[OzBargain 16th Birthday] Get Ready for IRL Meetups This November!

OzBargain is turning 16 this November!

We will be asking our members to organise off-line / in-real-life meetup events to celebrate OzBargain's 16th birthday in November 2022.

OzBargain16

List of Events

Please check these events and confirm with the organiser by voting Yes if you are going.

Date Time Venue, Location Organiser
NSW
Tue 8 Nov 1PM Butchers Buffet, Chinatown I Smell Pennies
Thur 17 Nov 6:30PM Dad N Daves Brewing, Brookvale impostor
Thur 17 Nov 7PM Me Tang Thai, Camden Cancelled twilsoncrow
Fri 18 Nov TBA TBA, Shellharbour/Wollongong Cancelled 1og
Sat 19 Nov 2PM The Commercial Hotel, Parramatta Cronium
Sun 20 Nov 5:30PM Holy Basil, Canley Heights twilsoncrow
Thur 24 Nov 7PM Thai Naan, Chatswood dust
Fri 25 Nov 7PM The Savoury Dining, North Strathfield impostor
Sat 26 Nov 1PM All about chicken, Coffs Harbour twilsoncrow
Sat 26 Nov 5PM Okami Japanese Restaurant, Penrith I Smell Pennies
Wed 30 Nov 7PM The Bavarian York St, Sydney I Smell Pennies
Wed 30 Nov 8PM Vandal Taqueria, Newtown bettina44
VIC
Thur 17 Nov 6PM Bad Shephard, Cheltenham neil
Sat 19 Nov 6PM The Abyssnian Restaurant, Kensington cerealsmok3r
Sun 20 Nov 12PM Meat Me Souvlakeri, Oakleigh cerealsmok3r
Sun 20 Nov 6PM Miss Pickle, Glen Waverley RIPwallet
Thur 24 Nov 6PM Fortress Melbourne, Melbourne CBD neil
ACT
Mon 14 Nov 6PM Portia's Place, Kingston cerealsmok3r
Tue 15 Nov 1PM Olive at Hawker, Canberra cerealsmok3r
Fri 18 Nov 7PM Gami, Canberra bargainsgrabber
Sat 19 Nov 7:45PM Hellenic Bistro, Woden bargainsgrabber
QLD
Sat 12 Nov 12:30PM Shabuhouse, Brisbane City stickyfingers
Sat 19 / Sun 20 Nov TBA TBA, Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast brisdaz
Thur 24 Nov 6PM Auckland House, Gladstone Specialist Diaz
Sat 26 Nov 12PM Big Roddy's Rippin' Rib Shack, Fortitude Valley ilyhu
WA
Sun 13 Nov 12PM Pachi Pachi, Victoria Park chuns
Sat 19 Nov 12PM Planet Royale, Northbridge mmd
Sun 27 Nov 5PM Mack Daddy's, Mount Lawley Michael15286
SA
Wed 16 Nov 7PM Pondok Daun Restaurant, Adelaide dust
Fri 18 Nov 7PM Little Bang Brewery, Stepney Spootage
Thur 24 Nov 7PM Okami Japanese Restaurant, Glenunga kickling
TAS
TBA TBA TBA corollachick

Original Post

In last year's birthday celebrations, our community has organised 14 events across Australia cities with 204 OzBargainers participating, and we are hoping for more to this year. Like in previous years, we are looking for volunteers to organise the events, and OzBargain will pay for meals, venue and hopefully some new T-shirts (if they get manufactured in time for November).

Here are what the organisers need to do:

  • Organise a birthday party for OzBargain in your city, on any day in November 2022.
  • Post a thread in Site Discussions to get started, titled it "[OzBargain 16th Birthday] <City> Meetup on <Date> at <Venue>". Add a poll with "Yes" and "No" as options, to get an idea who will be able to come.
  • Once the event gets enough traction, for example 15+ people that are confirmed coming, PM me so I can send the organisers some T-shirts to be given away.
  • Use the event QR code feature to record participants on the day of the event.
  • Organisers would need to pay for the food & venue first, keep the receipt and OzBargain will reimburse the cost (unless you can get the venue can invoice us directly). Basically we would like to keep the events free for the OzBargainers.

In light of past experience,

  • 8 out of 14 events last year were in Sydney, and some people went to as many as 5 different events. I know where there's free food you can find OzBargainers, but as some events have cap in number of participants I would like to ask those with lots of Not a Bot badge to let other people to have a go.

  • Please, we need more Melburnians to organise smaller events. neil has been organising Melbourne meetups in the past years — those got too large and too much work logistically. Don't complain that you only get one meetup in a 5 million people city — pull your hand up & organise one! We might provide bonus funding if you can get jv to come.

  • Due to inflation, we will increase the budget to $35pp. Half of last year's meetups blown over budget anyway, but that does not mean there's no hard limit — please be moderate :) Also note that we cannot pay for alcohol. Some people might choose to order drinks in the meetup events. Sorry they'll have to pay themselves if it's an alcoholic drink.

  • As these are free events, a lot of people indicated they will come in the polls but did not turn up — that turned out to be quite an issue for us & the organisers. For example last year's Chatswood meetup — 73 OzBargainers voted that they'll attend, but less than 40 turned up — when we have already booked the tables & paid for the meals. For organisers — maybe smaller meetup that people can order on the spot is preferred. Alternatively we can also sell tickets. $5 in our Melbourne event last year, but fully-refundable if you show up at the meetup.

I'll continue to update this post for the next 2 months. Hopefully I'll be able to meet some of you in these events.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I bring my SO to the meetup? What about kids?

Depending on the venues, some might not be kids friendly. Moreover, some venues can only fit a fixed number of guests so bringing more people on the day that were not previously registered to come might cause issues to the venue. As of bringing extra people to come to the meetup event:

  • You can bring an extra person, provided that he/she has an OzBargain account and has registered for the event (by voting Yes on the poll).

  • You can bring young kids who don't have an OzBargain account.

Q: I am an organiser and I have made a forum post. What else do I need to do?

If you have finalised the date, time & venue of the event, and have set up a poll for the meetup, you can then

  • Request for your poll to be set up as an "Event". PM @scotty for that. You'll see an extra "event" tab next to view & edit tab under the post title.
  • Add users who have voted "Yes" to the list of participants. These are the ozbargainers you will be expecting on the day! You (+ some co-organisers) will be checking these users in to mark them as attended.

For more information about the event checkin system, please see this help page. On the day of the event:

  • Be sure to be there!
  • Check in the users. If it's a large event (i.e. 15+ people), some kind of name tags would be helpful. Blank address labels are fine.
  • Enjoy the food and chat with other ozbargainers!
  • Pay for the event, keep the receipt(s) and email them to me ([email protected]), together with your PayID or BSB/Acc# so I can reimburse you.

Comments

  • +3

    Perth ppl
    I have posted Saturday 19th November OR Sunday 20th November options
    please check it and vote for the day that u can attend
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/733187

  • -2

    Those restaurants look too fancy

    I think we need to meet up at Subway

    And share foot long size sandwich

  • -2

    There’s no such thing as a free lunch, what are my social obligations when attending a birthday event? Is sitting alone in the corner scrolling through my phone for bargains acceptable?

  • I have added some FAQ to the original post.

    • As a participant, what to do if I want to bring others?
    • As an organiser, what to do after I made the forum post?
    • Nice, thanks, that's helpful!

      Looking like there will be some big meet-ups this year!

    • +1

      Daddy Scott, which one are you going to?

      • For now, I'm going to the Chinatown event on 8 Nov, and Chatswood event on 24 Nov.

  • @corollachick what side of the state you reckon?

  • +1

    We need on WEEKDAY in WA.

    • +1

      Organise it yourself?

  • I have just received the delivery of T-shirts in Sydney. However I am not in Sydney at the moment so I won't be able to allocate them & post them out until next week.

    Here's the situation for the T-shirts. For this batch we have printed 400 shirts — 250 coming to NSW and 150 to VIC. Some of them are already allocated (i.e. 20 winners of the T-shirts competitions and others), and looking at the number of events we are having this year — so no promise that everyone can score one.

    • first come first serve no problem with me dont worry we will behave in the restaurant - thanks

    • 😲What about Qld? 😲

      • I don't have any staff in Qld to handle logistic. I will send out T-shirts from Sydney to organisers of Qld events (stickyfingers, ilyhu, etc) as well as organisers from other states.

    • Thanks for keeping us posted! let me know if you need my hand with handing it out again - always happy to help out

  • When I look at the tag https://www.ozbargain.com.au/event/ozbargain16 I only see six related thread topics; not even this is listed.

    Is this expected behaviour?

    • -2

      I'm not sure why the negs.

      Less link backs to here means less people are aware that they can come to this event and less popularity.

      • I agree. Upvoted as you're not wrong

    • Hmm, interesting. I've checked a few posts that aren't in the shown in event and they're definitely tagged. @scotty a bug perhaps?

      OzBargain15 also shows the last 6 tags too?

      • The event tag was originally intended for shopping events (Click Frenzy, Prime Day, etc) so only showing a fixed number of related forum posts (whereas majority of posts would be related deals). Obviously the model does not fit when the tag was used for OzBargain birthday events.

        I am changing it back to a normal tag, which would then show all the forum posts.

        • +1

          Makes sense, now showing all as tagged instead of event :)

          Also; Happy 16th bday OzBargain!

          Member Since
          01/11/2006

  • Is there a prize for the OzBargainer who attends the number of events * distance from home town?

  • QLD [OzBargain 16th Birthday] Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast on Third Weekend of November at Venue TBC

    I've added a possible event for the coastal OzBargainer's in the third week of November if interested.

  • +6

    I received the new t-shirts today. See photo
    On the left are the new ones, size small. On the right are last years t-shirts, size medium.

    • +1

      They look stylish.

    • Nice! Are they only in Size small. I am XL.

      • +2

        All sizes from Small to 2XL.

        • Great - are they true to size or on the small or largish size ?
          Asking for a friend :)

    • Just guessing sizing …

      Small 18" width (as per photo)
      Med 19"
      Large 20"
      XL 21"

      ?

    • damn looks good! huge congratulations to the winner of the design!

  • +1

    Q: Can I bring my SO to the meetup? What about kids?
    You can bring an extra person, provided that he/she has an OzBargain account and has registered for the event (by voting Yes on the poll).

    Quite confusing wording there. If the other person is already an OzBargainer and have already registered for the event, then they're already going to the event and not being brought there.

    • +1

      ok maybe should just say this event is for ozb members only because the name is ozb birthday parteee

    • Don't see the confusion there. It does answer the question on whether you can bring your SO to the event

      • +1

        It's like saying, can you bring your SO to work, yes provided that they are employed at the workplace.

  • I've been an active member for 15+ years (since 2007)…

    I think I was here since the begining, I can't even remember lol!

    Anyone here beat that? :D

    • +4

      @scotty

    • Are you planning to host an OZB party to celebrate?

    • OzBargain creates user IDs sequentially, and you happened to be #845. Just did a query and 93 other users with lower user ID had accessed OzBargain over the last 24 hours.

      • Thanks for the statistics scotty, much appreciated.

        If any developer has time could you find out how many OzBargain users that have logged in the last month have as location the keywords: "Gold Coast", "Sunshine Coast" etc.

  • -2

    Hey mods/scotty I created a node

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/734604

    kindly read and let me know if such a adventurous watersporting meetup is allowed ?

    I can guarantee you that it would be fun, and not a single person would leave the event unhappy.

    I'll be more than happy to organize stuff

    if any room left for SA budget

    • Budget would be the main thing — needing to get enough people to make the per-house cost justifiable, but that still makes it difficult to bring down to our $35pp budget.

      • -1

        which way is your preference renting per hour with instructor ? or renting for entire day (without instructor), and have me and potentially another person ride ?

        But if the meetup being adventurous is not a problem can I create a forum with these activities ?

        And as I said I am happy to cover some of the cost too

        node forum created
        https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/734624

        to see how many people would be down for it. If possible allow some budget room, if not that's okay I'd be happy to cover some other part of it.

        • My preference would be no, as stated in the original post that the OzBargain meetups we are planning this year are about celebrating OzBargain's 16th birthday over a meal + chat with other ozbargainers. I definitely do not want this to become OzBargain sponsored free for all entertainment.

  • Canberra Kingston and Hawker/Northside Meetup dates have been finalised. Can they be added to the table? Hope to see more canberrans and other ozbargainers attending! Thanks in advance.

  • How can I setup a reminder on Ozbargain forum topics to rsvp by a certain date? You can only do that with deals?

    • You can't. Set up a calendar event on your favourite calendar app.

  • +2

    Just wanted to say thanks @scotty for funding all of this. I'll be overseas for the Perth ones.

    Actually, last month the bright orange ozbargain shopper (got at a perth meetup several years ago) made it's way around Kazakhstan with me. :)

  • Does anyone have a slideshow of favourite pictures to show on a projector?

  • Just something I realised from hosting the first event - those attendees who generate the QR code more than 10 mins before it gets scanned comes up with an error and unless @scotty knows a fix, I had to check in people manually without the QR code.

    I guess a tip is to generate the QR code once you're about to be checked in rather than like 30 mins before.

    • Had same situation at Chinatown event when assisting - If the error comes up, attendee needs to refresh the page and a new QR code will generate.

      Once new code is generated, it can scan as normal.

    • QR code has an expiry (a bit like a 2 factor authentication token). Yes, please just browse to the events page when the organiser is asking for checkin code.

  • Two spots left for this weeks Parramatta meet up, message me as the polls closed!

  • @scotty - As an event coordinator what do I need to know about the QR code thing?

    • Yes. In the FAQ section in the OP,

      Q: I am an organiser and I have made a forum post. What else do I need to do?

      For more information about the event checkin system, please see this help page.

      I would like to get an accurate head count + attending users recorded.

  • congratulations ozbargain turning 69!

  • +1

    The Canberra events on behalf has ended so feel free to strike through (:
    will send over receipts to scotty in a bit

    • how was it Alan?

      • great stuff. gotta go down there - heaps of great people and the food there is spectacular!

  • +1

    @scotty I am going to organise one last ADL event (short notice I know) for this Thursday 24th to try and capture all those who missed out on the last two events, one last time.

  • +1

    @scotty we got 10 votes. So I am going to book tomorrow!

    Anyone else in ADL, if you didn't already see :

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/738829

  • +2

    We are almost at the end of the meetup events! 2 more on Wednesday — The Bavarian Sydney and Vandal New Town. Both are full at the moment with waiting list. I'll be going to the The Bavarian on York Street. See you there!

  • +11

    We have concluded the meetups for OzBargain's 16th birthday, and here are some statistics:

    • 28 events across Australia. 10 in NSW, 5 in VIC, 4 in ACT, and 3 in QLD, SA & WA.
    • 671 participants from 470 OzBargain users. Please note that the count here might not be that accurate because some failed to checkin, and that does not include children either that don't have OzBargain accounts.
    • 1 OzBargainer attended 8 events and 10 OzBargainers have attended 5 or more events.
    • Total cost for food + venue comes down to $25,580.06 across all events. 60% of events went over the $35pp budget. There were some way over budget events due to some misshape.

    Here's a scatter plot of events with number of attendees vs cost per person this year. Red line marks the $35pp budget.

    Checkins vs Cost PP for OzBargain16

    Thanks to all who came to the events, and especially big thanks to all who have organised it. I know it's quite a lot of effort organising a meetup with 50 or more people turning up, and I'll be posting a Feedback / Suggestion post later today or tomorrow to invite all the organisers to help us to make those meetup events better next year.

    • Important missing statistic - how many t-shirts were given out?

      • +2

        We ordered 400 T-shirts this year. Most of them were given out.

    • +1

      Thanks for the generosity.

      $38pp avg over 671 people. That's basically on budget if you truncate outliers.

      Also. Woah. $80pp!

      • +1

        $3pp over budget over 671 checkins is still over $2000, and also note that it's not 671 people, as 22.5% of participants came to more than 1 event.

        Moreover it's about the overall cost than per-person budget. We had 14 events at the cost of $9.2k last year and didn't think that we'll spend over $25k when the per-person budget was increased by only 17% ($30 to $35). I guess the inflation is real…

        • +2

          I doubt people were unnecessarily meeting 'strangers' due to COVID last year.

          14 vs 28 events (Introverts may consider smaller events?)
          265 (204) vs 671 (470) (76.98% vs 70.04% 2+ attendance)
          $9,246.63/265 = $34.89pp vs $25,580.06/671 = $38.12pp - Source

          I guess you're only 16 once though!

        • How many attendees last year?

          And yes. Inflation definitely real. I've noticed pub meals are about 30% up. Meals that used to be low $20 now high $20 to $30+

    • some misshape.

      Tell us more, please. I'm guessing someone accidentally hired a venue/room rather than just food/drink? or accepting $10 sparkling water for each person, 5x times?

      • +1

        Similar to last year — booked for x people, y turned up. In some cases there's cancelation fee, and in some cases the venue is still charging for x.

        • Thanks again for funding the community!

          73 OzBargainers voted that they'll attend, but less than 40 turned up — when we have already booked the tables & paid for the meals.

          Maybe this needs to be bolded! Lucky it was only a 'small' event, not missing 33+ people.

          I guess you're supporting the local hospitality industry! ;)

        • +2

          Should have done the $5 refundable deposit.

          I also think these events should be limited to people who joined prior to the year of the event e.g. anyone who joined from 1 October 2022 onwards would be ineligible to attend the events held in November 2022. A lot of people seemed to have joined OzBargain purely to grab a free lunch/dinner and most likely won't contribute to the community now the events are over.

          • +2

            @kerfuffle: For this year the refundable deposit is is initiated by each organiser. There are complications in setting these up — we use Eventbrite to sell tickets, and I know some are using Beem It. There are certainly things to improve logistically. I'll leave that to another post.

            • +1

              @scotty: Happy to be involved in future improvements Scotty

          • +1

            @kerfuffle: I agree 💯, maybe not a whole year (as I know some newbies can be extremely active and contributing) but maybe several months minimum

        • Did the organiser do their due diligence with confirming attendance the day before/on the day? Seems like an awful waste if they didn't.

          My event was small but I confirmed with everyone so there were no last-minute no-shows.

    • What event was $80pp?!

      I feel less bad that my event went over budget now at $46pp

    • +2

      Thanks for everything! Hope everyone had fun this year and got to meetup with fellow OzBargainers. I loved organising my few events, lots of fun and lots to learn from. Looking forward to the discussion post for feedback.

      • ya thanks for organising

    • Wow, my little 2 person event in Gladstone was the cheapest per person! I can't believe people overspent so much :/ it's not that hard to stick to a budget, is it?

      • I thought only once a event has 15+ votes does it proceed. Even the 2 events in Sydney, Wollongong were cancelled due to lack of members.

        Next time you should try hosting with 20+ people, it's difficult to track who's purchasing what meal - even when you advise drinks are at own expense, people still buy it and it finds its way onto the bill.

        • +1

          it's difficult to track who's purchasing what meal - even when you advise drinks are at own expense, people still buy it and it finds its way onto the bill.

          100% agreed. At least one person will order drinks despite being told it’s at their own expense, or order food over the budget. At this point, unless it’s a set menu with a set price pp (eg. Dust’s Chatswood event) where people who attend can’t order anything else on the same bill, there’s always a chance of higher spend

          At my last event (Sydney CBD - Bavarian), I made sure with the manager to reject all drink orders and if anyone wanted drinks they would have to pay themselves at the bar (and that worked). Some of us got slugged with service fees and stuff, which we need to reconsider in future events

          • @I Smell Pennies: The Bavarian is leading the charge on service fees. You can never pay the advertised price. I hope other venues don't follow their lead.

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