As you may be aware, over the past couple of weeks, the LaveRadio Skype Chat crew have been scheming and plotting about how to mark the Gamma release of Elite : Dangerous.
After much deliberation in the secret Facebook Group (I had to constantly resist adding Mr Brookes from the list of suggested people!) and a suggestion from Tom Kewell, we settled on a three point plan...
We then asked forum members via Facebook and the forums to contact us if they wanted to take part and then, away from the forums, revealed the plans we had in mind. From here we received all the donations and scanned signatures for use in the book as well as messages of support.
After finalising the details on the plaque, Iain set about cutting the plaque on Thursday night. (Innuendo warning) On Friday morning we decided to arrange for the plaque to be mounted so we started hunting around for places to get some wood... After a while Fozza located a place in Birmingham which was handily placed for Eid LeWeise to pop in quickly. We got word that Eid had got wood and we were good to go! The plaque and the wood were united by Iain in the middle of the Red Lion on Saturday evening with countless people looking on!
Up 'til Friday we had people emailing in scanned images of their words of thanks and these were added into the book on Friday (this was a painful process for me!)... Finding the book itself proved to be an exercise in itself... We then had the book passed around the Red Lion on Friday evening and at the pre-party bash on Saturday as well before stowing the cargo away in an unused Dominos Pizza box to be smuggled into the venue past the Imperial Security (I was half worried the security at the gate would stop me with the pizza box)...
The Cheques were designed over the course of the week by ideas coming from the Facebook group but primarily from Mobius' deft artwork. The numbers on the cheques each hold a special significance... See if you can work out what they are
We did a final tot up of the amount collected and we raised over £2000. The final total being £2038.88 which we then further topped up to £2209.84 which was split between the two charities.
Those of you who were there on Saturday will remember the presentation well, however for those that weren't, the presentation on behalf of the community was done by Author, Presenter and all round good sport Kate Russell along with a backup crew of Iain McNeil, Cmdr Dan, Allen Stroud and the Senator himself! David was clearly bowled over by the generosity of the Community and was, I think, surprised by the plaque and the book.
We left the book on the LaveRadio stand to allow those who hadn't been at the pub to sign their thanks as well.
The guys from Special Effect have signed up to the forums and have posted their personal thanks and some information on what it is that they do.
The guys from Games Aid have also signed up to the forums and have posted their personal thanks as well and some information on what it is that they do.
Finally, I'd like to say a big thank you to ALL the community for their donations and for signing the book, we were really pleased by David's reaction and also by the applause the audience gave when the total was revealed... A lovely moment for all of us!
There are a few people I'd like to thank for helping to arrange the surprise and firstly I must thank Psykokow (who's currently making his way back home) for his support and help over the past couple of weeks. Also I'd like to say a massive thank you to Iain McNeil for the superb... beyond superb... plaque that he created and for coming up with the idea. I'd also like to say huge thanks to Mobius for creating the superb Cheques and the insert for the book. Thanks also go to Void Sun and Eid LeWeise for helping out and, in Eid's case, getting wood on our behalf!
Finally, I'd like to say a big big Thank You to Kate Russell who probably already had enough on her plate and yet presented the goods on our behalf and also for having the presence of mind to mention that the book would be on the Lave Radio stand for all to sign (as it happened we nicked the book and got more people to sign it at the after-party as well!)
So. Thank you all... It's been emotional!
UPDATE : For those of you who weren't there, we've finally managed to locate a video of the presentation itself... Many thanks to Cloudien for uploading this!
[video=youtube;xz7ppGQOfkI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz7ppGQOfkI&list=PLNAZw_nplVPFOZVzCChLS8L127FrHunsE&index=2[/video]
After much deliberation in the secret Facebook Group (I had to constantly resist adding Mr Brookes from the list of suggested people!) and a suggestion from Tom Kewell, we settled on a three point plan...
- The first, and most visible of the three, was the collection for Charity. We found out, on the quiet, from Frontier (thank you Ed Lewis) that they supported two charities in particular Games Aid and Special Effect which both have connections to the gaming community.
- The second part of the plan was originally going to be a gift from all the community to Frontier with everyone's signatures on it... This changed, after an excellent suggestion in the Facebook group, from Iain McNeill, to substitute the poster for a plaque in the style of the LaveCon tags that had been admired by many. After several iterations we came up with a final design and wording.
- The final part of the plan was to enable members to say thank you to Frontier individually but in a much better way than the forums allow (let's face it, conveying thanks in Arial isn't quite the same as a handwritten note) so we thought a Book of Thanks would be the best way to do this.
We then asked forum members via Facebook and the forums to contact us if they wanted to take part and then, away from the forums, revealed the plans we had in mind. From here we received all the donations and scanned signatures for use in the book as well as messages of support.
After finalising the details on the plaque, Iain set about cutting the plaque on Thursday night. (Innuendo warning) On Friday morning we decided to arrange for the plaque to be mounted so we started hunting around for places to get some wood... After a while Fozza located a place in Birmingham which was handily placed for Eid LeWeise to pop in quickly. We got word that Eid had got wood and we were good to go! The plaque and the wood were united by Iain in the middle of the Red Lion on Saturday evening with countless people looking on!
Up 'til Friday we had people emailing in scanned images of their words of thanks and these were added into the book on Friday (this was a painful process for me!)... Finding the book itself proved to be an exercise in itself... We then had the book passed around the Red Lion on Friday evening and at the pre-party bash on Saturday as well before stowing the cargo away in an unused Dominos Pizza box to be smuggled into the venue past the Imperial Security (I was half worried the security at the gate would stop me with the pizza box)...
The Cheques were designed over the course of the week by ideas coming from the Facebook group but primarily from Mobius' deft artwork. The numbers on the cheques each hold a special significance... See if you can work out what they are
We did a final tot up of the amount collected and we raised over £2000. The final total being £2038.88 which we then further topped up to £2209.84 which was split between the two charities.
Those of you who were there on Saturday will remember the presentation well, however for those that weren't, the presentation on behalf of the community was done by Author, Presenter and all round good sport Kate Russell along with a backup crew of Iain McNeil, Cmdr Dan, Allen Stroud and the Senator himself! David was clearly bowled over by the generosity of the Community and was, I think, surprised by the plaque and the book.
We left the book on the LaveRadio stand to allow those who hadn't been at the pub to sign their thanks as well.
The guys from Special Effect have signed up to the forums and have posted their personal thanks and some information on what it is that they do.
The guys from Games Aid have also signed up to the forums and have posted their personal thanks as well and some information on what it is that they do.
Finally, I'd like to say a big thank you to ALL the community for their donations and for signing the book, we were really pleased by David's reaction and also by the applause the audience gave when the total was revealed... A lovely moment for all of us!
There are a few people I'd like to thank for helping to arrange the surprise and firstly I must thank Psykokow (who's currently making his way back home) for his support and help over the past couple of weeks. Also I'd like to say a massive thank you to Iain McNeil for the superb... beyond superb... plaque that he created and for coming up with the idea. I'd also like to say huge thanks to Mobius for creating the superb Cheques and the insert for the book. Thanks also go to Void Sun and Eid LeWeise for helping out and, in Eid's case, getting wood on our behalf!
Finally, I'd like to say a big big Thank You to Kate Russell who probably already had enough on her plate and yet presented the goods on our behalf and also for having the presence of mind to mention that the book would be on the Lave Radio stand for all to sign (as it happened we nicked the book and got more people to sign it at the after-party as well!)
So. Thank you all... It's been emotional!
UPDATE : For those of you who weren't there, we've finally managed to locate a video of the presentation itself... Many thanks to Cloudien for uploading this!
[video=youtube;xz7ppGQOfkI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz7ppGQOfkI&list=PLNAZw_nplVPFOZVzCChLS8L127FrHunsE&index=2[/video]
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