Auto Assembly 2009 Announced!

[Andy Turnbull]

Splendid, splendid news!!!

Andy

[andrewbcalculating]

Reading Graham's Job Interview post over in Have Your Say got me thinking about money and then for some reason I started thinking Auto Assembly. Now I've got nothing against Auto Assembly and its not my intention here to have a go at it, I'm only highlighting coincidences.

I was thinking that its a shame that the time Auto Assembly is becoming a 2 day event is also the time when unemployment is on the increase and money is tight. In the past, Auto Assembly has been a one day event and people have therefore been able to budget for one day of events but this year Auto Assembly is a two day event so therefore a bigger budget has to be saved up for in a time when people are cutting back on their spending habits.

I guess the point of this post is to ask Simon & Sven do you regret in some ways making Auto Assembly a 2 day event as this will cost more for people who maybe now are unemployed when in the past at times of previous Auto Assemblys they were employed and do you worry that not as many people will turn up for 2009 because it will cost more during a time of financial restraint?

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[Andy Turnbull]

I'm sorry Andrew but I can't understand your point. The two day event was planned in response to the surveys put out at the end of last year's Auto Assembly and was obviously something that Simon and Sven would have discussed long before hand. So talking about fairness in light of the current economic climate is a loaded question and pretty unfair as well.

Andy

[The Doctor]

Speaking as someone currently unemployed I'm not seeing any issue here at all. IIRC the convention was announced before the economy went tits up. Yeah, it will be much harder for me to scrape together cash for registering, hotel costs, etc but that's due to circumstances and nowt to do with a convention! I hope to get a job before August and will be paying for the con out of my wages then.

-Ralph

[grahamthomson]

Also: If money is tight you could always just go for, say, the Saturday and thus avoid hotel and non one-day travel charges.

[Deleted]

I can understand how the global financial situation has changed for a lot of people, but being completely honest, the same could have been applied last year as well, When people started to tighten their belts dealers still saw between £30,000 - £40,000 change hands in just 6 hours and the Transformers fan community (and I'm trying not to generalise here) does fall into the bracket of having more disposable income than most.

That aside, we did run a couple of surveys asking people exactly what they wanted from Auto Assembly 2009 and we're trying to put as many options in place to make things more affordable, hence the early booking discounts and family rate tickets. We do want the convention to offer REAL value for money though with everything we will be running so I don't think people will be disappointed.

We do take cost into consideration when planning Auto Assembly but at the same time, with the exchange rate it is actually making it EASIER for fans from overseas to attend and that's been shown by early bookings and the extended running time works better there as too.

One thing that I have had people say to me before is that the travelling distance has been off-putting for some people with single day events when it's a short day as it can be a lot of time to spend for a short programme of activities as well. I promise you now, there won't be a shortage of things to do this year!

*looks around the hub to round up some volunteers to help out...*

[andrewbcalculating]

I realise that Sven and Simon could not see the future when they decided to make Auto Assembly a 2 day event and my questions we're asked in terms of retrospect.

I've not read the Auto Assembly questionnaire but from what I've seen it seems that the rate of employment has soared post Auto Assembly 2008 compared to pre Auto Assembly. Therefore I'm guessing that there would have been people who filled out the questionnaire and then subsequently lost there jobs.

I think that having 2 days of events devoted to Transformers and 2 days of meeting up with people from TMUK is a great idea but the decrease in financial security and the increase in the costs for attending Auto Assembly makes it an anguish of a decision between the heart or head.

I would think though that it would be better to have made Auto Assembly a 2 day event not this year but in one of the upcoming years when the employment level has gone down and when people have more money to spend. I understand that Sven and Simon have no control over or have a way of predicting the future of the the global economic climate and that they were responding to what the fans wanted, I just wanted to know if in hindsight whether Simon and Sven regret in some way making Auto Assembly a 2 day event this year.

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[Andy Turnbull]

You've just said Sven and Simon can't predict what the economic situation is so how are they going to be able to predict when a 2 day con is going to be at it's most economically viable?

People generally always have budgets and whether they can meet them or not is their own individual concerns and if they can't afford something, they can't afford it and generally move on. There are loads of things I'd like but can't afford them so I either save or do without.

I've said it previously and I will say it again - this question is both loaded and unfair to Sven and Simon so I am going to politely ask that you drop this line of questioning Andrew.

Andy

[jameso]

For what it's worth, I think Borkett's point is clear and interesting, and could be a worthwhile discussion. For instance, Simon's point that a 2 day event is perhaps more economically viable as people are prepared to budget more for a weekend away rather than a day trip is interesting.
With all respect, I didn't find Borkett's post unfair or loaded, and I see no reason to drop the discussion.

[primenova]

If anyone wants to know - there is a car park just 15min walk away where you can park for £1 for the whole day, instead of paying £13 on NCP. It's £1 for the whole day on sat/sun every weekend - [but you need to get there before 10:30 before the football fans park up & walk over to big W] Luckly it doesnt get that busy there becuase not many people must know about it - its where i park & you've got people there watching your car for you too.

[grahamthomson]

I was actually going to ask about the parking. Mind you, if I'm coming down for three days/two nights in the car I am hoping the hotel itself will have some secure parking.

[The Doctor]

Well I was not in paid work circa AA 2008 (was finishing up on Uni work) and despite a big budget crunch and having less money to spend I still had a great time, partly thanks to the generosity of others.

Any convention trip is always a weekend away for me anyway, as travelling from west central Scotland it's always been more economical to make it a weekend so AA 2009 will likely not cost me more anyway.

I think its unfair to pin down the organisers of AA for the cost of a convention in the current economic climate. By that logic, anyone organising any kind of event should receive the same critique?

In any event, this is January. The convention is not until August. People know when it takes place so plenty of time to save up. No-one is being made to go. If folk think it's too dear, don't go. If you can't afford it, that as they say is that.

-Ralph

[Gav]

I myself find that I cannot go to AA this year because frankly I cannot afford it - but i understand that there are many people who can. That's life, basically. Despite the current economic downturn, there will always be a sizable number of geeks willing to spend their cash on plastic robots.

It is not AA's responsibility to judge the economic climate- there's clearly a demand for a bigger event. I think the attendance figures will prove that when the time comes.

[primenova]

Think the hotel is £14 a day

[Deleted]

On the subject of car parking, there's one a few minutes away from the hotel which is the cheapest in Birmingham City Centre - £10 a day all year round! ;D

One thing I will say about the length of Auto Assembly is that - in terms of conventions - it's actually short and has been for years! Traditionally sci-fi and fantasy conventions have usually been held over full weekends and we've always wanted to run AA like a proper convention with more than just dealers tables and a couple of talks and we think that AA2009 is just the type of TF convention we have always wanted to run!

I do appreciate Andrew's frustration and sentiments about the position some people may be in, but we are more than happy to do EVERYTHING possible to help anyway afford to get to the convention, whether that means running official room share/car share threads on the Auto Assembly forum, helping individuals find the best hotel deals if they can't afford the Holiday Inn, or look for transport deals.

We just want to make it as easy as possible for people to come along so everyone has a great weekend.

Simon

[grahamthomson]

Depending on how quickly you fill up the Maximum (or should that be Maximal?) Occupancy of the venue, will you be offering any kind of "walk in for one day only on the door" type ticket?

[Deleted]

We've got an upper limit of 550 set for attendees on any particular day so when we do open one day passes we'll keep this in mind and keep track of sales so as bookings come in we'll be able to lock ticket sales down the second we hit this.

Obviously what this could mean is that although we're setting a limit of 550, we could potentially have more than 550 if we have so many on Saturday and so many on Sunday although I would hope that we'd sell out predominantly from weekend passes.

[primenova]

Paragon Hotel Birmingham

145 Alcester Street Birmingham B12 OPJ

This is a nice hotel & parking is just £4/5 for 24hrs.

Using www.hotelclub.net 2 nights

Price is single [not include parking - but does include breakfast] £94 double £108. The hotel is sign posted from Digbeth High St - custard factory

The hotel is right on the bend before it becomes Macdonald St - parking is undercover on Moseley st.

Quick way from hotel to Convention.
macdonald st - sherlock st - hurst st - then your at aa09

[Deleted]

Have to be honest, it is quite a walk to the Paragon - that was one of the venues we were considering for AA2009 and as soon as we realised how long the walk was into the centre we ruled it out straight away.

[karla]

they could always transform into something, save the walking.

[Deleted]

I'm planning to buy my trip to AA2009 in bits. I'll get the tickets to the event first, then wait until I've saved up a bit more money before paying for the accomodation then save up a bit more for the travel arrangements from Leicester to Birmingham (which doesn't cost too much as its only a hours ride). To offset some of the cost I plan to sell one or two things on Ebay and whatever money I have left over will go towards anything I want to buy at AA2009.

[primenova]

I've booked my hotel room [£108 for 2 nights B&B] - just need to send form in post now. better to pay first class stamp then £2 to ebay for using paypal.

[Deleted]

I'll be honest and say that we're not happy about having to add the PayPal surcharge but it's what we get charged ourselves by PayPal to be able to accept payments for bookings of this volume and accept credit cards and considering the fact that about 90% of bookings now are online we couldn't do without it.

If we didn't add the surcharge, we'd either have to increase the ticket price to cover it or cut back somewhere else with the convention which would probably mean the loss of a couple of comic guests.

In terms of the impact this year, I have recently moved house as well although the mail to the PO Box is still being sent to my parents address (this will still take another year for us to change without us having paid more to fix) so postal bookings this time will incur an added delay of about 2 weeks before we can process them which is also why the postal booking deadline is shorter this year.

One thing we will be announcing later this year is a new postal address (including a new PO Box) which will mean that postal bookings for Auto Assembly 2010 will be processed quicker, but that's a while off...! lol

[The Doctor]

2010, eh?

-Ralph

[grahamthomson]

Covering Paypal's charges is perfectly reasonable, I think.

Yikes! Imagine how rich Paypal must be these days!

[The Doctor]

Planning on paying for my reg in March's budget! Can't afford it before then but will feel more comfortable once it's signed up.

-Ralph

[Deleted]

Jan 29, 2009 16:36:50 GMT The Doctor said:

2010, eh?

-Ralph

Dare I mention that we've already got a voice actor provisionally lined up...?! *hides*

[Deleted]

Jan 29, 2009 18:34:24 GMT @simes said:

Jan 29, 2009 16:36:50 GMT The Doctor said:

2010, eh?

-Ralph

Dare I mention that we've already got a voice actor provisionally lined up...?! *hides*

why am i not surprised??? ;D

[Deleted]

Well, I'd better not say that I *might* have two more guests lined up for this year budget permitting as well!

*begs people to pre-register, dealers to book and for shop sales*

[primenova]

Happy i've got my confirm email & also got my year of birth in the number which is also great.