what's a litogether like?

[EJFan]

hi all...

i've read through some threads about past litogethers but none seem to clearly state PRECISELY what goes on. i guess i'm trying to figure out if this is a "sex-fest" kinda thing or more of a big party with "hooking up" as a kind of peripheral thing.

i'd really like to know more about what they're like, and this is why...

i have done a fair amount of professional event production over the course of the last 15 years and have been thinking about organizing the world's greatest litogether... but not if it's just supposed to be, primarily, a swinger party (not that i'm opposed to that).

it's just a thought and a very long shot at the moment, but based on what kind of responses i get, i may look into it more deeply and seriously.

so, if you have any information, i'd love to hear about your experiences OR about what type of event you'd be interested in.

 

[Weird Harold]

hi all...

i've read through some threads about past litogethers but none seem to clearly state PRECISELY what goes on. i guess i'm trying to figure out if this is a "sex-fest" kinda thing or more of a big party with "hooking up" as a kind of peripheral thing.

i'd really like to know more about what they're like, and this is why...

i have done a fair amount of professional event production over the course of the last 15 years and have been thinking about organizing the world's greatest litogether... but not if it's just supposed to be, primarily, a swinger party (not that i'm opposed to that).

The Major Litogether (with Laurel and Manu attending) that was aborted by 9/11 was being planned as a "cocktail party/Mixer." To sooth the concerns over meeting strangers, it was emphatically emphasized that it was NOT an orgy or meat-market and no pictures were to be taken without explicit permission.

Arrangments and details were restricted to e-mails and PMs to avoid attendance by trolls and stalkers. The prime consideration was to make people feel comfortable and safe about meeting stangers from an adult internet site.

As long as the participants know the rules, a litogether can be whatever you want it to be. The few minor litogethers I've arranged were a "coffee and donuts" or "let's talk over dinner" sort of meetings. Others have met for picnics or parties and have enjoyed them whether they turned into meat-markets and orgies or not -- usually not when it's a group meeting.

 

[fgarvb1]

I went to a couple of Litogethers and hope to attend more.

I met some very fine people and had a great time.

What went else might or might have gone on someday some other people who were not there might find out, I don't know.

I myself, see nothing hear nothing and know nothing...if there is anything to see, hear or know.

Unless the people involved, if any mention it first.

Ask someplace or Nora and a few others about arranging them.

I sure they can shed some light on the unique problems and funny happenings involved in making a Litogether happen.

 

[I'm Wild Cherry]

Ask someplace or Nora and a few others about arranging them.

Someplace is quite the hostess and party planner. If it were not for her, I'd be lurking behind my monitor forever!

 

[someplace]

Someplace is quite the hostess and party planner. If it were not for her, I'd be lurking behind my monitor forever!

Awww that was very kind of you to say.

We HAVE had some fun times, haven't we?

Two years ago last July a couple of comments on a thread led to some heretofore strangers to plan a gathering at a restaurant in Houston. To my knowledge, that was the first Texas lit-together. Some folks travelled from Austin, Dallas and from East Texas and all over the greater Houston/Gulf Coast area to attend. We even had someone from Chicago (in town on business) attend. It was a blast. About 20 people attended. I drank too much (after running around all day on an empty stomach -- big NoNo for me!) and was pretty silly, but that was the worst that happened. Mostly, a lot of cool people met face to face and put screen names with personalities.

We teased the Austinites that it was their turn next and Nora took that ball and ran with it. Because of the size of our state, I started calling the party planners "Den Mom's" and it's kinda stuck. I think there are about 6 or 7 of them. They each have their own style and formula for a lit-together. They watch out for the folks in their area and help the newbs assimilate into the mix. They make sure the quiet geeks in the corner don't get stuck there all night.

Nora did a classic post about Lit-togethers that should be a stickie. I'll see if I can dig it up for you.

My main advice for planning a lit-together is:

Do NOT do a thread "Hey I'm thinking about a Lit-together, what do you think?" -- you'll get 100 people with 100 different opinions and by page 2 the thread will have degenerated into "Your idea sucks donkey balls, asshole" and your party is ruined before it's birthed.

Pick a partner...even someone you don't know but with whom you seem to get along...and plan the party between you: Date and place. Then CALL it! -- you'll never please everyone all the time. Some won't be able to make it, some will.

Use your thread to generate interest and excitement in the event and have fun with it.

There have been a lot of good threads on lit-togethers. You might want to search some of them out to get more ideas. Feel free to PM me if there are any questions I could answer for you.

 

[someplace]

I found it!

Here's Nora's famous speech about what a Texas Lit-together is like:

Howdy, Curt. Welcome to Texas and to Lit.

Lit togethers are meetings in public places that are fun for the whole family (although nobody's ever brought their kids, that I can recall...spouses/sig others/chick or guy you picked up outside/umm..friends are always welcome). We do not publicize the location of the meets on the board. If you want to go, you have to PM the appropriate Den Mother (see below) who'll let you know the time and the place. We do this to keep lurkers who may or may not be scary people from stalking/harrassing/etc the folk who want to come.

We meet in restaurants, have lunch, giggle, gossip, and many of us drink (although not all and it's not a requirement). These have a tendency to last into the evening hours, often a large group will split up and do other stuff. At the last Austin meet, a group of us stayed at the poor restaurant 'til midnight watching Nike and Red_Rose karaoke. Unfortunately, none of us had a video camera!

We usually meet in the mid-afternoon to accomodate those who travel for these get togethers. The core of the group has been doing this periodically for about a year or so. We always welcome newbs, given sufficient notice (it's hard to trust someone with 0 posts who pm's you for info the night before the meet, ya know? But each of the "den mothers" has her own way of handling that situation). Meets range in size from just a few of us getting together for lunch to full scale meets of 20+ people. I've never heard of anyone having a bad time at one.

If you want to give a Texas den mother heart palpatations, just say to her, "So when's the orgy?" Grrr! They're obviously not orgies. Public nudity and obscene behavior tend to be frowned upon in Texas. Unless you're in government, of course. This isn't to say that the topics of convo are appropriate for Sunday School, but we do try to comport ourselves in a manner appropriate for public consumption. Unless Someplace gets drunk, then all bets are off. *runs and hides...she's gonna KILL me for that!!!*

The group ranges in age from early 20's up. I don't think we have any septegenarians, but give us time (or give BubbaJ time to ripen*ducks*). We're business people, homemakers, military, students, lackies, tech geeks, and a lawyer or two (to kick around, of course). There are couples, singles and married folk; straight, gay and uh...other (in a totally heterosexual way, of course!). The gender split at the ones I've attended have been about evenly split, although with a slight skew to more females than males. One memorable mini-meet was 6 girls, 2 guys. (I think the guys liked it 'til we started talking about yeast infections... JUST KIDDING!!!)

It's a pretty nice blend of people, and we've found that it's a simple way to meet people whom you may not have met otherwise. We also find we have way more in common with other than just posting on a porn board.

Since Texas is so large, we've sort of separated into regions by default. Someplace has Houston (although I think she's sharing or trying to give it all to SecretKate now). BlueDaisy has San Antonio. Marksgirl's got Fort Worth and A. Raynes has Dallas. I've got Austin (cuz Austin's da coolest! ). We're trying to con Melligirl into taking Amarillo. Personally, I think we also need to vote Aphrodesiac into taking the Valley.

Obviously we have a San Antonio meet next Saturday, April 26. A few folk can't make it, so they've asked that I do another Austin one 'fore too long. As long as nobody expects me to do anything other than pick a place and show up, I'm thinking it can be arranged for June.

Yowza! I can ramble, can't I? Hope to see you there on Saturday!

source thread

 

[EJFan]

you guys are awesome

this is some great information... i thank you all very much.

as i mentioned, it's a very VERY long shot... but i think big... REALLY big... and in my mind, i've concoted an idea for the mother of all litogethers.

i understand that these types of things shouldn't be formed via thread (great advice... makes sense) so i will certainly avoid that.

for now, though, i guess i'd like to know if it's reasonable to think that people would endeavor to attend a (more or less) national litogether event... something with entertainment, catered food, etc.

there's part of me that feels like the idea is to maintain some degree of intimacy with smaller numbers and lower overhead.

thoughts?

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: you guys are awesome

for now, though, i guess i'd like to know if it's reasonable to think that people would endeavor to attend a (more or less) national litogether event... something with entertainment, catered food, etc.

The aborted Las Vegas Litogether in 2001 was shaping up as a catered "cocktil party" in a Hotel Suite -- much lke a Hospitality Room for convention delegates. We had reached thepoint where we had about 25-30 probable attendees.

The largst Litogether I know of was about 40 who met for a picnic in the Northwest somewhere in 2002 (a park in Portland, OR, IIRC.)

In 2001, there was some consideration of holding the Litogether in Chicago and tentaive plans were laid for a sequel there if the Las Vegas event was successful.

The main problem in coordination and getting confirmed RSVPs was transportation and lodging costs. Alternative activities to justify the cost of a long trip were also a consideration for those who were concerned they might chicken out at the last second and/or found they didn't actually like Literoticans in person.

Smaller regional litogethers work well because they're often day trips. The "mother of all litogethers" sort of requires a three day/two nights kind of minimum commitment for everyone except those local to the event.

 

[ApplesMcgee]

.....

 

[someplace]

The gathering in the Carolinas this year had over 40 people attend and it was a 2-day event at a hotel, with planned activities and sponsors. I can't imagine one being bigger than that one. I didn't attend, but there were several threads about it you could search for. I believe herdestonie (?) was the coordinator.

 

[EJFan]

it seems that these events are always a lot of fun and i'm so glad you all are sharing your experiences from them.

from what i'm gathering, it seems that the greater successes tend to come from the more intimate settings with a (relatively) low number of people.

no one has really given me the impression that any kind of national "convention" would generate any solid interest. if that presumption is wrong, feel free to PM me and maybe a handful of us can work on such an endeavor.

this is what i was thinking of: a two or three day event at a convention center (like the ones in nashville or philly that have hotel, restaurant, shopping, meeting rooms, etc. all under one roof) with vendors, seminars, meals, live entertainment and whatnot. it's the kind of thing that only works if you have attendance in the 500+ range... and it could be pricey.

so, as i said, if there's any interest in the future, contact me. i've done these types of things for years and i'd do it for nothing if the interest is there from enough lit members.

thanks again for all the input. maybe we'll run into each other one day if there's a litogether in the mid-atlantic area.

 

[Weird Harold]

this is what i was thinking of: a two or three day event at a convention center (like the ones in nashville or philly that have hotel, restaurant, shopping, meeting rooms, etc. all under one roof) with vendors, seminars, meals, live entertainment and whatnot. it's the kind of thing that only works if you have attendance in the 500+ range... and it could be pricey.

Lit has had a lot of growth since 2001, so it might be possible to arrange a "Literoca Convention" but I'd be very surprised if you could manage 500+ -- there may be nearly 360,000 "members," but there's only about 500 or so active members when you take into account the members with zero post counts, alts and members who have quit coming to Lit.

40-50 actually represents about 10% of the active Literoticans and I don't think you'll ever get much more participation than that.

 

[EJFan]

Lit has had a lot of growth since 2001, so it might be possible to arrange a "Literoca Convention" but I'd be very surprised if you could manage 500+ -- there may be nearly 360,000 "members," but there's only about 500 or so active members when you take into account the members with zero post counts, alts and members who have quit coming to Lit.

40-50 actually represents about 10% of the active Literoticans and I don't think you'll ever get much more participation than that.

that's kinda what i had noticed. it seems like there are about a dozen posters who religiously visit a particular forum and i haven't seen a lot of crossover. it seems "how to" people don't venture into "GLBT" very much, for example. so at a dozen per forum it's not nearly the numbers you'd need to make it work... add in the travel and expense and it's even less likely to fly.

but, again, should it happen i'd love to work on such a project.

thanks again!

 

[Nora]

Ahh...nothing like the occassional vanity search to lead a girl to the How-To section.

Hiya, EJ. Nice to meetcha.

Someplace taught me most everything I know about meet-planning, the rest just gets picked up along the way.

As far as a huge all-Lit national meet goes, there's stuff you might want to think about, and this is just representing my own opinion on the matter, based on my experiences and feedback regarding other meets.

Firstly, not everyone's going to get fired up about the event for whatever reason. Either they're AmPics folk who have no interest in meeting people from other boards or GB'ers who don't wanna deal with the possibility of meeting any of their arch-nemeses (gotta love the notion that one could have more than one arch-nemesis, but hey, that's the GB!) or Playgrounders who'll be disappointed if it's not a state-sponsored orgy. Yes, i do know that I'm stereotyping, but there's a reason that stereotypes work. Also, there are just people around here who just plain ol' want no part of meeting others from the boards.

So, moving right along...

The most important thing to remember is that a very large proportion of the boards, all of 'em, are comprised of folk without a whole lot of disposible income. Why the hell you think we sit around on the computer all weekend, anyway? If we had more than the $26.99/mos DSL fee to blow we'd be out having REAL fun! Count me in this group, btw. If it isn't in easy driving distance, there's very little chance that I can go as I've already blown my travel budget for the year. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that situation.

One of the reasons that I prefer the smaller meets is the control factor. I know who's getting the who/what/when/where info and I don't have to worry that one of our friendly, neighborhood trolls is going to show up. With a national meet, you won't have that luxury. People are going to know it and it will influence whether they decide to go or not.

As Harold said, I think 40-50 is along the lines of what you could expect attendance-wise, and that would be under the best of circumstances. I know they had about that at the one in NC earlier in the year, though I don't know that they'd get quite the amount of repeat business. I've heard mixed reactions from people as to what it was like.

If you really wanted to do this, I'd say that your best bet would be to draft a representative from each of the boards. As you noticed, there's just not that much crossover. If you posted about it on the GB, for example, you'd likely get a lot of "who the fuck are you?" type posts. You get a person who's well known, liked and more-or-less trusted from each board to post about it, and you've got a better shot.

Discounting the loonies and the horn-dogs, most people go to meets to meet and hang out with their posting-pals. They're not so much interested in meeting new (to them) people as they are in seeing in person those with whom they already have relationships established. Interest folks with large circles of friends. Then their friends wanna go. Then the friends of those friends, etc.

My only other recommendation would be to make it something relaxed and easy. A Lit-together, in my opinion, shouldn't resemble a corporate event. If you require sponsors and demonstrations and feel like people need every moment of their holiday time planned for them, then it's not a party. It's a 3-day long advertisement. By all means, there should be some options open for those who LIKE having their time planned for them, but options, space and available transportation are key.

 

[EJFan]

hey nora... nice to meet you too. you're a practical legend around here along with sheath, weird harold and some others.

once again, i really appreciate all the information. it's great to get so much input from seasoned vets.

you guys all make very good points and i've pretty much resigned myself to accepting this as an idea without legs. i just wanted to throw out a quick description in case it piqued any interest and to offer my services.

there are ways around some of the things you brought up. HOWEVER, the one thing there's NO way around is the attendance thing. even given that it'd have to be arranged at least a year in advance, i agree with you and WH that the quantity just wouldn't be there. besides, the smaller get-togethers... uh, LITogethers, seem to be very successful. why fix it... yadda yadda yadda.

thanks to all of you!