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Eric Kingsley wrote:
> While I think the Enfield trip would be cool, and it actually has been brought
> up several times at meetings, I don't know if we should try a brickfest event.
> This is only because I think at the moment 1 is probably enough and Washington
> DC is more centeral to more areas than New England is. Its true that New
> England is great vacation land and that is a draw but so is Washington.
>
> I think for now (Correct me if you feel otherwise) we should let WAMALUG do its
> thing and let it grow. If we did something it would only compete with the
> WAMALUG brickfest and we don't need to do that.
<snip>
> All this being said I would love it if we could do more events like Mindfest.
> I know last year it was pretty unclear if they would do another one and if they
> did it was unclear how much LEGO would play a role. If there is another
> Mindfest I would love for NELUG to participate but if not I would really like
> to find another event that we could consider doing annually. I personally
> don't know if there is a GATS show up here but thats one thing some groups do
> although we probably don't have enough train stuff to do it anyway. Maybe
> there is some other hobby/toy show we could do? Or maybe something at the
> Childrens Museum or the Science Museum.
If you folks did a fest in the fall, I don't think it would impact
Brickfest at all. After all, Mindfest really wasn't all that different
an event from Brickfest (it just had robotics as the central theme
rather than train, and didn't have anything in the way of Brikwars or
the Pirate Game). I think it can only help if each region of the country
has at least one annual Brickfest like event. How many people flew into
DC for Brickfest? Not many, so even if other regional events killed off
the people flying in, it would have little impact on the attendance, and
the reality is that people are going to be willing to fly in, even if
their area has an event (for example, the Pirate Game fans are starting
to give serious consideration to flying to Austin for a big game with
Steve Jackson). Look at science fiction conventions for a model. The
people who are serious about them go to several per year.
It is true that our fan base is smaller than say SF, so we won't be able
to support as many or as big events (actually, we don't want to even
dream about getting as big - a 10,000 person Brickfest would be insane I
think, you wouldn't get to PLAY with the LEGO, it would all have to sit
in static "don't touch" displays). I think we could easily support 5-10
fests scattered around the country and calendar, and easily get them up
to a hundred or so attendees (which I think is about the largest we
would want to get if we still want to be able to play with the LEGO).
Of course larger events could be managed by having a variety of static
and interractive displays, Pirate Game for up to 30 in a room, Brikwars
games in several rooms and time slots, a large room with several K-8s,
several train setups (where you can sign up for a timeslot to watch over
the display and run trains).
One thing to think of for the next event: Have some formal security
people. Each room with displays should probably have a security person
who is aware of who has contributed stuff for display, and is aware of
the "rules" for interracting with the display (some displays will be
welcome to carefull touching, other displays are strictly hands off). At
the size event we had, it was borderline how necessary it is, but I
think it's better to get the idea of security settled in BEFORE you
reach a size of really needing it (you don't want to implement it AFTER
someone loses a valued piece of their collection). It is doubly
important because we want the displays to be interractive in many cases.
Another thing to think about: rules of photography. I think most people
will feel fine with people taking pictures of their creations, but some
people might not feel that way, and again, it's better to think about it
before a problem arises.
The fest should provide standard cards to label creations with room for
the following:
- name of creation
- theme/subtheme if applicable (especially usefull if judges will be
handing awards for creations)
- creator
- number of pieces
- date of creation
- a line or two for comments
- do not touch icon
- do not photograph icon
People should be encouraged to provide additional information (a binder
could be provided for each table or room to insert additional
description pages into).
The K-8 room should have room to display creations made from the K-8
pile. Blank cards should be provided for people to label their
creations. It might be nice to have two tables, the 2nd for creations
which the creator is open to their creation being dismantled if someone
wants the parts in it (they should still label their creation though),
and perhaps destruction is not allowed until the end of the day or
something.
Items should not be removed from a display by anyone other than a fest
staff person, or the owner.
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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