To keep that reservations thread on topic I wanted to start this one.

Post here about the things you didn't like and what you would like to see done instead. Be human beings about it and keep it respectable. Don't just say you didn't like the way NAM organized...BE SPECIFIC!

Things can't be improved without people providing constructive feedback.

 

Move the vendors to the general store when the construction is done (permitting there is enough space afterwards) or on the top half of the parking lot in front of the grill/adventure center, leaving the lower road open for thru traffic.

Also, unsticky sticky threads.

 

Suggestions: If the oil vendors want us to try their product, how about free on-the-spot labor (and old oil disposal) to do an oil and filter change? (Could also be combined with installation of a Fumoto drain valve.)

I would have paid for installation of an aero grill on my stock MCS bumper. (I'm surprised that no one is buying the bumper part in quantity and trimming them as necessary to fit.)

 

I have no issues with how the event was orginized, and enjoyed the time at both MOTD events and when we were just off on our own.

My only suggestion is that rather than a welcome dinner, maybe there could just be mixer, we called them socials back home, that ran for the evening, maybe with some snacks and a cash bar, so that folks would not be so rushed after driving all day, and just come and socialize.

Mark

 

I didn't understand the parameters of the scavenger hunt, (check-in was a blur for me, admittedly) and though I visited most of the vendors on Friday (great folks), I didn't go out with my card until rainy Saturday. With no overall map of vendors (ok, fine. It was a scavenger hunt), I didn't realize Detailer's Paradise was down the hill. Regardless, If I'd had DP stamped there were two or three other blank spots they could have pointed to instead as the reason my entry was invalid. Not in the drawing, I was free to leave the dinner for Monte Carlo night and avoid a line there. (edit: what I meant was "beat the crowd"; not imply they had line problems too.)

Last year there was a booklet in the package with the events and locations. Didn't see one this year. The name tags were helpful, but didn't have venue listings. The white board was pretty barren.

Had a great time overall, and look forward to next year.

 

I felt that the beer Olympics dragged on a bit to long. The chugs are over and done in minutes but the other events lasted what seemed like over an hour.

I would like to see a few more vendors. I pocketed a few beers then walked down the hill just to mingle in the carnival like atmosphere.

I feel that the rate structure was fine. I only bought 2 $5 registrations, 2 welcome dinners and 2 brew swaps.

It was a shame that you had to drop the $25 and sit in on the farewell dinner to participate in the vendor scavenger hunt.

Next year will cost more then double for me because I will not be sharing a cabin.

 

I'll throw in my .02, but I was overall pleased with the event.

I noticed that the 'swag' ended up not being what was on the list, but a $2 flashlight wasn't a big deal to me anyway. Some people seemed put off by this, however. If it were me I'd keep it the same, but to not dissapoint people, make sure any changes are communicated early on. (The T shirts this year were awesome, though!)

The registration cost seemed reasonable to me for what we got back, considering I'm sure some of that money goes to Fontana for reserving the banquet hall and whatnot.

I thought the meals were reasonably priced, and I for one enjoyed the food (although I was camping, so having a nice hot meal ready to go for me was a good thing.) What I might recommend is a 'kids price' for those of us who might have under age 12 children and want to go to the farewell dinner or welcome dinner.

Some people thought the barbecue was horrible, but I lived in NC and I thought that was good NC barbecue. Just might be different than what you are used to.

The vendor area was okay, even though I was camping and driving up to the village I never had trouble finding parking around the area. I hope the vendors thought the event was valuable to them.

Brew Swap and Monte Carlo night were awesome, the dinners had pretty good food (or maybe I'm easy to please?) and other than one vendor who was late getting up in the morning and caused me to miss the Panoramic photo, all the ancillary events were nice as far as I could tell.

Like any event of this size, there are going to be things that aren't 'perfect' for everyone, and there are going to be groups (I hesitate to call them 'cliques') of people who have different priorities than others. But it is still really hard to NOT have a great time. I came alone, didn't know ANYONE personally before I got to the dragon, and had the time of my life.

My one main gripe - having to find all of the vendors in order to have a chance at one of the prizes at the banquet. With the rain coming down, and the vendors showing up at different times, moving their tables, etc, I missed one vendor and so wasn't 'eligible' for a prize. That plus the fact that most of the vendors are selling the same parts, it just became an exercise in stamping a card (that ended up getting wet and staining my pants pocket). I'm not all about the prizes anyway, but I was a little dissapointed when I checked in to get my ticket and found out I couldn't have one.

Overall, though, thanks to everyone who organized and worked hard so that the rest of us could have something to talk about (and complain about, I guess) for the next year or so!

 

This was my second dragon (I went last year), and I had a great time. The event was perfect, IMO. This post probably isn't too helpful with the constructive critisism, though.

..ok...ok I've thought of something. Make it sunny on Saturday next year, will ya?

 

My 2 cents...

This was my 2nd dragon. I thought it was awesome. The Monte Carlo Night was by far the best event. Table 1 rocked, but you already knew that. Please do that one again!!!! I paid for the full registration and missed out on the welcome dinner caused it sold out so quickly, but picked up tickets for Saturday's dinner. Food was good, but ran out of chocolate cake. Oh well I lived.

I really liked being able to park at the top last year, but this year the vendors were there. I understand they were in knee deep lakes last year at the bottom of the hill and I am sure they were much happier at the top. So, I guess the question is do we make the vendors happy who offered up excellent prizes or the Mini owners who go to the dragon to socialize, hang out and just have a blast. I am sure the dragon grows every year. We can see that because Fontana is already booked. I am sure there will be cancellations. So I'm not freaking out yet. My only concern is that maybe the dragon will get too commercialized and become more about the $$$ for the vendors and not the Mini owners themselves. Overall I had a blast and can't complain. The scavenger hunt was ok, but really, some people just went running from table to table to get stamps. Was it really necessary to exclude people out of the raffles, just because they didn't see all the vendors? I did get tickets, but I admit there were a couple of vendors I had no interest in and felt obligated to speak with them to get the stamp.

I actually liked the Yokohama vendor with his demo and I guess you would call it tire training. I also liked the lighting clinic, although I caught the tail end of it. Maybe there could be more how to clinics?

My last thought is this event is primarily run by volunteers. My thinking is if you can do better step up. I can't, cause I think it was a great job. There are always bumps, but I learn to roll with them instead of harping on the negative.

Great job to all the volunteers and people that helped organize just a large scale event. Can't wait till next year. 358 more days, but who's counting.

Jeff

 

I agree We went up the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the view in the tunnels was great

Mark

 

The problem with that location, I'm told, is that when it rains all the water flows down the Village (on that side) directly into that lot. Rain was a big enough problem for the Vendors on the higher ground this year that moving them to place that functions as a pool during rain would not be a wise idea.

Totally agree on unstickying the threads now that MOTD is over.

 

I agree, more how - to events and demos would be cool. The great thing is, anyone can step up and organize one!

 

I wouldn't be too worried about that. Without the Mini owners the Vendors wouldn't waste their time here. This will always be about us MINI owners. The Vendors coming gives us a convenient opportunity to get modded, see products in person and meet the men behind the businesses we see on here.

 

I was ranting in the Fontana reservation thread and it was suggested i pput part of it here.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, including anything at Fontana or any of the planned events, was handicapped accessible. Welcome to the modern world when handicapped folks aren't locked away in a basement to molder. I can't walk more than a few feet, nor stand for more thn two minutes, but I still want to come to the Dragon. Some of yoiu may have Seen Spouse pushing, and pushing, and pushing me around in a transport chair this past weekend. There was no handicapped parking, no easy way to get to any of the events. The business of having to go one place for your wristband and another for the food was a real bear, almost as bad as having to go over the steps and through the people.

My body maynot work so well, but my mind does and I would have enjoyed the Dragon much more if Spouse had been able to find a pathway or alternative to the spread out way things had to be done.

That's my rant. Aside from the problem making a reservation at the Lodge, is there anyway to make the Dragon events more accessible. Please? Okay, rant completed. Thanks.

 

And women

Mark

 

Excellent point. I didn't hear about that, but realize now that it could be a problem. Then maybe just have them on the top half of the parking lot up top to keep the thru street?

 

One suggestion is to perhaps offer some "spouse" programs that could either be a bus trip to Ashville or a seminar on how to wax a car and detail a car, or change a tire... the stuff most of the guys know how to do. (And sometimes hearing the "how to" from someone other than your own spouse has a better impact on the subject!)

I think there is a large population of spouses that are women that come along for this 4 day event that get somewhat bored with all the tech talk when hanging out around the vendor tents asking tech questions about their products. Personally I know my wife really doesn't care about much of the tech stuff, even though she owns her own MINI.

Maybe offer a half or one day diversion from the event, perhaps on Friday after the parade, just for the spouses that want their own time to do an event designed just for them. Even if it is just a luncheon on the Fontana grounds where a notable speaker could be brought in. I have seen this work with conventions I have attended and they are always quite popular and well attended.

 

Thanks for noticing. Judging by the way some folks complain, it seems that a lot of people still think that MOTD is planned/run by some big corporation or centralized organization with vast resources of people, time and money. Even NAM is still only a sum total of 2 people. While there were a LOT of people who chipped in to volunteer, I would say that the majority of what was organized was arranged by about a dozen people.

 

Just a crazy thought... Maybe MOTD registration should happen much much earlier & close much earlier also (MBE say open in Jan, close in March or do it even earlier). That way if 500 people or more want to come to the welcome dinner there would be more time to secure the proper venue or if only 200 want to come a smaller venue could be arranged. It would give the event organizers more time to juggle the various available venues & be able to utilize the one more size appropriate for their event instead of trying to guess what their requirements will be months in advance & then not having time to switch if need be because registration just closed like 5-30 days before the function.
this worthless 2¢ has been brought to you by bamatt

 

Was it really that bad to drive around the vendor area? I stayed 25 miles away and had no problem finding parking with the other 3 cars with me everytime I came over to Fontana.
I did like to have the vendors all right there. It was a nice center point to find friends talk to who you wanted and just hang out. I do not think it was that bad to drive around if you had to get to the other side and did not want to walk.

The Vendors that are not doing work on cars could be put on that bottom row and leave space for cars to get to the other side if it is really a big problem to use the road the does go around.

I also would like less rain for next year.

 

My first MOTD and I was very impressed. We weren't able to participate in any of the dinners for family reasons, and stayed off property. The only issue I encountered was that registration wasn't open on Friday AM when scheduled. So several folks showed up there and waited a while before giving up and going to the parade lineup... Otherwise, given that it IS a VOLUNTEER organized event, and has exploded in size, I thought it was AWESOME. I have NO issues with the registration fees, swag, vendors, etc. Charge more if you want. I'll still come and smile.

 

The road we were on came right out next to the vendors and it was always packed with cars moving around. there were also alot of cars parked right there making it difficult to see to get out. Just an accident waiting to happen and I almost saw a few. Opening that road may not improve on that, but it would make it easier to get around and at least open up a few more spaces.

 

Ideas were broached on what can be done, if anything, to maximize the Vendors visibility while keeping things convenient for the attendees. Stay tuned and with any luck we can work it out for next year.

Teresa, the dinners were discussed at length at the meeting. If what was discussed goes into effect then there won't any worries about people missing out on a dinner. We also asked to have the MOTD forums and registration open earlier, say right after the new year.

Cooper Guy, the easiest way for the spousal activities to come about is for one of the spouses to throw something together as opposed to one of the organizers arbitrarily picking activities. Anyone with guests who were bored should ask them what they would have enjoyed doing in the area. There's hiking, all kinds of tours, lots of stuff in Asheville. Thing is some of you may have to let the spouse take the MINI as most won't be bringing two cars. A bus would be very expensive.

 

I agree that the vendors shouldn't have taken the area in front of the adventure center. That is the mixing bowl where all the Mini owners meet, and this year there was no central point of MOTD @ Fontana. That was extremely dissapointing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the vendors were there. But making people (of all ages) park on a half mile long strip and hike up the hill to get to what few events were at the adventure center, isn't very cool. MOTD should be about the community, and the community should be the focus... Not taking that focus and putting it on the vendors for $$$ reasons. The vendors are indeed a part of the community and we recognize that... But everyone should have their place, and this year I feel the social aspect was left out. I hardly saw anyone hanging out at the grill or adventure center like last year, aside from those watching the vendors work on vehicles.

 

I had something more meaningful to post, but I forgot what it was. So I'll throw this out: I didn't care for the way the giveaways were done at the dinner. It was better than last year simply because last year it seemed to take *hours* to go through the raffle. I'd suggest making it a separate event from the farewell dinner. Maybe have a buy-in ($5/ticket?) with the proceeds donated to charity or something along those lines.

I had an absolute blast this year (good weather, good roads, great friends old and new), but I do think it had more of a "commercial" vibe to it than last year. I felt like there was a lot of crap being peddled to me in the vendor area and that some of them were just schlepping "stuff", as opposed to (and in addition to) the folks like Way, Chad, Erik, Chris, Emily and numerous others who are long-time supporters of the community. This feeling may have been enhanced by the smaller number of drives organized by individuals. Last year there were drives to the Biltmore and around the Cherohala Skyway (and others that I can't think of off the top of my head) that were at least mentioned ahead of time, but this year I can only think of the ice cream run. Yes, I could have done that myself. :D