Random thoughts about a geek dinner in Cambridge on Thursday night.
Maybe we should do it party-style?
Maybe we can get a room somewhere, and have Bombay Club cater it.
$20 a head?
The lesson of the dinner in Palo Alto, and every other dinner before is that you miss serendipity, finding out there were people there you really wanted to meet, only after seeing the Flickr account of the dinner, and then it’s too late.
Better to have a mingling atmosphere. Like a food court.
Hmmm. Maybe the food court down at the Galleria?
You know which one I’m talking about?
Cambridgeside?
I’d love to do something at MIT.
We’ve always been doing these things at Harvard.
How about branching out?
Anyone at MIT want to help us get a room?
Let’s try a new formula!
Scripting News Annex 
Posted by Rod Begbie on January 2, 2006 at 6:49 am
MIT’s an open campus. Just wander in, find an empty room, and stick a poster in the lobby with directions.
Nearly every improv troupe in Boston uses 50 Vasser St for free rehearsal space!
Posted by Andy Affleck on January 2, 2006 at 7:00 am
I agree about the party venue. If you have more than about 10 people, you never really talk to anyone but who’s immediately around you.
Either way, I’ll try to be there (weather permitting).
Posted by Dave Winer on January 2, 2006 at 8:05 am
Rod, that’s awesome. I never knew that.
Maybe someone who knows the MIT campus could do that for us?
Can we have catering at one of these “open” rooms?
Just amazing. Can’t be true.
Posted by Larry Bouchie on January 2, 2006 at 5:58 pm
I have an MIT friend, and will check with her about if/how to do this.
Posted by Bela Labovitch on January 2, 2006 at 6:21 pm
Just got back from vacation, and am excited to be there Thursday night. If M.I.T doesn’t work out, the Bombay Club has a room where they can serve a buffet dinner, if atleast 25 people show up.
Posted by Matt Terenzio on January 3, 2006 at 3:12 am
The MIT campus does “seem” that way, but I don’t know what the official policy is. I think I can make it in either case.
Posted by Mike Earl on January 3, 2006 at 9:46 am
MIT isn’t *officially* quite that open, but unofficial is another matter; if you aren’t causing trouble and look like you know what you’re doing you can get away with quite a bit.
I’d recommend getting some MIT folks or a student group as unoffical sponsors, though, as the CPs will cut them a lot more slack if they do decide to ask questions about what’s going one, and in any event they can tell you (as I can’t) what areas are sensitive these days, what doors are unlocked without keycards, etc.
Posted by Dave Winer on January 3, 2006 at 9:48 am
Cambridgeside has wifi, it was free as of March 2004, but they said they were going to charge for it eventually.
I think that tips it. Let’s do the dinner on Thursday at the food court.
Now the question is how do people find each other?
I think we can probably figure something out there. ;->
Posted by Betsy Devine on January 3, 2006 at 11:12 am
We’ll be the people with red carnations in our buttonholes–no, the table where everybody is wearing a purple hat–no wait, maybe we’ll be the table covered with Mac Powerbooks?