Real-life Meetings
Table of Contents
Real-life meetings are meetings occassionaly held in the community with a group of people. In some regions, these meetings have become an annual (or more often) habit. Some of these meetings have an international character.
European Meetings
In Western Europe, real-life meetings have become a regular phenomenon, with at least one large international meeting being held in the Netherlands each year. Most of the meetings’ participants have been Dutch, but people from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Great Britain and the United States sometimes come as well. The meeting is now usually called the European meeting but the meeting generally excludes Eastern Europe and could also be called West-European. There have been 4 international meetings in the Netherlands so far, the last meeting, EU2005, having been held on August 21 in the Netherlands.
Large nationwide (but not very international) meetings have also been held by some clans in the Netherlands, like the Cracco Clan meetings.
Related content outside the wiki
- Group pic from the first international west-european meeting
- Group pic from third international west-european meeting
- EU2005 talk
- EU2005 pictures at Flickr
North American Meetings
North American meetings did not take off as easily as the European meetings largely because of the geographical challange of distance. Few jazzers live in the same state as each other, and often if they did, they either knew each other from before the game or live several hours away. Most attendees would have to fly to the location in order to participate, and people had their reservations towards making the financial dedication to doing something unfamiliar.
The first major North American meeting took place in the Summer of 2004 in San Jose, CA. The people who decided to attend were concentrated along the West Coast, but some still came from as far as Vancouver, BC (over 950mi/1,500km away). With the success of the first meeting, it was easy to agree that subsequent meetings should be planned as the experience was well worth the time and money.
North American meetings generally last for several days, as opposed to the European meetings, because it isn’t worth staying for any shorter amount of time considering the travel overhead. Meetings usually take place near the beginning of August since that’s when most people are out of school. A new location is decided for each meeting to attempt to allow jazzers who cannot travel as far a better chance of attending, and to provide new and exciting experiences.