It appears the booking had not been processed, and no one knew about it.
Floor 3 in use by orchestra, but the staff kindly arranged to let me use floor 2 room 1.
It seems low attendance tonight, but not clear if anyone has turned up and been turned away. I will stop till about 7:30 when access to the room is needed.
I will try to attend the Sandwell University of the 3rd age (
http://u3asites.org.uk/sandwell) meeting due soon. They also have the problem of meeting at the public from now on, and plan to discuss this - so I hope to find possible replacement locations / ideas for future.
In some ways aspects of the maker meetings may also fit with their purpose - so it might be useful to do a presentation in the future to help spread the word about.
Appreciate any thoughts people have.
John