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Subject: 
Re: "Was it worth it to you?" was Re: Cost of Brickfest
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.org.us.wamalug
Date: 
Tue, 13 Jun 2000 14:54:44 GMT
Reply-To: 
wubwub@wildlink+stopspam+.com
Viewed: 
1388 times
  
Actually, one might more correctly say it was very hot! :-)

...I am a bit annoyed with GMU for their AC :-/ Unfortunately, we didn't know it was such
a nuisance to change the temp before it was too late, otherwise we would have gotten them
to fix it before they left on friday.... grrrrr...


I mostly agree here (if a perfect place can be had for free, perhaps one could
still do a free event). Another thing that plays into go ahead and charge:
prizes were supplied for many of the events, these were paid out of WAMALUG
funds. I would in general prefer to see prizes supplied either by donations
from vendors (at some caving events I go to, the vendors are asked if they
would contribute prizes), or by coming out of a conference budget supported by
paid registration.

...ooh! Actually almost all the prizes were donations from The Store (that's why there was
such a 'randomness' to the prizes at times :-) The non Store prizes mostly came from
people's own pockets (the pirate stuff). WAMALUG doesn't have much at all in the way of
'club funds' :-)


Another advantage in a relatively low overhead thing like
this is to include the T-Shirt in the price which then means the organizers
don't get stuck with a huge number of extra shirts.

...I don't think it will be an issue next year. We guestimated the shirt demand based on
pre-registration and came fairly close. Next year, from all the great post-mortem buzz
we've been getting, should have a much higher registration and turn-out count :-)


Things could have been much more organized.  I know it was a first time, but
communications and planning were sometimes poor.  I didn't really know what • was
going to happen, and when.  The schedules were only roughly accurate for the
things I was doing.  And with more advance planning, hopefully you'll have • more
demos, talks, presentations, etc. where the hosts have planned stuff for
certain times.  If we had had a sign-up sheet for the food runs, and
announcements when food arrived, more people could have planned and tuned • their
expectations.

Scheduling would definitely have helped. Better communication on the food
would have also helped (of course us dedicated pirates did ourselves in a bit
on the Saturday evening pizza by playing on for several minutes after the
pizza arrived).

...lol... I did notice u were missing from the opening of the boxes. The saturday pizza
was a good thing. If we charge, the future will include sat pizza.

...Scheduling was a big issue. I don't think there were too many 'doldrums' but we did
miss a few events I wanted to do (gloved building, castle architecture, CW stuff). Partly
this was because I over loaded the schedule to make sure we had enuf to do if necessary,
which turned out to not be a problem, but also it was a case of not pre-tagging people to
run things. I don't think this will be as much a problem next year because of great
helpers like you, Frank who just jumped in and did things. And because I think we worked
out the basic framework this time.

...With any luck, we will be able to scale these lessons learned into next year. I think
even if we did it again this weekend with 2x as many people, it would run 3x better :-)
Just think of what we can do in a year :-)


There is a private board-game gathering annually where the cost for entry is
~$200 and participants are expected to bring two new good board games for the
prize table.  At the end of the event, the participants take turns going to • the
prize table and taking their pick.  First, everyone who won a tournament, then
everyone in a random order, one at a time, until everything is gone. • Something
like that would be neat too.  It would allow people on a tight budget to bring
in a couple of lesser goodies and those of us with a bit more income could
bring in a couple of nicer items, and people who are quite well off, could
maybe bring one pretty rare item - as each person saw fit.  It's a really fun
event where everyone gets together in the same room and the names are called
out, so if you haven't met everyone, you get to associate their names with
their faces and everyone goes home with something cool that maybe they didn't
have before.

The prize table idea sounds kind of neat, though I also like attempting to
relate prizes to the actual events (which is easier for LEGO than for a board
gaming event, anyone interested in a particular theme can always use more
sets/parts related to that theme, a board gamer who wins is likely an
experienced player who already owns the game, so a copy of the game is not a
terribly good prize).

...We did have a problem trying to match prizes to events partly because of annoying
things like there are no more commonly available pirate sets :-/ (but thank to you and
that box of little sets we could at least award play prizes! :-) We gave a pack of
city-folk minifigs for BrikWars! We have some ideas to help alleviate the problem next
year.


Also, if you charge admission, you should make the option of working as an
assistant, runner, presenter, or whatever an option so that those unable to
cough up the admission price can get in another way.  Anyone who runs a
scheduled event should get in free.  And people who are far away but who could
contribute substantially through presentations (e.g. Gary Istok, and others)
should be courted for the fest.

Definitely. One thing I would like to make clear as someone running a major
event. I felt totally appreciated by the organizers (of course it helped that
one of the organizers wanted to play the pirate game just as badly as I wanted
to run it...).

...You were appreciated! even if I didn't get to play much or even if I didn't play at
all! U kept a dozen or more people entertained for hours and all number of passers by and
that's just great! Thanks again and again!



...you can go back to ignoring me now...

wubwub
stephen f roberts
wamalug guy  (http://wamalug.org)
Jain's Guide (http://wildlink.com/lego/jain)
Visit the wildlink (http://wildlink.com)
lugnet #160



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: "Was it worth it to you?" was Re: Cost of Brickfest
 
(...) Actually, one might more correctly say it was very hot! :-) (...) I mostly agree here (if a perfect place can be had for free, perhaps one could still do a free event). Another thing that plays into go ahead and charge: prizes were supplied (...) (24 years ago, 13-Jun-00, to lugnet.org.us.wamalug)

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