– Overall: Worthwhile event? Time and money well spent? Should we go back? Should we try to hit a different convention en masse like we just did here, so we know what’s out there?
I’ve waited a bit to post feedback here. I not only wanted to see what others had to say but also have time to fully digest PBF.
Layout planning could have been done a bit more in advance. I will shoulder as much blame as anyone for this. Although registered, I was not fully committed to going until about 2-3 weeks before. Because of that, I was not participating much in what discussion there was. Had I been able to commit earlier, I would have been more participatory. That said, the end result was a pretty kick-butt display. For future cons, we could try to come up with better “transitional” areas between the different areas (the Star Wars carousel sort of served as a transitional piece between the City area and the Space area). But everything looked really good and it certainly shows that we are a multi-faceted LUG with many wide ranging interests.
Overall, PBF is definitely worth being on our annual events calendar. BrickFair VA is bigger and runs more like a machine but loses some of the familiarity and friendliness between attendees and event staff. I really felt like Chad went out of his way to circulate and talk with as many attendees as possible. But BrickFair VA (or BrickFete in Toronto, or BrickWorld in Chicago, etc.) would be worth trying out as well.