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BricksWest™ 2003 Event Coordinator's Report
February 27, 2003
community \com·mu·ni·ty\, n.
1) A group of people having common interests.
2) Similarity or identity: a community of interests.
3) Sharing, participation, and fellowship.
I would like to take this time to personally thank each and every attendee,
presenter, organizer and sponsor of BricksWest 2003...the LEGO® enthusiast
community is a community in the truest sense of the word; we are a diverse
and exciting group of individuals, organizations and businesses able to come
together in learning, fellowship and fun. This is a rare and wonderful
thing, and the BricksWest organizers appreciate the trust the community puts
in us to deliver an event worthy of your attendance and participation. Thank
you!
Our second annual event, BricksWest 2003, took place in Carlsbad, California
(http://www.carlsbad.org/) during President's Day Weekend (February 14-17).
With more fun than could be contained by a single venue, BricksWest was
headquartered at the Windmill Banquet and Catering facility
(http://www.windmillbanquet.com/), where our conference sessions and special
events happened, and the LEGOLAND® California theme park, home to our public
exposition (http://www.lego.com/eng/legoland/california/).
Attendance stood at approximately 200 LEGO enthusiasts joining us for the
conference, and as an estimate at least half of the park-going attendance of
LEGOLAND taking in the public display put on by our fan modelers. A
wonderful growth rate from our inaugural event!
Once again in 2003, many individuals from the community gave their personal
time to develop informative and interesting conference sessions to present
to their peers. In total, we were able to program over 30 hours of sessions
and events...an outstanding effort by all!
A highlight of our session programming was the expansion of our
train-related presentations. Through the hard work of Steve Barile as train
session coordinator, trains became a mini-conference unto themselves.
Primary to this train showing at BricksWest was the formal announcement of
the International LEGO Train Club Organization (ILTCO,
http://www.iltco.org/), a group dedicated to interfacing all of the LEGO
train clubs around the world with the LEGO Company and each other, to foster
greater understanding, facilitate better communication and build stronger
clubs. Train sessions presented were: "The Making of a Multi-Dimensional
Train Layout" by Robert Powell; "Design Study: Trains SNOT & More" by James
Mathis; "Thomas The Tank Engine" by Russell Clark; "Design Study: New Track
Geometry by Ben Fleskes; "Beyond LDraw: The Making of a Train Instruction
Book" by Steve Barile; "Show & Tell History of LEGO Trains" by Frank Fliz.
Also, there was a wonderful first public meeting and discussion of ILTCO, as
well as numerous hours of train free play and talk. Thank you to all of our
train participants and presenters!
As in 2002, Tim Courtney of LDraw.org (http://www.ldraw.org/) and members of
the LDraw community once again came together at BricksWest to develop an
entire conference track dedicated to modeling LEGO creations using the LDraw
system of tools. LDraw sessions presented were: "Computer Assisted Building"
by Stephen Fisher; "Introduction to LSynth" by Kevin Clauge; "Introduction
to LDraw Tools" by Tim Courtney; "Introduction to LPub" by Kevin Clauge. In
addition, both Tim Courtney and Ahui Herrera presented "Introduction to
LDraw Tools" inside of the LEGOLAND theme park...see the information about
our LEGO in Education activities below for more details. Our LDraw content
culminated with an LDraw roundtable session, to discuss the future of the
LDraw community and the LDraw system of tools. Many thanks to all of the
dedicated LDraw members, presenters and attendees!
LEGO-based robotics made another big showing at BricksWest in 2003, with
David Schilling of Seattle MINDSTORMS™ and Robotics Techies (SMART,
http://news.lugnet.com/org/us/smart/) taking the reigns to develop several
exciting and informative competitions, and representatives of the LEGO
Company and FIRST LEGO League (http://www.firstlegoleague.org/;
http://www.usfirst.org) presenting information about their educational
initiatives and team challenges. Sessions included: "FIRST LEGO League" by
Tormod Askildsen; "BrickHeap Wars" building session and competition by David
Schilling; "Beginning Robolab" with Todd Thuma graciously standing in for
Bill Blackmer; "R/C Off-Road Racing Competition" by David Schilling; "RCX
DragRacing" competition by David Schilling; "FIRST LEGO League" by Steve
Putz, a last minute aid in a time of need. All of these great sessions were
capped with a robotics roundtable. A big thanks to David and the other
presenters, especially Tormod, Todd and Steve, who stepped in to make
certain that sessions ran despite circumstances beyond our control!
Animation was a major part of BricksWest 2003, bringing us the second annual
BricksWest Animation Festival and Competition. This year, 21 animated
entries from around the world were submitted to our animation festival
coordinator Todd Thuma, to be viewed and voted upon by the attendance of
BricksWest. From these outstanding entries, "Really Deep Space" by Jeff
Leary took the top prize in the Comedy Competition, "Midnight Ride" by Jared
Gilbert won the General Animation Competition while Patrick Mahoney's "A New
Computer" took home the prize for Best of Show. Congratulations to all of
the winners, a big thank you to all of the entrants, and a huge thank you to
Todd Thuma for putting this festival together to promote and further the
LEGO animation community! Further thanks to Ahui Herrera for presenting the
well received "LEGO Flash Animation" session during the conference.
Rounding out our conference offerings were many diverse sessions on various
subjects: "Insuring you LEGO Collection" by Ahui Herrera; "Photographing
LEGO Models" by Adrian Egli & Matthew Gerber; "Detailing in LEGO" by Jeremy
Rear; "Studs Not On Top Panel" by Mark Benz, Bill Ward, Frank Fliz, and
Derek Schin; "Sculptures" by Adrian Drake, Bill Ward, & Bill Vollbrecht
(our special guest LEGOLAND Model Designer); "Microfig Creations" by Ashley
Glennon; "Round Table: Gaming" by Derek Schin; "Round Table: Mecha" by Dave
Johann and Eric Sophie. Thank you to all of the presenters and attendees of
these general interest sessions. Special thanks to Ashley Glennon for his
last minute attendance and running his microfig session twice over the weekend!
A final note to our conference schedule was an impromptu gathering to
discuss a new level of trust between the LEGO enthusiasts and the LEGO
Company, coming together as an all-inclusive community to promote growth,
communication, understanding, and fun. Born of a special summit at LEGO
headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut in mid-January, the primary message
taken away from this session was that as an enthusiast community, LEGO
trusts us with their brand. Ideas and systems are being developed to
facilitate communications and coordination between the fans and the
company...look for further information to be made available soon!
Despite an unforeseen flood washing out our primary public exposition venue
at LEGOLAND California, both our display coordinator Dan Parker and our
friends Heather Moyer and Walker McBride in the LEGOLAND promotions
department did a wonderful job of last-minute scrambling to develop a
full-featured display in what was previously the Technic Diner at the theme
park. The public expo was a huge draw for the park-going public at LEGOLAND,
with the building packed wall-to-wall most of the weekend. Additional thanks
to: the members of BayLUG/BayLTC for their wonderful train display; Bill
Ward for taking on the role of assistant expo coordinator; Tim Courtney for
helping with primary set-up in the Technic Diner; Adrian Drake for bringing
his mosaic map of the United States and allowing the park-goers to mark it
with their home towns; and all of the wonderful and talented fan builders
for bringing their models to display and the time they spent talking to the
public about their wonderful creations!
Another exciting addition to BricksWest this year was our LEGO in Education
content, a special series of presentations by both the LEGO enthusiast
community and the educational divisions of LEGO Company
(http://www.lego.com/dacta/; http://www.legolearning.net/). Local teachers
were invited to LEGOLAND to be introduced to many aspects of using LEGO in
the classroom, including LDraw, FIRST LEGO League, MINDSTORMS™ and more. Our
LEGOLAND venue problems scaled back the public participation in these
sessions, but for a first attempt at cross-promoting educational content by
both the fans and the LEGO Company, it was definitely a success! We look
forward to further opportunities to work closely with the company to promote
worthy causes like education through future events.
Additional thanks go out to: Daniel Jassim, the bravest man at BricksWest;
the train guys for daring to sing; all of the crooners who assaulted our
ears during Lounge Lizard Karaoke; Paul Sinasohn for his hard work dealing
with event registration; Ahui Herrera for spearheading numerous event
projects like our event CDs, and developing the event schedule; Tom Stangl
for organizing the buy/sell/trade sessions; John Neal for his expert work
with our event shirts; Teddy Welsh for jumping in with both feet to aid the
organizers on-site; Marisella Hererra for helping out and allowing Ahui to
put so much time into the event; Tommy and Peyton Armstrong of HPT Designs
for engraving our event badges and trophies; No Starch Press, Syngress
Publishing, Mike Walsh, Larry Pieniazek, A&M Productions, BOX-4-BLOX,
Robotics Learning, Tom Stangl, and everyone else who donated prizes;
LEGOLAND promotions and media departments, and all of the rest of the
wonderful and helpful employees at LEGOLAND California; Jake McKee for all
of his personal support and arranging so much company support of the event;
Brad Justus for preparing (and putting up with) our keynote address and
question and answer session; the LEGO Company, and all of the numerous
employees and representatives from around the world who helped with and
attended the event; anyone else I've missed (sorry if I did...everyone was
just so great, I wish I could mention all of you be name)!; and my wife Jill
and children Aurora and Zachary for allowing me to help with BricksWest
again, and putting up with me while I did...thanks, I love you.
That's about it for BricksWest 2003...a spectacular event by spectacular
people making for a spectacular weekend experience. I look forward to seeing
you all again at BricksWest 2004!
Matthew Gerber
Event Coordinator
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: BricksWest 2003 Event Coordinator's Report
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| (...) I'd like to hear more about this, now that you mention it. Someone at BricksWest asked me why I didn't attend it and was shocked when I told them that I had no idea there had even been such a meeting. Which of course made me wonder what was (...) (22 years ago, 28-Feb-03, to lugnet.events.brickswest) !
| | | Re: BricksWest™ 2003 Event Coordinator's Report
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| (...) Matthew, I would like to thank you and all the other Coordinators for all your super work! It was great fun and hope to bring more friends from Florida next time! Also thanks for not having me banished from BricksWest for trying to splash you (...) (22 years ago, 28-Feb-03, to lugnet.events.brickswest)
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