Subject:
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Re: NWBC Post Mortem meeting notes, warning LONG
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.events.nwbrickcon
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Date:
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Fri, 11 Oct 2002 02:39:45 GMT
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Viewed:
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2933 times
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Mark,
Thanks for such a complete post mortem. All in all, I would say
NWBrickCon was a huge success. True, it was a very different con than
BrickFest, and even quite different from BricksWest, but a success it
was.
Mark wrote:
>
> <<I posted this to our Yahoo Groups page, I thought I'd put it here as well
> for all whom are interested>>
>
> We had a good meeting, thanks all for coming, It'll give a good
> foundation for NWBC2003.
>
> High points discussed:
> 1 More space needed. We are thinking the same venue, except
> using the entirety of the second floor (three conference rooms + the
> Harrison ST gallery) Also tossed around was using the dance floor
> for an Evil Stevies Pirate game.
More space would be nice, and as Kevin mentioned, having the displays
closer together would be nice.
As to gaming, see below.
> 2 Dedicated classrooms. Private pre and post public viewing
> hours classrooms. That means classroom time where more participants
> can attend without worrying about minding MOCs. Also allows space
> where con goers can mill around without John Q Public nearby.
One thing which I have now firmed up pretty well in my mind having
attended 3 BrickFests, BricksWest, and NWBrickCon is that I think it is
a mistake to try and mix a "public show" event with a "panels and
meetings for fans" event. Catering to the public requires a certain
level of presentation of display (for example, while I think the
space-castle war was a lot of fun, I think it did distract from the
display). It also requires a lot of attention from a lot of people, and
it is best if people are available for a significant amount of time to
talk about their creations (on Sunday, Thomas and I spent basically the
whole day beside our creations, and there was a lot of value to the
interaction, with us being able to show off details and such, there was
also some of that with the space displays and I'm sure also the train
display). After spending several hours interacting with the public, I
find myself pretty beat, and would find dinner with a bunch of fans,
followed by pretty low energy activity the most satisfying.
I eventually gave up on the gaming and my panel because it was obvious
they just weren't going to fit into the con.
> 3 Public issues. Things for the public to look at and gain
> information off of including: Club posters (info on sponsoring
> clubs), general LEGO knowledge, and other interesting things for
> people to look at to stave off the boredom. (standing in line,
> waiting for dad to stop staring at the train, whatever) See item 8.
Small displays in the hall would certainly help. Another thing which
would help is just a larger room. With more room, there would be more
space for traffic to flow. Also, having a clear direction of traffic
would help. Most folks went around the MOC room clockwise, but a few
went counter-clockwise. That always causes some confusion.
One thing I recently read in Model Railroader magazine which might be a
thought is to hand out colored flyers, changing the color as the day
goes on (perhaps every 15 minutes), then, every once in a while, you ask
anyone who doesn't have red and blue flyers (the most recent ones) to
finish up and make way for new folks. On the other hand, I suspect only
a few people really stay a long time, so that may cause more frustration
than good.
> 4 Better distribution of K8s. The K8s were origionally divided
> in to 75 bags so everyone would get some, but the reality of it was
> that many never got a chance to get some brick. We will look at K8s
> and their use, IF we get anymore of them.
> 5 Build area for public. We want the Center House to provide a
> build area. It takes a major liability monkey off our back. Also,
> the Center House has the resources in place to provide a build area.
I think a con which is primarily a public show probably should not have
a K-8 unless it is presented as a public building area. While I have
taken my share (or perhaps more than my share) of parts from the K-8s,
I've always felt a little uncomfortable with the idea. I did start of by
actually creating MOCs with the parts I found, and only made a few weird
compromises to include parts, but as time went on, I joined in with the
frenzy more and more. I think BricksWest almost had the best K-8 model.
Their model was "take a piece, leave a piece" which resulted in less of
a mad dash (though there certainly was imbalanced trades, on the other
hand, some folks contributed some pretty neat parts). I also liked how
it was done the first year of BrickFest where the idea was to take just
a handful of parts, perhaps that idea would work better with each person
given a fairly small bag.
> 6 Money raising events could be added. Raffles, contests,
> donation buckets, what have you, for raising money to support the
> Con.
Did the con have financial problems?
> 7 Large, centralized information centers at registration table.
> Schedules of classes, maps, volunteer sign in locations.
Definitely, even if the con remains primarily a public show event.
> 8 More Con only dedicated time. Stricter hours for public vs.
> private. This is a balence I really want to focus on for two big
> reasons. We need our con, but to get the space for free the Center
> demands that it be open to the public. Also, if we want strong LEGO
> support, the more public the better. This is a balence we must
> achieve.
Being able to close the doors would certainly be nice, but so long as
the event is going to have a significant public show component, I would
look to have pretty simple and relaxing private events.
One thing I would have liked the opportunity for was a trade time. This
is something which could be done after dinner if the public hours were
better controlled.
One thing which could still happen for private time is to not open to
the public until say noon. Then, the morning, when folks are still
fresh, can be devoted to some of the presentations and such which would
not be of too much interest to the public (other things like "the
history of the brick" would be great to open to the public).
If the doors close to the public at 6, it would be nice to order a bunch
of pizzas and have dinner together.
> 9 LEGO gaming. It just didn't happen at this year's con due to
> sudden lack of space and being swamped by the public response. We
> need to dedicat the time and space.
I think the Pirate Game, at least the way I like to run it, is
incompatible with an event which has a significant public show
component. It's real nice to basically be able to devote a day to the
game. A smaller battle game can be concluded in a few hours, but doing
it in the evening after the public is gone is just going to be tiring.
BrickWars also requires a significant amount of time, though I think
it's a little better suited to a 3 or 4 hour slot.
> 10 Online registration. We got to do this.
> 11 Now that we have a library of photos of NWBC we need to be sure
> we use them to spruce up our website and to get sponsors and
> advertising for next year's event.
> 12 Clarity. We must achieve clarity with the public vs. private,
> the volunteer time, and distribution of information to the media.
> 13 Have a new job, PR rep NWBC. We need one person to disseminate
> information to the media. This is a person who arrainges
> interviews, photo ops, contacts newspapers (big and small), contacts
> TV, Contacts radio, and provides a consistant message to be relayed
> to the public. It is suggested that this person also take
> responsibility for the website. This position may be best served by
> more than one person as it will be quite a bit of work. Ashley and
> Mark(1), you guys want this one?
> 14 Providing two way radios for con organizers.
> 15 Developing a perk system for volunteers. Parking is a premium
> near the center, some parking passes can be provided for those
> willing to take on registration table duties, watching tables, or
> doing crowd control. (say, minimum 4 hours gets you a parking
> pass?) Other idea for a perk idea was to get a free shirt.
Perks are a tricky thing to manage right. One thing is that you need to
make sure people actually fulfill their commitment. With a significant
public show component, I think everyone is going to be involved in
helping watching tables and crowd control. In that case, I would suggest
some of the following criteria for distributing parking passes:
- people who are hosting out of town guests and providing rides
- people who are bringing a significant volume of MOCs
- the con organizers (who will put in five times as much time as anyone
else)
> 16 Get the money together to pay for a guard so that con goers can
> load out Sunday night. Costs are being examined.
> 18 Rent or otherwise get materials to make everyones' lives
> easier. Carts for loading/unloading, projectors, easles, podiums,
> whatever.
Definitely. That was a real hassle. On the other hand, if plenty of good
carts were available, one might only need to get proper clearance to be
able to park in the various loading areas (like that circle across the
street from the parking lot).
> 17 Barriers for all displays. With more display area, we think
> stantions will work best. Plexiglass barriers for all displays are
> heavy, costly, work intensive, and only as good as they are
> unscratched. (only for a few shows unless handled very carefully.)
I'm of real mixed feelings on barriers. I think things went pretty well
in the MOC room without any barriers. I know when I was showing off my
port town, it was nice that folks could get right up to it, and lean
over. Stantions do work pretty well (and do still allow people to lean
way over for a closer look). I think the main purpose of barriers is
actually not so much to actually block people touching, but to
re-inforce the idea (many times when we opened the PNLTC mall display up
for small groups, the first thing the parents would say as the family
walked in is "now remember, no touching." Most people do understand that
big displays require a lot of work and should not be touched).
Frank
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