NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it was founded by Chris Baty in 1999 (check out this link for full history of NaNo) The term "national" is a bit misleading, since the project is very much international with volunteers and participants from many different countries around the world. Each country is divided into different regions. My home region is called "Europe-Sweden-Elsewhere", where the "Elsewhere" stands for any region that is not Stockholm or Gothenburg. Every region has its own Municipal Liaisons, and these are the volunteers who help run the show and make the whole NaNo experience easier and more fun for the rest of us. They are in charge of organising the so-called write-ins, where people from the same region gather to write and converse about... well, writing. Although, anybody can organise a write-in, provided there's enough interest and time. I did NaNo two times before. I never won, but I still had a blast...