789/News

= General Invitation =

Hitchhikers Combine for a European Hitchhikers Festival!
You're an experiences hitchhiker and you would like to meet up with many like minded people? Or you never gave hitching a try before but you have always wanted to? Join us in the second edition of the European Hitchhikers Festival, taking place on the 7th of August 2009 in Odessa, Ukraine.

Last year we gathered 150 hitchhikers in Paris, from experienced globetrotters to first-timers, to celebrate hitchhiking. We swapped stories, made lots of new friends and exchanged skills, tips and tricks. The event left us with such a great impression and happy memories, so we decided to meet up again this summer.

Sign up & see who is coming
Are you coming to the second European hitchhikers festival in Odessa or are you thinking about it? Sign up at http://www.the789project.com/user/register so we can keep you informed about the latest news. On our website you can also find a list of everyone who signed up already and see if they are looking for a buddy to travel with, and from where they are traveling.

Pre-meetings
If you want to have even more fun, you can also organise a pre-meeting for 789 in the places through which we will travel or leave from. Organise one yourself, or join an existing one. Check the forum at http://www.the789project.com/forum to see what has been planned so far and for questions if you want to organise a pre-meeting but need some help.

Why Odessa?
In Paris there was so much enthusiasm for another festival that we decided to do it again. However, this time we ('we' being mostly hitchhikers based in Western and Central Europe) wanted to also meet and connect with fellow hitchhikers from Eastern Europe, Russia and even further, so to make new friends and to exchange hitchhiking tips and stories. Therefore the event had to be organised outside of the Schengen zone.

Currently we have no fixed location in Odessa, but people are working on this. If you want to help, get in touch with us through http://groups.google.com/group/789-coordination or leave a message on the forum of our homepage http://the789project.com/

Hopefully see you in Odessa! 789, hitchhikers combine!

= June Newsletter = One final newsletter to be send to everyone who participated last year with 888. This will be a really short newsletter pointing people to the new website and making them aware of latest developments. After this maybe one final e-mail to everyone who has registered to come.

Text and title
XX days left till 789... The clock is ticking...

Last year we gathered 150 hitchhikers, from experienced globetrotters to first-timers, in Paris to celebrate hitchhiking. We swapped stories, made lots of new friends and exchanged skills, tips and tricks. The event left us all with a great impression and happy memories and so we decided to meet again this year in Odessa, Ukraine on the 7th of August.

Sign up & see who is coming
Are you definitely coming to the second European hitchhikers festival in Odessa or are you still thinking about it? Either way, sign up at http://www.the789project.com/user/register.

If you want to have even more fun, you can also organise a pre-meeting for 789 in the places through which we will travel or leave from. Organise one yourself, or join an existing one. Check the forum at http://www.the789project.com/forum. The first pre-meeting is already organized and will be on June 24th in Enschede, the Netherlands - all the relevant info is already on the forum.

Why Odessa?
In Paris there was so much enthusiasm for another festival that we decided to do it again. However, this time we ('we' being mostly hitchhikers based in Western and Central Europe) wanted to also meet people from Eastern Europe, Russia, and maybe even further, to make new friends and to exchange hitchhiking tips and stories. So, the event had to be organised outside of the Schengen zone.

Currently we have no fixed location in Odessa, but people are working on this. If you want to help, get in touch with us through http://groups.google.com/group/789-coordination.

Hopefully see you in Odessa!
789, hitchhiking is divine :)

= November Newsletter =

The Newsletter itself
This newsletter is targeted at participants of the 888 project and/or to people that showed interest in 789 project. It deals mainly with planning the event. Input from everyone is welcome. Below you find a draft version, feel free to edit.

Title: 789 Newsletter: Hitchhikers combine!
When was your last hitch-hiking trip? Looking forward to the next? Why not head out across Europe this spring? The weather is getting (mostly) better, the days are getting longer: no need to wake up so early and if it does rain... well, kind drivers won't leave you standing for long! Who needs to wait for summer?

Not only that, but your trip will get your thumb in shape and your mind in gear for this year's European Hitchhiking Festival, taking place on 7th August (789). After much discussion and voting, this year's festival will take place on the Black Sea in Odessa, Ukraine.

Website

The site address will be http://the789project.eu. For the moment, we have only a draft site up, redirecting to our coordination forum. As soon as possible, it should have the main site and hold all the information for those interested in the event. All we need is a Drupal/CSS artist with some time on his hands. We need YOU!

Coordination

However controversial it might be, a Google Group has been created to help coordinate the festival. Please take a look here. Anyone can join and everyone is invited and encouraged to.

Getting in touch with the community

Of course, we want to be in close touch with the hitchhiking community in Ukraine and the local community in Odessa. Some of us have contacted the Elba Ukrainian hitchhikers' gathering (site in Russian, English auto-translation), that takes place three times a year. The next one will be from the 24th to the 26th of April, but unfortunately we ran into a cold war with them (just like in the good old days...). So you could perhaps offer an olive branch over there (in Russian too, English auto-translation).

The hospex (ie. CS) community of Odessa has given a warmer welcome. We hope to find support in organising the festival by working with the local authorities as much as possible.

Slogans: seven, eight, nine!

789 needs a great tagline, a sentence that grabs the attention immediately, is easy to remember and great to use. When we were in Paris for last year's European Hitchhiking Day it was: "8/8/8 - Paris wants you for a nomadic date". Having a good catchphrase for 789 is not sooo important, but that's the kind of really fun brainstorming that we love to do. Check this out and feel free to participate.

Odessa calling

789 doesn't need to be overly organised. On the other hand, the more we can sort out between now and August, the more trouble we will save ourselves when we are there and don't want to worry about troubles. You can help the festival to be a greater success by telling all your friends and spreading the word, and of course by joining the discussion on the coordination channels. Namely: The hitchwiki page and the coordination group. Right now we have more or less 7 people involved in the organisation. It would be great if the 150 of 888 would join as well... sign up today!

 888 Movie Early August 2008. Radek, Pascal, Martin and Lily embarked on a hitchhiking adventure to Paris. One common goal united them: to arrive under the Eiffel Tower on August 8th to be part of the first European Hitchhiking Week. The movie is not released yet, but here you can see a trailor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJj1oWlVJTY

Happy hitching!

The vote on the forum / Reaching a consensus
There's already a vote going on on the forum. This vote should not be binding but rather consultative. The best would be to reach a consensus through discussion and keep the vote for last resort (if we can't agree).

The voting stays open as a permanent opinion survey (you can edit your vote). For now 38 people gave their voice to the voting already, most of them voted for Ukraine, mainly Odessa. So it looks like it'll be Ukraine, but if you're convinced that another place is so much better, make yourself heard.

Local welcome
One particularly sensible point is: how the local citizenry and administration feel towards us. If the third most popular choice shows to have a really cool mayor that wants nothing more than a crowd of hitch-hikers, then we should go for them.

For that, we need support from the local communities. It would be a good idea to contact the local people with whatever tool available in the, say top 6 cities, and see if they can find an arrangement with the people they elected.