Subject:
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Re: The proliferation of fests: Good or bad?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.events
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Date:
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Mon, 11 Dec 2006 22:27:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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3110 times
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Some thoughts of mine:
A proliferation of successfull events is good.
A big thought on "the one big event":
My experience with events encompasses LEGO fan events, Science Fiction
conventions, church camps and events, train shows, National Speleological
Society (NSS - US caving organization) events, and gaming. Experience is
essentially US specific.
SF has a big annual event, and lots of local regional events. The big event
is World Con which travels around the world (though mostly the US). Every
major city has at least one regional event, some are quite large (for
example, in it's heyday, Boskone (held in Boston MA) rivaled World Con in
size (generally being bigger than almost all contemporary non-US World
Cons). World Con is in the summer, most regional cons are in the fall,
winter, and spring. I'm reasonably certain there are other large SF cons,
though I don't have personal experience to tell.
My religion (Unitarian Universalism) has an annual business convention that
circulates around the US (in the summer). It also has regional business
meetings in the fall or spring (that generally circulate around their
region). It also has camps that are more fun oriented, generally summer and
winter, at fixed locations. One of the summer camps is quite large.
The NSS has an annual convention that circulates the US in the summer. It
has regional events (that circulate around their regions - some), generally
in the fall and spring. It has a big "party" event Labor Day weekend at a
fixed location (that is actually owned by an affiliate organization that
exists to run the party). This is also a big event.
The NMRA has a big annual convention in the summer that circulates around
the country. There are also regional (and city) events. There are also
unaffiliated events for model railroading (such as GATS).
Gaming has two big annual events in the summer (Origins and GenCon) and
numerous regional events. GenCon has also spun off additional events. These
are more or less fun events and occur at (relatively) fixed locations.
A couple things of note:
The big deal event is always in the summer. The big events are either annual
business meetings for a national (or larger) organization (NSS, NMRA, and
church) or in the case of World Con, have a prestigous award associated (the
members of World Con vote on the Hugo Awards, you can buy non-attending
memberships so you can vote). The other big events are "fun" events at a
fixed (or relatively fixed) location, located (relatively) centrally to a
concentration of interested people that have built a reputation for being a
"good" event. GenCon and Origins are sort of a combination in that they are
fun events, but they also have prestigous awards.
Of the regional events, the big ones tend to be long running, have developed
a reputation, are located in a concentrated area, and may have some other
prestige attached (Boskone awards the Nebula awards).
BrickFest has first mover status, is centrally located, and has a reputation
of being a "good" event, is held in the summer, and has been in a
(relatively) fixed location. This makes it a candidate for being a premiere
event. However, without a national or world organization or prestigous
award, it will only be "the big" event so long as it is well run and
attractive to participants. I don't think it actually has a long enough
history yet to qualify as the premiere event - right now it's premiere
primarily due to first mover status (and being in the summer, located
(somewhat) centrally located to a concentration of people, helps). NorthWest
BrickCon is a solid regional event. BrickFest PDX is an occaisional event
that benefits from the BrickFest name. BricksWest died. I'm not familiar
with the other events.
Some have suggested we have a circulating premiere event. I think that would
be cool, but until we have a national (or world) organization that is
prestigous, or develop a prestigous award, we will not see such an event.
Barring that, our best hope for a premiere event is for an existing event to
have a continued solid reputation, and have a loyal fan base. From that
perspective, competing with BrickFest will be a set back to establishing a
premiere event, though in the end, it could be better (perhaps a better
organizational structure and location would make for a better event).
In the end, I wish the best to BrickWorld. I will not be able to attend
because it conflicts with my religion's annual event that happens to be
hosted by my congregation in Portland OR this comming year. I'm a bit sad
that my self-proclaimed status as the only person who has made all the fan
organized, LEGO dedicated brick cons in the US will come to an end (it may
already be at an end depending on how you call the events that don't have
their own LUGNET news group as of today, or if you want to count House of
Bricks [I sneakily exclude it on the basis that at least in the past, it has
been attached to an SF con], or MindFest [organized by MIT], or Kidvention
[organized by LEGO]). On the other hand, that will be a good thing. We can
have fun comparing huge badges made from all the brick badges from various
events. And my future spouse won't have reason to disown me.
Frank
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | The proliferation of fests: Good or bad?
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| Once upon a time, there were no fests, And that was bad. Then there was The One Fest. And that was good. Then there were more. And some were good, and some not so good. And now there are many. And some are great. And some are brand new and have (...) (18 years ago, 10-Dec-06, to lugnet.events, FTX) !!
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