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I haven’t committed to this one yet, unlike with BrickFair, for which registration is open year round, BrickWorld doesn’t open registration til the first of the year. It’s at a really nice venue, but my hotel bill for this one last year was more than my bill for BFVA and BFNE combined. And incidentally, I am already registered and paid for both of those. I’m also considering BFNJ this year since, unlike previous years, it is not being held on Halloween weekend.
I can not go to BWC this year but am planning to go to BFVA (no more Cub Scout summer camp conflict). Slight threadjack here, but it would be nice to get a preliminary roll call of who is considering what Conventions for 2017 (my apologies if this was done at the Q4). We can then discuss the Q1 meeting the available 2017 conventions and get a solid idea of who is planning to attend what this year. Here is a quick list of 2017 conventions within reasonable driving distance:
– April 20-23 – Philly Brickfest – Oaks, PA
– May 3-7 – Brickfair New England – Marlboro, MA
– June 14-18 – BrickWorld Chicago – Chicago, IL
– August 2-6 – Brickfair Virginia – Chantilly, VA
– September 29-October 1 – BrickUniverse Cleveland – Cleveland, OH – Looks interesting: http://www.brickuniverse.org/clevelandafol
– October 18-22 – Brickfair NJ – Sommerset, NJHere is a good list of Conventions across North America in 2017: http://www.brickcalendar.com/list/?ShowTypeID=1
I should also answer my own question – I’m planning on going to Brickfair Virginia. I may also be able to make Philly Brickfest. I can not make BrickWorld Chicago.
Thanks for the list Greg!
I really want to make it to a convention this year since I’ve never been to one and I by the looks of it, I’d be available for Philly and Cleveland. I’ll keep an eye out to see if there’s a group going to Philly since that’s the first one up 🙂
BrickFest Live Pittsburgh is a different conversation because we don’t have to travel a long distance or get a hotel room to do it. At some point we should probably start a thread about that one.
To answer Tim’s roll call:
It’s extremely unlikely that Philly will be an option for me this year.
I was not aware of BrickUniverse Cleveland, so I’ll have to look into that one. I have never made it to the one in NC even though I’ve considered it.
I’ve also looked into BrickFete in Toronoto – http://www.brickfete.com – every year they’ve had it, but it always coincides with the family vacation at the beach, and so I’ve never gone. (EDIT: I just went to the page and there’s currently no information on the 2017 convention or if there will even be one, the website clearly hasn’t been updated since last year’s event in early July.)
(Side story One: I had hoped to go to BrickWorld Indianapolis this year, but it’s no longer being considered as an option. The non-Chicago ones are by invitation only. From what I understand, they’re pretty much the public displays without the other traditional convention stuff – the fun and games and activities and free prizes etc – and that Bryan uses them to make money to support the Chicago event. The upside to being invited though, is that he pays the people he invites, and Tom told me that the amount he got paid for Indy last year was enough to cover his travel costs for both Indy and Chicago. For me that’s a big deal since the high travel costs are the only thing keeping me from registering for BWC right now. When I had Powerhouse v2.0 at Chicago last year, Tom thought that he could get my an invitation to Indy this year as long as I had an awesome GBC to bring (I also talked to Bryan several times that week, so he at least knows who I am now). But things didn’t go as planned, instead of 9 months of improvement and expansion afterwards, I ended up with v2.1 at BFVA, which was a miserable failure, and subsequently I disassembled almost the entire thing. Since then, the focus has been on building a new one that is more reliable, rather than building quickly, and so I don’t have any way to get invited to Indy this year. So maybe next year.)
(Side story Two: BrickFair Alabama is ending right about now. I know Danny was registered, so I assume he made it and is there right now and eventually he’ll post lots of pics to Flickr. I also registered in November, but I didn’t get anything built, and so I never paid and obviously didn’t go. This one would presumably not be a contender for a group trip, since we already have a list of options that are both larger and closer. But I might still consider it for next year; besides stuff like BrickFair is awesome and there will probably be at least several people there I know from other conventions, there’s the fact that a week in Alabama in January sounds way more appealing to me than a week in Pittsburgh in January.)
(Side story One: I had hoped to go to BrickWorld Indianapolis this year, but it’s no longer being considered as an option. The non-Chicago ones are by invitation only. From what I understand, they’re pretty much the public displays without the other traditional convention stuff – the fun and games and activities and free prizes etc – and that Bryan uses them to make money to support the Chicago event. The upside to being invited though, is that he pays the people he invites, and Tom told me that the amount he got paid for Indy last year was enough to cover his travel costs for both Indy and Chicago. For me that’s a big deal since the high travel costs are the only thing keeping me from registering for BWC right now. When I had Powerhouse v2.0 at Chicago last year, Tom thought that he could get my an invitation to Indy this year as long as I had an awesome GBC to bring (I also talked to Bryan several times that week, so he at least knows who I am now). But things didn’t go as planned, instead of 9 months of improvement and expansion afterwards, I ended up with v2.1 at BFVA, which was a miserable failure, and subsequently I disassembled almost the entire thing. Since then, the focus has been on building a new one that is more reliable, rather than building quickly, and so I don’t have any way to get invited to Indy this year. So maybe next year.)
It’s not that difficult to get an “invite” to a Brickworld Expo – basically you can get one if Bryan knows you want one. I’ve done a few of his Tampa events. They’re a fun experience (the hang-out-with-AFOLs part is still enjoyable without a formal schedule or games) but the pay for travel costs doesn’t usually cover all of the travel costs in my experience (I think I brought about 7 tables worth of fresh MOCs each time, drove about 2 hours each way, and stayed in a hotel for two nights).
(Side story Two: BrickFair Alabama is ending right about now. I know Danny was registered, so I assume he made it and is there right now and eventually he’ll post lots of pics to Flickr. I also registered in November, but I didn’t get anything built, and so I never paid and obviously didn’t go. This one would presumably not be a contender for a group trip, since we already have a list of options that are both larger and closer. But I might still consider it for next year; besides stuff like BrickFair is awesome and there will probably be at least several people there I know from other conventions, there’s the fact that a week in Alabama in January sounds way more appealing to me than a week in Pittsburgh in January.)
The “fly south for the winter” thing is part of why Todd put Alabama in January. It’s not super convenient, but you could probably arrange to drop MOCs off at Todd’s warehouse in Gettysburg, have them palette-ized there, and brought down to Birmingham with BrickFair’s supplies. That’s how I was able to pull of the trip this year (I’m undecided about AL next year). I do have plenty of photos from AL this year, but they won’t surface online before Philly.
I intend to skip Chicago at this point – too much life stuff going on this year. At the moment, I’m trying to cut back to “only” Philly and the four BrickFairs (but I might pick up another fall event, especially since BFNJ is in September this year).
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