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I've expanded this thread into local.canada in hopes of more Canadians to
voice their opinion.
Toronto (or anywhere else in Ontario actually) is quite the distance from
Calgary, where I am. It is about 2700 km from Calgary to Toronto, which is
a pretty big distance to drive, and cheap flights are hard to come by.
There was talk after Brickfest about having a Brickfest West type event, and
there were many people talking about holding it in San Francisco, which is
closer to Calgary than Toronto, but still far enough to discourage
attendance by me. Sure, there are lots of AFOL in the southern Ontario
area, including south of the border, but I would bet that a Canadian
Brickfest held there would be just another rtlToronto meeting.
That being said, I can't really volunteer to organize anything in Calgary,
as I'm pretty much alone in terms of AFOL. There are a few others, but they
are lurkers and not very active, every time I tried to get some sort of
meeting together, it didn't work out.
Back on topic, the reason I moved this to loc.ca is to get the rest of the
Canadian AFOL and Canadian LUGS involved, since this thread was only in
Montreal's, Toronto's and Ottawa's groups. I'd REALLY like to participate
in something like a Canadian Brickfest, but Ontario doesn't seem very central.
~Adam
In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Calum Tsang writes:
> In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Benjamin Medinets writes:
> > What sort of events would take place at a major lego get-together.
> >
> > Those of us (I'm slightly speaking for the group) in Toronto, think there
> > would have to be some sort of major Robotics competition, AND large-scale
> > Train Event/Show. I'm pretty sure that a few people would also like a
> > large-scale Castle get-togther (probably not a Castle World Type
> > get-together)...maybe a large-scale Brick Warz???
> >
> > Any other ideas on what would take place at a Canadian Lego Fest???
>
> What to do doesn't worry me, that'll fall into place easily. What worries
> me is the organization, planning and operation of a large scale event. Some
> questions that immediately come to mind include:
>
> a) How many people we expect. BrickFest 2001 garnered 153 attendees, which
> included luminaries like Todd and Suzanne. I would expect a BrickNorth
> event to include most of rtlToronto (20-30 people), ParLUGment and MonLUG
> (another 15 or so?) having already attended rtl8 (Ka-On), train1/2 etc. We
> might get some folks from the US too. But for me, the big draw would be
> getting places like NALUG, VLC etc and our compatriots from the East (ie,
> Maritimes). Canada is a big country, spread far out, unlike the Northeast
> US where Brickfest was. Would somone from VLC be inclined to spend $400 to
> fly to Toronto for something like this? Would someone from say Michigan
> drive up the 5-6 hours?
>
> b) Where. Toronto is easy because it's close to the States, interesting and
> diverse (well, Canada's largest city). But maybe we want to go somewhere
> like Ottawa. But then of course, we're forcing another LUG to host it :)
>
> c) What venue. BrickFest was done at a university. We could use Lillian H
> Smith again, but that's a 9-5 thing. Maybe University of Toronto, but
> that's expensive. We could do a hotel, but that's expensive too.
>
> d) What hotel. People need to sleep somewhere. If it was Lillian H Smith,
> it would have to be expensive downtown hotels. If it was out in Etobicoke
> or something, everyone would need cars. Room rates. Multiple occupancy.
> 72 hour bender with 3 hours of sleep.
>
> e) How much to charge. Brickfest was $10 a person, IIRC. What does that
> include? Would people pay $15 Canadian for registration? Come to think of
> it, with enough people we could use U of T. My favourite was using the 1500
> seat capacity Convocation Hall for CSIE98's Opening Ceremonies. I had their
> sound system wired up to my PC of all things:
>
> http://www.osm.utoronto.ca/room_pics/CH----.html
>
> Then there's the ever difficult question of how many people vs how much to
> book, ie, hotel rooms, spaces, reservations, etc. There's a pile of work to
> be done with the hotel operations staff. They can give a group rate, I
> suppose, based on roughly how many people will come. Sometimes they don't
> make you sign anything based on numbers...but the hard numbers of conference
> rooms vs attendees will haunt us.
>
> What to do. I know you've said Robotics and Train. Brickwars if Richard is
> up to running it. But I'm not sure what else-and we'll need a lot of
> feedback here.
>
> Anyways, some issues for debate. I ran a conference back in 1998 that took
> two years to plan:
>
> http://peach.mie.utoronto.ca/people/tsangc/csie98-index.html
>
> If anyone is ever bored, it's a funny read. It involves the only time I've
> ever screwed a live show up. :)
>
> Calum
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