Dear friends,

What a night! Thank you so much for coming and bringing your touch of glamour that made last Saturday's dinner so special. You all looked absolutely amazing!

Please check out the pictures that are now up on the gallery.

We hope that this dinner, a first on the glamour level, met your expectations and we would love to hear your feedback on it. If you have a second, could you please reply to this thread (or send an email to [email protected]) and let us know:

1) If the chf 100.- was a fair price for the dinner
2) Was the time spent at each table right for you, or would have prefered more/less time at each table?
3) If you enjoyed the quiz
4) If you prefer the glamour or the 'regular' Musical Chairs Dinners

We have to say we enjoyed seeing you all and hope to see you all soon at the next one!

All the best,
Iolly for the GoL Gang
Iolly, Nov 27, 2006 @ 00:56

evening at Hotel de la Paix on Saturday night. I haven't been to a glamourous evening with evening/cocktail dress, high heels and champagne for a very long time......I absoultely loved it. The location was exquisite, the food was delicious, the wine was more than passable (and there was enough !) and the company was friendly and relaxed.

- 100 CHF was definately worth it considering that there was a champagne cocktail aperatif , the 4 course meal ( plus another starter thrown in as well which make almost a 5 course meal) prepared by a 3* Michelin chef, good wine, piano music and the quiz (with presents for the winners)
- the Quiz was a wonderful idea. It was a good "Table Builiding" exercise and got the conversation and the silly jokes going on the tables........even though some of the questions were a bit strange to say the least :-)
- the hotel staff were very friendly and professional. This is the first time that I have turned up somewhere in a taxi and the doorman was waiting to open the taxi door and show me through to the restaurant (I almost felt like a famous actress !! Julia Roberts, eat your heart out !). They looked after you coats, made sure you knew where the Ladies Room is (even before getting to the point where you are frantically trying to find the Ladies before you burst !!) and made sure that you always had a drink to hand
- I met lots or really nice and friendly people that evening.....and I thank you all for making sure that I had a good time.

I would definatly do this again without hesitation......thank you Iolly and Nir for all the effort that you put into making Saturday a very special evening.

Sue_74, Nov 27, 2006 @ 11:15

...as I didn't attend the dinner. But I can give you this feedback: 100.- is far more than many GOLers can afford for a dinner out. If all musical chairs would become "glam", this event would, per se, become financially selective, which would obviously be a shame from my point of view.
Hobbes, Nov 27, 2006 @ 16:27

I really enjoyed my evening thanks so much Iolly!

To answer your questions:

1) I admit I wasn't blown away by the food, which was tasty but not fantastic - I had expected better from a michelin chef. (It made me wonder yet again why le Chanteclair doesn't have a star or two!) The service was a little patchy but the staff were almost all friendly and willing to please. The night was definitely worth 100chf.

2) The amount of time spent at each table was just about perfect.

3) The quiz was odd; it struck me as being inappropriate to a glamorous occasion, but in the end was the spark for many a fascinating conversation so I guess it achieved its end. I think that it would work better at one of the less glamorous musical chairs nights, where it could happily have been extended; once we got warmed up to it we didn't want to stop!

4) I would hate there never to be a normal musical chairs dinner, and I hope there will be another glamorous one. Both have their places and both are serious fun!

hugs

Kiriel









Kiriel, Nov 27, 2006 @ 16:30

on GOL could end up being potentially financially selective. Rafting, skiing, weekends in Chalets, weekends abroad........100 CHF was definately worth it. I have easily spent up to 200 CHF in one evening in Geneva by just going to a restaurant, night club and taxi home.....and that was without the Glam :-)
Sue_74, Nov 27, 2006 @ 18:14

Hugs are FREE ! Thanks god ;-)
Hobbes, Nov 27, 2006 @ 19:27

In member's driven GoL there is all sort of activities: from free Hugs to expensive Holidays, and each member can choose according to their preferences or possibilities regarding interests, price, time ...
As a father of three, I've never found time to join the pool club on Monday evening, but not for that I would ask that it is moved to a Friday.
Or I wouldn't ask to cancel the rides of the GoL Moto club, for the fact that I don't have a motorcycly nor the driving licence for it.
Why complain for an activity you didn't join (for any reason) if you can join so many others? Over all the Musical chairs dinner. There were (and I guess will be) so many that were really not expensive, that it was so nice to read (and hear) that who joined was delighted to have done it.
If anybody feels that it should be done differently.... please do it!
Each member is welcome to organise activities!
Ciao belli
Stef__Granny, Nov 28, 2006 @ 11:39

Ciao bello!
Stef__Granny, Nov 28, 2006 @ 11:41

... I was wondering by which myterious mind track you could have understood Tinkie's post as a complain ! ;-)
Hobbes, Nov 28, 2006 @ 11:53

All I was doing was answering the question "should every musical chair event be glam". My answer was just "if it were, some people could not afford it." Full point. Hope it's clearer.

That being said, I never saw this event online either ! :-S
Hobbes, Nov 28, 2006 @ 14:43

But can it still be called a GOL event then ? :-I

Maybe your sunday brunch was a GOL event after all ! ;-)
Hobbes, Nov 28, 2006 @ 14:47

You don't have to spend 200 CHF when you go out.....in fact, you don't even have to go out ! You can invite your friends to your house, play board games, watch TV or a DVD, play tarot, chat.......go for walks in the mountains.......

I think this is such a shame that the Glamour Dinner is being tainted by people that did not even attend.......:-(
Sue_74, Nov 28, 2006 @ 15:18

Thought the entire event was spot-on!
The quiz was off-the-wall enough that nobody should expect to know the answers therefore nobody feels embarassed. Also strange enough to stimulate conversation and smiles, just because it was a "glamour" dinner, no reason for it to be "stuffy".
Staff was genuinely friendly and in control. At the previous musical chairs, it seemed the staff were friendly, but moving frantically about trying to keep up with requests. Suspect this is due to the number of people at the dinner as much as anything (still enjoyednit as well).

As for more glamour musical dinners or more regular musical dinners, I don't see a conflict. I believe anyone is free to organise should they feel so inclined.

Any thanks to those who continued to the wee hours of the morning, I had much-needed fun night out.
Buck, Nov 29, 2006 @ 13:43

this event was not posted, it was emailed to people who attended previous musical chairs.

I couldn't make it on that date, so I didn't attend, so can't comment on price, food or overall glam experience.

but the question of why it was not posted on GOL still stands. May be Lolly would like to respond?
kayhec, Nov 29, 2006 @ 14:12

The glam dinner was indeed not posted on GoL, because it filled up before then. I'll explain.

Every time we do GoL dinners, we first invite all those GoL'ers who participated in the last dinners, via an Email to them. This is our way of thanking them for their trust. If there are still places left after this, we post the event on GoL.

This time, the event filled up with participants of the last dinner.

Nir Ofek, Nov 29, 2006 @ 18:08

...that is to say, people asking why wasn't it posted etc., it's a fair question i think,
and is the purpose to meet as many new faces as possible?...

my best guesses, i wont' presume to know...

the same people are not at each event, the event has occurred multiple times, with similar venues, some overlap of attendees, then the event undergoes a change of "venue-style"; to have any reference between the different styles, you need to have guests attend both, so you invite guests who have already attended one of the first series. The questions about who gets invited would be even bigger if you invited a particular selection of those, so you invite them all. As a result the venue nearly fills up before it is even broadcast to the full 7500+ community.

Surely one of the purposes is to meet new faces, but i'm not sure it's a single purpose, or even to meet as many as possible. My goal on the evening, aside from simple fun, was to meet some new faces and maybe make new friends, which is why I enjoyed it so much. However, I was happy to see some faces from the lone previous dinner I attended, just to move from the level of question "where are from how long have you been here" to the "so what have you been up to?" for some conversations, some frindships need more than a single event to develop.

And, as Nir pointed out in a separate post, loyalty is a factor. What if the limited places filled up quickly with nobody from the original events having a chance to participate,probably they would ask the same questions in reverse...sortalike "I went to the ordinary musical dinner...how come you didn't let me know about the fancy one?" You take a risk to change the venue so maybe you want to give it the best chance by running the idea past your regulars first...

I understand people asking why it wasn't posted, especially if the question is because the person would have liked to attend (and that should bode well for future glamour musical chairs if we haven't scared off the current hostess and supporting cast :-)) , but I hope they also understand the efforts made by the members organising events (something I admit I have not yet done) and the energy and sometimes risk involved. In this case, the "entry fee" was not insignifcant and so there was some risk.

boy, i got this rambling thing going now, quick, ask me about world peace and how to put a man on mars...yeah...send em all, i'm ready, *poof* oops, gone...

ah well, again intent wasn't to offend, just trying to help verbalise some probable reasons...

cheers,
Buck, Nov 30, 2006 @ 00:28

Your need for bureaucracy ;-P
A Members' activity is an activity among members to tell each others how it was.
It's not defined by having being posted or not.
When you organize something, you first tell your closer friends (Minda, Hobbes, ...) and then open up the remaining places posting it on the forum.
In this case participants to previous occasion were told earlier, as usual, and at the end there were no places left. Iolly could have posted the activity as full from the beginning, but what for?
Baci :-*
Stef__Granny, Nov 30, 2006 @ 11:22

...you weren't there Bob! So many people, so many musical chairs... The very few people I already knew at the last musical chairs told me they almost didn't know anyone!!!
Carol A, Dec 3, 2006 @ 13:56

Hey Bob.

As has already been explained, Invites to the Glamour Musical Chairs were first sent to people who had attended one of the previous Musical Chairs dinners.

You can agree with this approach, or you can dissagree with it.

Seems to me the more time you spend writing about what we should have done, the less time you are spending actualy joining and/or organizing activities.

The more activities you take part in, the more people you will meet, and the greater the chance that you will be invited to more activities in the future.
Not because we discriminate who we invite, but because people tend to invite people they already know first when they organize activities.

Oded

SiteAdmin Oded, Dec 3, 2006 @ 15:00

exactly :)
Carol A, Dec 4, 2006 @ 14:34