It was a few minutes of complete madness at the Treloar home at midday on Monday 14th November, when scrapbook retreat co-ordinators Meredith Treloar and Sue Parsons received registrations to their nationally known getaway 'escape2create'. 75 seats were literally booked out within minutes resulting in iPhone meltdown.
Australian internet provider, Bigpond, has launched an official investigation into the sudden popularity of the e2c contact address. 'I can't believe paper and glue could be so popular' said a Bigpond spokesperson.
Registrations were taken from all over Australia, which proves that these girls are onto a hit both locally and nationally. Such is the popularity of escape2create that many ladies hoping to secure a position spent the morning counting down the minutes until midday when registrations were open.
'It was crazy' Ms Treloar stated after the event.
'I arrived a bit late,' said Ms Parsons, 'and poor Meredith was in a frenzy'
'We hope that the ladies understand that we try and be fair with our registrations, giving plenty of notice of the date and time, and offering three methods of registering attendance,' said Amanda Hall, another escape2create coordinator who was unfortunately unavailable to assist on that day.
'We would love to be able to accept every registration but space is an always an issue, and so it comes down to a 'first in / first served' type of situation,' Ms Hall said. 'Our reputation has grown and so that time frame in which you can register is very, very short. The time it takes to book out seems to get quicker every year.'
It was even mentioned on the groups Facebook site that it was more nerve wreaking and difficult than getting tickets to a big name concert or rock band.
The retreat will be held at North Shields Lion Hostel on the 27th, 28th and 29th of April 2012. The theme will be 'homegrown' and focus on all things South Australian. Escape2create is a non profit retreat run by volunteers. E2C 2012 will be the fifth year that this very successful gathering has occurred.
Ms Treloar managing the telephone registrations
Ms Parsons taking a couple of calls
Ms Hall at work while registrations were taking place.