I heard no such announcements. Checking with Diane, neither did she. I think I heard all others. The speakers were loud and I remember having difficulty listening to whoever I was talking to at the time because I was unable to tune out the announcements.
That's not a complaint about the volume. It was nice to be reminded about what was going on. If any forum member gathering announcements were made, Diane and I must each have been off the floor at the time.
I think the best way for members to find each other at the show is to have them marked, perhaps with a brightly colored button that other members will automatically have an eye open for. Impromptu meetings would then happen, one-on-one, all day long, instead as organized events that some may feel compelled or interrupted to attend, and others may feel hurt because they missed them.
We could have a member scavanger hunt with a prize awarded (perhaps a pair of OVM pants) to the member who got the most member signatures on the scavanger hunt sheet.
Meeting forum members at the show is great, but there is much more to do at the show, especially for first-time attendees. The workshop where many forum members appeared was a one-time event and effective. What happened there was interesting enough to take people off the floor.
Marking forum members with pins, buttons, name tag designators, hats, and even pants has been suggested by many. Additional scheduled or announced events seems like overkill to me. We might think about a fourm member hospitality suite but the after-show cookout already serves that purpose.
The cookout happens at the perfect time. It would be hard to compete with the free drinks and fantastic pasta bar that was offered by a sponsor (Progressive CIS -- and thank you very much!) on Thursday night and the steak dinners (or whatever else people ordered off the menu) provided for contractors by FedEx Custom Critical on Friday night (again, thank you very much!), and the Saturday night outdoor concert.
Note that many forum members met each other for the first time at these events. The easier it is for members to identify each other, the more likely it is that they will meet.
Adding a rented tent to the expediter truck parking area would further support the after-show expediter gathering. Identifying members with special designators, having a scheduled member workshop, and having an announced post-show cookout provides abundant oppotunities for forum members to meet and greet. Additional organized activitities seem like overkill.
Also note that the sponsors want people on the floor and at their booths, not at other places. And not all open forum members will want to be identified for face-to-face meetings. Marking open forum members as such should be voluntary so the lurkers and introverts can attend the show without feeling pressure to mix and mingle when that is not what they are there to do.
EDIT:
Diane just suggested putting a member bulletin board up in the EO booth so members can learn of member events, especially the member-only drawings they can enter.
