What are good locations for Open Coffee Club Meetings?
Over the last days I have been thinking about how to find a good venue for Meetings of the Open Coffee Club. Here a short description of the process:
- Define criteria for the venue
- Find one or more venues that match the criteria
- See the venues and get a feel for them
- Talk to somebody in charge
- Final Decision
Define criteria for Open Coffee Club venues:
Primary
- open and accessible location
- free wifi-access
- easy to find
- (free) parking
- no charge for the location
Secondary
- nice/friendly atmosphere
- big tables
- enough space to cater for increasing number of attendees
- owners of venue willing to contribute (tea, coffee)
Find one or more venues that match the criteria
Having the Open Coffee Club in Castlebar, the first place I was thinking of was the Royal Theatre Pub. It is well know and easy to find, there are enough parking spaces and it being a pub with plenty of space and big tables, there is no fee for using this venue. It also has free Wifi.
As another location we are thinking of Days Hotel. It matches nearly all criteria, except that parking would not be free in the multi-storey or not as near by, but I think walking a few steps won’t harm. The Restaurant has less space than the RT, but the venue would be free of charge as well, while I don’t know about Wifi.
See the venues and get a feel for them
Last Saturday I went to see both places around lunchtime. Days Hotel Restaurant is a very bright place. It was pretty busy, but I didn’t find it very welcoming. I believe it’s just not my style. The RT was much darker and I found it much nicer. The pub-atmosphere was welcoming and as there is more space, it felt less busy.
Talk to somebody in charge
In Days Hotel I asked for the Marketing Manager, which was not on duty on Saturdays. I mentioned the reason for my visit and was told to have a look around, nobody asked me if I needed any assistance or had any questions. In the RT I went to the reception and told the reason for my visit, after a few minutes the manager on duty came and showed me around. We sat down, she took a few notes and said she would ring me back later, but generally we were welcome.
Final decision
As it is not just myself deciding on the venue you will have to wait … I briefed my co-organisers and am now waiting for a reply. As far as I am concerned I would like to meet in the RT.
What do you think? Which place would you prefer? Do you know any other place in C’bar that would be suitable? Do you have your own experiences with Days Hotel Restaurant or the Royal Theatre Pub? Please let us know!
Other venues in Co. Mayo
As we will move around the County, we would like to ask you for recommendations for other venues in Mayo. As we will be holding every second meeting (every 4 weeks) in Castlebar and every other around the County, we will need 13 venues to cover the year, so here is a selection of towns, we would like to visit: Castlebar, Westport, Achill Sound, Bangor, Belmullet, Ballycastle, Ballina, Foxford, Charlestown, Claremorris, Ballyhaunis, Cong
09.Feb.09 
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