- This topic has 12 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Hey yinz. Beckie, the Ambassador from NEOLUG, reached out to me about this event. Here’s what she said:
Hi Matt,
Just sharing some info with you to see if your LUG would be interested. Brick Universe is coming back to Cleveland in September. Below is a link. Last year NEOLUG plus the guy with the Christmas Story house and one kid, were pretty much the only people displaying who weren’t vendors. If you can get anyone interested, I would start trying to contact Greyson sooner than later. He does not respond to communication as often as most people would like.
It was an easy event. It isn’t a traditional kind of convention. But it could be fun. Oh and it doesn’t count for the end of the year events for the LCE. I double checked that with Kim last year. No food is provided and neither is parking, but there are a lot of great places to eat in Cleveland.
Beckie
https://www.brickuniverse.com/cleveland
Looks like not a ton of AFOL/TFOL related stuff to do, but a few activities on Friday during setup and one on Saturday after public hours end. Hall open all day Friday for setup, teardown by 8PM Sunday. SCHEDULE
This could be a relatively low-stress convention (we could largely use what we typically use for Greenberg / Trolley Museum displays, and/or just take some MOCs / collabs / standalone stuff.) I’m not necessarily advocating that we do it, but I could see some benefits, including increasing our relationship with NEOLUG.
Conversely, it’s far enough from most of our homes that it’d probably require getting hotels… about 1hr 50min from Cranberry (without traffic.) And she didn’t mention any compensation from the event if we display, so it might be on us as members to decide whether we want to spend the money to spend the weekend in Cleveland… #pointstoponder
Its a few days after Labor Day, could camping at a state park on Lake Erie be an option? Of course the space needed for hauling camping gear leaves less room for transporting MOC’s. Then there’s the taking a day off from work to do it. IDK, there’s plenty to do locally.
I would be interested. At this point it is a matter of getting the time off work. As it looks now, that weekend has not been claimed by anyone else at work, so if the LUG commits ill snag it up.
>> And she didn’t mention any compensation from the event if we display,
I haven’t looked lately, but in previous years, you had to pay to display on BU, despite the fact that you weren’t getting a full AFOL convention like BrickFair etc, but that displaying was free as long as you covered a certain amount of area. (I think it was 8 feet of width with an appropriate depth. I got the sense that it was specifically designed to encourage the participation of LUGs – who can cover 8 feet easily – over individuals, who for the most part can not.) So I wouldn’t be optimistic about the LUG getting paid.
I might be interested. I seem to remember this event was discussed in similar fashion and then disappeared completely, and as far as I know, nobody went.
Hey all. Is there any more information about attending this event? Will and I are willing and able to go but any information about registration and other logistics would be helpful so we can make arrangements on our end. Thanks!
Hey all. @wd412 and I took a day trip over the weekend to check out BrickUniverse in Cleveland. Aside from their featured artists, it just seemed to be NEOLUG displaying and there seemed to be plenty of space to display. This would be an easy opportunity should it return to Cleveland next year and certainly something Will and I would be interested in. I’ve added photos to my Flickr account if anyone is interested in checking it out: 2018 BrickUniverse Cleveland.
I’ve added photos to my Flickr account
Thanks for posting. Those are great photos of some amazing builds. It would have been great to speak with some of those builders.
it just seemed to be NEOLUG displaying
Krista, thanks for posting the pictures. If all of that came just from NEOLUG, I am highly impressed. That would be quite an output from one LUG (especially one which I have the impression is not that large member-wise). I would not be surprised if some MichLUG and Columbus area people were involved. Definitely something for us to keep our eye on for possible future participation.
Thanks for posting. Those are great photos of some amazing builds.
You’re most welcome. It was certainly worth the trip. The only downside was that it looked like a few were designed to light up, but there was no power to them. It would have made a few extremely impressive to see in their full glory.
If all of that came just from NEOLUG, I am highly impressed. That would be quite an output from one LUG (especially one which I have the impression is not that large member-wise).
From what I can ascertain, NEOLUG had the sections right when you walked in. The mosaic display to the left of the NEOLUG tables was done completely by one member: Wayne Peltz. So all in all they had about 3.5 display sections. They were kind of sparsely spread out on the tables where their signs were. I know from checking out their social media that one of their members, Adrian, had quite a few pieces on display, like the car and Bender head (which is off his 6-foot build).
I don’t recall seeing any signage for the other LUGs, but that doesn’t that wasn’t possible they were there. Unless someone left their name tag near their build or had their own signage, there really wasn’t any indication of who built what in those first few tables when you walked in. A table tent or other plaque would have been helpful.
Art on the Block had a huge section (in the center) and about half of another display section (second one in and on the left). I’m not sure if he’s in the LUG, but I know EJ is local to Cleveland so he probably brought everything out.
The remainder of the displays were the LEGO artists: Paul Hetherington (back center), Rocco Buttliere (back left), Jonathan Lopes (front center), and Lia Chan (back right). The map on the website didn’t follow the actual layout of the event and we didn’t take any pictures of the play areas, which were on the far right of the space.
There were a few other places that they could have put tables near the LUG display too so there’s definitely an opportunity if we wanted to do something.
I went through your photos of this too, thanks for posting. The mosaics early in the album are by Abbie and EJ Bocan, who live in Northeast Ohio, although I don’t know if they’re involved in NEOLUG or not. I also recognized a lot of builds by Paul Hetherington (he’s a great builder and does a lot of unconventional builds), nearly all of which got blogged on TBB when they were new, and some of which are more than 10 years old. Did you talk to him? I am curious as to how he ended up at this event, I have never met him or seen his stuff in person – which means he hasn’t been to the last 3 BrickWorlds or the last 9 BrickFairs, and the fact that his stuff regularly shows up in BrickCon photos led me to believe that he lives out west, but I realized that I don’t actually know that for sure.
So I read through this thread again to go over the pros and cons of doing this event. Did they announce the public attendance? (at BWC and BFVA they typically announce it to the exhibitors at closing ceremonies, although I’m not sure they post that information anywhere else afterwards.) It does seem like it would be a good event simply to have people see what we build and be appreciated. The biggest drawbacks are that it’s still far enough that we’d need hotel rooms, and the no parking at the event is a big problem, although I’m guessing there’s at least a place to load and unload. It looks like there was plenty of room though and that they’d give us as much space as we need if we asked for it.
Sure thing! Glad you enjoyed the photos.
Did you talk to him?
I did speak to Paul, but only briefly about a few pieces he did. It did seem that all of the artists were there and very happy to talk about their work. It was a little busy when we went through, so I didn’t want to take up too much of his time.
I’m not sure where he’s from, but I did notice that Lia had quite a few appearances at Brick Fiesta (which seems to rotate around Texas).
Did they announce the public attendance?
I’m not entirely sure. @wd412 and I were attendees this time around. It may be worth reaching out to NEOLUG for some of the event logistics and event feedback from a displayer perspective.
The biggest drawbacks are that it’s still far enough that we’d need hotel rooms, and the no parking at the event is a big problem
The Convention Center was really nice and seemed pretty new. We also noticed how clean the area we were in was. There was one hotel connected to it, I believe a Hilton, a Marriott next door, and a Westin and Drury within walking distance. We parked at City Hall across the street from the Convention Center and it was only $10 for the day. I’m not sure if there was a group rate for any of the downtown hotels or event parking, but I’m sure there may be a few hotels a little further out with better rates and have parking included.
All in all, it was really close to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and not too far from some nice restaurants. For Will and I, the hotel and parking are not deal breakers since we’d plan to do that anyway if we attended again.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.