THP Outing Suggestions
 

Okay guys and gals, as many of you know, we are already planning our next outing and want it to be even bigger and better than the one we just had. So to do that, we want to hear from everybody with suggestions on what they want. Here are some basic questions we would like answered.

1. After coming to or reading about the 1st THP FL Golf outing, are you more or less likely to come to the next one?

2. Do you prefer a short weekend outing or prefer it to be an extended stay (3-4 days or more)?

3. If you have a family and children, what could we do to get them all involved and bring the entire group?

4. Outside of rounds of golf, what do you want to see there?

5. Demo Day...Do you prefer free for all like it was, or would you prefer something more organized and educational.

6. Assuming it will be in FL, what time of year would you like it done?

And of course give us your input on anything else. This is for people that have come to the last one and have not come. GG and myself are working on something pretty special, but before we get down to it, we want to make sure that we are maximizing the efforts so that the turnout is even bigger.


Updated
Ok everybody, here is what we know right now and here is what we are working with and on.

Time Frame & Date
We are looking at October as the month and right now either the weekend of the 15th or the weekend of the 22nd.

Format
It would be a similar format to what we did this last time.
Friday Night - Arrival and dinner and drinks for those that want to come.
Saturday AM - Wedge and Putter Demo Day
Saturday Afternoon - Round of golf "freestyle". Paired up in foursomes and play a round.
Saturday PM - Dinner with everybody and Drinks (except thanks)
Sunday AM - Driver, Hybrid, FW Woods, Irons Demo Day
Sunday Afternoon - Organized golf in some sort of tourney style. Team event...TBD
Sunday PM - Dinner and drinks for those that want to be a part of it.

Check In & Check Out
Each place we have spoken with have told us that they will agree to let people check in 2 days early and check out 2 days later for same discounted rates if bringing a family or just want to stay in FL for more than a weekend.

Location
TBD
We are working with 5 resorts in 4 different cities. Orlando, Naples, West Palm Beach, and Sarasota. The goal is to find the best location for golf and other festivities and offer a place where people want to come and enjoy themselves on a vacation with fellow THP'ers. The resorts get pricey on stay and play packages and we are working on getting those costs down for everybody. We should have most of those details ironed out in the next 2 weeks.

What we need
What we need from each person that is thinking about coming are some questions answered.

1. Do you prefer the nicer resort with stay and play to keep everything together and organized or do you prefer the cheap hotel and get a rental car to drive to different courses in the area (like the last one).

2. What is better for you? Beach, Spa, or kid friendly theme parks?

Let us know your thoughts and we will have more details over the next week with what the plans are. Thank you.

For me, because I would invest a lot of time and money in travel, I would prefer that the outing last longer. I am more likely to come after seeing the results of this one, but I would like the option of staying a couple of extra days to get in more golf. Perhaps it could be set up so some could attend the first day or two and others woudl have a chance to play a few more days afterwards? I would like to bring my wife and the option of a couple of days shopping and/or a spa would attract her to the event. No kids, but if I had em, beachfront hotels would be a nice option. Not having attended the Demo Day in person, I can only speculate, but I always prefer the free for all style over organization. I want to see, feel, smell and use the equipment, not just watch someone else use it. I think this time of year is good, but the middle of winter certainly has its attractions, especially for the snowbound. The rates are higher, but the break from winter would be welcome to many.

It appears everyone had a good time. I wish I could have been there.

Here's my 20 pesos....

I'm more likely to come to the next outing

Short weekend timeframe (3 days max)

Leave the children at home

Structure Demo Day around groups and clubs. Example- one group hits driver for 30-45 mins and then moves onto wedges. This would ensure and almost make everyone hit everything from each 'category'

Fall

1. I will be there come hell or high water

2. I think 2 days is perfect, but 3 would be pretty cool too. I think 4 might be a bit much esp for the hosts.

3. I am not qualified to answer this one.

4. Dancing girls, the Blue Angels and Capt. Jack Sparrow. In all seriousness, I am not sure what would have made it any better. Maybe fly the guy from The Greenside in.

5. I like Demo Day like it was. I really enjoyed hitting what I wanted to hit and then having you there so I could pick your brain.

6. I think that some time in the fall would be stellar.

I have been thinking about those bagels and that cream cheese every day.

The BF and I will def go to the next one. We will probably go for more than just the weekend as 2 days are for travel. To the actual outing the BF will probably just drop me off as I can't take much of the future family for long periods of time and besides, he wants time with me which is fine by me. Please make it in the fall, I need to build up more vacation time from work. Thanks for reading my 2 cents :)

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Yikes, can't type on phone today. He wants time with them, not me lol.

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GC,
Please do keep in mind that the next outing is most likely not going to be near our home, which in turn means his family's home.

1. I'm really not more or less. I wanted to come badly but other things came up first.

2. I think the extended weekend (3 day) would be a good choice for felxibility since some may be able to participate the whole time and others might be able to swing in for just part of the time. If I'm spending enough to get to the outing, I want to make it worth my while.

3. N/A

4. As long as there are nice views, food, and good company, I will be content.

5. Educational sounds great, but when there are a bunch of clubs sitting in front of a group that is chomping at the bit to get to them you never know how good attention spans will be. Maybe having an educational/Q&A session midway through (for a multi-day extravaganza) or on the last day could be a great way to help the participants understand why things work the way they do and what might get better results.

6. October/November would be good. My availability would depend on harvest.

I would defnitely look to attend this one. I wish I could have before and even more so after reading the great time everyone had. All the gf said is she would like to be near the beach :) I'm not sure if we would bring the kids but if we did C-Tech is right on with the beach. I've found the kids just love it simple. We have a 9 and 10 year old. They pretty much like soccer, throwing the football (not really playing lol) and computers/DS. Really anything to wear them out I'm good with ;)

I like the free for all demos but organized ones are cool too. The free for all would make it easier just in case there are timing issues. As long as someone there knows what they are doing and can give info it works! From reading these forums, there would not be a shortage in that area. I think the idea of a weekend is perfect (Fri-Sun). A get together with a few beverages and a meal each night is great in addition to the golf. Makes for good times making new friends. For me it was just timing and $$$ that prevented me from going. I cant wait to hear what will be coming.

it would be fun to have some sort of putting contest or something. i know you didn't want to give anything away based on skill but perhaps everyone could put $5 in the pot and we could have some cool putting/chipping contests.

if you do a longer weekend, say 3-4 days of golf then i think that a captains choice tournament would be fun. it would also be cool to have some sort of night golf if at all possible.

i know that's a lot to organize but i think something competitive would make it great, ie, longest drive, closest to the pin, you get the gist.

C-Tech expressed it very well but I will add a few things. With a longer time maybe have a group outing away from the golf course, like a big bbq or a night out at a comedy club, where we all could get together, members and familes for a day. As for the demo day, I think the way it went this year, from what I could tell was excellent and I would keep that as part of the outing. I know you are pretty set on Florida but I will also toss out places here in the southwest like San Diego, Arizona, Nevada and others that have a warmer climate and quite a variety of things to do and a ton of golf courses to play. I realize going outside of Florida would make things like the demo day more challanging to do but I think it still could work.

1. I am looking forward to making the next one, depending on the timing with vacations here at work.

2. I think three days the first a meet and greet and the second two demo time and golf time.

3. As long as the wife has some shopping and her knitting she is good.

4. golf and more golf...lol...demo...and more demo...

5. I would prefer the free for all

6. Anytime that you can work it out, for me we pick vacation time a year in advance so my coming will be dependent on that.

1) More likely to come - but I was all set to go to the first but couldn't get it by the wifey.
2) I think 2 days of demo time is best. Also have an option for extended stays, but golf/whatever would be extra (obviously)
3) My wife (also a golfer) would go, no kiddies for us.
4) Maybe the Pro? Lessons available? I am all for free stuff, but this would be a pay for instruction thing I would gather.
5) Demo Day sounds awesome as it was. Keep it the same.
6) Fall - End of October would be great. (but not Halloween weekend)

I agree with the others that say it would be good if there were other non golf related things. I know we were exploring the possibility of going to a hockey game while there. (we are Canadian)

Hmmmmm...now that changes things! Hmmmm...when the logistics are figured out, the bf and I will come up with something.

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It is not possible for us to do a demo day outside of FL at this time. The cost to ship everything out there would be astronomical and carrying it with us on a plane is not available. While we would like to do that in the future, the costs and time to put these events on due limit that happening.

maybe one day you'll have a THP tour bus.

SHOTGUN!!!!!

1. After coming to or reading about the 1st THP FL Golf outing, are you more or less likely to come to the next one? Definitely more likely

2. Do you prefer a short weekend outing or prefer it to be an extended stay (3-4 days or more)? 3-4 day would be nice

3. If you have a family and children, what could we do to get them all involved and bring the entire group? n/a

4. Outside of rounds of golf, what do you want to see there? I don't know if it would be possible but maybe put together a clinic of some sort. Like a short game clinic or for the families that come a maybe a introduction to golf for wives or kids that explains rules, fundamentals or basic things about golf or even thp as a whole. This question could lead to some great ideas.

5. Demo Day...Do you prefer free for all like it was, or would you prefer something more organized and educational. Maybe a bit of both if its 3-4 days but probably free for all if its a 2 day.

6. Assuming it will be in FL, what time of year would you like it done? If the suns shining I will play golf so no preference on this one either but assuming alot of THP members only get 6 or 7 months a year to play golf it might be better to have at the beginning or end of the colder states seasons.


All in all I think this is a fantastic idea of something that could become a twice a year event. With so many great locations in the southeast I wouldn't mind seeing it be a trip to pinehurst, myrtle beach or hilton head. For those of you who have never been to those places it is some kind of special and Hilton Head and Pinehurst are two of my favorite places I have ever visited. There are so many places that packaged deals could be achieved. If its in colder weather florida would be best but the options are endless. I really look forward to meeting all of you because this game has introduced me to great people from all over the world. When I go to a place I've never been and call a pro shop I always asked to be paired with a group and I bet I have met over 100 people over the years that I can remember every single one of them in some way. Maybe not names but spending 4 hours with a complete stranger is alot of fun to me. I look forward to the next one.

Here are my thoughts -

I'll answer these in order and then put some other thoughts at the bottom.

1. I am far more likely to come to another outing after being at this one. I met some awesome people that I really consider friends now and it's a shame that we all live so far apart. I can tell you for sure that I won't be making the fall 2010 outing since I'm only able to reserve one true vacation a year these days. Hopefully, I will be able to attend again next year if you have one.

2. I liked the two day set-up and would have loved to attend on Sunday. It didn't really work with my schedule though. The nice thing about being in a destination state is that people can stay as long as they want and even play together if the actual "outing" is over. I agree that a four day outing could get pretty tough for you and GG to host.

3. I didn't bring my son, but was glad to have brought Erica. She's not into the golf so much, but she putted around and even took some swings during the demo. She really enjoyed that, but not as much as hanging out with everybody. She really liked meeting all the people and sharing an evening of laughs with them. During the golf round she had as much fun laying in the sun and shopping as I did playing. You really can't go wrong if you're near a beach, spa, or shopping. I don't know that I would bring the boy to the outing until he got a little older and was interested in golf.

4. Different courses that suit every skill level. I didn't see the course on Sunday, but if it was anything like Sarasota National, I'm sure it was perfect. Also, group contests would be fun. I know that you guys wanted to stay away from golf-skill related games, but I think there are some that you could do that wouldn't be bad for everyone. Especially putting or closest to the hole. I had some longish putts and at least one shot that was pretty close to the pin and I suck. Now, a driving contest just wouldn't be fair, unless biggsy stayed at home http://www.thehackersparadise.com/fo...lies/clapp.gif

5. I liked the free-for-all format because I could move over to the green when I got tired of the driving range and vice-versa.

6. I think you picked a great time of year for this one. Aside from the brief rain (which was really just bad luck considering the beautiful weather the rest of the week), it was perfect. I imagine the fall would be good too, but I'm guessing the courses would be much busier.

All things considered, what you put together for us was as close to perfect as it comes. I loved the golf and loved the company even more. I think that the people make the experience and this one really was something I will always remember.

1. I am much more likely to attend the next one, reading and seeing pics of the first outing is great, but regardless I believe a different date suits me well and I'd be shocked if I could not make it happen this time around.

2. I think the short weekend outing just like the first would be best for me personally, but I am game for whatever is decided upon.

3. Wife and kids would likely stay home since we're already taking them to Disney in 2 weeks (big factor for me not making round 1)

4. Possibly the inclusion of some equipment reps, otherwise just golf!!!

5. I like the free for all with the educated contact available for questions, based on feedback I've read it sounds like JB was very helpful the first time so I would lean toward doing it the exact same.

6. Later October or early November would work great for me, but anything in the fall is good really.

I realize that there is a lot of work involved and it is very appreciated by everyone! Thanks to both JB and GG for all you work in setting this up.