Interview: Organising Canberra Brick Expo

Brick Expo 2013

With the Canberra Brick Expo just around the corner, Bricking Around got in touch with one of the organisers of the event to find out just what it takes to get an event like Brick Expo happening.

The Canberra Brick Expo is running on the 10th & 11th August. More information is available on our event page or the official website.

Bricking Around would like to thank Stephen for taking the time to chat to us.

BA: What is your role within the event?
Stephen: My real title is Committee Member, but I have the responsibility for managing the vendors and the venue and media.
Other committee members look after exhibitors, merchandise etc.

How many committee members does it take to organise an event like brick expo?
Funny question, how many does it take or how many should it take? Two different numbers.

Is it a case of too many cooks or not enough people?
There are four original committee members.
So how many of us does it take? Most of the work is done by a core of four active committee members, which has recently grown to 6.
That said there is a core of supporters and volunteers who help with the foot work – or sorting, packing, labour type tasks.

How far out from the event do you start planning? Or is it a case of planning the next event as soon as the current one finishes?
Absolutely starts immediately after the last one ends. Usually with a post event / lesson’s learned approach. It may interest you to know that at least three of the (now) 6 committee have project management experience.
So we use a sort of PM approach. But of course we are doing all this in our spare time. So that means things take a long time

How many years has the event been running now?
2013 will be the fourth year. We started in 2010. With a single room for a single Sunday. Hoping we would see around 500 to 1000 people.

Do you know how many people you did end up getting that first year?
Close to 5,000. It took us by surprise so we basically lost count around 4,000. Clearly a LEGO exhibition was something Canberra wanted.

How does that compare to the attendance from last year?
It keeps growing. The following year we went to a two day event (hoping the 5,000 people would spread over two days) we ended up with close to 9,000 people over the two days.
Last year we went with session times and presold tickets – selling out at 10,000 tickets online a week before the event.

This year we are planning 12 sessions over the weekend for a total of 12,000 tickets available.

Pre-sold tickets is a good example of something you have changed as the event grew – is there anything else that you have learnt over time?
Much. Much has been learned. In the first year we made some t-shirts for exhibitors and volunteers – people wanted to know where they could buy them. The following year we made a few extra for sales – and couldn’t keep up. Last year we had dedicated merchandise area and sold some items really well – others less so.

Merchandise has really surprised us with it’s success and it has become a good way to offset our costs. (remembering we are basically not for profit)

What else have we learned… We plan more now. We take in to account people movements – crowd and security control

Speaking of the security side of things. The vandalism of Ryan McNaught’s helicopter has been in the news recently – have you had any problems with displays getting damaged?
Sadly Ryan’s copter was supposed to be at our show this year. We were devastated for him. I can’t say enough how many of our members expressed anger at outrage on Ryan’s behalf. That someone (or group of someones) would rob the rest of us a chance to see the model. We feel terrible for Ryan.
We have been lucky. So far we have had no breakages or theft or other misfortune. That said we do employ security as part of the event.

How did the VIP event come about? Was that always considered part of the event or was it a response to demand from the AFOL community?
Good question. It was part of the event from the first year we went over two days. (That is the first year the exhibition was set up over night). We felt it would be nice for AFOLs to be able to experience the show in a more grown up and sophisticated way. We started with a cocktail party but last year and this year we have made it a dinner. It’s been successful to date. (I think we are around 70% sold for the dinner already this year)
In fact – we have a number of regulars now. Including a group who see it as their annual “friends” get together.
Last year we had a couple who made it their first date.

That would be a unique first date
Yeah, they not only left happy, but went out of their way to thank us for running an event that made for a unique date. I’d love to know if they are still together.

Hopefully they will come again this year.
Hope so.

Maybe next year you could run LEGO speed dating
Ha, fun idea… if only we had the space…

This year you have New York certified professional Sean Kenney coming to the VIP dinner. Was it difficult to organise an international guest?
Not difficult as such. Complex and challenging, yes,

Have you had international guests at the previous events?
Yes, we’ve been really fortunate. We had the wonderful Jamie Berard in 2011 and last year the equally wonderful Gary McIntire. Both have been really great at the meet and greet and presenting to the public and AFOLs.

Is there anybody you’d love to see at next year’s event?
Yeah, but it’s a secret.

Hopefully you can organise that for next year
Hopefully, and hopefully the guests all return to their normal jobs speaking well of us.

Having been involved in several events now, is there one particular display that really stands out as the best you have ever seen?
There are a couple that have been really popular and I just love it when exhibits are really popular. We had a wonderful roller coaster last year build by our CLUG president (David Boddy) that we so popular kids were squealing with delight as the cars full of mini figs did the quick turns and dips of a quick roller coaster. It was as if the kids were providing the sound effect of the mini-figs.

Brick Expo Rollercoaster
There was s second exhibit brought to us by an exhibitor in Melbourne for our show. He builds giant simple building structures and then demolishes them with mindstorms controlled vehicles. The kids love that too. They laugh and cheer – it’s really great.

LEGO Demolition

Speaking of David Boddy, he was the designer of this year’s exclusive set wasn’t he?
David designed the Parliament House set. He is an integral part of organising the event

LEGO Parliament House - Brick Expo

Can you tell me a little more about the set?
2013 marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of Parliament House so it seemed appropriate to have it as our model for sale for the year.
This is the first year we have made a model for sale.
It is based on a model that David created some time ago. He refined it – and converted it in to LDD / or similar (I forget what he used) and then created instructions.
David did all the instruction books, and the box art. They look pretty darn smart.

How many sets will be available?
They are limited to 250. Available for sale online…. only $120 for 525 pieces.

That seems like a great price for an exclusive set that supports a LEGO event
It has generated some interest at Parliament House itself. We had some communications with them and would have been sold in the shop there – but there were complications.

I can picture the politicians sitting in their offices building all day
It really had a lot of people in the building saying they wanted to buy one, but it was just a little too complicated (the unofficial status of LUGs and AFOL support from the LEGO company didn’t really sit well).

I can understand that. How much support does an event like yours get from LEGO?
Interesting question. I think the LEGO support (CEE) group are great. At first we didn’t quite understand how to access support. Once we were in touch with the right person things have gone well. I think the LEGO company are wonderfully supportive of their fans. I know some people might say otherwise – but having owned my own business I can understand the real cost of support across the globe.
We get both support in kind – as well as moral support. We have two representatives from LEGO Australia coming this year. We were going to have Jim Foulds (LEGO CEE) coming – but he decided to leave the company earlier this year.

It’s good to hear that LEGO is supportive of fan events.

Brick Expo is a not-for-profit event, with proceeds going to PaTCH. Are you able to give a rough idea of how much has been donated to so far? 
Last year we donated $40,000 – by far our biggest success. Previously we had donated around $10,000. So to date about $50,000.
We have asked to be kept informed of what the money is used for and to date have purchased:
1. A device to assist with emergency insertion of a drip in small children (tiny veins hard to find)
2. An ECG machine for the children’s ward only (so they can stay in the ward and be monitored rather than have to wait until space becomes available in emergency) and
3. Two special chairs for kids getting chemo.

It’s great that you are giving back so much to a worthy cause.
We get a lot of satisfaction from helping out a serious cause with something that is not really serious. Is that a contentious thing to say? Hope not.

Not at all, at the end of the day LEGO is a toy, so it’s good that kids are the ones really benefitting.
That’s our thoughts too.

Images from the Brick Expo Flickr page
Rollercoaster image © pickles5000
Demolition image © Siegfried the Happy Walrus

3 thoughts on “Interview: Organising Canberra Brick Expo

  1. Lego User Reply

    Thank you Stephen and David and those associated in bringing BRICK EXPO to Canberra 🙂

    • Michael Post authorReply

      This was a model sold at the show a few years ago. I doubt they would still be available. You might be able to get a copy of the instructions, but you’d need to talk to somebody from the Canberra LEGO Users Group.

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