Subject:
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Re: Australian Nation Meet, 2005
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.au
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Date:
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Wed, 25 Aug 2004 12:10:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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1449 times
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I agree with all the issues Richie is raising. However, the existence of
BrickFest proves it is possible, so let us work out how they do it ...
I checked out the BrickFest WWW site and found this rather informative
document:
http://www.dc.brickfest.com/dc04pdf/press-info-brickfest.pdf
which shows that over 4 years, BrickFest grew from 60 people to over 300
people. Anyone know how many attended the 2004 event?
> Find someone to finance it.
Who finances BrickFest? According to the above, it is described as being
organised by fans and volunteers, but it would be nice to know who puts the
cash on the table up-front and what happens to any profits (if indeed there
are any).
> Maybe a survey of would you come/how much would you pay (for
> a 1 day/2 day etc fest), and how far would you travel might help convince • a
> financier, but I wouldn't bet on it.
BrickFest cost US$50 (A$70) for a 3 day event, with public admission to the
displays for U$5 (A$7) on the final day. I think A$70 is relatively cheap
for a 3-day event with the programme they have put together. But of course,
for many people, there could be other significant costs: an airfare, 2-4
nights of accommodation, ground transport, meals etc.
One of the strengths of BrickFest (speaking as someone who has never been to
it!) is the variety of its programme, kinda something for everyone. This
means we do need a lot of volunteers to organise the various presentations,
displays, competitions, round tables, etc.
> Far better, I think, to stick with the national pub or hall meets we've • had to
> date. And even those take a bit of organising, and a bit of financing.
Yes, as the Brickfest experience shows, you have to start small and aim to
grow bigger each time. Perhaps one of the limitations to our past national
events is that we have primarily advertised it via loc.au but is this
reaching the Australian Lego community? Even as a relatively small-time
bricklink seller, I get orders from other Aussies I've never seen here in
loc.au and the Lego section of Ebay Australia is pretty busy, suggesting
that there is a large community out there (the sellers may or may not be
genuinely interested in Lego, but I assume the buyers are). Are these people
simply disinterested in meeting with other AFOLs, or have they not found
their way to LUGnet, or ...? Maybe we could auction a "ticket" to the event
on ebay in the Lego section (obviously), not with a view to making any money
out of it, but simply as a way to promote the event.
My assumption is that you have to promote the event heavily locally, as
local people are the best target for newcomers. Those willing to travel to
attend are more likely to already be members of this community already, or
so I would think. If we could colocate with some other Lego event, we could
cross-promote. The events which come to mind are Lego's own shows or the
RoboCup events (the Lego robotics competition for high schools). Although
Lego Australia has not been a fruitful hunting ground previously for us,
Jake McKee's talk at BrickFest 2004 suggests that attitudes within Lego are
changing, so maybe there is hope ...
Just thinking ...
Kerry
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Australian Nation Meet, 2005
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| (...) Well I don't have the actual final numbers, but 283 people signed up to attend BrickFest 2004, I know a few couldn't end up making it, but then a few others registered at the door. On the public day we had 1550 (or some) people visit, which (...) (20 years ago, 25-Aug-04, to lugnet.loc.au)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Australian Nation Meet, 2005
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| (...) (Leaving aside the question of whether there are enough fans in oz to have something that is truly 'brickfest style.) Find someone to finance it. You need someone to be banker, someone to write cheques, someone to quote a credit card number (...) (20 years ago, 25-Aug-04, to lugnet.loc.au, FTX)
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