Well, Brickworld was a lot of fun – the biggest LEGO event I’ve ever attended, for sure. There were 35,000 square feet of ballroom space, about 600 attendees, and 4 days. I took well over 1,000 photos and had a great time.
I arrived late Wednesday night and checked into the hotel for one night on my own, since my roommate was arriving Thursday afternoon. After he and his son arrived, I moved my stuff into his room. Sharing a room for an event like this is a really good deal from a financial point of view, but it raises some interesting etiquette questions, sharing living space with a near-total stranger. We got through it just fine though.
My LEGO contribution took about 10 seconds to set up, since all I brought was a block for the Micropolis display. On Thursday, I attended a workshop on Lpub, a program that automatically generates building instructions for LDRAW LEGO CAD files. I also attended several talks on Friday, the highlight of which was a talk by a 13-year-old girl named Olivia who was talking about LEGO from a girl’s point of view. That talk was a huge hit, so much so that she was invited to give it again on Saturday and Sunday, and all the LEGO executives and VIP’s wanted to talk to her – she was clearly the belle of the ball. She used PowerPoint to explain her talk, and avoided all the common pitfalls of PowerPoint – not a single bulleted list! And her speech was very well delivered, with just the right combination of opinion, facts, and wit. She has a career in public speaking ahead of her, in case the LEGO plans don’t work out… (but it sounds like there’s a ticket to Denmark with her name on it!)
I spent most of the weekend taking pictures. There were a lot of great models on display, filling three ballrooms at the hotel. One of the best was by Jenn Wagner (“The Brick Chick”), a great undersea diorama featuring a big blue fish surrounded by corals made out of Clikits and other organic-looking parts. It was amazing, especially under black light. She built a bunch of colored lights into it, and when they turned off the lights at night (since the theme of the event was all about light, we had lights-out times each night to see the models’ self-lighting) it was truly stunning. And the best part was that it was Jenn’s first-ever MOC (“my own creation”)!
A big part of the fun, though, was getting away from the hotel. I had several lunches and dinners with convention attendees who shall remain nameless (partly to protect their privacy, but more in case I forget someone). Last night there was a party in the suite, which I tore myself away from to go to sleep around 1am.
But now, I took the train to Union Station, Chicago, stashed my luggage, and am exploring the sights. I found free WiFi in the food court at the base of the Sears Tower, after I just got done visiting the observation deck on the 99th floor. Next I am going to go wander around Da Loop. If you’re in the area, send me a tweet or something. My flight back to San Francisco leaves around 8:40 pm.
Dave always sets up a very impressive layout in his loft featuring a huge collection of LEGO sets and his own custom creations, with running trains. He has been inviting the club up to his house every January for the past few years to share his layout and give us a chance to show off what we’ve been up to. Marcello de Cicco brought his Japanese Navy ships to show off, and Brian Thiemer and his wife brought their newest MOC, a baby, to the meeting!
