Decision made

[NiubNiub]

Why don't you use the Diorama Tables space fopr your DISPLAY SPACE, and keep your BOOTH space to meet and greet people. It's in the same room, you can ask Mary to place your fan table right next to the workshop if that is at all possible.

This way, at your table you will be able to give out shirts, posters, whatever you feel like doing that wont mix up and confuse workshop visitors with our own giveaways.

I think this would be best.
what do you think?

frank

[PenDragon]

I am so glad you said that, Frank.

I've really wanted to ask if we could have the best of both worlds. But, until now, I didn't really push for it 'cause I thought it might be looked at as greedy.   Seems like your idea would be a great way to get around that. And for what it's worth, the idea gets my vote.

[Ryan]

Again I say we go with Frank and ditch the booth. I've got a few problems with some of the pros that have been listed so far. I can't stress enough how I much I do not like the idea of a booth now that it isn't our only option...

Pros:

• One free pass. Admittedly this would be nice but it does have drawbacks which I will get to later.
• Control over table and not worrying about stepping on someone's toes. I guess.
• Distinction. Maybe.

Cons:

• These booths are corner booths. That means one view of the diorama will be almost completely obstructed. Considering that is was designed to have three views this is not very favorable. With Frank's space I'm sure he would be willing to let us have a few feet on either side since he was willing to give us 24 feet of space for the diorama.
• Constantly having to staff the booth. I realize we do have a considerable amount of people going for the weekend, and some people have no problems working the booth. BUT I think that not having to make schedules is one less thing to stress about in the following weeks is one less thing to stress about. It is almost inevitable that if we had a booth at least one of us staffing it would have some conflict on a scheduled time. It is good to get things scheduled quickly, but the only problem is that we don't know what the convention schedule is, and what cool events/panels/interviews there will be. I can easily foresee someone having scheduled booth time during the one event they want to go to the most at the con. Ultimately booth time will feel like a chore. And this is supposed to be all for fun. Not having to constantly staff a booth will give us all more flexibility. We lose that stuck at a booth.
• On a similar note, what if we have one person staffing the booth for 2-3 hours alone, and they suddenly have to go the restroom?
• The kiddies... I know a few of you here will be bringing your kids. I know I would not for the life of my have been able to just stand still for about an hour around a booth when I was a wee lad. Going with Frank's space gives us more flexibility on this too. If any of the kids need to go to the bathroom or want to walk around a bit, the parents can leave without worrying about leaving the booth unattended. And if they are just plain bored we are in Frank's space... Just send them over to work on a tree for the Endor diorama. That way they are entertained and they are right where you can still see them while working the UGP.
• Setup. Have fun doing this all by your lonesome Phruby. From experience I know these people are real douche bags when it comes to letting people in to set-up. Jesse had to beg and plead for just 1 free VIP pass for the FFURG booth. And even after he had it they wouldn't let anyone else in to help him. He had to try and sneak people in at the loading docks. Compared to how much set-up we have they had hardly anything. So you may get a free pass but you will be doing most of the work by yourself or risk getting kicked out for sneaking people in. And have fun trying to set up all 56 square feet by yourself. Blending the seams in the terrain, perfectly laying the tile, finding just the right set-up for the city (even though we will have a rough layout once I know all the building sizes,) and setting up a few hundred figures doesn't really sound like a one man job. With Frank's space we may not get any VIP passes but we shouldn't have any trouble getting a few people in to set-up. Oh and not to mention how do we decide who gets the pass? Is Phruby going to get it by default because he had the idea for the UGP, or does the person who spent the most money and has to be there for the setup, or do we give it to someone who couldn't otherwise afford it, or someone else entirely?
• We told Frank we would use his space. Personally I'd feel a lot worse about canceling on Frank than on Mary Franklin and LFL. Mary should be able to find a group to fill the booth fairly easily. This is good as it lets more people get involved and will make the fan hall more diverse, making it more enjoyable. It's common courtesy as well to any other groups out there. And I think Frank said he was having trouble filling up the visitors diorama section. Having us back means he has a huge space to fill. Not only that Frank has been instrumental in the success of this hobby, he deserves this.
• Security. The more space we are allotted the less we will have to worry about the table being bumped. With a booth it will happen. It happened quite a bit at the FFURG booth. Figures will fall over but we want to do what we can to decrease the frequency of which they do so. Flimsy curtains were all that separated the booths at C3, so we would even have to worry about bumping coming from our neighboring booths as well.

Non issues:

• "Not having someone stand in the middle of a room talking about this one diorama while others are completely unrepresented." This was a non-issue at C3, Frank had his staff wandering the visitor’s dio area to help answer questions about the various individual dios. Us talking about ours isn't going to make us look pretentious or callous. It being the biggest dio, short of Endor of course, it is deserving of a staff of it's own. We don't want to thins out Frank's staff. I'm sure we could help out with the others too if they need help.
• More booths dedicated to our hobby. Frank has a HUGE chunk out of the hall. No one will notice or care about one more or less booths. Raising awareness comes more from the people actively participating in dio building. Ours is more, 'Hey look what we can do!' Not that there is anything wrong with that mind you. But there are people here who often talk of bringing the community together. So why segregate the dioramas? It doesn't seem to me like it portrays that message. 
• "Holding our own contests without stepping on some else's toes." As long as we check with Frank I'm sure he wouldn't mind us running a contest or two of our own. Frank is a real nice guy, I'm sure he would understand.
• "Complete control over the table and what is handed out." We can't hand things out if we are in Frank's area? Where did that idea come from? Again I'm sure if we check with him he'd be more than happy to oblige.
• "Exposure - Extensive web coverage by JD and Yak no matter what table it is at. We also have our own web site to display pictures. The idea is to raise awareness of our hobby. Both Franks and our booth do that." I do agree here.
  
• "Not just another diorama among many - Distinction." Even if we are separate, we will still be another diorama among many. Geography won't really change that. We will still be fairly distinct because of our size, and hopefully the quality.

I really see very little reasoning behind going with the LFL booth, that and I feel it is completely the wrong direction to go with this project now that we have a much better option. We should let Mary know that the booth will no longer be needed. And she can give it to one of the other deserving fan groups that was on the bubble and didn't get space.

Keeping in mind what Frank just said, I'd still like to go with exclusively his space. And I'd have no problems ditching any giveaways if that were to get too consusing. Even if the booth is right near his, we still not only have to staff that, but we may need someone actually by the dioram itself. There is only so much you can do away from it.

One other con of going excluively with the LFL that I just thought of is that we will likely get only one table. I remember Jesse was saying something of the sort happened to them and they had to go scrounging for more elsewhere, and if I remember correctly they may have even had to borrow them from Frank.

One vote here to stick exclusively with Frank's space.

[patreektherodian]

I don't understand what the fuss is about. Did we not say we were going with Frank a long time ago?

[Phrubruh]

Ok. After weighing everyone opinions, I've decided to go with Frank's place. The way I see it, the potental headaches and stresses that were are going to have to endure will be alot less without the fan booth.

We are however still going to need volunteers to be around the diorama to keep an eye on things but they do have the freedom to go do other things. There will not be any security around the diorama. We're going to have to act on faith that people won't steal since there isn't really anything we can do about it. I do want to have a free drawing during the convention to get rid of some of the larger non returnable  pieces. I think that will be ok.

If this is ok by everyone I'll let Mary know.

[BrentS]

Works for me. 

From what I remember from C3 - the Dioramas were separated by a rope or something.  People were very respectful of the displays.

[Daigo-Bah]

Phrube, that sounds great!  I'll be sending you another package in about a week or so too.  I'll let you know when!

[NiubNiub]

hey guys....

doing some catchup reading...

now remember... your display in the diorama workshop is NOT A BOOTH
yes indeed it is an area dedicated to the promotion of the hobby, a way to showcase to the people what can be done to display figures.

Yours will indeed be the BIGGEST in SIZE but not exclusive to the space intended for VISITOR displays like in the past.
I dont like the event to be all about ME, which is why i am MOST pleased to offer you a place to show off your awesome work.
Im gonna try an attach an image to show you the layout of the workshop.
your diorama is TOP center.

there will be some chairs available for you to sit behind the table it is standing on for you to answer questions and all.

but - without sounding like a total dick (can I say that? ) please understand it is still the endor workshop, its not a space for gathering that will block access to the participants of the workshop.
or TWO booths connected to one environment (floor space)

ex.... your idea for a drawing. I think thats very cool, but you cannot say have 100 people gathered around while people are trying to build trees.
does this make sense?

thats why I think the idea of both spaces is even BETTER for you guys.
being in the VISITOR area, you have a BIGGER space at the workshop to display then if you had just the same fan booth as the others

but if you are in YOUR the booth you can do ANYTHING that YOU WANT.
giveaways - prizes - folders - pamflets - promotion of your website etc... and still point people at the display and vice versa.
when at the diorama can have a sign saying visit our booth for more info and how it was created or something like that

I hope this makes sence and clears things up a little.
frank

[PenDragon]

So if I understand correctly (and please correct me if I'm wrong):

No booth = No "giveaways - prizes - folders ... etc "

No booth = No good advertising for Ultimate Group Project / Jedi Defender / YakFace / elmeaux.com / JackPoint.com, outside of maybe a folded pamphlet that we could put on the table that holds our dio

No booth = Judde Lulos is the largest dio in the Visitor Provence of  Niub-land, but is not much of a force unto itself (besides the fact that it's absolutely beautiful, of course ).


Yes booth = we CAN have all that stuff mentioned above, more, AND SPACE AT NUIB's

Yes booth = a bigger total space, for the betterment of the entire hobby



I'm probably sounding like an ass here, but I'm just trying to play Devil's Advocate. I hate to see this project be anything less than what it's capable of. 

Oh, and Frank, no matter what you say (unless you take away the offering of space), I'm pretty sure no one thinks that you're a dick. 

[Phrubruh]

Frank's got a great point. I havn't sent anything off to Mary yet so we still have the booth. I think we should keep the booth for literature handouts and contests while still pointing people to see the real display over at Franks. Heck, Frank could also store a few things there if he wants. This way we can help point people over to Frank, we still get any passes that come along with it and we don't have to worry about manning the empty booth 24 hours a day. It makes for a good offsite meeting area or lounge to hang out in and visit each other without getting in Frank's way. It's kind of the best of both worlds.

I really like this idea. What say you all? 

[PenDragon]

Ya know my vote

[Daigo-Bah]

I mean, they're both free spaces, so why not!  I wish I was going to be there...

[Smartypants1635]

I say Take both of them, it will really spread us all out and will also allow us to do what we want with it.

[NiubNiub]

It makes for a good offsite meeting area or lounge to hang out in and visit each other without getting in Frank's way.

This is EXACTLY what I was trying to say LOL.
It is YOUR UNIQUE space, you will have spcae to put a banner have people hang out, without getting in the way of people at the workshop.
The reason I mention this often is that as opposed to the other years, the set up this time is built in a ROTATION design, meaning people wont be sitting at the SAME table the whole construction of their tree. There will be a LOT of walking around and carrying 4 foot trees from one table to the next.

If you have say a group of 12 or more people standing talking about how excited you are for transformers to come out (;p) it might block the path for a tree person to walk to their next station.

I think if you've been to the past conventions and to my site you guys know that I am not a swelled headded person and not asking you to take both spaces because I want to claim the entire workshop as MINE MINE MINE

let me quote the next post so we can put this to rest now that we know you will use the tables space of the workshop and your booth for self promotion.

back to work for me. frank

[Famine]

Fantastic idea.

Kevin