ScottyD, hopefully there will be more people next year, so that there's time for Christine to go and interview everyone who wants to be interviewed. I have a plan for preserving anonymity next year (now that I've seen the venue I think it would be possible to allow everyone except myself to be anonymous if they so choose). This will include the important step of me*
telling people who would rather not have their real names all over the internet...
The teams thing would probably work best on an informal basis rather than by billing it as "Us v Them". I'm sure Sidepodcast kept a mental tally of who of their sites came where just like we did**. Also, people who are not affiliated with either Sidepodcast and GPWizard can come without feeling as if they're missing out on anything. I would like there to be lots of people from lots of different sites represented when the event reaches its full strength. I wouldn't want to remove the team element completely because it helps cohesiveness among those in each team. As far as I'm concerned, next everyone is pulling for
every site in which they have an interest, whether it's as a site owner, moderator, commenter, reader and/or friend
Stuart's friend probably weighed less than I did despite being taller, but I think you were being polite in not mentioning it
Also, if he was over 2 metres, I'm glad the organisers didn't notice, since the official height limit is 6 foot 3 (which is just under 2 meters).
After consultation with my organisation expert (Dad), there is definitely going to be another karting event at Teamworks on the Saturday evening of next Autosport show (unless people feel strongly that it should be on Friday evening of that show instead). Other karting events at other venues are under consideration, but it could be a while before they come to fruition (as in, possibly not this year unless I spot something really good and I can get enough people interested in going - for instance because it coincides with another event; the possibility of arranging a Donington Park "preview visit" combined with karting somewhere nearby appeals to me, but I'll have to play it by ear).
Mini-bios sound like a great idea (and if the anonymous ones end up faking ones, potentially very entertaining).
The reason this event isn't all afternoon is because it would clash with too much of Autosport. But making it all evening would be a great plan - there is supposed to be an option to have the bar open and I will be happy to exercise it in future years. Pre/post-race meals are also an option, and if I can help co-ordinate their occurrence, I'd be happy to do so. Though given what happened this year, I think you are good at it already
Future events will be full-payment with the deadline 6 weeks prior to the event - I've learned that particular organisational lesson now. The deadline is six weeks because I have to pay the balance to Teamworks a month before the race.
* - that's myself me, not "me" me (unless he wishes to reinforce the message in his own case).
** - For the record, I'm like Steven - I consider myself part of both sites' membership. By doing "site teams" only informally, we can have our performances counted towards both (and, if other sites we comment upon join in, we'd count for theirs as well).