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 Events / BricksWest / * (-20)
Subject: 
test
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest
Date: 
Sun, 5 Apr 2009 18:59:28 GMT
Viewed: 
10082 times
(canceled)


Subject: 
Western Event?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events, lugnet.events.brickswest
Date: 
Thu, 19 Aug 2004 02:32:07 GMT
Viewed: 
3166 times
  
Hi,

With NWBrickCon evidently happening in October, does anyone know the status of
the "other" West Coast event (whatever it may be called)? First of all, will
there be one? Second, is it moving? I know there were rumors it would be in San
Francisco, SoCal, Portland again, etc.? Sorry I tried searching LUGNET but I
couldn't find it - if this has already been discussed could someone point me to
the thread?

Thanks,

Darrell


Subject: 
Re: ISD build records
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events, lugnet.events.brickfest, lugnet.events.1000steine-land, lugnet.events.brickfest, lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.legoworld
Followup-To: 
lugnet.events.brickfest
Date: 
Tue, 20 Jul 2004 14:22:43 GMT
Viewed: 
13733 times
  
In lugnet.events, Christina Hitchcock wrote:
I'm looking to compile a list of all the ISD build attempts.

The first timed build that I remember occurred at BricksWest in Feb. 2002.
Does anyone know who was on that team and how long it took them to build it?

For each attempt I am hoping to find the following info;

Name of event where the build occurred:
Time it took:
Names of people who participated:

Thanks in advance for your help.

Christina Hitchcock

This information below is not complete, but it is a very very good start. If you have names, or last names and or pictures of the events that are not listed here, please post them.   thanks

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1.

BricksWest February 2003, 1hr 42m 43sec (13 people) Tom Stangl, Bruce
Chamberlin, Teddy Welsh, Derek Schin, Ben Schwartz, Mrs. Schwartz

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=325878


2.
1000Steine-Land July 5, 2003: 1hr 17m 33sec


3.
BrickFest August 2003, 1hr 14m 52sec: Ondrew Hartigan, Calum Tsang Steve
Hassenplug, Jeff van Winden, Adrian Drake, Scott Lyttle, Derek Raycraft,
don't know the two on the bottom corners or the one between Jeff and Ondrew

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=506316


4.
LEGOWorld Oct. 2003, 1hr 13m 25sec:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=60720


5.
BrickFest PDX february 14, 2004, 1hr 9m 22sec:

Holger Mathes, Christopher Schermann, Bob Kojima, Thomas Garrison, Nik
Pieniazek, Ben Schwartz, Scott Lyttle, Gary McIntyre, Rick Clark, Dan Sabath


6.
1000steine-Land July 4, 2004, 1hr 2m 28sec:

Holger Mathes, Jan, Jan-Albert van Ree, Eddie, Juergen, Hendrik,
Dominik, Ben, Andreas, Bruno

++++++++++++++++

Thank you to Denise Jadud for compiling most of the information above, and to
Thomas Stangl, Didier Enjary, and Paul Sinasohn for their contributions.

Christina Hitchcock


Subject: 
ISD build records
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events, lugnet.events.1000steine-land, lugnet.events.brickfest, lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.legoworld, lugnet.events.nwbrickcon
Followup-To: 
lugnet.events.brickfest
Date: 
Fri, 16 Jul 2004 22:57:41 GMT
Viewed: 
18148 times
  
I'm looking to compile a list of all the ISD build attempts.

The first timed build that I remember occurred at BricksWest in Feb. 2002.
Does anyone know who was on that team and how long it took them to build it?

For each attempt I am hoping to find the following info;

Name of event where the build occurred:
Time it took:
Names of people who participated:

Thanks in advance for your help.

Christina Hitchcock


Subject: 
Fast-paced photo montage (13,000 photos in 9 minutes)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickfest, lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.nwbrickcon, lugnet.trains.org, lugnet.loc.us.or.por, lugnet.publish.photography, lugnet.people, lugnet.general
Followup-To: 
lugnet.general
Date: 
Fri, 30 Jan 2004 03:34:56 GMT
Highlighted: 
!! (details)
Viewed: 
18107 times
  
I’ve been taking a lot of photos of LEGO people and their creations over the past 18 months, and right after I got back from NWBrickCon 2003, I thought it would be fun to see what all those photos looked like in an ultra-fast chronological photo montage ripping by at 24 frames per second. The result was a 9-minute “movie”:
  • Small (120x120, 49.7 MB, MPEG video, 00:09:05)
  • Medium (240x240, 145.2 MB, MPEG video, 00:09:05)
  • Large (480x480, 410.7 MB, MPEG video, 00:09:05)
If you want to see the photos at a slower pace, load the large version into Apple’s QuickTime player and use the right and left arrow keys to go through the images. (Hope you have fast net connection. :-)

Somewhere in the middle of the montage are two time-lapse sequences taken during the PNLTC show last April at the Oregon Convention Center. These sequences can be viewed separately -- at high-quality wide-screen DVD resolution -- in the following two files:
  • Neverending Crowd (768x320, 66.7 MB, QuickTime video, 00:02:22)
    Tens of thousands of people showed up to view the PNLTC layout. If it weren’t for free food and drinks from Starbucks, everyone in PNLTC would have passed out from exhaustion and dehydration (except Steve Barile, who was busy causing train wrecks). This is a 2,589-frame time-lapse sequence taken between 12:45pm and 4:21pm on Saturday, April 18, 2003. See if you can find Jon Rasmussen’s infamous “Teriyaki Shuffle” (hint: it’s in the first 10 seconds).
  • Teardown (768x432, 110.0 MB, QuickTime video, 00:01:31)
    Teardown of everything took only 90 minutes. This is a 1,656-frame time-lapse sequence taken between 9:12pm and 11:30pm on Sunday, April 19, 2003. My favorite parts are the tables coming apart, the carts filling up, and the banner coming down. Incidentally, this video proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jeremy Rear is indeed bionic.
People (and/or their creations) captured in the montage include TJ Avery, Steve Barile, John Barnes, Mark Benz, Ross Benz, Jamie Berard, Cris Berneburg, Dan Boger, Jennifer Boger, Lindsay Braun, Kai Broderson, Daniel Brown, Doug Carlson, Ken Cefaratti, Bruce Chamberlain, Will Chapman, Matthew Chiles, Cary Clark, Jennifer Clark, Rick Clark, Russell Clark, Joe Comeau, Scott Costello, Tim Courtney, Gregory Cross, Jonathan Dallas, Sid Dinsay, Shiri Dori, Adrian Drake, Tom Duggan, Remy Eagan, David Eaton, Frank Filz, Abner Finley, Stephen Fisher, Ben Fleskes, Jim Foulds, Tim Freshly, Thomas Garrison, Matthew Gerber, Chris Giddens, Jared Gilbert, Ashley Glennon, Keith Goldman, Neal Goldman, Felix Greco, Jim Green, Suzanne Green, Matthew Greene, Nicholas Greene, Mark Hafner, Tony Hafner, Constantine Hannaher, David Harris, Michael Harrod, Joel Hart, Bob Hayes, Rob Hendrix, Christina Hitchcock, Dean Husby, Xandria Husby, Wayne Hussey, Gus Janssen, Daniel Jassim, Jenny Johnson, Brad Justus, Eric Kingsley, Edward Kohl, Jason Krish, Todd Kubo, Joel Kuester, Rick Kujawa, Bram Lambrecht, Terri Landers, Magnus Langlo, Chris Leach, Joe Lee, Henry Lim, Benjamin Liston, Kevin Loch, Bruce Lowell, Andrew Lynch, Scott Lyttle, Chris Maddison, Thomas Main, Jason Mantor, James Mathis, David Mayhew, Bryce McGlone, Gary McIntire, Jake McKee, Brian McLean, Fuzzface McMahon, David Michon, Susan Michon, Ted Michon, Thomas Michon, Judy Miller, Jonathan Mizner, Randy Morrison, Aaron Muhl, Marc Nelson Jr., Mark Neumann and Raven, Erik Olson, Jon Palmer, Jimmy Park, Dan Parker, Kenny Paul, Greg Perry, Chris Phillips, Larry Pieniazek, Dave Porter, Scott Quirk, Thomas Rafert, Jeff Ranjo, Jon Rasmussen, Jeremy Rear, Michael Ripley, Soren Roberts, Roger Rothar, Jason Rowoldt, Ryan Rubino, John Rudy, Mark Sandlin, Robin Sather, Andrew Schilling, David Schilling, Derek Schin, Ben Schwartz, Richard Shamus, Adam Silcott, Paul Sinasohn, Daniel Siskind, Brendan Powell Smith, Robin Smith, Aaron Sneary, Eric Sophie, Barbara Sproat, Jeremy Sproat, Mark Staffa, Tom Stangl, Jeff Stembel, Shaun Sullivan, Kate Sutch, Todd Thuma, Kim Toll, Calum Tsang, Lewis Valentine III, Jeff Van Winden, Bill Ward, Brik Wars, Christopher Weeks, Teddy Welsh, Robin Werner, and Sun Yun. (There are about 50 portraits too, but those aren’t part of the montage.)

--Todd


Subject: 
Brad Justice, superhero
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.announce.moc, lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.brickfest, lugnet.people
Followup-To: 
lugnet.people
Date: 
Thu, 29 Jan 2004 08:51:27 GMT
Highlighted: 
!! (details)
Viewed: 
4948 times
  
With Brad Justus now moving on to bigger and better things, this seems as good a
time as any to share something I threw together almost a year ago, just after
coming back from BricksWest 2003:

http://www.thereverend.com/brad_justice

Though it has a little fun at Brad's expense (which is why I hesitated to share
it in the first place), it was more meant to parody the whole nature of Q & A
sessions at AFOL LEGO events, where 90% of the questions are ones that just
can't be answered.  I honestly think Brad did a commendable job at such events,
and no disrespect meant!  I wish him the best of luck in his future career, be
it as a superhero or as an employee Informative, Inc.  @8^)

-The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith


Subject: 
Re: BricksWest Website Gone?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest
Date: 
Tue, 2 Sep 2003 22:40:16 GMT
Viewed: 
2379 times
  
   Hopefully people have archived whatever they needed to archive from the site. In particular the presentations are good to have archived. ILTCO has most if not all the train presentations in the library (and Mike is busily adding the BF 03 ones as we speak) but the ILTCO site is unreachable at the moment. That’s just a temporary thing, I am sure.

Hope that helps.

I have all the BW 2002 and 2003 presentations and stuff archived on the “offical” Brickswest gallery on Brickshelf. (Matt gave me his blessings in 2002 to make this account for the BW stuff)

You can reach BW2002 here:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=12626

You can reach BW2003 here:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=30726


-AHui

A&M LWorks




Subject: 
Re: BricksWest Website Gone?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest
Date: 
Mon, 1 Sep 2003 15:05:51 GMT
Viewed: 
2072 times
  
In lugnet.events.brickswest, John Cooper wrote:
The BricksWest.com website seems to have disappeared off the web. It was
available a week or two ago, even though it had not been updated since
BricksWest 2003. Draw your own conclusions.

At first I thought maybe this was just another site hosted on NorthStar that was
having temporary trobules, but WHOIS seems to show the domain as recently (24
Aug 2003) expired.

http://www.register.com/whois-results.cgi?212c22764453f50e94b497a0207a7998d68de78af5ca947f188dd24c248841216a5fa70a6225be5e785ab5187b44e1abe064a7f657b570f9

(not sure if that link will work for you or not, if not, just go to register.com
and do a search on brickswest.com then follow the WHOIS link)

Hopefully people have archived whatever they needed to archive from the site. In
particular the presentations are good to have archived. ILTCO has most if not
all the train presentations in the library (and Mike is busily adding the BF 03
ones as we speak) but the ILTCO site is unreachable at the moment. That's just a
temporary thing, I am sure.

Hope that helps.


Subject: 
BricksWest Website Gone?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest
Date: 
Mon, 1 Sep 2003 14:51:17 GMT
Viewed: 
1967 times
  
The BricksWest.com website seems to have disappeared off the web. It was
available a week or two ago, even though it had not been updated since
BricksWest 2003. Draw your own conclusions.


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.brickfest
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 21:07:34 GMT
Viewed: 
4545 times
  
In lugnet.events.brickswest, Frank Filz wrote:

   That will help (last year the public did continue past the 4 PM time frame as I recall).

Last year we were unable to control the venue since we were spread out all over the Center House. This year, since we have our own room, we will be able to close the doors and tell them to come back the next day.

Having more private hours was a priority in our planning this year.

-Grand Admiral and Keeper of Fleebnorks



“Adopt a fleebnork. They’re DYING!” -Sally Struthers


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.brickfest
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 18:58:17 GMT
Viewed: 
4196 times
  
Grand Admiral wrote:

In lugnet.events.brickswest, Frank Filz wrote:
- pirate game unlikely (after last year's experience, I just don't see it
  happening, there isn't time or energy)

Whoaaaa there, son. We recognized that downside from last year, and made efforts
to rectify the situation this time around.

We specifically are separating public and private hours this year to accomodate
things like your Pirate Game. Since we have a single large conference room, we
are having public hours from 10am-4pm, then we close the doors and have private
attendee hours from 4pm-12am. There will be LOTS of time for the Pirate Game to
take place.

That will help (last year the public did continue past the 4 PM time
frame as I recall). The concern I still have is having enough energy
after catering to the public for 6 hours. I know that when a show is
over for the day, I don't feel like doing a whole lot.

I'm just going to have to decide which event I want to go to, and then
assuming I do go to NW BrickCon, I'll have to see how it actually goes.
Note also that there have to be players who feel like it...

Frank


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.brickfest
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 18:23:29 GMT
Viewed: 
4118 times
  
In lugnet.events.brickswest, Frank Filz wrote:
  
  1. pirate game unlikely (after last year’s experience, I just don’t see it happening, there isn’t time or energy)

Whoaaaa there, son. We recognized that downside from last year, and made efforts to rectify the situation this time around.

We specifically are separating public and private hours this year to accomodate things like your Pirate Game. Since we have a single large conference room, we are having public hours from 10am-4pm, then we close the doors and have private attendee hours from 4pm-12am. There will be LOTS of time for the Pirate Game to take place.

So don’t count that as a minus. :)

-Grand Admiral and Keeper of Fleebnorks



“Adopt a fleebnork. They’re DYING!” -Sally Struthers


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.brickfest, lugnet.events.nwbrickcon, lugnet.general
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 17:05:48 GMT
Viewed: 
6362 times
  
I wonder why this must be the case. BrickFest started quite well as a
purely fan event

For a time.  But it is growing and incorporating the public.  Is it not?
     Take SciFi cons for example.  You pay to get in, boy to you pay, but I can
go and wander about if I wish.  I won't get the extras  but I can wander about.
Now I believe your average attendance for a SciFi con goes into the hundreds, if
not thousands. That's what supports that SciFi con.  They don't really need the
public wandering about.  It has a healthy fan base to support it.
     We don't have one hundred LEGO fans in Seattle, much less a thousand.  We
need as much public as possible to pay for what the fans cannot.  Also, I'm
looking for converts.  Then we can have our more propper "con."  We'll have a
base to support it.

Are people in the North West really that stingy?

Not really but no one wanted to pay $75 to see the same people on the weekend in
downtown Seattle.  Plus, that's our carrot.  Keep the costs for the fans
minimal.  Heck, we got LEGO to buy!  Priorities man!


I hope you'll make it out.  Our public will be locked out at 4PM.  We got the
space til midnight.  There will be time for mingling.  Also, we're looking at an
established sign in volunteer sheet, so no one gets stuck in the same spot all
day long.  We're growing and learning, I hope you'll stick with us.

Mark


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.brickfest
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 15:47:02 GMT
Viewed: 
4033 times
  
Mark wrote:

The public attendance factor is an interesting one. To me, it matters
not much.

I'm glad you brought this up.
If we want cons to live we need the public.  Let that sink in for a sec.  For as
diverse a group as we have here in the NW, it cannot support a regional
convention by its fans alone.  Won't happen.  People balk at the money.  So what
do we do, we comprimise.  We try to give time for the fans, this year we have a
space that we can lock, but the public is coming, and they'll pay to get in.

I wonder why this must be the case. BrickFest started quite well as a
purely fan event. We didn't even really have an idea what the draw of
the outlet store would be. Obviously it was some draw, and there will be
some number of folks more willing to attend an event with a LEGOland or
outlet store draw. Are people in the North West really that stingy? Of
course we do have a lower population within reasonable driving distance
than DC has, and it's more of a pain to fly to than DC. There may also
be some differences in how available space is (though I know the GMU
space is not free - I had assumed it was very low cost based on the low
price for BF 2000, of course we also only had 3 class rooms and some
lobby space).

I'm not saying that the public attendance is a bad thing, but I have to
say that I'm very torn between NW BrickCon and the truck tour this year.
To me either one is basically a public show. The plusses and minuses I
see. I've also included a hypothetical BrickFest 2000 like con that I
would have to fly to for example.

NW Brick Con:

+ more AFOLs will participate
+ larger display
+ maintain my complete US brick con brick badge collection
+ support brick cons
+ will have at least some fan interraction
- entry cost
- drive to Seattle
- need for arranging a place to stay
- pirate game unlikely (after last year's experience, I just don't see
it happening, there isn't time or energy)

Truck Tour:

+ local
+ direct interraction with LEGO
+ support the local folks
+ free
- smaller display
- limited fan interraction
- no pirate game

Hypothetical BrickFest 2000 like con:

+ lots of fan interraction
+ pirate game for sure
+ medium size display (BF 2000 had less on display than NWBC 2002, plus
flying would limit how much I could bring for display)
- entry cost
- need to fly to
- hotel room

This hypothetical brick con is probably still a tough sell (I'm starting
to smart from all the costs of flying). Now if the hypothetical brick
con was within 6 hours driving (so I didn't need to use any vacation
days for travel - though the travel would be brutal), it would win hands
down.

But I'm me. I know from talking to some people at NW Brick Con last year
that they got a lot out of showing to the public. I do agree that we
need more ways for non-train folks to share with the public.

I also agree very much with Stephen that the Sunday open doors at
BrickFest was a good thing. Without it, I might have run a pirate game,
but I also very much liked sitting and selling parts, and I might have
still chosen to do that instead of running the pirate game (and would
not have sold as much without the public - almost all of my sales on
Sunday were to the public). Of course for me the thing that recovered
Sunday the most was that I had done my outlet shopping on Friday (though
that killed Friday somewhat but not entirely).

Frank


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 15:26:52 GMT
Viewed: 
4228 times
  
Mark P wrote:
This is a community here, and it does not look like that was taken into
consideration by the planners (whoever they are) of this BFpart2. I am sure many
of us would have been more than happy to lend a hand but now it just seems like
we were left out in the cold - and thats just not a cool feeling in any way.

I'm sorry that people feel left out, but an event can't be planned with
100s of people. While some (all?) of the brick cons were initially
kicked off with a public call for interest, they quickly took the
planning private (however, I believe this years BricksWest invited too
many people onto the internal discussion - causing unecessary strife).

Unfortunately there is a bit of an information vaccuum because Steve
made an announcement Saturday, but presumably won't really have net
access until today.

I also know that numerous people have been involved in the initial
planning for this event. Now that a public announcement has been made,
more people will be invited to be involved. I also know that people in
SC were consulted about the feelings on doing 2004 in Portland. Perhaps
not everyone who should have been consulted was, but I know Steve felt
he had to contain this discussion.

There is a big problem that now is the time to get the ball rolling.
Unfortunately, due to how things were playing out with Brick Media
Productions, people felt they had to walk on eggshells. That means
keeping the list of people in discussions small. We still don't know
what all has transpired, and until some people come public with how they
have been affected, some of us don't feel comfortable talking about all
the details that led to the decision to go forward.

Frank


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 03:45:08 GMT
Viewed: 
4025 times
  
In lugnet.events.brickswest, Dave Johann wrote:

Agreed. No one runs a Pirate game quite like you do, Frank. No one is pushing
the need to have things run solely by locals either, but without any information
available about the upcoming event, quite a few folks who would have helped to
organize and participate are now rethinking their level of contribution simply
because we've just heard about this event a scant two days ago. Had any details
of this event been available PUBLICLY a few days before, this would never have
garnered the amount of attention it has gotten.

-Dave (who's getting tired of pointing out that the lack of available info is
what caused all the problems in the first place.)

Exactly - from what it seems there has been a great deal of working out done
already in secret.. and us here are scratching our head trying to figure out
what is going on with BW, let alone this new con that looks like already has all
of the framework planning done -- its more than frustrating.

This is a community here, and it does not look like that was taken into
consideration by the planners (whoever they are) of this BFpart2. I am sure many
of us would have been more than happy to lend a hand but now it just seems like
we were left out in the cold - and thats just not a cool feeling in any way.

Mark P


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.brickfest
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 01:28:43 GMT
Viewed: 
3849 times
  
In lugnet.events.brickswest, Frank Filz wrote:
The public attendance factor is an interesting one. To me, it matters
not much. Why? Well, I get to do public shows all the time.

     That's a valid point, to a certain extent.  Not all participants will have
that sort of experience (I remember about two months ago people were asking
where they could find places for public display), and outside of events like BF,
there aren't any publicly open displays of just MOCs.  Yes, there's LEGOLand,
but as was mentioned previously, seeing a bunch of displays that were designed
by LEGO pros is entirely different from seeing the wide variety of really
strange and wonderful things that dedicated fans can build, and the public are
much more likely to identify with MOC builders than with professional Master
Builders.

I think BrickFest may have hit on a good compromise by keeping Friday
and Saturday as non-public.

     I think you're exactly right.  It gives people like you some non-public
time to just hang out with fellow FOLs, it gives the people who don't get any
public display time a chance to show off to non-FOLs, and it gives the public a
chance to really see what's possible (and possibly inspiring a new wave of
FOLs).

However, as NW Brickcon and BrickFest have demonstrated, you don't need
a local LEGO attraction to attract guests

     Not the general public, no, but it's probably a huge bonus for FOLs who
rarely have a chance to attend, and who don't live anywhere near any of them.  I
did like the idea that someone had of seeing if TLC could set up a sale booth,
but I have a feeling the outlets would be a better deal, as they'd probably have
both lower prices and greater (older/OOP) selection.


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.brickfest
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 00:51:58 GMT
Viewed: 
2475 times
  
On 00.38 8/12/2003 +0000, Mark wrote

The public attendance factor is an interesting one. To me, it matters
not much.

I'm glad you brought this up.
If we want cons to live we need the public.  Let that sink in for a
sec.  For as
diverse a group as we have here in the NW, it cannot support a regional
convention by its fans alone.  Won't happen.  People balk at the
money.  So what
do we do, we comprimise.  We try to give time for the fans, this year we
have a
space that we can lock, but the public is coming, and they'll pay to get in.
What's this mean?  NWBrickcon04.
Is it easy?  No.  Are the fans willing to pay up for a specialty con in
the NW.
I've heard a loud, resolute, "NO."  So, we comprimise.  We have to start
small,
that's how most things start.  We'll get bigger, and better.  We've just
got to
stick to it, organize a good event and with any luck, 03, will pay for your
"private zone" in 04.  Like I say, growth.

This year at BrickFest we had open admission on Sunday. Even without
advertising, we had spectacular turn out (still no numbers yet).

I think the public influx provided energy to what traditionally has been a
subdued 'recovery' day. And most importantly, many of our fears of the
havok that the public would wrack on the fest were laid asside.

I dont see BrickFest becoming a totally open event. The _vast_ majority of
the general public who were there were parents with kids. But I definitely
see the experiment of opening the fest on Sunday as a success.

(speaking as me, not as an organizer)

---
wubwub
aka  stephen f roberts


wildbrick.com  -  Jain's Guide : Promoting more than just the MOC


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.brickfest
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 00:38:54 GMT
Viewed: 
4007 times
  
The public attendance factor is an interesting one. To me, it matters
not much.

I'm glad you brought this up.
If we want cons to live we need the public.  Let that sink in for a sec.  For as
diverse a group as we have here in the NW, it cannot support a regional
convention by its fans alone.  Won't happen.  People balk at the money.  So what
do we do, we comprimise.  We try to give time for the fans, this year we have a
space that we can lock, but the public is coming, and they'll pay to get in.
What's this mean?  NWBrickcon04.
Is it easy?  No.  Are the fans willing to pay up for a specialty con in the NW.
I've heard a loud, resolute, "NO."  So, we comprimise.  We have to start small,
that's how most things start.  We'll get bigger, and better.  We've just got to
stick to it, organize a good event and with any luck, 03, will pay for your
"private zone" in 04.  Like I say, growth.

Mark


Subject: 
Re: Saturday General Session Announcements
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.events.brickswest, lugnet.events.brickfest
Date: 
Tue, 12 Aug 2003 00:07:47 GMT
Viewed: 
3876 times
  
Purple Dave wrote:
     To give you an example of what I'm saying, look at the Olympics.  Every
four years it's held in a different location around the world.  Every event sees
a huge number of participants (athletes and coaches) traveling from all over the
world to attend.  Outside of the athletes' families, it's safe to say that the
vast majority of the attending spectators are from the immediate vicinity, with
a much smaller portion of attendance coming from outlying areas (neighboring
states/provinces/countries), and with very few people making a world-wide jaunt
just to go watch people they don't actually know compete in person.  And this is
with a "convention" that just about every self-aware person on this planet has
heard of, and some level of patriotic interest in.  It's a highly famous event,
however, which means that no matter where it occurs (well, probably not
Antarctica), there will be people who want to take advantage of the "chance of a
lifetime" and attend it in their own backyard.  Everybody's so geeked about the
fact that BF actually made the news that I get the feeling these Brick cons
aren't very widely known outside of the general LUG-type communities.  Yeah, if
you don't care about public attendance, a roving con makes perfect sense as it
would allow those who can't afford the time/money to make a long-distance trip a
chance to participate every few years, but doing that will most likely inhibit
the number of walk-in visitors who just want to check things out.

The public attendance factor is an interesting one. To me, it matters
not much. Why? Well, I get to do public shows all the time. I did like
one thing about this years public time at BrickFest, the public time
included the brick bazaar, and thus a chance to sell to the public. One
thing I disliked about NW Brick Con was that it was so much a public
show event that there was little time (and almost no energy - attending
to the public for 6+ hours is draining) for interracting with the fans
(and basically the gaming got shot, no time or energy, and not really
even a location). At BricksWest what disturbed me about the public time
was that the expo was separate from the meeting area, reducing the
interraction between those doing that part of the event and those doing
the sessions and such.

I think BrickFest may have hit on a good compromise by keeping Friday
and Saturday as non-public.

However, as NW Brickcon and BrickFest have demonstrated, you don't need
a local LEGO attraction to attract guests (the outlet doesn't count for
BrickFest, though there may have been advertising there). NW Brickcon
brought people through as fast as we could handle them, and more people
could have been handled if the space was better arranged.

Frank

Frank



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