2015 GIFF Event. The Host with the Most

Packed House for the 2015 GIFF Event

A couple months ago Groundspeak announced that they would give out the film reel for the 2015 GIFF (Geocaching International Film Festival) to anyone who hosted an event for that purpose the first weekend in November, and after mulling it over, I went ahead and posted an event to do so. Little did I know that this event would grow to be the biggest event I had ever hosted.

I have hosted a handful of events before, mostly small CITOs, but one "Geocaching 101" style event. And for the most part, organizing for those events was fairly easy. I just picked a location, brought some stuff (trash bags usually) and the event was held. The one event that would have required some planning, the Geocaching 101 event, someone else arranged the venue, so all I had to do was show up and talk geocaching. Easy enough. For this GIFF event though, I had to find a suitable location that I would be able to play the movie at. After posting about the GIFF event on Facebook, I wasn't sure how much interest there would be for it, hardly anyone said a thing there, much less express interest. I briefly considered having it at home, we could sit a dozen people in our living room, but then thought better of it. Eventually, I called a bunch of restaurants to see if they had semi-private rooms that I could use. Pizza and a movie seemed like a good idea to me, so I ended up going with Pizza Inn located near Knoxville. After posting the event, I had to fill out a form for Groundspeak to get me added to their "Official GIFF Events" list. This would also get me access to the film reel.

As the day of the event grew nearer, Groundspeak announced that they would be "awarding" a souvenir for anyone attending an official GIFF event.

Souvenir

Souvenirs are pretty silly things, just a little image file that you "get" for "achieving" something. But human psychology is equally silly, and as soon as a souvenir was involved I knew the geocachers would come out in droves. What I originally thought would be 20-30 people ended up being closer 60-70 people and filled the "banquet room" at Pizza Inn. This was by far the most people that have come to an event I hosted, and it was pretty fun. And hosting was made pretty easy by having the movie to play. After people found tables and filled up plates with pizza from the buffet, I popped in the DVD and we all laughed at the 16 ridiculous geocaching movies that people created for the 2015 GIFF. The actual film festival was part of the Groundspeak Block Party held in August, but this weekend was the first time they had made the reel public, so everyone was seeing the films for the first time.

I brought my daughter's ukulele along, since there was a ukulele themed geocaching song that accompanied the reel, and enjoyed playing along between the films.

I have to say, that watching this film reel was greatly improved by being with a large group of geocachers. Sharing giggles, groans and chuckles with a bunch of like minded individuals made the whole experience pretty fun, much more so than watching the videos at home on Youtube. Would I host another big event like this? Maybe... it was indeed a good time.

Event "Logbook"