Ohayocon meetups

UPDATE: Good news and bad news: Ohayocon posted the schedule... but one of the MLP panels is scheduled against the photoshoot! Here's the breakdown of what's happening and when.

• Friday, 11 AM, Ballroom A: "Pony Panel 2: Wrath of Celestia" (1h30m) – seems like the same people who ran last year's panel. You'll probably still be in the registration line when this one's happening anyway.
• Friday, 6 PM, Grant/Harding: "My Little Headcanon" (1h)
• Friday, 7 PM, outside Grant/Harding: Meetup #1 (time/location moved due to panel)
• Friday, 8 PM, Union C-E: "Ponies & Bronies for Newbies"
• Friday, 8 PM, base of stairs: Photoshoot #1
• Saturday, 2 PM, base of stairs: Photoshoot #2
• Saturday, 6 PM, alcove behind stairs: Meetup #2
• Sunday, 12 AM (that's Saturday night), Union A-B: "Bronies Late Night" – this is the AlcoBrony panel, which you might know from Colossalcon. It also might or might not have been canceled.

Whew! That sure is a lot of pony. See you at the con!

(Original post preserved below for reference.)

Holiday-related meetup compendium

I was digging through the forums looking around for upcoming meetup plans, and found a bunch of stuff! I'm not 100% sure what the status on all these things is, but here goes anyway. Corrections and additions are welcome, of course.

(Edit: Okay, not all of these are strictly holiday-related, but close enough.)

Short version:

• December 29: Strat's birthday party at Dave & Busters
• December 31: RadarStorm's New Year's party
• January 5: Trickster's party
• January 12-13: Ice skating at the Chiller in Dublin Easton with SuperDSombrero
• January 18-20: Ohayocon
• January 26-27: Starshine's as-yet-unspecified northeast Ohio meetup
• Send us stuff!

Details after the cut.

Columbus Super Meetup: Blendon Woods + COSI

Hay, everypony! We've cooked up another meetup for you to attend, and this one's biiiiig, so mark your calendar, call off work, hire a stunt double, and do whatever else is necessary to make sure you're there! We have the largest area at Blendon Woods – Sycamore Shelter – reserved for Saturday, October 6th. Sycamore has capacity for well over 100 people (with sheltered seating for about 80), horseshoe pits, swings, a big kitchen area that we definitely plan on using, and ample parking directly nearby. We will be grilling some burgers, probably also ordering a big stack of pizzas, jamming to some music, watching ponies, playing games, and much more. There will also be table space available for artists to peddle their wares.

Come early and stay late; we've got the place for the whole day and will be there from about 9 AM until 7 PM. Afterward, we're not quite sure, but we can hang out somewhere else, catch a movie, invade a local restaurant, or just call it a night. We'll discuss that before heading out and will try to make sure no one gets all lost.

This is also your first (and cheapest!) chance to pre-register for TrotCon next summer: at this meetup, a mere $20 will get you a badge for next year's con, and you won't see that price again ... except maybe as a single-day rate. There will be details and hints of what's in store, some of which won't be posted anywhere until quite some time later.

Still not convinced? Attend now, and we'll DOUBLE your meetup! On Sunday, those interested can join us at COSI. It's open from noon until 6 PM, and we're planning to make the most of the day and be there the whole time. Let us know soon if you're interested in this, as we can get a group discount for parties of twelve or more. For those unfamiliar with COSI, it's a nifty science center full of all sorts of exhibits and hands-on activities. While it's mostly targeted toward children, it also has a lot of cool stuff for people of all ages. (Besides, don't we all watch a certain kids' TV show? ;)

Facebook event page
Google+ event page

Momo's Needs Your Help!

Where: Momo2, 2885 Olentangy River Road, Columbus, OH 43202‎
When: Thursday, July 26, 5:00 PM

Almost exactly a year ago to the day, we held our first public meetup in Columbus at Momo's, and about 30 or so people showed up for it. Last weekend, we had a slightly bigger event, TrotCon, which had roughly 700 attendees. In other words, we've grown one heck of a lot in the last twelve months, and we owe this in part to Momo's for being such cool guys and letting us come in, set up a projector, and have some fun. Before we left, we chatted a bit with the staff, most of whom had never heard of the show and were at least a little confused that a big group of people just showed up to hang out and watch a little girls' cartoon.

After several meetups all around the state, we came back to Momo's last November, and Darkly Cute made them a custom pony, which we presented to them at the end of the night. They were pretty excited to get it, and they told us that some of their staff had gotten into watching the show in the few months between the two times we were there. Pretty awesome.

Now for the serious bit... We very recently heard some unfortunate news that Momo's is closing. The gist of what's happened is that the Kroger in the same plaza is apparently buying out the rest of the building in order to expand. We're not quite sure about some of the specifics, but Momo's is scheduled to pack up and leave on the 29th, and when we talked to their manager, he said that it might cost about $100,000 to either help secure their location or find them a new home. I fully believe we can make this happen. As a community, we collected over three times that in less than a month for BronyCon: The Documentary, and we pulled over $10,000 in one day for Inked! Art For Africa. Just this past weekend, after roaming High Street, about thirty of us stumbled into Dane's Dessert Cafe, more or less took over the place, bought some of the art from the walls, and gave them over 100% in tips – and we didn't even have a compelling reason, other than "this is a cool place." We even helped run the place and cleaned up after ourselves when we left. It's what we do as a group.

For those in the Columbus area or willing to drive, we will be having an impromptu meetup at Momo's this Thursday, the 26th, starting at 5:00 PM. We'll be doing what we do best, hanging out and having fun. We will also be finding out more details about the place closing and figure out what we can do to help, so expect a follow-up post from us soon, probably with a Kickstarter fund. Any help will definitely be appreciated, not only from Momo's but also from us, because we feel they were in some small part responsible for helping launch us as a group to where we are now.

Come hang out!

TrotCon!

For those of you who weren't at last weekend's Cleveland meetups, we're throwing a convention this summer!  Huzzah!

For all the whats, wheres, whos, and howsits, check out all the things at http://trotcon.com/

So as you all now know, we here are planning this amazing TrotCon thing that you all wanna come to and party like it's Twi's birthday! "But wait!" you say. "I heard something about Canterlot Gardens HALP AH'M CONFUS" Never fear my little ponies, we shall explain to you all the things!

TrotCon (http://trotcon.com/) and Canterlot Gardens (http://www.canterlotgardens.com/) are two separate pony conventions in the same state. Apparently two separate groups here in Ohio were both working on conventions at the same time and both decided to go public with information at the same time! Crazy that. We have no affiliation with Canterlot Gardens, nor are we against them. We wish them the best in their endeavors up by the lake, but are obviously tied up ourselves in making sure TrotCon will be the greatest thing since Princess Luna returned from her banishment!

To dispel some of the other rumors that have been floating around: No, we did not create TrotCon as a last minute effort to one-up Canterlot Gardens. We've been planning this for over six months now and didn't want to release any information about it until things were confirmed. We don't like making promises we can't keep. No, we are not actively trying to tell people not to go to Canterlot Gardens. As was said earlier, we don't wish them any ill will. We're just focused on our own thing, for obvious reasons. Also in regards to that, due to conflicts of interest, if you want to be heavily involved in the planning portion of TrotCon, we will have to request that you not be involved in the planning of Canterlot Gardens. We'd just like to avoid any accusations of idea thievery and that kinda noise.

There you have it.  Look forward to great things in our wonderful state this year!

Meetup plans

derpyid by suirobo

We have been sort of slacking in keeping the blog updated with the meetups we've been talking about, so have four five at once. We'll be posting more details about all of these as their times approach; this is just some preliminary information.

Ohayocon Summary

Your write-up report is buffering, please be patient.

TL;DR VERSION:

• SO MANY PONIES
• We got interviewed by The Daily Oat. Check it out!
• Pillows are eight feet in the air
• We won the convention and got our own panel room
• Tony Stark is an awesome brony
• Cider cider cider cider
• The Pony Panel was underwhelming
• Browse the photo gallery
• Fezzes are cool

Since a lot of people asked where and when they can get Darkly Cute's metal pins: pre-orders for the next batch will be up soon. Keep a watch on this blog, as there will be a post here some time this week. Meanwhile, the pin shop is here.

Also: somepony left a coat in the panel room Saturday night. If it's yours, email Starshine with a description of it, and we will make sure you get it back. Update - resolved!

There is just way too much stuff to cram it all into one post here, so keep watching for more. If you have more photos (or even video clips!) send them to us so we can add them to the gallery and possibly feature them in a media post later this week.

Ohayocon 2012 Meetup Times!

TaoPiePie by John Joseco

Meetup Times
Friday the 27th - 8pm on the Giant Stairs
Saturday the 28th - 1pm and 8pm on the Giant Stairs
Sunday 29th - Pony Panel at 10am

We will also probably be going to the Hyatt bar both Friday and Saturday night, so you are welcome to join us then as well.

We are really looking forward to meeting a bunch of bronies at Ohayocon.

Ohayocon Info!
The at-the-door badge price for the entire weekend is $55.
The convention will be at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus (350 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43215)

If you would like to get in contact with us over the convention weekend, then send a text or email to Peanut.Bucker@bucked.org.

Facebook Event Page

Ohayocon 2012

Princess Pie by: tensaioni

The Ohio Bronies group will be invading Ohayocon!  We will be having various meetups throughout the weekend of January 27-29th, 2012. As of right now no times are set in stone, as we are waiting to find out what day and time the MLP:FiM panel will be.

Ohayocon Info!
The at-the-door badge price for the entire weekend is $55.
The convention will be at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus (350 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43215)

If you would like to get in contact with us over the convention weekend, then send a text or email to Peanut.Bucker@bucked.org.

Facebook Event Page

Columbus Meetup!

The Ohio Bronies group has grown quite a bit since the first Columbus meetup in July (has it really been that long already?) so we're coming back for more! This time, it will be bigger and eight two days long. On Saturday, November 19, we are meeting at Momo2, where we will set up camp, watch life-sized ponies with the pony projector including the new episode, and hang out for several hours. We're probably going to a hotel for the night, and on Sunday, we are planning on going to Magic Mountain in Polaris. At some point we'll also go pony shopping.

Here's the Facebook page for the event.

July meetup summary

So~! Before we have this meetup in Cleveland, perhaps I ought to take a moment and write a bit about the last meetup we had back in July.

The officially announced meetup time and place was July 23, 3:00 PM, at Momo2 in Columbus. For those who don't know what this place is (probably everyone who wasn't at this meetup), it's mostly a big building with some pool tables, a few rooms for Japanese-style karaoke, and a couple of bowling lanes. They serve food and drinks, including remarkably bubbly bubble tea, there's a couple televisions here and there, and they play chill-out music. It worked out great for us because they have a lot of empty space and can easily handle a big group, and there was a fairly open area toward the back with couches where we could all gather, with a decent-sized blank wall to project onto, and a couple of tables to spread stuff out.