Locations?

[PT]

Hey all,


I've been surfing through the places these gatherings have been held before. They seem nice, cool and all that. But also posh and flashy. Not that there's anything "wrong" with that, not that it would prevent me from coming if I'm free - but here's an idea.


Why not have these gatherings in alternating cultural places? Like in Chinatown, Little India, Arab Quarter,...? I mean, Singapore is more than the luxurious sky-scraper centre - so why not make use of that?


Maybe I'm missing the point here, but am I the only one here who'd like to experience other venues as well?


Please shoot me if you think I'm insane.

[tilly1234]

Hi PT,

I think you're right and it's a great idea!
I definitely would be up for mixing the places a bit.
As I'm new to Singapore, unfortunately I don't have any suggestions.
However, I don't want to be misunderstood and say thank you to all who organised a FNDC so far!
It was always great fun!

See you tomorrow!

[PT]

However, I don't want to be misunderstood and say thank you to all who organised a FNDC so far!
It was always great fun!

Well, yes - obviously. I've only attended one (1) FNDC before, but it was great and I say many thanks to the organisers!

It's just an idea, frankly.

But a good one, of course.

[ukdesigner]

Hi guys,

we do mix it up a bit. We don't always go to the same places but we do need to consider that people live in different places so central is always best. We have done Little India, Chnatown to name a few but it is quite hard always finding a venue that can cope.

One problem we do have is knowing the number of people attending. I have asked for people to respond and have had about 6 replys. Then when the evening goes ahead 30 people turn up so we never really know the actual attendees until the event itself.

We are always looking to go to different places so if you have a suggestion please put it forward but be aware of the ease for everyone to attend. There's no point running an event in Woodlands as people who live in the East Coast and work centrally probably wouldn't attend.

If you want to help out organising PT then let us know. We are looking for additional hands to help out as myself & kitten heel aren't always available to do it which means that one week FNDC is not gonna happen so a 3rd person would be helpful.

By the way suggestions are always welcomed. Where's the next one - down to you PT.......

[PT]

Hi guys,

we do mix it up a bit. We don't always go to the same places but we do need to consider that people live in different places so central is always best. We have done Little India, Chnatown to name a few but it is quite hard always finding a venue that can cope.

One problem we do have is knowing the number of people attending. I have asked for people to respond and have had about 6 replys. Then when the evening goes ahead 30 people turn up so we never really know the actual attendees until the event itself.

We are always looking to go to different places so if you have a suggestion please put it forward but be aware of the ease for everyone to attend. There's no point running an event in Woodlands as people who live in the East Coast and work centrally probably wouldn't attend.

If you want to help out organising PT then let us know. We are looking for additional hands to help out as myself & kitten heel aren't always available to do it which means that one week FNDC is not gonna happen so a 3rd person would be helpful.

By the way suggestions are always welcomed. Where's the next one - down to you PT.......

I'd be happy to help out, but: I'm new here in Singapore, so I don't really know places to go. And even though this friday, I'll attend - next one (few) I most probably won't be around: I have a lot of travelling coming up, also over weekends (Korea, Thailand, Malaysia).


In any case: please don't take this as criticism, it's merely an idea.


And what I mean by "other places", well: a bit more "down-to-earth", just were 'regular' Singaporeans go. Are there any locals here that could advise on some nice settings in various districts (centrally located, good point)?

See you friday.

[PT]

And of course: the venue is not that important - the people are!

[Superglide]

PT,

you are not the only one and not the first one to think so. I remember some time back, when Bafana proposed the same, that wass still in the WNDC glory days.

Quite a few people do not fancy to pay ridiculous amounts of cash for a drink (such as in Posh Bar, a lobby bar of a 5 star hotel without any ambience, insane pricing and crappy service), and suggested to go beyond the obvious clarke quay one fullerton kind of wanna be seen bars.

But then again, it also selects, and when hearing from another longterm WNDC-er a few weeks ago, how she went to the FNDC, she told me the kind of people changed, very different group nowadays when compared to a few years back. But still.... it's well visited, so peeps seem to like it.

So be it, life changes and different people, different strokes.

But you are spot on, there are so many bars besides the obvious.

Just a few suggestions: Club street area, China square / Far East Square, Blooies Road House Pub (oh my god, it's all the way to east coast or to Upper Bukit Timah ), Villa Bali at Lock Road, Dempsey Road area etc. etc.

[ukdesigner]

Hi PT,

I accept what you are saying and have no problem with people suggesting new venues, ideas etc etc. I am also relatively new here and also like to look beyond the clarke quay etc venues, hence we've had introbar, the blue jazz bar in bugis, a place in little india and so on but there are limitations on our time to organise (we do this for fun and for free), to co-ordinate 30 odd people who attend and to even get a realistic response as to know how many people will be turning up. I was thinking one week of doing a mystery venue to make sure that I get responses but to be honest I don't think that even that would work, so we stick with the current format and try to pick places that are easily accessible, have good music / quietness to allow people to chat and mingle, good ambience and has the capacity to cope with anywhere from 10 to 30 or even 40 odd people (our largest group since I've been here).

We don't make a choice based on the price of the drinks and to be honest I have noticed very little difference in the price of drinks be that in a 5-star hotel to a normal bar. We do try to cater for all tastes so it's not always at the fullerton or other posh places but to be honest as the age group is quite young (young I mean 40 and under-ish) that's what people seem to like. I mean averagely 30 people every week must mean we are doing something right.

Hopefully I haven't put you off FNDC and haven't offended you because that's certainly not what I intended to do, so please forgive me if that's how it comes across.

To Superglide....
I'll check out the venues you mentioned and maybe we'll do one there very soon. Watch this space.

[Kitten Heel]

Hi PT,

Thanks for your feedback. Constructive comments like that are always useful to organisers like UKDesigner and myself.

I think UKdesigner has mentioned many points, and I completely agree with the points that he has brought up. i.e.:

1) Sometimes, even when the event is stated as an RSVP event, we will probably only get 6 RSVPs, and ended up with a group of 40. I can understand that sometimes it's hard to decide if you can make it due to work commitment. But a general yes/no/maybe would be great and it does give us the assurance that we are more or less on the right track. Plus the venue we choose, the things that we do would vary significantly between 6 and 40 people.

2) We always try to add in a bit of variety in the places we choose to go. I think we did go to Little India a few weeks ago (Prince of Wales. Really cheap drinks there!). Not sure about Chinatown yet, because my impression with Chinatown is that the pubs are generally smaller, and we might have problem accomodating the number of people we get (currently we get about 40 people... even though only 6 RSVP). Again, I could be wrong.

3) We really are looking for people to share the load with us. I've been in Singapore for 4 years, and UKdesigner is relatively new in town (Is it 3 months, dear?). So I think how long you've been in Singapore is not really an issue. I'm getting busy with work lately and so is UKdesigner. I am actually thinking of cutting FNDC down to once a forthnight because it's getting stressful (for me anyway). But who knows? Hopefully we'll get a helping hand soon.

4) I think the impression that we only go to expensive places is purely a coincident. We try to choose places that are easily accessible for most people (i.e. Boat Quay, Clarke Quay etc because it's close to Raffles Place), and because these places are centralised, their rent tend to be more expensive and thus (justly or unjustly so), the pubs feel that they could charge higher for their drinks. I think UKdesigner has raised a very good point that there doesn't seem to be any difference in the price of drinks between a centrally located pub and a more remote one (e.g. Dempsey Road). That's my personal impression as well. I think it depends on the individual pubs.

So yeah. Do keep the comments coming in, as long as they are genuine and constructive.



with love
Kitten Heel