MINECON 2015 - Exhibition Info

In just 30 days time there will be a booth at ExCeL London decked out in Spigot gear and ready to open to a crowd of 10,000 excited Minecrafters. Contracts have been signed and equipment borrowing organised, but there is still much to be determined and very little time to do so. This post details some of the most important things which we need to get sorted with the highest priority.

Donations
If you’ve ever exhibited at a convention or tradeshow you would know that there are enormous costs involved in everything, ranging from the floorspace, to the carpet, to electricity, insurance, mobile internet, merchandise, giveaways and much more. The decision to exhibit once again at MINECON was not one that was made overnight, but one which was the product of several weeks of discussion. The ultimate decision after these discussions was that with the help of the community, we could successfully present a booth at MINECON. An exhibit by the SpigotMC community, for the SpigotMC community, and about the SpigotMC community.

Throughout the last few years SpigotMC has been providing a service to the multiplayer community and servers of all shapes and sizes (perhaps now more than ever), and continues to power the biggest and best servers in existence. If SpigotMC has helped you achieve something great with your server, we would greatly appreciate whatever contribution you can make, especially if the last time you donated dates back to MINECON 2013, or if your community is highly successful as a result of our work.

To help track this effort we have created a progress bar of sorts (similar to what you see on Reddit) and hope to fill it by the time MINECON comes around. Exclamation marks represent money which we have put in personally (and will continue to do so), whilst the hash represents contributions from the community.

I don’t normally single people out, but I would like to link this thread by @MineCove which gives some idea of what MINECON means to him as a community member. Also please note that the progress bar and “lead donor” images are updated manually, but we will try to do so as frequently as possible. As per usual, donors of any amount will get enhanced forum abilities including access to name changes and custom colour swatches.

T-Shirts
T-Shirts are one of the big ticket items at MINECON, and also one of the most difficult to organise. They have a very high initial outlay (several thousand dollars) and are timely to produce, meaning we need to have an order placed by Monday June 8! We are currently collecting designs in this thread and hope to order about 350 of them in various sizes ranging from; 100*S, 120*M, 90*L, 40*XL. On the positive side, with any luck these should all be sold meaning there should be no net expense. Our current favourite design looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/qw5QN2L.png, but due to its complexity (non vectored, reflection highlights) we are having trouble finding a UK company that can screen print it (screen printing is cheaper and more durable but can only handle 2-8 colours at lowish detail. The alternative is direct to garment or transfer printing, however this provides a slightly less durable image).

Panelling
Booth panelling is another important thing which has a deadline of Monday June 15. These panels form the walls of our booth and can be custom printed. If you would like to help with designing some panels, please see the thread here: http://www.spigotmc.org/threads/booth-panelling.68864/

Flyers
Flyers are quick, cheap and easy to print so there is no set deadline yet. The only question is how many we need (I think 5000) and which design we will pick. Check out the design thread here: http://www.spigotmc.org/threads/brochure-flyer.68860/

Community Lunch
We are hosting a lunch on the Sunday, bookings close this Thursday. If you haven’t booked yet, please do so now to avoid disappointment. Total numbers are this stage are 55
http://www.spigotmc.org/threads/minecon-2015-spigotmc-community-lunch.67677/

Equipment Borrowing
John Coles (https://twitter.com/johncoles) of DigitalTreeMedia (http://digitaltreemedia.co.uk/) has kindly agreed to lend us some computer monitors and a television screen for the event. Thanks!

More details to follow soon,
See you at the event
~Spigot Team
~Spigot Community

 

Thanks, adding ranks shortly.