+geocat_ Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 MOGA 2016 will be in... *drumroll* ...Cincinnati, Ohio! Bringing it to my own back yard!!! Super excited!!!! Quote Link to comment
+afcachers Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Where's MOGA central and what's the theme? Quote Link to comment
+geocat_ Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 I don't know what you mean by "MOGA Central" but here's the event page http://coord.info/GC5KYNP Quote Link to comment
+ArtieD Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 (edited) MOGA 2016 will be in... *drumroll* ...Cincinnati, Ohio! You copied my Facebook post! :P No worries, though! LOL Where's MOGA central and what's the theme? MOGA Central is the basic headquarters of MOGA. It's where the registration, store, caching games like the poker run, vendors, etc. are located. It's also where the final ceremony is held. Basically, the epicenter of the event! The theme is the Olympics! Edited March 23, 2015 by Arthur & Trillian Quote Link to comment
+geocat_ Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 MOGA 2016 will be in... *drumroll* ...Cincinnati, Ohio! You copied my Facebook post! :P No worries, though! LOL Where's MOGA central and what's the theme? MOGA Central is the basic headquarters of MOGA. It's where the registration, store, caching games like the poker run, vendors, etc. are located. It's also where the final ceremony is held. Basically, the epicenter of the event! The theme is the Olympics! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Or in this case, plagiarism is! Thanks for the Facebook "heads up". I am excited! Oh, and thanks for defining "MOGA Central" too Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 MOGA 2016 will be in... *drumroll* ...Cincinnati, Ohio! You copied my Facebook post! :P No worries, though! LOL Where's MOGA central and what's the theme? MOGA Central is the basic headquarters of MOGA. It's where the registration, store, caching games like the poker run, vendors, etc. are located. It's also where the final ceremony is held. Basically, the epicenter of the event! The theme is the Olympics! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Or in this case, plagiarism is! Thanks for the Facebook "heads up". I am excited! Oh, and thanks for defining "MOGA Central" too Although there was a link to a cache page, there are likely a lot of newbies that have no idea what MOGA is. Quote Link to comment
+jellis Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 MOGA 2016 will be in... *drumroll* ...Cincinnati, Ohio! You copied my Facebook post! :P No worries, though! LOL Where's MOGA central and what's the theme? MOGA Central is the basic headquarters of MOGA. It's where the registration, store, caching games like the poker run, vendors, etc. are located. It's also where the final ceremony is held. Basically, the epicenter of the event! The theme is the Olympics! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Or in this case, plagiarism is! Thanks for the Facebook "heads up". I am excited! Oh, and thanks for defining "MOGA Central" too Although there was a link to a cache page, there are likely a lot of newbies that have no idea what MOGA is. Newbies? I haven't heard of it before. Is this an Eastern US thing? Quote Link to comment
+ArtieD Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Newbies? I haven't heard of it before. Is this an Eastern US thing? Nope. It's been going on since 2004 and has been hosted in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Ohio so far. So...you could say it's a Midwest thing, but any and all are invited. We get people from all over the country and even the world! Quote Link to comment
+cerberus1 Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Newbies? I haven't heard of it before. Is this an Eastern US thing? Nope. It's been going on since 2004 and has been hosted in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Ohio so far. So...you could say it's a Midwest thing, but any and all are invited. We get people from all over the country and even the world! Cool ! Where's the listing for that latest Newbies event? Quote Link to comment
+jellis Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Still too far for me. Colorado and Kansas was the most I gone east in a long time. Quote Link to comment
Keystone Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Suggestion: it might help if Arthur & Trillian or some other MOGA veteran posted a summary of how MOGA is different from other Mega Events. I've not attended one, but I have a vague idea from reading past forum discussions and cache pages. Quote Link to comment
+ArtieD Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Suggestion: it might help if Arthur & Trillian or some other MOGA veteran posted a summary of how MOGA is different from other Mega Events. I've not attended one, but I have a vague idea from reading past forum discussions and cache pages. MOGA 2016 will be our 10th straight MOGA, so per Keystone's suggestion, I will try to give a Cliff's Notes description about how MOGA operates vs. other Mega events. If any other MOGA vet out there wishes to add to the discussion, please do. 1. First and foremost, while most Mega events are about the social aspect, MOGA is a geocaching competition. That's not to say that you must compete. The vast majority of attendees do not. Instead, they attend satellite events, CITO's and activities...and of course cache in the surrounding area. For the most part, on the actual day of the event, MOGA Central (the place where the vendors, event registration and store, games and final ceremony are located) is pretty much dead with people coming in here and there. Most are out there getting those smileys! Like any Mega, we try to allow for those 10-icon days and have Lab Caches, too. 2. Surrounding the event, there are usually well over 100 permanent caches placed for the event, including geo-art as well. Many caches are released before the event, but often dozens to over 100 caches are held back and the coordinates for those unpublished caches are either obtained through a GPX file on a USB drive you can buy or are downloaded to your GPS at a table at MOGA Central. They usually publish them the next day on Sunday. 3. The competition events are structured and organized. Here's the way it was done for MOGA 2015, which was last weekend: There were two competition courses, one for Individual Competition, and one for Team Competition. They had 30 punches on each course, and were placed in small camouflaged containers in and around Trail of Tears State Park. Each competitor also got a punch card with numbered spaces that corresponded to the numbered punches. They punched the card and kept track of finds during the competition that way. They were not allowed to drive at any time during the competition. There were single, two-person and four-person competitions (singles in the morning and team in the afternoon) and those are broken down to age groups: Under 30, 30-49 and 50-Older. You have 2.5 hours to find as many punches as you can. Sounds easy? It's not. After the competition, they are allowed to log caches associated with the punches if they like. 4. We also have a puzzle cache competition. It was started a few years ago to allow those who may not be as physical (because the main competition is brutal, physically) to get a chance to compete and win a medal. This one is all about brains and puzzle-solving ability. The puzzles range from fairly easy to really, really hard ones. The guy who comes up with them is known to be one of the best puzzle cache placers around, so the quality is high. Participants have the same 2.5 hours to compete. 5. Winners in both the main competition and the puzzle competition win medals in standard gold, silver and bronze finishes. They are awarded during the evening ceremony on the day of the event. 6. Usually, a special event cache is placed. To get it, participants must use clues and solve puzzles to find it. In the past, one would have to use the event geocoins and certain objects to decipher the cache coordinates. In this past MOGA, one had to find so many "Caches of the Gods" and open a pyramid-shaped cryptex to obtain the final cache coordinates. The FTF prizes were a ceramic mummy and a Garmin GPSMAP 64. 7. Like any Mega, we have vendors and an event store that sells swag. We have a raffle for donated items. We host small games like poker runs, etc. and we also have kid's caches. 8. Like most Mega events, there are different levels of registration, from free to the highest VIP registration, with corresponding levels of swag and perks. 9. Each MOGA has a theme. Last weekend's MOGA had an ancient Egyptian theme, and in the past, themes have been Mission: Impossible, Camelot, the '50's, pirate, Space, cowboy, etc... 10. MOGA basically is what you want it to be. Want to cache all weekend? Do it. Want to compete? Do it. Want to just attend events? Do it! So as you can see, MOGA is a lot like other Mega events, with the exception of the primary focus. MOGA is mostly about caching and others (GeoWoodstock, Midwest Geobash, etc.) are more about socializing. Any questions? Quote Link to comment
+ArtieD Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Oh! I forgot to clarify something! Competitors in both the standard and puzzle competition compete for gold, silver and bronze medals that are also special geocoins made just for that purpose! VIP attendees get a special VIP edition of the competition geocoin. Usually, it's in a different metal and/or enamel finish. Competitors only get the regular competition geocoin medals. Here's my VIP award geocoin. Quote Link to comment
+bflentje Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) Even with the disclaimer, the IOC is pretty hard core and I'd expect that if they got wind of this that a cease and desist would arrive in the mail. And for God's sake, make sure the geo-art is not the rings. Edited March 31, 2015 by bflentje Quote Link to comment
+ArtieD Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Even with the disclaimer, the IOC is pretty hard core and I'd expect that if they got wind of this that a cease and desist would arrive in the mail. And for God's sake, make sure the geo-art is not the rings. I actually spoke with one of the directors after the closing ceremony was over and the announcement was made about this very subject, with much the same concerns. He said they had spoken with a lawyer and all that and advised them of what they could and could not do, so if that is the case, they know where the lines that must not be crossed are. Quote Link to comment
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