed this group of events and had a great time with Mechman. Thanks Dave for the window sticker which reads on top, Hunter-Killer and on the bottom FTF Club LOL and funny thing was we got yet another international FTF and never expected it. Apparently we beat a few local FTF hounds one we met as we were signing, and boy was he ticked LOL. A great event, a mega event Icon in our profile and lots of memories, Minnesota did a fine job hosting this event.

[Mechman]

For those of you that are interested in seeing some video from this event.  The Canadian Video Blogger/Cacher from Prince George called Icenrye has some video from DarrylW4 (of cache-a-maniacs fame), and also features SirZMan and SuperR from the TCGCPC (Twin Cities Geocaching Podcast).

You can find it at http://www.trackfiles.tv/?page_id=81 if you click on episode 6 and 7.  Or you can subscribe in i-tunes.

TCGCPC - http://www.tcgcpc.com/ (also on itunes)
Cache-a-maniacs - http://www.cacheamaniacs.com/ (also on itunes)