(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).