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What:
The NBC10 Consumer Expo was the latest
incarnation of an annual event conducted by Philadelphia TV station WCAU.
DelVaLUG’s first public event was at last year’s Halloween-weekend Tech &
Lifestyles Expo (Brickshelf photos) (and we still don’t know how the organizers learned of our
existence). This year the hall was shared by America’s
Videogame Expo. (If we’d known that beforehand, we might’ve built some themed
arcade game MOCs.)
Where:
The Ft.Washington Expo Center is located
just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Route 276), to the northwest of
Philadelphia. It also hosted the Greenberg
train show (Brickshelf
photos) at which DelVaLUG exhibited this past February.
DelVaLUG’s parcel was located in the Lifestyles & Entertainment portion of the
show, the rear-left quadrant, near the Future City
Competition, the Amateur Radio Relay League, and various vacation providers.
It was also proximate to the “Videotopia” section of vgXpo, filled with three
dozen 1980s arcade games (relatively quiet) and various dance- and
guitar-simulators of more recent vintage (indisputably loud). (By “loud” I mean
“84 decibels” -- I measured it. That’s not only “strain your voice to be
heard,” that’s “hearing damage with prolonged exposure” territory. Ouch.) The
FIRST Robotics kids, with tabletop and lawnmower-sized
R/C robots, were on the other side. (The FIRST
LEGO League, as seen at BrickFest, is the 101 level of FIRST.)
When:
Saturday 11/12 and Sunday 11/13, 10:00-17:00, plus setup on Friday afternoon and
each morning, and breakdown Sunday afternoon. Breakdown proceeded very quickly
-- starting at 16:45 all the MOCs were packed away within 30 minutes (into
Ziploc bags, cardboard boxes, purpose-built wooden trays), and Tim’s
ILTCO-standard tables were dismantled and toted away by 18:00.
This isn’t like BrickFest -- seven hours of standing, answering questions, and
standing poised to answer questions is tough on the feet. Fortunately, this
year our parcel came with two chairs instead of one. (We didn’t need to bring
out the two I’d brought in anticipation.) (OTOH, it’s not like the LEGO Road
Show, either -- it’s air-conditioned.)
Who:
Saturday was crewed by Jim F., Phil T., and new DelVaLUG member Roy F. Sunday
added Tim C. and Jeff S., plus (for several midday hours) two members of
PennLUG.
The usual assortment of hundreds of attendees tramped past the display: casual
glancers, wide-eyed youngsters, “LEGO makes trains?” incredulites, and a small
number of YFOLs and dark-age potential AFOLs. We handed out a great many
informational mini-flyers, plus various Shop At Home back issues (“Where do I
buy trains?”) and catalog-request cards; also (to likely prospects) cards
promoting the LEGO program at Philcon this December
(one of two DelVaLUG events that weekend).
The vgXpo attracted a dozen college-age cosplayers (Saturday only, for some
reason), and some vendors had booth bunnies. Few of them managed to drop by.
MOCs:
Ten ILTCO-standard table-modules, featuring: two train
loops, Tim C.‘s giant sandy mountain with tunnel, Jeff S.‘s train station, and
more -- I’ll address this in detail in a follow-up post. A first batch of 25
photos is now on
Brickshelf. (I apologize for those that are dim or blurry -- the hall’s
lighting was much worse than it seemed.)
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