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 17:38:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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161 times
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In lugnet.events, Todd Thuma wrote:
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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.
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Joe’s number for public attendance was
3000. I thought admission was
$7, for a total of $21000, but if admission was $10, that makes $30000.
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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.
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I am curious about that. Who are the owners of the Brickfest trademark and how
much are they compensated? Wasn’t BF founded by WAMALUG?
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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.
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As I mentioned, I was willing to volunteer at this year’s BF, but not to pay to
do so. As for the financial matters of BF,
Joe has said he will post the numbers,
and I look forward to seeing that information.
Marc Nelson Jr.
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Message has 2 Replies:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: BrickFest registration fees (was: LEGO Adult Fan Convention at Legoland California?)
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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 (...) (18 years ago, 12-Sep-06, to lugnet.events, lugnet.events.brickfest, FTX)
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