Subject:
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Re: BrickFest 2007 location
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.events.brickfest
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Date:
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Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:20:51 GMT
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Viewed:
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4050 times
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David Eaton wrote:
> In lugnet.events.brickfest, Mark Neumann wrote:
> > I disagree. This has already happened. It's called NWBrickCon.
> > You might of heard of it.
>
> Well, I don't think that's necessarily the point. I think there are a
> few sub issues here:
>
> 1) There should only be one major Lego convention every year
> 2) There shouldn't be MORE major Lego conventions every year
> 3) BrickFest shouldn't divide its funds and energies into multiple
> fests per year
>
> As for 1) and 2), I half-heartedly agree. I can budget and plan for
> something like BrickFest maybe once a year. But 2? 3? More? Guh, I'd
> love to, but time and money quickly become a huge factor.
>
> BrickFest is great, and I'm assuming NWBrickCon and BrickFest PDX are
> too, but it's disappointing to me that it seems like I'll never meet
> all the west coast folks. They'll go to their conventions, and the
> east costers will go to BrickFest.
I think our hobby is large enough to sustain multiple fests. Sure, most
folks will only attend one per year. Other folks are willing, able, and
excited, to attend multiple.
That said, most hobbies also have one major event per year. In some hobbies
this event moves each year (actually as much to not burn out the
coordinators as to make the event more accessible, the largest events take
more than a year to plan). In other hobbies there is a single mecca (or in
some cases two meccas, for example, gaming has GenCon and Origins [though it
should be noted that GenCon now has a West Coast event and a European
event], both of which tend to stay in one city [they have been around long
enough that they have moved as they grew and the organizers changed]).
Most hobbies also have more regional events that happen every year. They
usually try to stay away from the dates of the big national event. In some
cases, there is a hierarchical organization involved where the conventions
are also business meetings (here I'm thinking of the caving organization and
my religion, both of which have a summer-time annual national event, but
have regions or districts that also have annual events).
> But if BrickFest travelled around every year, without all the other
> events going on, chances are the attendance at BrickFest would
> include more people from a more diverse area. Also, it gives more
> people a chance to attend a BrickFest. All the lucky people in the DC
> area have had 7 BrickFests to attend, but there's tons more people in
> other cities who WOULD go if BrickFest were close, but won't (or
> can't) make the journey to DC.
>
> But that's not an ideal solution, either, since it's clearly lots of
> fun to put these events together and attend them-- so having more
> fests per year and per area DOES increase the amount of people who
> can have a chance to go to events like this. And, for the sake of the
> Lego Company, it increases their exposure (I'm sure they'd love for
> us to have more fests!). If (as per the above) BrickFest were the
> only thing, and were a travelling convention, what happens when it's
> on the east coast or the midwest for a year? All the west-coast
> people who only go to local fests don't end up going to a fest that
> year.
Some events that have rotating appearances have mini-events happen when the
main event is sufficiently far away that a significant local presence will
not attend. I've not been sufficiently into it to be aware what pops up for
World Con (the World Science Fiction Convention, which does actually happen
outside the US frequently, unlike, say, the World Series...) when it's out
of the US, I've only ever attended when it was local.
Something to consider with a rotating con - they will vary tremendously in
size. There are many factors. Travel is a big one (looking at World Con the
world SF convention, being in Australia is a real killer, but even moving
out of the cities that are known for big SF conventions in the US results in
a drop. Another factor is who is organizing the event, which happens to
correlate with the smaller local con sizes... Facilities may also be a
factor. Of course hosting the rotating event can burn out the local
organizers (the year before the first World Con I attended in Boston,
Boskone, Boston's local SF con, was named Bosklone, held at a different
location, and MUCH lower key).
Another interesting note - every rotating event I am familiar with the
planning of has a selection process, and usually the membership is involved
(World Con actually has active campaigning) in selection of the next event
(or usually 2 or 3 years down the line, for example, World Con is already
scheduled out to 2008, and already has bids posted to 2011, my church
denomination's assembly is already scheduled out to 2009).
It's also worth noting on splitting/not splitting things - West Coast is
just really far from things. You East Coasters can reasonably plan on
driving to events that are at least somewhat centrally located. If it's not
on the coast, West Coasters are probably flying. Any hobby that can event
remotely sustain multiple events will wind up with a West Coast one, even if
the event rotates around the country. The percentage of fans that will fly
coast to coast to events is pretty small, most of you East Coasters will
never meet most of us West Coasters and the reverse. So we might as well
have separate West Coast and East Coast events. The majority of folks who
would attend every event if there was just one a year that flipped back and
forth will probably attend both anyway.
> So, no easy way to slice it. But I do admit that I wish there were one
> "definitive" event every year.
Well, right now there is. Of course one could argue that it's NOT
BrickFest... Though I'm not sure the European events really compare, they
(appear) are primarily shows, perhaps with a bit of workshops and such, and
some comraderie between groups, but I would compare them more to GATS than
say a science fiction convention.
> As for 3), I'm sure you'd probably agree that BrickFest simply isn't
> the type of organization that can manage bunches of fests every year.
> Not unless it became a full time job for people, or simply entrusted
> the BrickFest name to other groups (a la PDX) who could organize them
> pretty much independantly.
Note that BrickFest PDX was NOT organized "pretty much independantly",
Christina was very involved in PDX. Now as the trademark grows, there may be
more abilitiy to have sattelite events managed almost totally independantly.
In the end, I think all of the following are healthy:
- Big event that is always in the same place.
- Big event that rotates around the country (world).
- Many smaller events, some that occaisionally rival the bigger events (for
example, in the science fiction world where I'm familiar with things, Boston
had a SF con with annual attendance that exceeded the smaller World Cons).
Frank
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: BrickFest 2007 location
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| (...) - Mucho snippo - (...) Comparisons with SF cons are pretty valid - especially if you consider HoB's affiliation with one in Chicago. In the end, I think it'll come down to fan saturation and "market" pressures - what venues will be able to (...) (18 years ago, 14-Sep-06, to lugnet.events.brickfest)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: BrickFest 2007 location
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| (...) Well, I don't think that's necessarily the point. I think there are a few sub issues here: 1) There should only be one major Lego convention every year 2) There shouldn't be MORE major Lego conventions every year 3) BrickFest shouldn't divide (...) (18 years ago, 14-Sep-06, to lugnet.events.brickfest)
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