Any middle-european Steams interessted in arranging a convention?

[PockyNightmare]

i would like to know more steampunks personal, so i wondered if there might be a way to meet some? so what about planning a little steampunk/dieselpunk/victorian convention for the germans? maybe some of our dutch, belgian or luxembourgish members like to join our little meeting?

Greetings~

Madame Nightmare

[Mr Peter Harrow, Esq]

There is a UK Steampunk Convention The Asylum, which took place in September 2009, and is due to be repeated in September 2010. We had a number of European Steampunks (as well as colleagues from North America and even two from Oceania. We had a total of 440 members for this first event.

If you look at some of The Asylum threads there is a lot of advice and assistance on running a Convention, selecting a venue, accomodation etc. What worked for us was finding a Victorian venue in a smaller city with  a Victorian Quarter, not spoilt by tourists, and centrally located to the UK. We set up threads on Brass Goggles (the first was a similar shout out to yours, and a website when a venue had been obtained. We started in February 2009, with the event the following September. You might want at least a similar period to bring this all together. Do a site visit, working off the web alone can be misleading!don't set your heart on a venueclose to you, it may not be available, it may be too expensive or may be too difficult to get too or have too little accomodation locally to support the size of the Con.

We had a lot of steampunk bands/entertainers, so putting a shout out for them would also work, but check you are not clashing on dates with other events if possible

[PockyNightmare]

i saw the Asylum threads but i have no idea how i (a 16 years old girl) should get to the UK ôo

[Mr Peter Harrow, Esq]

The Asylum is an annual event, so time is on your side, but look towards organising a meet up in your local area.

[PockyNightmare]

that´s what i do^^

[malgrimace]

i saw the Asylum threads but i have no idea how i (a 16 years old girl) should get to the UK ôo

I think Peter was hinting more on you looking at how the Asylum organises itself and taking notes rather then attending and seeing the final result.

If you were looking at attending, I'd suggest you charm a trustworthy brit into acting as your chaperone - but perhaps in a couple of years, eh?

If I had a 16 year old daughter, I doubt I'd send her gallavanting to a local event without supervision, let alone something in a different country.

[PockyNightmare]

well... i´ve been on vacation with some friends but without anyadults in the netherlands last year... but england isn´t the same, right....

[malgrimace]

Well, don't rightfully know. I mean I went skiing in Italy when I was 14 without my parents, I suppose it's about trust and maturity - not just from yourself, but the people you are travelling/staying with. That's reminded me. I should really look at getting Asylum tickets and the time booked off of work!

[Mr Peter Harrow, Esq]

Well done that man! Yes The Asylum  threads contain a lot of practical advice.

Pocky, the Asylum is 9 months away, and if you feel you need an older chaperone, check to see if any of your fellow nationals are going to be attending and whether they can include you in their plans, remember accomodation costs are fairly significant.

[PockyNightmare]

okay i think i´ll take my two best friends with me than... one of them gets 18 next week and she has been to england before... so maybe her parents even come with us... damn... how epic sounds THAT!!!

how much costs an asylum card?

[malgrimace]

Oh I don't know Peter, a decent B+B wouldn't cost that much. Less then the travel costs, I'm sure.

If you were thinking about attending, I'd most certainly say attend with a family that you know, or a group of friends (preferably female and sensible ones at that). That cuts quite a lot of the awkwardness (and downright danger) out of the whole situation. But I get the impression Pocky doesn't want to attend.

[malgrimace]

Full tickets at €44.5 (at the current exchange rate)

http://steampunk.synthasite.com/

[PockyNightmare]

But I get the impression Pocky doesn't want to attend.

what the barking spiders??? i DO!!!

and who is peter?? ôo

[malgrimace]

The other guy who's posting in the thread 

[TimeTinker]

Hallo Pockynachtmar.

Willkommen zu Brassgoggles. Ich bin der Organisator von " Das Asylum" und Sie würden sehr willkommen sein. Sie würden klug sein, reisende Begleiter aus Deutschland zwar zu finden. Es gibt einige deutsche Bretter für steampunk, das helfen kann.

Wir würden lieben zu helfen, ein Ereignis in Westdeutschland zu organisieren oder die Niederlande 2011 (wir sind dieses Jahr sehr beschäftigt), aber, wenn wir Rat anbieten können, fühlen Sie sich frei, mich zu mailen.

I apologise for my poor German - unlike your excellent English. The best thing you can do at the moment is to try and make contact with as many steampunks in Western Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Northern France.  Facebook is very useful for this.  If you have a facebook account send me a friend request and I will flag up some of my German friends.

ElShoggotho is a sound chap and is based in Berlin and has a lot of contacts in Germany.  For the Netherlands contact Thorvald, Frau Tankgerhausen, Akumabito or Joozey.  All are members here.  May I ask where you are based?  I am very fond of the Koln area (I lived in Krefeld for a little while many years ago).  This may be a good centralised spot for a convention.

We would love to support a European Convention.    I would advise you not to run before you walk though.  Look at organising a smaller scale get together first before plumping for a full blown convention.

Regards

John (aka Tinker)

[malgrimace]

Gibt es eine Sprache auf Erde, die Sie nicht sprechen? 

[TimeTinker]

Gibt es eine Sprache auf Erde, die Sie nicht sprechen? 

私は日本語を話さない

I manage in German, French, Spanish and Russian.  With English that means you have a damned good chance of making yourself understood most places.  I wish I was better in all of them and I am trying to work on my Arabic.

[PockyNightmare]

Hello John^^

at first.. your german wasn´t poor it was rather funny^^ but i understood you and that´s what counts.

it was my aim to meet people who live  next to me first, before i´ll make trips far away.

actually i live very near to krefeld. i can´t believe you lived there... pretty cool^^

i´m kinda friends with Joozey xD and i talked to him about conventions around my homeplace a several times now and he also made some suggestions like the Castlefest in August and so.

i have facebook.. but i was only once online there while i registered xD

yours sincerely

Madame Nachtmar~

[malgrimace]

私は日本語を話さない、従って私達が両方金庫そこにいることを私は考える。

I speak English and have Babbelfish for the rest  

I knew about the Russian when you read the inside of that flying hat of mine, but you never told me if it meant anything

[TimeTinker]

Ich habe wenig Gelegenheit, mein Deutsches zu üben.
Es ist mehr als Zwanzig Jahre, da ich in Deutschland wohnte.
Ich habe veil vergessen naturlich.
Ich möchte mehr deutsches sprechen aber Deutsche sprechen immer Englisch.

It is even worse in the Netherlands. I never get to try and learn Dutch.  I blame the BBC!!!

Seriously though - if there is anything we (The VSS) can do to help do not hesitate to ask.

Castlefest looks like a good gathering place.  It is a very wide event with re-enactment, Live role play etc.  It would be good to see a purely steampunk event somewhere in western Europe.  Perhaps a hotel based event?  I could help with organising features, traders etc.  Maybe even a band or two?   You need about 100 steampunks to make it work as a reasonable minimum.

[PockyNightmare]

Ich möchte mehr deutsches sprechen aber Deutsche sprechen immer Englisch.

dann schreib ich jetzt aucf deutsch mir ihnen !

ich weiss nicht, darf ich sie duzen oder nicht?

You need about 100 steampunks to make it work as a reasonable minimum.

vielleicht bekommen wir 100 oder mehr steampunks zusammen... das wäre großartig!



(to the others who are following this conversation: i´m sorry i wrote in german but john wished to!)

[TimeTinker]

Danke. Sie sind sehr freundlich. Ich denke, dass wir auf englisch hier schreiben sollten. Mehr Leute können dann helfen.

Swapping back to English to encourage more people to contribute:

I would advise you look at promoting a punknic in a local park or a group visit to a museum or attraction as a beginning. 

In terms of organising a Convention you may approach local hotels.

Ideal criteria:

50-100 rooms (if there are other hotels nearby this would be helpful)
As affordable as possible.
Space for a party in the evening and features in the day. (Many hotels will offer this for free if you are going to fill rooms)

Look at available dates.  Consider times of the year when the hotel is likely to have more vacancies since you can often negotiate a specially low price.

People would be happy to pay for a ticket to the convention as well as pay for their rooms.  This gives you a budget to put on things people would like to see and join in with.

We would be happy to help and bring a few people over from the UK.  I am sure some of the Dutch would like to attend and linking through some of the folks on www.clockworker.de may involve more Germans.    It would be good to involve some of our French friends. I am not on any of the French forums so advice on this would be appreciated.

Of course you can always come to The Asylum to get some ideas.

[Mr Peter Harrow, Esq]

Who knows you may have some people follow you back from The Asylum for your Con, it would be nice to see a number of different Conventions take place over the year in Europe, and have a 'Grand Tour' for steampunks where they can do everyone of these Conventions in a single calendar year. Or just do the Convention most convenient for them. 

You might want to check out the German Science Fiction fandom community, they might be able to help as well, at least to the extent of hotels amenable to our type of event and you might pick up a few fellow travellers not on BG. There are always a few and some may already have steampunk elements as part of their programme so you would be pushing at an open door, and can borrow or adapt. I am sure the Major would not mind letting you have some of The Asylum's programme ideas. John it might be useful to archive programme guides from The Asylum on the VSS website as part of a resource for other Steampunk Conrunners, letting people know they can borrow or adapt what they want.

[PockyNightmare]

okay.. if you guys don´t count on me with doing big things like contacting a hotel or stuff ôo

[Mr Peter Harrow, Esq]

This is why it is advisable to find a number of likeminded people, you can share out jobs and see how others do it, and learn from them. You may have skills for example web-site design or programme ideas you can bring and the others may have event organising skills, money handling, legal negotiations etc which you lack.

Hotels are not that scary if you look at those which have hosted similar events, and you can get an idea from the organiser of that event what deals they got for room rates, convention facilities, food and drink etc, and can see whether they are ripping you off or not. In the UK you can get the best deals for a Conventio outside the normal tourist period, January and February are especially good for cheap deals.