WEBMU 2013: Field Trip to Prague!

The planning of our annual Whiny Expat Bloggers Meet-Up has been kind of different this year. I tend to think that the nearly nonexistent Spring lulled people into feeling that it was miles away and we were slogging on about it way early. Plus, there was a lingering hangover of fabulousity from WEBMU 2012 Berlin. Now, Autumn is making itself felt and we’re under a month out. So to help with your short-term planning, a small reminder:

WEBMU 2013: Prague! Sept. 20-22

Ok, maybe not so small.

It’s time for WEBMU to take its show on the road! A little Bohemian adventure to cleanse the porky German palate! There will be a firm schedule up shortly in the forums and we’ll have a few hotel recommendations as well.

See you in September!

Will you join us at WEBMU 2011?

There’s a poll up at the ExpatBloggersInGermany.com board seeking your input. Just a real basic question — “Are you coming to the Whiny Expat Blogger MeetUp 2011?” — and Yes/No/Maybe options for your response. You can change your vote as often as you like while the hosts are planning the agenda.

If you’re an expatriate living in Germany blogging in English, come on out to Cologne in October for a weekend of laughter and comiserating. If you’re new to our discussion board, you can register right there too — just don’t forget to mention your blog’s internet address and your (rough) location in Germany.

All aboard for WEBMU 2011!

The lovely and talented CNHeidelberg remarked this week that WEBMU 2011 is fast approaching, like a locomotive, chugging along down the track, which we are powerless to impede.

Speaking of which, you can buy train travel to there from anywhere and back, now that we’re less than 90 days out. It officially gets rolling on Saturday, October 22. If you’re an English-language blogger, living in Germany, come on out and put some faces and voices to those fonts and images you’ve been reading.

For our tranpsortation, we personally were leaning toward flying, thinking that would be cheaper in terms of outright cost or at least time spent traveling, but this turned out not to be the case for us. We’ll be spending perhaps an hour more in transit each way in total, but saving more than 50% off the travel costs associated with air travel for us.

We’ll be training it out Thursday afternoon to Cologne, in plenty of time for the Friday pre-event — whatever that ends up being (a visit to some palaces in Brühl, the Aachener Altstadt, or perhaps some swanky shopping, all hosted by local residents).

Details are on the bulletin board at www.expatbloggersingermany.com/meetup. Register there, if you haven’t already, get access to all the accommodation recommendations and forthcoming agenda. Don’t forget to mention your location in Germany (roughly, at least) and your blog’s URL, so that I can approve your membership.

To Yelli and the 50 percenters…

I haven’t said much about it, but I’ve been watching your tweets counting down to your return. I’m sad that you’re going, but hopeful that you’ll love it and thrive there, just as you have in Berlin. We didn’t get to see each other very often, but we both enjoyed the hell out of the time that we spent with you all.

Gute Reise, viel Glück und viel Spaß!

Save the date! WEBMU 2011 in Cologne October 22-23!

This just in — we now know both WHERE and WHEN WEBMU 2011 will take place.

Answer: Cologne, October 22-23.

If you’re an expatriate who blogs in English in living in Germany, come over to the discussion board and get the details as they develop. Your WEBMU 2011 hosts are hard at work planning the details of the event, making travel and accommodation suggestions, and even discovering whom to bribe to guarantee splendid Herbstwetter as we converge upon Germany’s fourth-largest city.

Bis spätestens dann!

WEBMU 2011 in Cologne — date still TBD

Just an update for those of us planning out leisure travel for the rest of the year already: the Whiny Expat Blogger Meetup (WEBMU) in Cologne later this year still has no firm date.

A poll on the the topic over on the discussion board has been open for just about two weeks, and as of this writing, we currently have a tie between two weekends. As a result, we can’t close the poll just yet. We need more input.

If you haven’t yet voted on when WEBMU 2011 should be, but you are an English-language blogging expatriate in Germany, head over and let us know which weekend best suits you. It doesn’t matter whether you know at this point whether you can attend for sure or not. Your vote matters anyways!

Perhaps you’ll tip the scales and we can get the week off to a good start after this glorious weekend.

WEBMU 2011 — WHERE Poll closing soon!

Attention all English-language expatriate bloggers in Germany!

Just a friendly reminder to head over to expatbloggersingermany.com/meetup/ and deposit your vote for the location of the annual Whiny Expat Blogger MeetUp.

We opened the poll about three weeks ago and the clock is ticking down. As of right now, 29 discussion board members have voted and Cologne and Magdeburg are the front-runners, but some intense last-minute campaigning for Berlin or Frankfurt could change all that pretty quickly. If discussion seems pretty settled on Sunday evening (that’s the the three-week mark), we’ll close the poll and announce the results. If discussion perks up here in the home stretch, we’ll keep the poll open until it dies down.

The next step: after we’ve chosen a host city, that city’s hosts will pre-select (based on their own availability and known local events) some candidate weekends and the group will vote again to choose the weekend that works for the majority of us.

If you’re a member of the discussion board already, stop in and say hi and deposit your two cents. Not yet a member of the of the board? Register, (telling us roughly where in Germany you live and what your blog’s address is) and then help decide where WEBMU 2011 will be.

Remember, voting on WHERE it should be doesn’t commit you to attending WEBMU 2011 — a firm headcount isn’t required until well after the hosts have nominated some weekends and we’ve finalized the WHEN.