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This is the text of Jake's speech. It is not verbatim, it is his speaker notes
(shared with me per preagreement) but he didn't say this word for word. However
it's what he said, in essence:
- start -
What an amazing event! Once again, you’ve pulled off an incredible experience. I
have a unique opportunity to see many of the fan events. Each time, there is a
huge leap forward both in event enjoyment, MOC quality, international
attendance, you name it and it’s growing! As Steve mentioned Friday night, there
are people here from all over the world. There are three standards coming
together in the MOC room – Moonbase, Classic Castle, and Trains.
2003 was an amazing year. Every year the LEGO Community has continued to grow,
but 2003 was even more notable. Every morning when I turned on my computer, I
wondered what it was that was going to make my jaw drop that day. Very few days
went by where I didn’t go home more impressed than I was the day before.
Events got larger. Displays got more complex and detailed. Clubs picked up a
continual stream of new members. New clubs formed regularly. Online sites and
tools continued to be created and improved upon.
Let’s recap some of the biggest events in 2003:
• ILTCO formed
• Sci-Brick formed
• Classic Castle formed
• Europeans start working on EuroBricks, a potential organization of organizations
• Moonbase and Classic-Castle building standards moved far
• First German public event took place with huge numbers and amazing detail
• LEGOWorld – a partnership between LEGO Company and fans
• Kjeld attends LEGOWorld showing support
• Fans Meet Kjeld and have a chance to talk and share their LEGO moment
• Fans win Search For Master Builder
• Number of AFOLs working in Brand Retails stores gets huge
• Pick-a-brick hits numerous stores
• LEGO Stores hooking up with LEGO fans
• What Will You Make? Road Show draws 20 clubs from North America to work side by side with LEGO Company
2003 also saw a huge leap in the way that the LEGO Company approaches and thinks
about community.
At the very end of 2002, Brad pulled together a group of 10 community minded
people to dive into the question “What is Community” and how the LEGO Company
should approach it. Brad called it the “Launch Crew” in respect for the pending
Mission To Mars.
After nearly 10 weeks locked in a room together, we had a definition of
community we were pleased with, as well as a road map for how we could “infect”
the company with the concepts of community.
The way we now define the “LEGO Community” is:
The LEGO Community is a group of people who form relationships over time by
interacting regularly around LEGO experiences, which are of interest to all of
them for varying individual reasons.
Basically, we mean that the LEGO community is made up of anyone that has a “LEGO
Moment” – a moment in time when a person connects with the brick. This includes
people both inside and outside the company.
As you heard Tormod talk about yesterday, another outcome of the Launch Crew was
the creation of a team specifically dedicated to community related programs and
support efforts. You’ve probably seen the new group name in my LUGNET post
footer: LEGO Community Development.
As of January 1, 2003, our group now owns a number of community related programs
such as First LEGO League, LEGO MINDSTORMS Centers, and of course our AFOL
support. As of January 1, I moved from my full-time Senior Web producer role for
LEGO.com, with part-time AFOL support, to full-time AFOL support.
We’ve accomplished quite a lot this year. One of my main 2003 priorities was to
work with colleagues internally to start to inject community thinking into more
and more of our activities and thinking.
The What Will You Make road show was an amazing example of this. After many
weeks of discussing the concept of not only including, but integrating the AFOLs
into an official event, it was set.
It was an empty tent! We said, here is the space, do something cool. And you
DID!!!! It was ALL cool, every stop!!!! AND it did what we wanted.... lots of
people came, the fans were ultra reliable, hit their times, hit their
committments. Doubting Thomas colleage said "I was completely wrong!!!"
And after 20+ weeks, the concept proved wildly successful. 2003 brought
countless inquiries from colleagues asking about ideas for including AFOLs in
projects and concepts. The fans hit the intranet home page at least once a
month, and every issue of our quarterly internal newsletter.
I’ve just come back from 10 days in Europe talking to LEGO colleagues. I put
together an internal tour, of sorts, to talk about who that odd beast the AFOL
is. Who are they? What do they do? Why do they do it?
The tour went over wonderfully, and I have a great many leads for some really
terrific things coming soon. In fact, several design teams have asked about
getting a select few fans involved. One is a future technology product, and one
is a future system building concept. Both are incredibly cool.
The amazing thing here is that after years of discussion, prodding, and poking,
my colleagues are actively seeking out AFOL involvement! It’s wonderful to see
this change, but I’m not stopping here. I’m going to continue to push, poke, and
prod!
In 2004, LEGO Community Development, also known as LCD, is focused on one main
goal: help build and maintain relationships with our core consumers. You. But
why?
I have a saying I used very often. If you’ve ever had a conversation with me
about community, you’ve almost certainly heard me say it. If you stand within 10
feet of me at the office, you’ll hear me say it. It’s my mantra, and my mission
statement.
Everybody goes home happy!
Like it says in our definition of community, we’re all in this for varying
individual reasons. You’re here because you love building with LEGO. You put on
large public events because you love to do it. Some clubs might work together
with employees at a LEGO Store to get a product discount. And of course, LEGO is
here to sell product, no secret about that.
The important thing for all of us to remember, especially all of you, is that if
you aren’t happy, then the relationship is setup wrong. If we work together on
an event like the WWYM road show, and you didn’t enjoy being there, something’s
wrong. If we develop a product discount program that doesn’t move any product,
something’s wrong.
But this is a relationship, and relationships are long term. In order to do
anything long term, you’re going to have hits and misses. Together, we’re going
to fall but not fail.
Something else you hear me talk about a lot is this idea of an “open and honest
relationship”. Sure there are things I can’t tell you, just like there are
things you won’t tell me. But that doesn’t mean you’ll ever hear me make things
up.
A great example of what I’m talking about is the color change. The honest answer
on why the color change was made was the same thing I first posted on LUGNET:
the design lab felt that the new colors were less “dirty” and more appealing to
kids. It wasn’t a money issue, it was a quality issue, or at least the design
lab’s vision of quality. There isn’t anything I’m hiding, it wasn’t a cost
issue, and it wasn’t anything to do with being able to get the ABS.
Brad has said in the past “We trust you with our brand”. The more we work
together with you, the more you do amazing public events, the more positive
media coverage you get, the more that trust grows.
By the same token, I hope that your trust in me continues to grow. I’m your
advocate, and I’m your voice in the company. I fight daily, literally daily, to
get your questions and requests answered.
It’s no secret that 2003 was a rough year. But I have great faith in the
direction for 2004. You’ve heard that we’re changing Explore back to the DUPLO
name, and are going to fight to regain lost ground. The new products this year
are amazing – the Hagrid’s Hut set, one I just built a few nights ago, is jaw
dropping cool. The Star Wars line is very nice this year. And even though I
can’t announce it, there may be a product in the pipeline that will make you
scream.
For 2004, I’ve dubbed it the year of activating the sleepers. We all hear
stories all the time about LEGO builders who are fans but don’t realize it.
People who buy sets, build creations, and even have national cable networks
rebuild their LEGO themed rooms. But these folks often haven’t even had the
synapses fire that make them wonder if there are others out there like them. I
call them the sleepers.
So how do we draw them into the community? How do we pull over these energetic
new faces?
First off, I’m working with the one and only Greg Hyland to create a comic book
about the LEGO fans. Something you can use to help tell the world what being an
AFOL is all about. We’ll work on getting these distributed out to places where
potential new AFOLs frequent.
As you hear this week, we are working closely together to help support the
LEGOFan.net project this year. As you may have read, this site is meant to help
provide, among other things, a clear picture of the entire LEGO fan landscape,
both online and offline. This should help new fans become better acclimated and
much faster at that.
And lastly, I’ve just started to work on a concept together with a very small
group of fans to develop a challenge, the purpose of which to find and award the
best efforts from LEGO fans across a broad range of subjects., past present and
most importantly: future.
Have an idea for a new piece of software? A new Web site? A new club in your
area? Well get cracking! The rewards will be big and the glory will be bigger.
So to conclude, 2003 was an amazing community year, but I truly believe 2004 is
going to put it to shame!
Open for Q&A
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Message has 6 Replies:
 | | General session Q&A
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| Here are the first few questions Colors: A: Jake is answering the color qiuestion: We had to (see text) but we did not communicate right. They are NOT coming back. but... we are going to try to produce some old colors in bulk... 10000 bags of each (...) (20 years ago, 16-Feb-04, to lugnet.events.brickfest)
| | | Re: general session starting.
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| (...) [...a lot of positive things...] • We lost some of the primary building colours. (...) A "leap off the cliff", in some regards. (...) Regardless of how honest your answer (and the whole affair) was, it was communicated in a way that left way (...) (20 years ago, 16-Feb-04, to lugnet.events.brickfest)
| | | Re: general session starting.
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| Hello! (...) Huh? Never heard about this before. (...) That I am aware of :) Though the 1000steine-Land in Berlin has not been the first event. But that's a different story. (...) In my case it's a relationship over 25 years, if I count Duplo in ;) (...) (20 years ago, 16-Feb-04, to lugnet.events.brickfest, lugnet.general, FTX) !
| | | Re: general session starting.
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| (...) I can see how the new colours may be more appealing, but I don't buy that as a valid excuse and I am sick of reading it here. As if this would ever happen: Mom: "Hey son, do you like this new LEGO Star Wars set?" Son: "No, the tone of the (...) (20 years ago, 16-Feb-04, to lugnet.events.brickfest)
| | | Re: general session starting.
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| In lugnet.events.brickfest, Larry Pieniazek wrote: <snip> (...) For all who might hear: In a recent talk with a very nice (and honest) person at Customs Service, this person told me that the major reason for this color change was to match Mega (...) (20 years ago, 17-Feb-04, to lugnet.events.brickfest)
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