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Subject: 
Re: SpringBrick: A hypothetical LEGO convention
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events
Date: 
Wed, 24 Oct 2007 04:24:52 GMT
Viewed: 
3789 times
  
In lugnet.events, James Trobaugh wrote:
   In lugnet.events, C. L. GunningCook wrote:
  
Actually for me, an event is 85% socializing thru out the day and after hours, about 10% formal activities or sessions. (Yeah, I know, thats only 95%... I never give 100)

snip

I’m with you on this, what I loved most about Brickfest was haning out with all the people. Getting to talk face to face with people that I only know via the computer. I love it when I travel to a LEGO friendly town and get a chance to have a few drinks with the local AFOLs, such as meeting up with the GFLTC guys last spring.

The public days are my least favorite time of the fest (and the main reason I’ve cut back on my fest attendence). Maybe because I get enough of the public viewing from all the train shows we do here localy.

I’ve been looking at the LEGO convention model, listening to the on-line criticism thinking to myself that some of the points are very valid. How do you hold a convention without holding a public day? And how do you run it more closer to a non-profit? Or how do you run it so that you’re not profiting from other people’s MOCs? And the final question is, how do you keep it running for longer than a year or two without going broke?

• One idea is to increase outside advertising and/or sponsorship (what I mean by ‘outside’ is outside the LEGO community) -- Brickworld set precedence & BrickFair is following suit.

• Increase registration, so that registration covers more of the costs. In the case of SB, the registration (we hope) would cover the cost of MOC materials.

GFLUG just came off of a project where we were commissioned to create a scaled hospital out of LEGO. We budgeted around $1K for materials, using PaB, a few sets, a few small BL orders, and parts from our own collections -- we managed to stay within budget! We had 4 days (2 weekends) to build within, 3-5 people were working on it at times (150 man hours total), and I think we pulled something wonderful off. See pictures here: HRMC LEGO Project

To be honest, this project felt like a trial run for SpringBrick.

• Fund raising -- like Janey suggested. Though I like the idea of a live charity auction, it basically is taking money away from the LEGO community; I’d like to see more money flow into the LEGO community, than cannibalizing the community; but that’s neither here nor there. But there’s always bake sales, car washes, etc to raise money and public’s awareness that there is a LEGO community out there. :) But this would be good idea for a crew/club/LUG/LTC to raise money to attend such an event.

The idea behind a public day would be different; finished creations still be on display, but no money is made off of it -- a group of volunteers would man the display. Contestants would be encouraged to spend time with their families & friends during public days. And the public days are to ‘wow’ the public of what we can be accomplished in just a few days.

I’m still thinking about what will it take to keep something like this going; without having people get burned out, and keep the focus non-profit... I have a few ideas, but not good ones yet.

   If there were a fan focused event in Florida I’d be all over it.

Very cool, I expect to see you there, then! :)

--Mike.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: SpringBrick: A hypothetical LEGO convention
 
(...) This line of reasoning is driving me batty. Money taken in from a public display is not "profit". As part of the overall budget it is simply revenue that helps pay for the event. If you don't mind paying X amount more per event attendee then (...) (17 years ago, 24-Oct-07, to lugnet.events, FTX)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: SpringBrick: A hypothetical LEGO convention
 
(...) I'm with you on this, what I loved most about Brickfest was haning out with all the people. Getting to talk face to face with people that I only know via the computer. I love it when I travel to a LEGO friendly town and get a chance to have a (...) (17 years ago, 23-Oct-07, to lugnet.events, FTX)

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