Subject:
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Re: BrickFest registration fees (was: LEGO Adult Fan Convention at Legoland California?)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.events, lugnet.events.brickfest
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Date:
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Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:33:47 GMT
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Viewed:
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5559 times
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In lugnet.events, Marc Nelson Jr. wrote:
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I guess I’m one of those people - not that I complained, I just didn’t go
because I couldn’t afford it. The last BF I went to (in ‘04), I probably
spent around $125 total for registration, t-shirts, and bricks, and I doubt
I’ve ever spent more than $200 at a BF. So I’m not complaining just to
complain, the cost is actually a dealbreaker for me. I was hoping to
volunteer at this year’s event and attend at a free or reduced rate, but I
was told that volunteers had to pay full price for registration.
Is it really a problem that BF isn’t charging enough for registration? By my
math, BF took in about $24K from registration fees and $21K from the public,
plus a few bucks from merchandise sales and seller fees, but lets say $45K
total. If the exhibit space was free with the room reservations, what do you
need all that money for? My wife does a lot of event planning for a
nonprofit, and she couldn’t figure it out.
I’m sorry if anyone takes offense at these questions, but I know other AFOLs
are asking the same thing.
Marc Nelson Jr.
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Marc,
Yes, volunteers pay their full way. In the spirit of full disclosure, as an
organizer, I recevied one embroidered shirt from Joe as part of an effort to
place all coordinators in one common, distinctive shirt, so that they could be
easily identified. There was also about 2 dozen to 30 red, engraved bricks
identifying the coordinators by name tag as to what they coordinated. I did not
pay for these items. I assume that Joe paid for these out of the registration or
public day proceeds.
I paid full registration. I paid my portion of the hotel rooms I shared with
others to keep costs down. I also paid for a plane ticket and parking that cost
me about $300 when all was done. I paid for Metro to go from Regan National to
West Falls Church station and a cab from there to the hotel at about $15.00.
As for your calculations on the revenue generated by registration and public
day, I think you are a little bit off. If 400 people paid 10 dollars each that
would be $4000. Since the registration was $60 per person for the three day
event, the revenue would be $24,000. Out of that many items were purchased. The
bag, the engraved bricks, the bricks to engrave, a pre-event mailing, the raffle
tickets, the sets to raffle, etc. Your $60 dollars bought you a lot and the
money goes fast when you start adding up the other materials that were bought.
From that pile of money a projector was rented at $500 per day plus another $80
for screens for the animation festival and the presentations. There were
additional charges there. Break that down per person and about $5.00 of each
registration went for presentation equipment. There are many more hidden costs
to these events that only Christina and Joe can chare with you. Oh, and Steve
Barile too. Ask the organizers of other conventions.
Now on to public day. Public day got started because GMU was charging more and
more each year to use the “free” space Christina managed. She will not divulge
costs, but they were in thousands. Where did that money come from? Christina
walked a tight-rope keeping GMU space happy and funded out of the public day
ticket admission. Ask me and I would make public day free, but then who would
pay the facility for its use.
The hotel got paid, believe me, when it came to BrickFest. There was a guarantee
that Joe signed on the number of hotel room bookings. If he failed to produce
the minimum amount, then Joe would have been out a significant amount of money.
Anyone else willing to take on a serious financial burden such as this. Anyone
willing to put up the old homestead to underwrite this?
Fortunately, you the fans came through and the number of hotel room bookings
exceeded expectations. The hotel was very happy, but the hotel got paid. Thanks
for all those that paid the excessive drink prices at the bar and for the room
service. They did better that weekend than in the history of the hotel.
Oh and how much do you think a hotel charged for the meal Friday night. How
about $20 to $40 per head. I cannot say how much. I am not privey to these
financial details. I am certain the hotel charged for the water service too.
They all do. There was also an agreement with the owners of the BrickFest name
for the rights to use it. Want to know more, ask the owners and Joe.
Nothing is free. Be thankfull that there are individuals like Christina, and
Joe, and Steve B., and NorthWest BrickCon, and etc, that are willing to stick
their necks out financially to make these things happen for the rest of us.
If you, and none of this has been directed to Marc specifically, want to
organize and event, please do so. The community needs you to volunteer and step
up. It is easy to quarterback this from the sidelines, but the reality and the
specifics are much more complicated then anyone can understand until you have
participated. I remain clueless to some of the financials because the Event
Coordinators have kept it that way. If I ever stick my neck out as far as they
have, I promise I will not keep the details of the money in the dark. They will
become a part of the public record!
Just my $0.02.
Todd
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: BrickFest registration fees
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| (...) Todd, is that $500 correct?? If so, if there is money left over from this year, I HIGHLY recommend investigating purchasing at least one projector, as they have gotten pretty cheap these days, it might even be cheaper to buy several compared (...) (18 years ago, 12-Sep-06, to lugnet.events, lugnet.events.brickfest)
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