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WorldPride 2017 - Madrid - our next international meet


michaeld

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Not to detract from the notice of our incorporation - and if you haven't read that, I suggest reading it before this - but there is another announcement I'd like to make.

Many of the AVENites who have been around for years will remember AVEN and the asexual community's presence in WorldPride 2012 in London and WorldPride 2014 in Toronto. WorldPride happens every few years, in a different city, and is much like a normal pride event and parade except bigger and more international!

Each of the occasions mentioned had a large international gathering from AVEN and the wider asexual community. You can find videos from the conferences on the Project Team's youtube, and information on the planning in the WorldPride 2012 and WorldPride 2014 subforums, under Visibility and Education Projects.

(The 2014 conference led to a followup in 2015 though this was organised by Asexual Outreach, a Toronto based organisation that arose between the two conferences, and many of whose members were also involved in the planning of our WorldPride 2014 conference, also known as the International Asexuality conference.)

WorldPride is our largest international gathering. The next one is in ... Madrid at the start of July (and possibly in part, the end of June) in 2017.

Yes, that's right. 2017 not 2016. It's quite a way away. But given the location we need to start preparing soon.

The expected schedule is:
Saturday 2 July 2017: The WorldPride 2017 march, including an asexual walking group - us!
Sunday 3 July 2017: The asexuality conference at WorldPride 2017, location to be confirmed.

There will probably be other smaller events and meets on the surrounding days, given we'll have so many of us there at once.

We are expecting visitors from all over Europe, North America and maybe further afield e.g. Australasia and South America - and perhaps even Africa and Asia. So I'm encouraging everyone to look at their holiday plans, and see if they can make it next year! We will help where we can with planning travel arrangements and accommodation. Perhaps with sufficient planning we can rent out apartments for AVEN members, hopefully at a discounted rate.

The previous two WorldPrides we attended as a community were in English speaking countries. The fact 2017 is in Madrid, Spain opens up a whole lot of challenges as well as opportunities. While lots of great work has already been done in Spanish speaking countries, the amount of coverage they have had hasn't been as great as in say the USA, Canada, UK and Australia. This would be a chance to give the Spanish speaking asexual community a huge lift, not just in Spain but also Latin America. We expect to generate lots of press coverage.

The language issue leads to the first point of clarification. We are intending that the conference and any other events we hold will be accessible to those who speak English and/or Spanish. How this will work hasn't been worked out yet, but likely we will have some English language sessions, some Spanish language sessions and some both - with translators. But it will depend on the level of interest and need.

Quite apart from thinking about travel preparations, there is of course a lot of planning to do. As for our previous WorldPrides, the conference and other logistics will be planned by the AVEN Project Team working with more local organisers. We are in touch with people from AVENes - the Spanish language version of AVEN - and will be working with them closely over the next year. We will also need a great deal of help from all of you too, whether in promoting the events on social media, helping with travel plans, preparing visibility materials and promotional events, talking to the press or helping making films or documentaries about the events.

So yes! This is for initial thoughts. Are you thinking of going? Whether you are or not, would you like to help us plan it? Do you have any comments or suggestions based on what you've read?

One other thing: in previous occasions, we had a full forum in the Visibility section for the planning of WorldPride; after the event was completed, this was made a subforum of Visibility and Education projects. Having a full forum was very helpful for both planning the event and giving it a high level of visibility. If there are objections to us making such a forum this time around, feel free to discuss them here also - or we can make a new thread for it.

I look forward to planning this event with you all and with our friends over at AVENes!

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YES I'M GOING!

Edit: yay, first to post :D Do I get extra bonus points for enthusiasm?

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Lord of the nerds

Good luck, I hope you all are successful and efficient in your planning.

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I'll be there too. Looking forward to seeing you again, Heart!

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SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU AGAIN TOO ITH!

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Member4445

Hoping to be there.

I'll probably just sit in a corner drinking Mocktails and eating fried chicken.

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Skycaptain

I plan to be there, and incorporating a road trip with Babybenz if funds permit

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I come if I got the oppurtunity.

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Skycaptain

As an aside, for anyone outside the UK meet-ups thread, I've got the AVEN banner, still in good condition, chez moi.

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Sage Raven Domino

You see, there are many ways to spend $500:

1. Book flights and a hostel bed for myself.

2. Try to find an extra journalist and send them instead of myself to cover the event.

3. Give the money to AVEN for forum maintenance.

I think the first way is not the most efficient.

If someone has an intense desire to see me at the meetup, they're free to PM me, but I highly doubt that I'll be missed.

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I understand that finances are a hard deal, and could be very well used elsewhere (especially if it means we get better servers), but I for one will miss the chance to meet you DiamondAce :(

The great thing about the internet though is that I get to keep seeing you around the forums :D

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Sage Raven Domino

The great thing about the internet though is that I get to keep seeing you around the forums :D

Right, that's what I meant. Internet access is so cheap and easy that it's not necessary to travel to read each other's thoughts and even see and hear each other (though I'm not ready to show my face to any of you anyway :P). I mean, I'd travel if online hangouts were impossible, but as they're readily available, live meetings become cost-ineffective unless people want to touch me or be touched by me, which, I suppose, no one is particularly craving :P

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Welcome aboard Heart, Ith, Splat, Ciri, Skycaptain, Tha. And thanks for the encouragement, Lord of the Nerds.

Skycaptain, that banner was the one we printed for WorldPride 2012 in London, and have used since in London and Reading prides. We printed an exact replica for WorldPride 2014 in Toronto. Most likely we shall print another one for next year, possibly with both English and Spanish on it - we'll have to see. It would save transport and give a long term banner for future Madrid prides, or Spanish ones more generally. I think the banner you have will continue to be used for UK prides in the future.

Diamond, it would be awesome to see you there. Further we need people to come from afar to make it WorldPride. Important though the server and media engagement are, I definitely vote for option (1) in your list!

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Baikal Balkash

Here one from Spain, although not from Madrid, that will attend WorldPride in 2017. Curious to meet all of you. From Spain we will work to make things well in order to have great days.

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Sage Raven Domino

¡Hola Baikal! I have to admit that I haven't even lurked at AVENes for many months :blush: (and have almost forgotten Spanish), I'll have to allocate some time to making myself up to date with what's going on there. Many thanks for your work as an AVENes admin! :cake:

Diamond, it would be awesome to see you there. Further we need people to come from afar to make it WorldPride. Important though the server and media engagement are, I definitely vote for option (1) in your list!

If you really want a Russian representative, I suggest inviting semper, as she's travelled a lot (one of the reasons for her emigration was the lack of understanding of the ace spectrum in the Russian society) and is much more active socially and thus has a more interesting story to tell.

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Welcome aboard Heart, Ith, Splat, Ciri, Skycaptain, Tha. And thanks for the encouragement, Lord of the Nerds.

Skycaptain, that banner was the one we printed for WorldPride 2012 in London, and have used since in London and Reading prides. We printed an exact replica for WorldPride 2014 in Toronto. Most likely we shall print another one for next year, possibly with both English and Spanish on it - we'll have to see. It would save transport and give a long term banner for future Madrid prides, or Spanish ones more generally. I think the banner you have will continue to be used for UK prides in the future.

Diamond, it would be awesome to see you there. Further we need people to come from afar to make it WorldPride. Important though the server and media engagement are, I definitely vote for option (1) in your list!

Thank you :)
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I enjoyed the last one, and hope to be there again. Madrid is an awesome city. Be sure to explore!

I took my mother there 20 years ago, and we had fun. She speaks Spanish, so that was helpful.

The 2017 asexuality conference will likely be the biggest and best one in the history of the world.

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I'm planning to go to study in Spain next August and I'll be there for one year, so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to make it!! I'm really glad Madrid was chosen, it's an amazing city. I hope to meet a lot of aces there!

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I enjoyed the last one, and hope to be there again. Madrid is an awesome city. Be sure to explore!

I took my mother there 20 years ago, and we had fun. She speaks Spanish, so that was helpful.

The 2017 asexuality conference will likely be the biggest and best one in the history of the world.

I'm so excited to see you again!! And everyone that I met at the last WorldPride!! I met so many amazing people, and I'm sure I will only meet more new amazing people. I'm far too excited, I'm jumping up and down in my chair. I think I should cut off the cafeine :P

Also, my partners have both said that they might come! THIS IS GOING TO BE SOO COOL GUYS!

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I'll probably go. Seeing as I love Madrid and will take any excuse to travel there. So any of those who will go will be seeing me there!

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Member4445

Welcome aboard Heart, Ith, Splat, Ciri, Skycaptain, Tha. And thanks for the encouragement, Lord of the Nerds.

Skycaptain, that banner was the one we printed for WorldPride 2012 in London, and have used since in London and Reading prides. We printed an exact replica for WorldPride 2014 in Toronto. Most likely we shall print another one for next year, possibly with both English and Spanish on it - we'll have to see. It would save transport and give a long term banner for future Madrid prides, or Spanish ones more generally. I think the banner you have will continue to be used for UK prides in the future.

Diamond, it would be awesome to see you there. Further we need people to come from afar to make it WorldPride. Important though the server and media engagement are, I definitely vote for option (1) in your list!

My partner will be accompanying me.

And I'm trying to drag Piffy along. Or is he trying to drag me along? I forget.

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Sage Raven Domino

Perhaps with sufficient planning we can rent out apartments for AVEN members, hopefully at a discounted rate.

On second thought, I might want to make a trip to the Mediterranean coast (Andalusia on June 13-19 and Catalonia on June 19-26; the dates are subject to change) to make more sense of the whole voyage to Spain, but then I'll need a bed (of any kind) from June 26 till the end of the WorldPride (which can be anywhere in Spain until the start of the event) to avoid flying home and back.

Of course, for the coastal part of the trip, I'm better off seeking people on AVENes who would (sub)let their rooms to me, or perhaps the accomodation for this part will be prepaid for me (I'd love to cash that money in, spend part of it on a cheap room and save the rest up for Madrid, but c'est la vie; maybe there will be massive hotel discounts, though). However, after my coastal commitments end, I'll be free to assist with the prep for the conference, and with this in mind, I'd like you to tell us the date when our organisational committee starts working on-site and whether it makes sense to come to Madrid 1-5 days in advance to get involved in the prep.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Planning to go, planning to help, and also just registered on AVENes to get to know the locals. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Jetsun Milarepa

I'm definitely setting a week aside for this! Great excuse for a knees -up! If there's anything I can do to help, let me know!

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Ace of Amethysts

I. Want. To go to WorldPride New York 2019.

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I. Want. To go to WorldPride New York 2019.

NEW YORK WOULD BE SO FUN!!!!

*plans ahead*

I'm so glad these happen spaced out enough to give me time to save up :P

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Ooh is the 2019 one going to be in New York? I'm close enough to NYC that it might actually be feasible for me to go to that one. :)

I won't be able to go to Madrid for the 2017 World Pride, but I really hope it all goes well!

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Next is in Ney York? That's awesome, it will give me an ecuse to visit new york :P

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