LAN venues?

davido_labido

davido_labido

davido_labido

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Lo folks, I go along to quite a few lans, from the I series to a small 30-40 player one we organise at least once a year, but we were thinking of going bigger, we have had many people come to the lan over the years and we were thinking of trying to get 80-90 of us together.

The biggest problem we have? A venue.

Where we currently hold the lan, the hall can have a maximum of 40 people. So we need to go bigger.

We do however have a few demands.

1) 24 hour access. We don't want to have to 'shut down' at the end of the night. If people want to game into the early hours, then so be it!

2) alcohol. When I go to a lan, it's more about seen people I haven't seen in a long time than it is about gaming. A license is a must. Preferably letting us 'BYOB' to keep cost down. (I hate having to shell out 35 quid at I series for a crate)

3) Internet access. Long gone are the days where a lan didn't actually need a connection!

4) parking.

5) somewhere to camp/sleep

Anyone got any ideas that would meet the criteria? Preferably in the Midlands or surrounding areas, but would consider anywhere really. It's completely in the ' brain storming' stages at the moment, so all ideas are welcome!
 
I think your expectations are largely unmeetable without you some how meeting them yourself. Typically when hiring a venue they still want to close down for the night and a typical LAN venue is generally smaller than the numbers you are talking about and won't have a liquor license.

Good luck though.
 
Aye, I know that the requirements aren't ideal. Lans of this size do happen though, and they typically have the same requirements.

We have thought about actually hiring out a small hotel that would solve pretty much all the problems straight away, but they are either way to large, or way too small!
 
davido_labido said:
Aye, I know that the requirements aren't ideal. Lans of this size do happen though, and they typically have the same requirements.

We have thought about actually hiring out a small hotel that would solve pretty much all the problems straight away, but they are either way to large, or way too small!
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Of course they happen, but they happen by you making them happen. My point was there would likely be nothing off the shelf. Hit up local colleges / uni's / lan communities.
 
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Yup, I know it's gonna take a lot of leg work on our part and know and this post is just one of the things I'm doing to 'make it happen' there's a lot of like minded people here from all walks of life, so it'd a good place to get ideas from...

Universities aren't a bad idea actually, they are only used in term times, they have accommodation, parking and are licensed usually.... Il be writing some emails tomorrow!

Still any other options are welcome though!
 
They fulfilled all of your criteria, internet was by someone brining a little 3G USB dongle though!

BBQ out back, BYOB, parking was off the road, turn on your PC friday night and no hassle till Sunday afternoon when it's going home time. Just got lucky I guess!
 
Deffo College/Uni.

Reminds me of the good old days when we used to play CSS and Quake 3, sometimes with up to 4 other classes across the college. :D Teachers were great people and we still go and catch up with them!
 
Sketchly Grange Hotel in Hinckley may do it, they have a large room and a bar next to it that they may rent for the night.

They can seat 300 ppl in there for a wedding so a bunch of peeps with computers should fit fine.
 
tigerstyle said:
They fulfilled all of your criteria, internet was by someone brining a little 3G USB dongle though!

BBQ out back, BYOB, parking was off the road, turn on your PC friday night and no hassle till Sunday afternoon when it's going home time. Just got lucky I guess!
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thats pretty much how we have it now!!! the internet was sketchy, and went down, so we ran it using dongles/tethering phones at 1 event.



Well Splattered said:
http://www.kilsbylane.co.uk/
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SPLATTY!!!! might see if shaun knows that place ;) do you know it well? oh and btw dude, check the website for this years lan, it will be announced soon... tis on the 14th june :D

Diagro said:
Sketchly Grange Hotel in Hinckley may do it, they have a large room and a bar next to it that they may rent for the night.

They can seat 300 ppl in there for a wedding so a bunch of peeps with computers should fit fine.
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cheers dude will have a lok into it!

nelviss said:
getting on to one of the medium to large isp's and a lan in a feild? ran a a day or so after a fest,
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i did have the idea of something along these lines, with a large secure marquee but i cant find the website i saw the marquee on. it had 6foot boards all around, making it essentially like a moving shed, with lockable doors, means that its a little more secure!
 
If you're going to all that effort why not go for one of the larger hotels, advertise it a little with a few flyers and charge a £1 a PC.

Give passes to all the people you knew that were going/invited anyway. The ones of you that clubbed together to pay for the venue, pay for the LAN room and then split whatever comes in at the door. Might work out that you'd pay what you would normally for the small local hall or something, maybe even a profit!

Seems like you're going to a lot of effort when just a few flyers could make it even more fun.
 
For what its worth, I have been to a LAN event held in a community hall, which was allowed BYOB, parking, internet, and all nighter event, didnt shut down.

So it maybe worth still looking for something like this, aslong as you get friendly with who ever operates it and maybe offer that you do a favour in return for their community centre if they dont take the bite first.
 
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a couple of reasons, we have the equipment do do 90 people, we dont for many more.

for the 90 people i would be thinking off, we wouldnt need security, they have been to many lans with us. If randomers were there, id want security, bag checks etc etc.

also, we wouldnt do it to make money, anything that we dont spend on the event (bbq, refreshments etc etc) gets put into a kitty for when we need equipment. We do it for the fun of it!


thanks DJMK4, il take another look at the halls around the area. Last time it was a flat no, but maybe the smaller ones might want the money!
 
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