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Anyone got information on what was said?
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In lugnet.general, Jonathan Wilson writes:
> Anyone got information on what was said?
Hi Jonathan,
he was there for 2 days and he gave us (members of de Bouwsteen and
attending guests ca. 90 minutes for questions and answers. So you can imagine
he mentiond just EVERYTHING in that time.
But if you ask, if he gave any special promises or announcements about new
legends, I have to tell you a definit 'NO'.
Regards,
Ben
P.s.: But Brad was really VERY pleased with the Legoword event. That was so
much bigger than anything he expected for Europe....
On the other hand I was highly amazed (in fact nearly shocked) when I learned
about the visitors number at Brickfest. Whole Lugnet was talking for month
about that event and I expected it to be a huge show and not a meeting of 250
persons. We have twice as much Lego-Fans at our 'small' Muelheim shows two
times a year and Legoworld had ten-thousands of visitors.... Lugnet seems to
be a little US-centric (what of course is nothing to wonder about).
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In lugnet.general, Reinhard "Ben" Beneke writes:
> P.s.: But Brad was really VERY pleased with the Legoword event. That was so
> much bigger than anything he expected for Europe....
>
> On the other hand I was highly amazed (in fact nearly shocked) when I learned
> about the visitors number at Brickfest. Whole Lugnet was talking for month
> about that event and I expected it to be a huge show and not a meeting of 250
> persons. We have twice as much Lego-Fans at our 'small' Muelheim shows two
> times a year and Legoworld had ten-thousands of visitors.... Lugnet seems to
> be a little US-centric (what of course is nothing to wonder about).
But wasn't the Legoworld event open to the public? So it wasn't just AFOLs
attending, it was anyone in the area. While at Brickfest it's registered
people only with no public sessions. (of course I could be mistaken about
Legoworld being a public event)
jt
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In lugnet.general, James Trobaugh writes:
> In lugnet.general, Reinhard "Ben" Beneke writes:
>
> But wasn't the Legoworld event open to the public? So it wasn't just AFOLs
> attending, it was anyone in the area. While at Brickfest it's registered
> people only with no public sessions. (of course I could be mistaken about
> Legoworld being a public event)
>
> jt
Hi James,
of course it was open to the public, but some/most (?) days were sold out long
before, so most people must have had bought tickets long before. That is no
registration of course, but still...
And you are right: it was public, yet not for free. And there have been Kids
as well. (Even for sure some that came to watch the Fox TV shows only.)
Nevertheless there must have been at least 10 times more AFOLs than at
brickfest - even in the year before, when the event took place for the first
time. And still there seem to be lots of people around that never heard
anything about Legoworld in Zwolle, while nearly everybody will know at least
a little about brickfest. It has been only this disproportion which made me
wonder.
Leg Godt!
Ben
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Ben,
I'm sure the "kid" factor was part of the large number of visitors, and the
fact that Legoworld is marketed to the general public. I think Brickfest is
more of an event for AFOLs, and like you mentioned ealier, AFOLs that read
LUGNET. I think outside of LUGNET (and a few other LEGO online forums) there
is no word of Brickfest. I find the best thing about Brickfest is just being
able to talk face to face to all the people I talk to here online.
From the pictures it looks like Legoworld was a blast and a big hit. I'm
glad it went over so well.
jt
In lugnet.general, Reinhard "Ben" Beneke writes:
> In lugnet.general, James Trobaugh writes:
> > In lugnet.general, Reinhard "Ben" Beneke writes:
> >
> > But wasn't the Legoworld event open to the public? So it wasn't just AFOLs
> > attending, it was anyone in the area. While at Brickfest it's registered
> > people only with no public sessions. (of course I could be mistaken about
> > Legoworld being a public event)
> >
> > jt
>
> Hi James,
>
> of course it was open to the public, but some/most (?) days were sold out long
> before, so most people must have had bought tickets long before. That is no
> registration of course, but still...
> And you are right: it was public, yet not for free. And there have been Kids
> as well. (Even for sure some that came to watch the Fox TV shows only.)
> Nevertheless there must have been at least 10 times more AFOLs than at
> brickfest - even in the year before, when the event took place for the first
> time. And still there seem to be lots of people around that never heard
> anything about Legoworld in Zwolle, while nearly everybody will know at least
> a little about brickfest. It has been only this disproportion which made me
> wonder.
>
> Leg Godt!
>
> Ben
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Reinhard \"Ben\" Beneke wrote:
>
> In lugnet.general, James Trobaugh writes:
> > In lugnet.general, Reinhard "Ben" Beneke writes:
> >
> > But wasn't the Legoworld event open to the public? So it wasn't just AFOLs
> > attending, it was anyone in the area. While at Brickfest it's registered
> > people only with no public sessions. (of course I could be mistaken about
> > Legoworld being a public event)
> >
> > jt
>
> Hi James,
>
> of course it was open to the public, but some/most (?) days were sold out long
> before, so most people must have had bought tickets long before. That is no
> registration of course, but still...
> And you are right: it was public, yet not for free. And there have been Kids
> as well. (Even for sure some that came to watch the Fox TV shows only.)
> Nevertheless there must have been at least 10 times more AFOLs than at
> brickfest - even in the year before, when the event took place for the first
> time. And still there seem to be lots of people around that never heard
> anything about Legoworld in Zwolle, while nearly everybody will know at least
> a little about brickfest. It has been only this disproportion which made me
> wonder.
Some factors I can see:
- Legoworld is an "expo" type event compared to BrickFest being a
"gathering of fans" event.
- Public advertising obviously increases numbers
- Europe probably has a much higher density of AFOLs (even if the US
might have more overall), remember, it's something like 3000 miles
between Los Angeles and Washington DC.
- Selling advance tickets to the general public probably actually
increases attendance (as compared to for example how NWBrickCon which
was primarily an "expo" event had just public walkins - though they did
have media exposure, they also had thousands of visitors).
- It looked to me like LEGO had a booth, all that has happened at the US
events is that LEGO Direct employees have made an appearance (and at
BricksWest and BrickFest conducted a Q&A session)
- I also get the impression there isn't as much showing at train shows
and the like in Europe, the fact that in most areas of the US, an AFOL
can participate in several small train shows a year reduces the
likelyhood that they will travel across the country to show off their
creations at an expo.
Frank
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In lugnet.general, Frank Filz writes:
> Some factors I can see:
>
> - Legoworld is an "expo" type event compared to BrickFest being a
> "gathering of fans" event.
It is indeed an "expo" event, though about 40% of it is dedicated to the
AFOL community. The "Bouwsteen" had a (very) large area which was dedicated
to adults showing their MOCs and have fans talk to eachother.
Also, like Ben said: in Muelheim, European fans gather 2 times a year and
that is definetely a AFOL-only event with over 500 fans gathering.
> - Public advertising obviously increases numbers
Yep
> - Europe probably has a much higher density of AFOLs (even if the US
> might have more overall), remember, it's something like 3000 miles
> between Los Angeles and Washington DC.
I think so too. The density is way higher I guess. In the Netherlands and
Germany every household owns at least a few sets of LEGO. You would find it
very hard to find someone (ages 20-40) who didn't own LEGO in their
childhood (in fact when you talk to someone about LEGO trains 75% would
reply that they had one 12V train in the seventies or eighties, while I'm
baffled that people in the US get replies like "I didn't know LEGO made
trains").
> - Selling advance tickets to the general public probably actually
> increases attendance (as compared to for example how NWBrickCon which
> was primarily an "expo" event had just public walkins - though they did
> have media exposure, they also had thousands of visitors).
Even with selling to the general public in mind, there were more AFOLs
attending than at most other events (who visited primary for the fan-gathering).
> - It looked to me like LEGO had a booth, all that has happened at the US
> events is that LEGO Direct employees have made an appearance (and at
> BricksWest and BrickFest conducted a Q&A session)
I think, for LEGO, it was a great chance to see how popular the brand
actually is, and also to get more in touch with their adult fan base in
Europe. Since LEGO Direct is active here at LUGNET the European voice is not
as loud and 'visible' (the LUGNET userbase is mainly located in the US).
> - I also get the impression there isn't as much showing at train shows
> and the like in Europe, the fact that in most areas of the US, an AFOL
> can participate in several small train shows a year reduces the
> likelyhood that they will travel across the country to show off their
> creations at an expo.
There are only a very few train shows here comparable to the shows LTGs
visit(even though model trains are very popular in Germany - a lot of model
train brands are German)
Ben and I discussed this topic at LEGOWORLD because we both were under the
impression that the Brickwest and other big events in the US were comparable
to our gatherings, while even our gatherings at Muelheim would compare best
to such event.
The strange thing is that only with an event at the scale we had in Zwolle
Europe attracts a little attention as a big LEGO event (for both kids and
AFOLs) while comparable smaller events are known in the community as very
important gatherings (I have always been under the impression that these
events would gather a few 1000s of AFOLs in the US).
I do understand that the geographic location is probably the main reason for
this, but it appears we know so little of eachothers activities, and I think
that's a loss for the international (intercontinental) communities.
-Frank
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