Reflections on Putting on a Mega

 

Now that M3 is over, I’m going to be doing a few articles talking about how everything went. For part 1, I’m going to do a rundown and review of all the satellite events that took place before the actual mega itself.

Wednesday started the satellite events off nice and easy. A little lunch event at Arby’s. We saw a nice group of folks show up, both regulars and others. Had a great little event and just like that, the ball was beginning to roll.

The next morning, a group of hikers met up at the Dobson Trail parking lot and were shuttled to the Sandhill Side Trail to do the first block of the Dobson.

The group was about 15 in total and included folks who had come all the way from Quebec to enjoy our local trail. If you have hiked that portion of the Dobson before, you know how wet it can be and how it can seem like you’ll never get out of there.

But just 2:30ish in the afternoon rolled around, that same group could be seen coming out of the woods
towards the fire pit and the next official satellite event began.

Several wheelbarrows filled with water, and other beverages welcomed the hikers, and other visitors to an afternoon bonfire.

You might wonder why you’d want to have a bonfire in the middle of summer but it was a great way to bring together both the group of hikers, and other cachers who just came out for the event.

It was very well attended, and most folks had a chance to sign the “log” (see photo), have a drink, and enjoy the company of many fellow geocachers.

When all was said and done, everyone headed off and were ready for the next event that would take place that evening.

Chatelaine hosted the “How to eat a lobster” event which gave a chance for the non-locals to learn all about how real Maritimers eat their lobster. If you didn’t want the seafood, steak was available as well. This event was also quite well attended and many folks seemed to enjoy the feast.

At that event, a couple of geocachers from Finland appeared. They were a little shy, but were welcomed with open arms, and enjoyed the company of their fellow geocaching companions. It was then that I started to truly realize the scope of the mega. This wasn’t just about bringing a few locals together. This was about something much bigger.

Friday morning came along and it was time for the next event. This time it was a flash mob taking place at Moncton’s famous tidal bore. I had no idea so many people would show up for Rev’s event, but this was where you could definitely see the momentum of the mega truly starting to pick up.

Here was such a large group of people who had come together to just be silly and have some fun.

The idea was that everyone had to put on some kind of mask when they say the “horse” running down and the bore started to come in.

The best part of this entire event was the look of complete and total confusion from the tourists who had come to see the bore and had no idea what was going on.

Everyone laughed, roared, cheered, and truly embraced just having fun together regardless of the fact that many of these people were from far away. Geocaching had brought them together for something fun and the big event hadn’t even started yet.

Paulie then hosted a Coffee & Cruise event which was really just an excuse to have a cup of coffee and do his car rally. A LOT of people showed up to the event and many of them headed out towards the outskirts of Moncton to find the multitude of caches that Paulie had hidden for his rally. It seemed fitting that a car rally would “rev” up the geocachers as we got closer and closer to mega day.

At 4pm that afternoon, setup inside the Wesleyan began. A flashmob event was scheduled for 5pm but setup was beginning early. TheNinjaJedi took a photo of the venue before all the madness began and it really was like the calm before the storm.

In no time flat, it was time for Chatelaine to get everyone to answer their banana phone.

The parking lot was filled with a sea of people and for a very short period of time, everyone was standing there with bananas to their ears and anyone driving by would wonder what the frack was going on.

And then just like that, the “pre-mega” began. People were lined up outside just waiting to get in the door to either pick up their registration, or purchase a new one.

The line went well out the door and into the parking lot.

But credit to Petitcache and her volunteers because that line got churned through in no time flat.

We had purposely decided to keep folks out of the main hall, and direct them to the side entrance, to keep the line moving. This also helped to avoid having people wander around through the venue interrupting the vendors as they got set up. Before you knew it, everyone had blown through there and it was time to finish the night off.

The night finished with heathtree’s meet and greet event in Centennial Park. A huge turnout allowed everyone to really kick back, enjoy the evening air, mix and mingle, and just relax. This was a great way to finish the day before the mega itself would kick off the following morning.

In part 2, I’ll talk about mega day itself. What worked. What could have been better. And what my thoughts are on it now that it’s long gone.