Uk convention

The only UK doll convention besides Blythecon I'm aware of is the London Fashion Doll Festival but I believe it is more fashion doll orientated.

 

I dont think thier is one for the UK thats BJD specific, which sucks because if thier was i'd go every year ;_;

 

Possibly because the UK is relatively small and this is a very niche hobby I guess.
I would imagine the costs of flying out guests may not make it cost effective and with there being conventions in France and Spain it may be that there is not enough draw here?

 

The issue is organising - it takes a lot and of time and effort, not to mention money, to organize such an event.

There need to be people willing to do that and I can't blame anyone that decides against it by the sheer amount of things to do.

 

I meant if you were say flying out a guest of honor from Japan/Korea rather than Europe, the travel costs from there can be more expensive. You also have to factor in travel from the airport to the venue, accommodation and food and drink allowance.

I think there is the potential to run one but it would require some research for how much demand there is, when is the best time for it to run, who would be able to help arrange it, best location etc.

 

There used to be a BJD convention in the UK but it's stopped for a while now.

 

You would still need to organize a space where you can hold the convention, put down a deposit, approach companies, put together a proper program to make it an event people want to come to, maybe organize a raffle (i.e. try to get people to sponsor that), maybe organise a security (people leave their stuff on their booths during the night, what if it gets stolen), have a backup plan if vendors cancel...

I might sound like a Debbie Downer but I saw too many conventions planned cause “It's easy“ and then it went pear shaped because it suddenly turned out it wasn't.

Should you want to tackle it, I of course wish you the best of luck

 

I’ll be a visitor if you organise it.

 

Maybe we shouldn't be thinking full on convention and more small doll meet to start with

 

This is a really good idea. It gives the chance to gain experience in finding a venue and gathering people to attend.

 

People in the UK (For now, until Brexit does whatever it ends up doing) have an easier time attending a different convention within the EU- like the one in France and so on. I agree with what was mentioned before- the sheer costs of organizing one and flying out guests such as large company representatives from abroad (especially outside the EU) is REALLY expensive

Also- isn't there a meet up in Manchester on the 13th? this month? maybe you might want to look at that in the meetup section. looks like there are at least 7 people going

 

I'd love to see a BJD meet up in the southern UK. Once I'm there again I'd be more than happy to help arrange one if there were enough people in the area.

 

Ok, so, a long time ago (8 or 9 years? I think my mind has chosen to forget the exact dates for reasons that will become apparent later), when the political climate was less...just LESS in the UK, the exchange rate was around $2-£1 and customs were far less 'vigilant', we used to have what amounted to a convention at the MCM Expo's and JapanEx in London. We actually had tables and held panels, there were demo's and restringing events, a few BJD people had stalls and sold their goods there, sometimes we could get prizes from the companies, or some of the European makers would come over, it was part of a larger con, sure, but it had a firm BJD base for people interested. I worked several tables and events for these BJD sections back in the day, my friends did panels, it was the closest I ever saw to a BJD con in the UK.

It was good. New people discovered the hobby, for once, you could buy and sell BJD items in person, deals were done, people learnt new skills, met friends, it worked. Until it didn't work anymore. And then it was a hot flipping mess.

Firstly, there was the security issue, the Expo's obviously weren't insuring us, and when there are 50+ people carrying at least one BJD each and the average value ranged from a couple of hundred £ up to the thousands, you inherently have problems and man...did we have problems. Theft was rife, DAMAGE more so, you could guard your doll like a hawk all day, or you could relax and enjoy yourself, but the crossover of those two things is not a balance most people managed to strike and there were inevitable victims from that. The last year we did it, I have a vague memory that just out of my friend group there, over a dozen dolls were damaged or had something lost or stolen from them. It was inevitable in a crowd, carrying relatively delicate objects. I believe some of the stall holders selling their products also had some thefts, but this is a long time ago, so I'm not positive on that. It's really hard to quantify the amount of damage that came out of those cons, but I saw a lot of it (either at the event or when people asked me to fix things for them afterwards) and it was horrendous. I still own some dolls that went to those cons and they still bear the scars.

Then you got the deals taking place at the event. Now, you would think that buying and selling of actual dolls in person would be a less difficult mission than selling online, but when it comes to resin, lemme tell you, those expo's would say otherwise! Nothing was ever written down, so no one had proof of anything. This was before the days of everyone having a smart phone and any wifi in the Expo centre would have been patchy at best anyway, nothing was paid for by paypal, most of it was done in cash and therefore any buyers remorse/deals gone wrong was hashed out after the event in a 'he said, she said' hot mess of chaos that no one could prove either way. Friendships and groups were split by this, it was not pretty.

On top of all of this, was the sheer cost of the thing. Everyone had to have tickets unless you were a stall holder, they were paying for the table, which was at least offset by the sales/work they did there for money, but then on top of that you had to all travel to the venue, often staying overnight somewhere nearby because the Expo centre is in the middle of nowhere and not easy to get home from. You had to get food and drink for the day, you had a lot of cash on you to buy stuff at the venue, EVERYTHING cost money. Even if you only did one day, you were looking at upwards of £150 for the day, and this was nearly a decade ago, I dread to think what it would cost now.

All in all, those Expo's destroyed a lot of friendships, imploded the once friendly, massive community that had enjoyed them, caused untold damage to the dolls involved and left a lot of people swearing off even going to a meet up again. So yeah, there you go, that's why we don't have that anymore.

 

EDIT: @Lulu -you explained this so much better than me
from what I read about the convention there are plenty of sales opportunities and vendors attending- it's a large scale event that not only benefits the people attending by exposure but also networking. If the UK convention offers almost the same thing without diversifying or giving a chance for the attending people to reach a different sort of network from the one in Lyons they will simply not see a reason for attending,
Then the venue- London is expensive which is why I hear more about conventions up north in the UK, and even then- to cover the cost of renting you will need to impose a fee on the sellers who might also not be comfortable.
Screening the sellers to make sure they are selling Doll related stuff and not mistaking the convention for something else
holding events to keep the attendees interested- raffles, contests, photography, etc...???
conventions are a business, There is a model and plan of how it needs to be done and what could be done to improve it- media, networking, Not all BJD people are on Den of Angels so there are advertisement costs and security costs if the event does end up big.

It's not just ticket prices- it's how beneficial the purchase of the tickets is to people travelling to the event and people just attending from the UK- I am not into meetups because UK train prices are RIDICULOUSLY expensive- I lurk on meet up pages but I know how far it will put me back financially and how much time will be spent on the journey- not worth it when you are saving up for new dolls

EDIT: Based on anime convention experiences and with the cost of each doll involved- these problems skyrocket

 

The problem is a meet up is not regulated- theft could occur so easily I don’t think people will risk it?

 

Is it possible? Yes, Ldoll and co do it. Would it work in the UK? MAYBE. The community here is very different following the aftermath of the last time we tried it, so I guess it's possible you could find the uniting thing to pull it back together again.
Would anyone who previously saw the old expo's and cons attend a new version? Well, I can only speak for myself and offer the opinions of my friends from those days that I still speak to regularly, and the answer to that would be hell no from us. Never again. Just...god you have no idea how bad it was.

 

From what I've seen the doll scene in the UK is definitely not what it was 10 or so years ago. It's probably easier to just attend the con in Lyon than take dolls to Expo, then do smaller meet ups in your local(ish) area!