A social event is anything that isn't strictly technical in nature.
- GPG keysigning BoF
- Board game session
- There will probably be a social event hosted at a local tech bookstore.
Board Games
AMK wants to run a 2- or 3-hour session where people can show up and play a variety of board games such as [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=822 Carcassonne], [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9675 La Strada], etc.
- What games would you like to see?
- What games can you bring?
Damn, and here I was leaning towards going to EuroPython next year, and you go and introduce board games into the mix -- RichardJones
As a _long_ time gamer, I'm _definitely_ interested in this. I can bring two or three different games if desired. -- Ken Whitesell
Dinner
There should be some place for people to meet up for dinner; without that someone without dinner plans who wants to be social has to hang out awkwardly and make eyes at other people in order to form a dinner group.
Got a protocol suggestion for this? Do we just need a 'Meet for Dinner Here' sign, and some explanation in the conference materials? --amk
Yes, just a sign, maybe a quick announcement at lunch or something. -- IanBicking
Possibly a couple different signs/locations-to-meet for people who may want to go to specific places to eat. -- Ken Whitesell
Music?
An important thing about a social event is that it really can be social, that means you can meet and talk to people. Meeting and talking to interesting people is one of the most interesting things at such a conference (you could read introductionary level papers as html or pdf published to the internet, too).
At quite some conferences and social events someone thought that there needs to be loud music, making it rather impossible to talk (or rather, to hear what somebody more far away than 40cm from you was saying). For me, this basically destroys a social event, as I will just collect some other annoyed people and leave, searching for a more silent place where one can talk about all sorts of interesting things.
So please: Don't confuse a social event for developers with a disco. If you want to visit a disco or hear loud music, you can do every other day.