First Ever Meetup in Africa

October 10, 2007 6:50 AM

Africa Meetup: I hereby claim this continent for Metafilter.

I'm not sure how successful this meet-up will be, seeing as my profile currently tells me "There are no other MetaFilter members nearby, sorry."

But I'm gonna float this one out there anyhow:

First Ever MeFi Meetup in Africa.

Where:
The Blues Room, in The Village Walk, in Sandton
Johannesburg, South Africa

When:
Friday, October 26th, 9pm

Why:
to boldly go where no meetup has gone before

Who:
me? crickets chirping

posted by allkindsoftime to MetaFilter Gatherings at 6:50 AM (25 comments total)

This should be interesting.
posted by allkindsoftime at 6:52 AM on October 10, 2007

Slipped a non-title Africa meetup reference above the fold, so people would know what this is about from the front page.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:11 AM on October 10, 2007

Nkosi Sikelel' iMetaFilta!
posted by Abiezer at 7:24 AM on October 10, 2007

My bad, thanks for fixing cortex.
posted by allkindsoftime at 7:31 AM on October 10, 2007

I hear that drunken hookups happen all the time at these "meetups". Just remember, its ok to send yourself flowers.
posted by R. Mutt at 7:35 AM on October 10, 2007

WCityMike: I'd be interested in seeing that as well; it'd be nice to have a first meetup in Eastern Europe one day.
posted by Ljubljana at 8:00 AM on October 10, 2007

I believe Goofyy is in South Africa; you might want to ping him in case he doesn't see this thread.
posted by desjardins at 8:20 AM on October 10, 2007

Don't get your hopes up, here's southern Africa...
posted by sebas at 8:22 AM on October 10, 2007

Grey Africa
posted by blue_beetle at 9:10 AM on October 10, 2007

Oy. Let's hope there's someone out there that hasn't registered their coordinates, eh?

I've emailed about 6-7 folk that I found via the few AskMeFi posts tagged with SouthAfrica, including PenDevil and Goofyy, but I'm fairly cautious to start with.

If the only people I can get are Cape Towner's, I will change date / location as necessary and make it down there to get this thing off the ground.
posted by allkindsoftime at 9:33 AM on October 10, 2007

Technically not the first: Goofyy and myself met for a dinner when he came through Cape Town.
posted by PenDevil at 9:34 AM on October 10, 2007

We're in Chicago, but my wife and I will be in Cape Town from Dec 18-28, then Pretoria until Jan 7.
posted by chundo at 9:42 AM on October 10, 2007

goddammit PenDevil you had to go and ruin my conquest.

:)

Goofyy's in Port Eliz if I recall correctly? guess the 3 of us could connect via email and decide when we all might be in the same place - maybe when chundo's in town? for the SECOND ever Africa MeFi meetup...
posted by allkindsoftime at 10:01 AM on October 10, 2007

Yeah, but PenDevil's like the Vikings in Newfoundland (literally!1!!); no-one will believe he really did it once you roll in and take over big style.
posted by Abiezer at 10:08 AM on October 10, 2007

Can't. I'll be riding my motorcycle from Boston to NYC to meet with the lovely essexjan at the time. But, uh, keep me apprised of the next one. Maybe in a country with less... y'know, Apartheid? I mean, sure, they say it's gone, but then you get there and they won't let you back into the States; I know how it works.
posted by Eideteker at 10:36 AM on October 10, 2007

UMGOWA
posted by quonsar at 11:57 AM on October 10, 2007

Maybe in a country with less... y'know, Apartheid? I mean, sure, they say it's gone, but then you get there and they won't let you back into the States; I know how it works.

Um, what??

But back to the point -- shame this wasn't a few weeks ago, as I was in Pretoria at the time! But sans transportation, alas, so there's no way I could get to Joburg.
posted by macdara at 12:02 PM on October 10, 2007

Um, what??

UMGOWA
posted by quonsar at 1:13 PM on October 10, 2007

Dude I'll totally be in the continent for the next few months! Stop by. I'm just down the road in Cairo.
posted by Deathalicious at 1:43 PM on October 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

I mean, sure, they say it's gone, but then you get there and they won't let you back into the States; I know how it works.

I don't think you do.
posted by chundo at 2:04 PM on October 10, 2007

You leaving Cairo, Deathalicious?
posted by miss lynnster at 10:28 PM on October 10, 2007

I've just updated my profile with my corrected GPS location and I'm a mere 35 miles away from you which puts me in chilly Johannesburg. I'm reasonably game for a meetup, but I sincerely doubt that there are really enough of us to go and out conquer Africa nor a small club in Sandton. :-)

When I last checked, most of the ZA MeFites were based in the Western Cape and if you're aiming for numbers, then you'll probably have a better bet of organising a meetup in Cape Town or one the other environs down there.

Nevertheless, I'm game for a meetup.
posted by KayTerra at 12:36 AM on October 11, 2007

I returned from Africa one month ago. Damn.

Best of luck with organizing the meeting. Too bad I didn't try in Ethiopia :)
posted by carabiner at 10:37 PM on October 11, 2007

Joburg?! Who wants to go to Joburg?

I'm in East London, actually, and occasionally in Cape Town (was there over the weekend). Rarely in Joburg, although a proposed trip has recently been mentioned by the other half (main purpose being the amusement park). Don't recall the dates.

But you know, this is South Africa. My internet access has been down for the last 8 days, with daily power outage, too. Welcome to the land of Escom and Telkom. I am encouraging Telkom to sue Escom (cause of much of the disruption). Maybe they can eat eachother into oblivion!

But sorry, can't be in Joburg at the proposed date.

And yes, Pendevil and I already did the FIRST South African meetup. You can have the first Guatang meetup.
posted by Goofyy at 11:41 PM on October 16, 2007

Foetry Guy: My email is in my profile, if you still want CDs. There's some good music down here!
posted by Goofyy at 11:41 PM on October 16, 2007