Convention Poll

[GoktimusPrime]

I'm currently considering abandoning the effort to make a dedicated Transformers convention in Sydney, and instead holding a stall or booth at an existing convention. Reasons for this consideration are:

1. Sabretron 2004 and OzToyCon 2006 were financial losses. With a stall/booth we have less to lose.

2. Lack of funds. Many thanks to those who have already made financial contributions to the project, but we're barely 1/6th of the way of reaching our target for a venue and it's already March. Doesn't look promising if we are to have a convention in September. I want things organised ASAP so we can begin promoting awareness of the convention.

3. Effort. Due to recent unfortunate circumstances in kup's life he's decided to pull out of the team. And while I completely understand and support his decision to do so, it basically means that the convention project is now a one-man show. Trying to organise an entire convention on my own would be very time-consuming and I'm really not sure if it's worth my time and effort (those of you who know me well know that I'm going to be obscenely busy the middle of this year (-_-)).

We have done stalls and boothes at conventions before - the first being the OzFormers booth at Sydney SupaNova 2003. We also had a stall at Animania 2003 and a booth at Animania 2004.

I'm currently thinking about getting a stall (they're cheaper than boothes) at Smash!. Some of my year 9s (now year 10) had a stall there last year, and I figured that if a bunch of kids could afford it then it shouldn't be too hard for me.

I'm concerned with establishing a viable means of running a regular TF convention in Australia. As many of you long time members know, I've been talking about this since 2003. Since then we've only had two dedicated TF conventions (Sabretron and OzToyCon), and as I mentioned before, they financially ran as losses. And these conventions were entirely funded by fans such as myself, dirge and most of all, griffin. It's just not right that fans should continue to lose money in an effort to run conventions for their fellow fans.

So anyway, I just want to know how the rest of you would feel if I scaled the project back and aimed at running a stall or booth rather than a full convention. I would like to dedicate at least half the stall or booth for selling toys. Exactly how this can be achieved we can discuss later on the 2009 convention thread, but for now I just want to know if the rest of you would be cool with that idea.

Humble beginnings: the OzFormers booth at Sydney SupaNova 2003


Australia's first dedicated TF convention; Sabretron 2004. Bigger, better but a financial loss


P.S.: for those of you who have already made financial contributions, those funds will still be used for the convention project - i.e.: to pay for the booth or stall.

[blackie]

before i decide to both vote and quite possibly contribute to this convention, this may sound like a silly question, but why exactly are you holding one? what is the purpose of it? is it a large fan meet for all the fans over australia, or is it something to drum up extra support for the fandom and hence the board, or am i way off?

this is what im unsure of

[roller]

this is very disappointing for me

i know there are big financial constraints to certain individuals, all the same i don't think there is much point in holding a stall at another convention like Supanova.

The wharf 8 thing and Sabretron '04 were very very fun because they were just Transformers things. And all the people there were Tf fans, to me, things like Supernova and that Anime fest thing are all just for retail shops and scalpers to sell things at exorbitant prices.

A stall would not capture the whole fan community the way Sabretron did.

Plus i only just recently finished the Nation wide poster

perhaps it would be cheaper to meet at Ayers rock, its in the middle, convenient for all

[Bartrim]

I plan to make a donation but it wont be for about another two months as I have other financial constraints at the moment.

[GoktimusPrime]

this may sound like a silly question, but why exactly are you holding one? what is the purpose of it? is it a large fan meet for all the fans over australia, or is it something to drum up extra support for the fandom and hence the board, or am i way off?

It's essentially a national swap meet. At the OzFormers booth at SupaNova 2003 we conducted a survey and the single most popular thing that people wanted at a convention was to be able to buy toys.

Yes, we have regular fan swap meets in several major cities now, and that's great, but the idea of a convention (even if just a stall/booth) would be a national swap meet - an opportunity for fans from around the country to assemble and trade, sell, buy toys.

But I dunno... maybe the fact that swap meets are occurring quite frequently now in so many places may have made the need for an Australian convention redudant. It's only been quite recently that we've had swap meets thriving as they do now - in 2003 this wasn't the case. If you or anyone else thinks that the idea of convention would be redundant then please vote on "Neither/other" and post on this thread stating so.

But a convention would also help drum up support and awareness for Australian Transfandom and I think that would be a big plus. And I like the idea of a regular national swap meet instead of just most people sticking to their own pockets around the country. It's a great chance to meet fans from coast to coast... at past conventions we had fans from Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane, Toowoomba, Perth etc. - people came from far and wide to attend Sabretron and OzToyCon. Except for griffin I think most folks only attend interstate meets if they just happen to be travelling there, whereas many fans specifically came to Sydney for the express purpose of attending TF conventions.

Meets tend to be "board exclusive" events in a way too... i.e.: most people who attend meets organised by OzFormers members are mostly OzFormers members, whereas at conventions we had people from other boards like TAAU and also people who just don't frequent TF boards. They're meets for all kinds of Transfans. The_Scream_Man only recently joined OzFormers yet he was present at Sabretron in 2004 (meaning that he was a non-member at the time).

Coast to coast: Perth's 1orion2many with Sydney's dirge at OzToyCon


Non-OzFormers also in attendance: The_Scream_Man and TAAU's black zarak

perhaps it would be cheaper to meet at Ayers rockUluru, its in the middle, convenient for all

Yeah... you go ahead and organise that.

[fatbot]

i remember sabretron 04, held at the Ashfield cathlioc club wasn't it? i can recall a diorama with Deadend being captured by Autobots and that's where i got my Ultra magnus statue

[GoktimusPrime]

i remember sabretron 04, held at the Ashfield cathlioc club wasn't it?

Yup!

i can recall a diorama with Deadend being captured by Autobots and that's where i got my Ultra magnus statue

Yes that would've been the Binaltech display

[Paulbot]

A booth is not all that useful except for selling things. I went up to SupaNova in 2003. Sure I came away from it as proud winner of the X-Men trivia contest, and I loved watching TFTM with a crowd, but aside from that I spent maybe 30 mins at the Ozformers booth. It gave me a chance to meet Griffin and finally see some Beast Machines animation but it wasn't very conducive to hanging out with other Transfans.

The convention in 2006 was much better. There were many things to do and just a much better atmosphere to hang with other Transfans. But there weren't many people there and the cost of holding something like that was much more than was worth it.

I would like more chances for fans from all over the country to meet. I've enjoyed meeting the fans from Sydney on my trips there and the guest appearance in Melb and Sydney from people from the other states. But for people to travel we need something big, more than a booth. Maybe it's still too early for that.

But if you're going to do a booth, don't do it at Smash! It's a Manga and Anime show. Yes that's related to Transformers but not all Transformer fans are interested in Manga or Anime. I personally wouldn't want to pay admittance to a Manga/Anime show when the only Anime/Manga I like are English dubs (Robotech, Sailor Moon, Pokemon). The popculture shows like Supernova/Armageddon might be better suited as they get a broader audience and more likely to have other things at them of interest to people on the board.

[liegeprime]

Well I think this would be the more feasible alternative atm. yeah go for it.

[Bartrim]

I think that if you downsize from a convention to a booth then we will definitely get less traffic from actual Ozformers as I don't see too many interstate members travelling just for a booth.