Hello.
In case you've stumbled in and found this little corner of the internet by accident, here's a brief explanation. My name is Billy. I am one of the organisers of TFNation, which is a convention for fans of The Transformers and other shape-shifting robots. I'm here to talk to you today.
I've toyed with the idea of writing something for a very long time. Almost a week in fact. Writing and me is an unusual pairing. I have a non-robot job which requires me to write to different audiences, in different tones through the day. Come home time, I'm into TFN mode, writing very different types of things to completely different audiences. The end result is that on a Saturday morning such as today, it's difficult to remember my actual voice. Then there's the issues of time and well, being busy, and before long, the blog format just feels like something other people do.
Then there's the elephant in the room. The large, lingering question of "what would I actually write about?" I'm not talking about the blank page feeling we all know (though, that is a thing) but rather, what's my aim here? I have convention responsibilities so, can I really write a "behind the scenes" sort of piece and doesn't that risk spoiling things? Should it not be more of a "this is why you should come to TFN" advertisement? Whether or not there is an audience for such posts is something I honestly don't know either. It's all just a bit strange really. But. And it's a big but - I do like strange. I've therefore decided to use this free time to write something which is simultaneously all of and none of the above. It is impossible for me to talk TFN without discussing some backstage elements. It's also impossible for me to not be positive about the efforts of a group of people, of whom I am very proud. Most of all (he says, as if "impossibility" contains a scale, degrees and possibly even DLC for the super-advanced impossiblers) it's also impossible for me to not be me; quite friendly, a bit contrary and covered in the most contrasting of terrible fashion choices.
So. Here's my story of TFNation 2019. The week that was. I don't know how much of a deep dive this will be, so I'll just type and see what happens. Typos and all. If you're very lucky I'll even learn how to add images. But don't worry, I promise not to use any pictures of me.
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| (This is a picture of me.) |
Tuesday
For me, the event-proper starts on Tuesday. This is when I travel to Birmingham to begin initial prep. This year I was fortunate enough to be driven down by my dad (Stripes Senior) and brother (Spots). This allowed me to bring much more gear than I normally would, which would ultimately make the convention experience more enjoyable / less painful. #soreback It's a big effort shift all of my fashionable uniforms, which you can find here btw https://ebay.to/2UqAx67
There is not a great deal to tell you about Tuesday. We transported my various Billy accoutrements to TFN's storage facility, ready to be deployed the following day. A few last-minute checks were undertaken, some phone calls were made, a lot of messages were replied to. Dinner and bed.
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| (Arrival) |
Wednesday
This is the day when everything kicks off properly. The plan was for the Mapes-bots to form our storage party (which is far less fun than it sounds) whilst "Shorts-Dave" would form our advance party, getting our Hilton office spaces ready for the big move in.
Then the rain happened.
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| (It rained. A lot) |
It's difficult to tell from the image, but the rain as torrential. Some of our glass display units weigh twenty stone, which, mathematically speaking, is considerably heavier than one whole unit of Billy. Pushing them around in such conditions would have been monumentally silly. There was a point when I was seriously considering abandoning move-in day, it was that bad. Fortunately, the rain revealed itself to be a robot fan and decided to pass to allow us to continue with work, but not before disrupting our travel plans for the morning. After a couple of messages, a new plan had been put in place. I would go directly to the Hilton and set up whatever I could, ready for the arrival of Shorts-Dave. We would then return to storage later, to assist the Mape-bots once they had conquered nature.
The rest of Wednesday is a bit of a blur. We lifted things out of one building and put them into another. As much as we were happy with the level of organisation involved, I think I'll struggle to make that sound interesting here. Suffice it to say, the rain stayed away and things got moved.
Thursday
Thursday is an unusual day for me. It's the day when most of the crew start to arrive. Most of the guests too. And an awful lot of attendees. Though not an official convention day, come Thursday, it's on. It's a time to catch up with friends you've not seen in a year; to finally meet people you've only previously met online. It's a nice day. If you're in the bar, that is. Which, we are usually not.
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| (This is not the bar) |
Still, everybody seemed happy and in great spirits. With guests on-site, we were good to go.
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| (crew crew crew) |
Come Thursday evening we move to another office to hold our annual crew meeting. Well, one of them, but this is typically the biggest. Meeting that is, not office. The meeting was expertly held by Shorts-Dave and hopefully gave crew-members new and old a chance to familiarise themselves with the hopes and expectations for what would be a very long weekend.
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| (build time) |
This was the first year we have been allowed to start rigging some of our convention halls on the Thursday evening, which is a massive help. Pro-tip - if you're a trader or a forge artist and we tell you we're not sure what time you can access for set up, it's not because we don't remember how long it takes; it's because we never truly know when we will be granted access to the halls. The Metropole is a massive convention venue which has at least one event running most days. We can't access our halls until the previous client has left (and until they have been cleaned). If the previous client leaves early, then we are good to go! But if they are late in their breakdown, it naturally impacts our operations.
Friday
For those of you who are still reading (thank you, both) you'll have noted a distinct lack of social interaction thus far. I must admit that is largely by design. Having worked with this community for many years now, I find myself in the fortunate, and frankly humbling position, whereby they have sort of learned my workings. If I'm out of sight, I'm probably very busy. If I'm in the bar, I'm there to say hello. There are brief (and lovely) interactions in between, but these are fleeting. I'm always grateful for people being respecting of, well, whatever I may be doing, particularly given a large portion of my role involves looking out for anxious attendees, or taking meetings of a serious nature (health and safety etc) so whilst I'll always say hello, it's always appreciated when people leave me to sort things if I'm in busy mode. But fear not, there were some interactions later!
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| (Monarch) |
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| (It's a lot of lifting) |
Friday also saw something which was probably the only real low point of the weekend. Not low as such, but it removed the shine for us a little. The issue was that our Friday night panels were so well attended that our room hit maximum capacity. For safety reasons we, therefore, had to impose a strict "one in, one out" policy. Full is full, whichever way you look at it.
Turning people away is never nice. Particularly when the room in question can comfortably sit 200 to 300 people. For that room to reach capacity on what is effectively our "slow start day" is a real mark of how far TFN has come in four years (in previous years we used a 75 capacity room for these panels, which no issues). It's one of the nicer problems to have, but it is something which will need to be addressed. Will we need to ticket those events in order to keep a grip on numbers? Will we need to hire a larger hall? Where will the money for that come from? Is there even a larger hall available that day? Can we afford to rent the AV kit for the additional day which would be needed to set up? Will we have sufficient crew on-site to assist? And then, what happens when the larger hall also hits capacity? Every room on earth has a capacity after all. Somewhere in there, there is an answer. Ultimately, if it's a toss-up between keeping everybody safe, and everybody happy, then safety will always win. But we'll always strive to do both. I imagine this will form a large part of the crew's secret meeting next month. It never ends.
That issue aside - and again, I stress it is a nice problem to have - everything ran smoothly. I spent the evening in rehearsals with the stage crew, who were putting finishing touches to the intro ceremony whilst the Kings suite was being constructed (that's an all-day job too). Although I did find a moment to force Captain Turnbull to consume some much-needed energon, whilst the Mapes-Bots were presenting their well-received Visionaries panel.
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| (The ideal man) |
Oh yes, I almost forgot. Friday also saw the debut of the B-Lee Stripes merchandise line. It's important that I go on record as saying I genuinely knew nothing about this until the staff meeting. Thank you all for joining the Mapes-Bots in mocking my sleeves. I shall have my vengeance. Still, I suppose it's nice... in an unusual way.
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| (Billy Stripes and the Temple of Hi) |
Saturday
Then there was Saturday. Saturday is unusual for me because, oddly, there isn't that much to do. I help a little bit during the intro ceremony and the Saturday night show as a stagehand, but otherwise, I'm free to mingle, chat and generally make sure everybody is doing okay. I'll admit, for somebody who spends much of the year in front of a spreadsheet, that is not my default setting.
I'm afraid I don't really have many photos from this period. I posed for plenty, but they were not taken using my devices, so you'll just have to imagine those scenes until attendees start posting their own galleries to social media. But please believe me when I say I spoke to as many people as I could (be it long conversations, or quick hellos) and everybody was lovely. On occasions when I was already in one conversation, I even deployed the tactical wave. It's a great move, you should try it. I might print a "tactical wave" shirt to make the job easier in future.
Though social thingamajigs don't come naturally to me, I can honestly say I had a thoroughly good time meeting attendees old and new. It's probably the most fun I've ever had at a convention actually. "Yes, I have got a moment to post with your blaster, actually" is such a fun and liberating thought to have. In this setting at least. In others, you may need legal representation. But here! Here it's great! Every year I read stories of people having wonderful social experiences at TFN and of course, I believe them, but it's never really been a thing I've had time for myself, so having that reversed this year was brilliant, from a selfish point of view. I have the crew to thank for that, as several of them made a point of covering Billy-shifts this year, to free me up to engage. Thanks, folks! And of course, thanks to everybody who either stopped and said hi, asked a question, or tactical waved back. It's a great reminder of why the event is so important to so many people.
I probably shouldn't name individual conversations, as I'll forget some. But here is what stands out right now (in no particular order);
- Apologising profusely to DomSalvia, for not dedicating a line of ShakeySwipe merch to him. I'm a terrible person! Maybe next year!
- Posing for a Billie/Billy photo in the forge (Billy squared?)
- Being gifted a lovely breadbasket by Lem (I have a massive head and assumed it was a hat)
- Speaking with a Dad, who told me TFN had helped him to forge a shared hobby with his son.
- Being called over to an emotional attendee, who explained that although not a transformers fan, she felt more at home at TFN than anywhere else.
- My annual conversation with Stuart Webb who I am convinced moves like a crab. He just seems to slide into view and then out again. Very suave. I see those Bond movies are not lost on him.
- Recognising new attendee StarNix (who is lovely) by her hoody - look, it was black and white, okay.
- Getting some great accessibility feedback from Chess, following their reaction to the new forge layout.
- A great chat with Jamesydraws (have you seen those toy accurate prints? gosh)
- Any conversation ever with LadyWreck!
- Finally grabbing chance to sit and chat with McFeels & Jim Sorenson
- Some brief but lovely interactions with our comic guests. All of them were lovely.
- And of course, the constant support and friendship of the TFN crew.
I could go on (and might, some other time) but yeah - I think I made up for spending most of last year squirrelled away, building a stage. Let's do it again next year, okay!?
I don't have any pictures from the evening show as I was on stagehand duty, but suffice it to say it was incredibly well-received. I'm hugely grateful to everybody involved in the TFA project and to Peter Spellos and his Improvacons for bringing an incredible show to our little corner of the world. Transformers conventions are by their nature repetitive, so we work hard to try and have something new each year. Be it a script reading, or a concert or a comedy improv' segment, a lot of thought goes into trying to keep things fresh, particularly during the Saturday evening segment. i think everybody involved did a great job this year. I should also go on record as saying I'm super grateful to attendees for being so respectful for everybody else's enjoyment of the TFA project. 800 people sat silently, for a combined 90 minutes, to ensure everybody could hear. I don't know where else you would find that. Our attendees are wonderful people.
Sunday... and onwards
Sunday is always a blur to me. It was simply more of the above (and I'm sure some of the above WAS on Sunday, but hey ho).
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| (truth with Turnbull) |
Sunday is also the time when I have to do a panel, which we call the round table, even though there are neither rounds, nor tables anywhere in sight. It's an opportunity for attendees to ask pretty much whatever they like, and a selection of the organisers to answer as best they can, without giving too many spoilers. I'm eternally grateful that I am joined on stage by people who display far more personality than me.
It's an odd panel. There is often a sense that the audience does not wish to ask overly awkward questions, but those actually yield the best conversation. Some questions "who is your favourite Autobot" naturally lend themselves to more comedic answers but where possible, we will try to come full circle on the comedy and link it to something important to our attendees. Anxiety or loneliness and how conventions can assist. Something like that. If you come along next year I encourage you to have some awkward questions ready so we can tackle the big issues. That said, I also encourage you to direct your question to anybody but me.
The closing ceremony hit, people were emotional and then it was all over for another year. Save for the teardown. I'll save you the details - it's like set up, but in reverse.
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| (Thank you Crew) |
The highlight of Sunday night was a crew meal, organised by Golf-Pants-Sam. It was a great opportunity to chat with people about things other than queue control, and to remember we all occasionally wear our own clothes!
I would ultimately stay on site until Wednesday with Mr T, ensuring guests and crew got home safely, and finalising some post-con hotel work. Some of that is still happening now, as can be expected.
All in all, it was a great con for me personally and, I think a great year for TFNation and its attendees. For a fandom so accustomed to transformations, it will be no surprise to hear that TFN is constantly changing and evolving. There is no such thing as a perfect convention, but we will always strive to get closer to that ideal; that means never standing still. It means adapting to any issues which arrive, and smashing through any barriers to giving our attendees an enjoyable weekend. 2020 will almost certainly be no different, particularly as we find ourselves with more attendees to cater for than ever before. But with a little energon and a lot of your support, we're confident we can give you the convention you deserve.
Thanks, everybody!
Billy
AUDIBLE
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audible-Free-Trial-Digital-Membership/dp/B00OPA2XFG?tag=tfnation-21
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