South African Panel Discussion - Vapenet.com

[JayTheVapingGuy]

Hi,

My name is JayTheVapingGuy, and I host an internet TV show on Vapenet.com Sunday nights from 8-10 EST. My show focuses on vaping communities and people with a focused emphasis on people getting to know people and developing community bridges and ties. I would love to have a panel of South Africans come on air for a panel discussion on Sunday the 22nd of January from 8-10 EST.

I would like to have 5-9(max that G+ will allow me to bring into a conversation) join me for a frank discussion on vaping in the South Africa part of the world... personal stories, education positions and all thoughts welcome. I would like to have a local vendor or two come out, possibly a representative of a local governance board, to educate us on what they are doing and to point to what it thinks the way forward will look like in your countries.

I would like at least one or two experienced vapers (2+ years vaping) to talk about the infancy of vaping in your region and its development since its arrival.

I would also like to have representation from across the various demographics within your countries, can't have every province, state and territory represented neccessarily but we can do a decent representation of the major population bases.

The format would be as follows:

2000 - 2010hrs - room buildup, basic introductions of each member
2010 - 2140hrs - each person would be given 10 minutes to introduce themselves, tell us a bit about themselves and their vaping story (i will provide some sample leading questions to help you figure out what you'd like to say)
2140 - 2150hrs - local governance representative speaks on what lead up to its formation, what the guiding principles of it are... etc)
2150 - 2200hrs - wrapup and thank you's.

Again, I would greatly appreciate it if you would consider coming out and participating and showing the vaping community that the South African area is represented here!

Cheers,

JayTheVapingGuy

[Nomdo]

Mmm, coming out to .... the US???

[JayTheVapingGuy]

"come on out" is a turn of phrase, but frankly yes...

i won't pretend that the ecig world treats the US like the center of the universe... rather, i'm looking at my show as bringing the point home to them and the majority of the vaping world that there ARE communities, diverse and self sustaining that exist around the world...

I would dearly love to see some people talk about your vaping experience in South Africa and educate the northern Hemisphere about your spin on life as a vaper...

[Seanl]

The elephant in the room?

Methinks the biggest problem with South Africans going to the US is price.

Please keep in mind we earn a lot less than you guys and our money is also worth quite a bit less.

I was getting spam from some place called applebees as an example and the price of a cup of coffee in America would get you a full breakfast (including a bottomless coffee) in some places in South Africa.

I went to Barcelona last year for 4 days and in that time pocket money alone that myself and my boss spent ended up at around 2000 Euros. not much till you check the comparison on xe.com, back then it was R11.80 a Euro so just for eating, transport and general entertainment/touristy stuff we spent about R24000. This excludes airfare, hotel bookings, visa costs, insurance and all the other nitty gritty. I could pay my rent for almost 7 months just on the pocket money for 2 people for 4 days.

I don't think that people are not willing, simply put I think they are not able.

Perhaps Skype or similar would be a better solution?

[JayTheVapingGuy]

OMG....

I am so sorry, i wasn't meaning to physically come out... i was planning to Skype or G+ Hangout the panel in on the computer... Dear lord.... 24 thousand Rand??? i thought we had it bad up here in Canada...

[Seanl]

I can set up skype on my laptop and should not have any problems (depending on network stability at the time as I live on a plot and our only connectivity at home is 3g due to cable theft).


LOL for me alone
Spending money about R12000
Plane tickets were about R8000
Hotel was about R9000 in total for a room
ITMA tickets (the reason we went) were just under R1000 ea
Euros cost around R12 a Euro when we went so total per person was more or less R30000 Per person.

[Johnny2puffs]

I can set up skype on my laptop and should not have any problems (depending on network stability at the time as I live on a plot and our only connectivity at home is 3g due to cable theft).


LOL for me alone
Spending money about R12000
Plane tickets were about R8000
Hotel was about R9000 in total for a room
ITMA tickets (the reason we went) were just under R1000 ea
Euros cost around R12 a Euro when we went so total per person was more or less R30000 Per person.

Geeze, thats about a years salary on minimum wage.

[Seanl]

Geeze, thats about a years salary on minimum wage.

Thank goodness it was a business trip