How do y'all start a monthly Cars and Coffee?

This might sound like a silly question, but I was curious about getting my ducks in a row, reaching out to local car people, and getting them to hang out in a nice, central location that's car-type-purpose agnostic. Since all of you guys have your own experiences with car clubs (and their slow demise apparently), I'd love your advice on doing the opposite!

These are the steps I can think of:

1) Capturing interest from the car folks:

Best I can gather, this would involve a lot of footwork to spread the word to the local car organizations. I'm already well-rooted in the three area chapters of the SCCA so that'll get the autocrossers in the vicinity. There are a number of classic car groups too that pop up every month that would be great to ask about co-promotion. Finally, I'd like to be sure that I get people who simply have nice cars, so I'd probably co-promote with local mechanics and body shops to get the word out. I'd love to know any advice on how to get this done. I'd also love to know how to approach the undergrad university crowd (amazing how much you forget after 4 years!) since there are a lot of new faces in town with nice cars.

2) Having a place worth gathering at:

There are a number of solid gathering locations in the area but I think this is the best spot. Aside from needing a large parking lot that is underused but well maintained, plenty of outdoor seating, easy accessibility, and great coffee, what should I look for in locations? More importantly, how should I approach locations and ask them about scheduling (people on hand so I don't bumrush them with customers) and promotion (so they tell people to come)? I don't see this as a money/discount kind of deal; I see this as a "lets get great people here to buy your coffee; are you cool with that and will you promote it" deal.

3) Keep it reasonably organized:

Again, my main reason to do this is to cross-promote car stuff in my area. There's a number of completely independent car things that go on, but none of them cross-talk. I personally want the car clubs to come and promote their own events and get membership up. I also want to promote their events and schedules on my own site. I see the following requirements: start a website (domain and hosting already done), talk to the clubs about getting their accurate schedules and inviting them out, and then arranging a monthly time that is conflict free for everyone. Does this seem reasonable?

To summarize, I want to get all the clubs out and talking with each other over coffee. I am not sure how to get the car count up for the first two events. I think that I need to 1) reach out to all the clubs and car owners and get their interest, 2) approach the location and get permission, and 3) cross-promote the heck out of everyone's events on a clean, simple website that would be a portal for the area's car events.

Advice?

Here is one local to ATL for ideas. Watch out for shiny happy people. Look for a long running get together and pile on!

https://www.facebook.com/Gwinnett.Meet

There is so much I'm having trouble even finding a place to begin. My company owns an absolutely huge show here in Atlanta (http://www.caffeineandoctane.com/) so I'll try to answer best I can.

You are going to need to talk with both the coffee shop and the property owner. The coffee shop should be on board pretty easy. Just say you'd like to bring a bunch of car guys to his place on a usually dead day. I recommend early Sunday morning. The surrounding businesses will be closed so no problems with taking up parking spaces. The property owner may be nervous but make sure to tell them you will leave the lot better than you found it. That means you will be picking up trash whether it is from your cars or not. And always be looking for another location. Stress to attendees to behave while on property. Some idiot will do a big smoky burnout and the property manager will not be happy. Been there, done that.

I'd back off on the website for now. Do a Facebook page to start. You are going to be doing a LOT of traveling to promote your gathering. You will want to find where all the other car clubs are getting together and attend regularly. You need street cred. Recruit local car guys to be your street team. You can't cover all the bases yourself and some people will have greater interest hearing from their buddies than from you.

You stated that you wanted people with "nice cars" to come. Are you going to be controlling who can get in based on what they drive? I'd forget that idea. We welcome all vehicles no matter what. That person thinks their car is cool, so who is to judge? Yes someone will bring a clapped out piece of junk, but that car may start a conversation between two people who may have never met otherwise. That is the culture you want to encourage.

Not sure if any of that helps. As much as I love our car show it is a logistical nightmare. We have vendors, sponsors, police officers, traffic control, port-o-potties, trash cans, and a merchandise trailer. But the attendees love it so we keep doing it.

Don't do E36 M3 associated with C&C??.....the ones in my area are all populated by dicks.

It's like starting any other car gathering. First is clearing it with the owners of the site. Let them know what you want, how many people you want to bring in, what kind of business you hope to bring them (It's nice to grease the wheels of property ownership with the thought of increased sales).

Second, contact the local LEO's and let them know what you have planned. They like it when they have a heads up, and it's nice to have a relationship with them in case you get undesirables.

Third- you want a clear ruleset. No burnouts, booze, etc. If people violate these, you need to be able to enforce them, for the safety and enjoyment of others.

Fourth- sponsors. Granted i've never done a CNC level event, so i've never really wanted/needed sponsors- but they're helpful. Especially in early morning, convincing people is a lot easier if there's donuts and coffee and stuff. Get the sponsors to bring these in exchange for a few premium parking spots for their wares. Locally we have Imola and Morries sponsor our CNC, and Morries usually brings out a new whatever, and Imola will bring out a race car or several and their trailer. Free advertising.

THEN- you need to start thinking about organization. Are you going to divide the cars up by marque? Lump the smaller marques together by country of origin? What are you NOT going to let park in? These are problems you aren't going to have at first- but you will have them if you're successful. You don't really want your Gallardos parked next to a half dead 240sx with mismatched fenders and crushed wheels because it's a drift pig. The 240 owner will love it, but the Gallardo owner is more liable to not come back, and let's face it- people come to see the exotics. I've given up going to our local CNC because it's overrun with stanced volkswagens, Skittles, and Audis. Not a whole lot of fun... and it attracts the brotato crowd which I am NOT interested in.

Last but not least- your "crew". These are the guys that are going to help you run this. You're going to want someone at the gate giving directions, possibly two- so you have a spare set of eyes. You're also going to want one or two people wandering the grounds to make sure that people are having a good time, but not causing others to have a bad time. Especially when you get bigger- you want people out directing others where and how to park. You'd be amazed how many people can't put a Fiat in a barn correctly, let alone gigabuck exotics with no rear window. I'd advise having them clearly identifiable (staff shirts, or whatever) so that people know who they're looking for when/if they need assistance.

MOST IMPORTANTLY- make sure it's fun. No one likes to have a bad time at shows. The last few CNC I went to were a terrible time due to the crowd, people bitching about not being let in when they thought they should have, etc. It's just not worth getting my ass out of bed at 6am to make sure I get a parking spot that's in the same area code. ESPECIALLY not with a 2 year old to tote along.

yamaha wrote: Don't do E36 M3 associated with C&C??.....the ones in my area are all populated by dicks.

We keep the schmuck factor low by having police on hand. Seems to keep people in line. We also don't discriminate against any type of cars. Driving a zillion dollar Ferrari won't get you a parking space if the guy in the clapped out Miata got there first.

don't call it "cars and coffee"- there are enough of those already- and don't do it at 8am... some people like to sleep in on the weekends..

novaderrik wrote: don't call it "cars and coffee"- there are enough of those already- and don't do it at 8am... some people like to sleep in on the weekends..

OMG THIS. Cars and coffee does promote kind of a snooty image given the previous precedent set by others, and screw getting up that early on the weekend. Make it like.....booze and burnouts. Or something.

mndsm wrote:

novaderrik wrote: don't call it "cars and coffee"- there are enough of those already- and don't do it at 8am... some people like to sleep in on the weekends..

OMG THIS. Cars and coffee does promote kind of a snooty image given the previous precedent set by others, and screw getting up that early on the weekend. Make it like.....booze and burnouts. Or something.

Exact opposite here. Start mine at 6 am.

In reply to Woody:

Yep. The one in Irvine CA starts at 6am too. My friends and I made the mistake of getting there at 8:30 and most cars were already gone. Unfortunately it's an hour drive for me, so I gotta get up real early to partake.

It's held in a parking lot of a very industrial (office buildings) area. Traffic and parking aren't a problem because there are many parking garages around that you have access too. It's also in the parking lot between the Mazda and Ford corporate buildings, I'm sure they have something to do with it too.

The "coffee" part of it is a mobile coffee/food cart that sets up in the parking lot. So it doesn't have to be in a crowded Starbucks or strip mall lot.

Thanks for the initial input! I'm going to digest my thoughts on some details based on your feedback below:

First, before I do anything, I will be talking with businesses AND site owners. I know that everything depends on those connections existing.

I'm thinking 8-10 am Saturday once a month pending a discussion with property owners. Saturday beats Sunday due to autocross (twice a month minimum) and people will still be used to waking up early from the week. This is flexible based on the businesses at the location of choice to avoid conflicts. Whenever it is, I want to make it a time that avoids overlap with existing events.

Picking up the site and crowd control is absolutely on my mind (woo Solo Safety Steward). Now that y'all mention it, we will need some bins and bags to put around the site. Rope to segregate event and customer traffic would probably also be very good. Those details will come into play very heavily later, but for starters, a few trash cans and some friendly ground rules should prevent most issues.

When I said "nice cars" I meant anything GRM-worthy. All I want is for people who love cars to get together. That includes rust-buckets, caged Miatas, Teslas and Leafs, Porsches, drag-racers, show-quality classics, and anything else people might own. My goal is to get people to go to other events and actually participate in car culture. I don't care if that means autocrossing, car shows, drag racing, or cruises with a club. I will consider segregated parking if it comes to that; I figure people will self-police. Also, there aren't too many exotics around!

I definitely appreciate the idea of letting local law enforcement know. I was planning on contacting them just to find out what makes them happy. They've come to car shows and demonstrated their newer cars, which is always a hoot. They will definitely be invited, but probably not paid to come unless the event becomes "sponsor-serious."

Regarding getting the clubs together, fortunately, I have a number of friends who regularly participate in a ton of different events. I'm pretty big into the autocrossing side of life with inroads into the area's drifting community (terrifying thought that). One of my friends goes to a ton of the car shows with his very nice Shelby GT500 and can definitely help make that connection. Ultimately, a ton of word of mouth is going to be needed, but I will try to do that as best as possible. We'll see what happens!

I don't foresee sponsorship being a goal yet mainly because I don't expect this to require too much investment. That said, I actually hope to get some of the local shops to come out just to participate! If this gets off the ground and actually requires more than a few obsessed people, I know a few shops who are interested.

Finally, I went ahead and reserved a Facebook group and, more importantly, have a website (www.coralvillecars.com). The overall "branding" so to speak is completely CNC-free, though I'm totally going to call the event "Cars and Coffee." I intend to promote much more than just the monthly gathering.

Keep the ideas coming guys!

Here in the Hub City (Lubbock, Texas), the "Coffee and Cars" event happens at a bank parking lot with a coffee shop in the building. I'm not sure if the shop is an official sponsor, but they are prominently shown on the Facebook page.

Personally I like the kind-of-early, come-and-go aspect. Gets my Saturday started well without killing prime doin' stuff time.

Seems like the ideal of it only flies in SoCal. Around here, it's a lot of d-bags in new-money exotics along with the usual run of the mill musclecars. The "cool" stuff stays locked away in garages.