{"id":6930,"date":"2011-10-26T11:18:21","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T18:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/?p=6930"},"modified":"2016-01-15T13:28:25","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T21:28:25","slug":"7-tips-to-attending-a-mega-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/7-tips-to-attending-a-mega-event\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Tips to Attending a Mega-Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Groundspeak Lackeys traveled thousands of miles from H.Q. this year to share smiles, shake hands and make geocaching memories at more than a dozen Mega-Events worldwide. Nicole Bliss, a.k.a. Louie Bliss<\/a><\/em>, <\/em><\/strong>attended Mega-Event Catalunya 2011<\/a> in Calella, Spain. Nicole has been\u00a0 a Lackey helping geocachers in customer service since 2010. This is Nicole’s account of the Mega-Event.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Nicole and Signal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oh Mega, My Mega! Catalunya 2011<\/h1>\n

I recently attended Mega-Event Catalunya 2011 in Calella, Spain and represented Groundspeak. It may have been my fifth Mega-Event, but it was my first international event.\u00a0 I was surprised at how Mega-Events can be so similar 5,000 miles away from each other. There were still the same activities: discovering Trackables, shopping for merchandise, dinner events and, of course, lots of caching. I even attended my first flash mob \u2013 one of the best parts of the event! Yet, international events can be so different; everyone speaks different languages and cache descriptions are all in the local language. The difficulty rating goes up at least a star for foreigners. It helps that many geocaching phrases are universal.<\/p>\n

With an international event, it was amazing how many countries were represented. I met cachers from Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Czech Republic, Portugal, UK, Canada, France, Netherlands and Spain. I was the only American. I spent so much time with a group of French cachers that at one point, I felt like I was in France instead of Spain.<\/p>\n

I learned a lot about what to plan for when attending a Mega-Event. If you haven\u2019t had the opportunity yet, listen up! Here’s 7 tips for attending a Mega-Event –<\/p>\n

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Catalunya 2011 Flash Mob<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n