****The FanForce @ CE - Ideas and Volunteers needed!!****

The FanForce have kindly been given a table by Barry Eldridge in the Fan Club & Groups lounge during Celebration Europe. The table will allow us to promote the FanForce and will serve as a great meeting point for current members to mingle.

While we do not as yet have clear information regarding the size of the table/space, or whether they?ll be a backingboard, there is no stopping us to plan what should be on the table and indeed any space behind. So all ideas are welcome at this stage.

More importantly, we need to man the table through-out the show, therefore I would be incredibly grateful if people could volunteer to do this job. It?s an open invitation, so any fanforce member from any fanforce can join-in. The basic job description will be to hand-out flyers and answer any questions the unsuspecting public may have. The more people who volunteer, the better and easier it?ll be for us all. The idea is to draw up a rota, ensuring people can still fully enjoy the show and help out too.

The main things we also need to do/plan at this stage are the flyer, poster(s) & vinyl banner and funding for the promotional material.

So, let?s remember what Shaun said;
?Erm, as Mr Sloman always says,
there?s no I in team but there is an I in pie. In... There?s an I in meat pie. The anagram of meat is team...
I don?t know what he?s talking about.?

Any thoughts, ideas and volunteers are most welcome



LAJ edit - changed title, stickied thread

 

despite my contempt for the public in general,i would be happy to do a stint on the table.
just don't expect me to be nice.

 

Count me in for helping with table related things

 

I'd do a few hours on one of the days, sure.

 

I'm certainly good for doing a stint on the tables.

Can always bring something down from the North if you need anything?

 

Excellent, thanks for stating an interest everyone so far, but more we still need, lots more

If you could say what day(s) you are willing to help and for how long, that will certainly aid us to draw up a plan of action. Of cause things will change once the timetable of events is published as people can then decide what panels they want to attend, but forming a rough idea/plan at this stage would be good. However, I will stress that I want everyone to enjoy the show first and foremost, so when we design the table, having something that can look after itself is what I have in mind.

I can probably be creative with the posters, and I should be able to get some A3 prints done cost-free, so the real money soaker will be flyers. How many do you think we'd need?? Based on the London Film & Comic Con last year, I'd say the London FanForce got through around 100 or so, but with this being a pure SW show, for three days and likely to attract a vast attendance, we may need to think bigger, lol. And shall we opt for colour or the cheaper b&w option?? And of cause we need to design the thing.

A key part of that is deciding whether we are aiming towards the European market or world-wide market. I personally think we need to promote ourselves as 'the FanForce' rather then 'the European FanForce' because I'm sure plenty of people outside of Europe will be attending.

Finally, if anyone has any ideas or gets inspiration from another source, don't hesitate to post. If you're going to a show in the near future, keep a good look out for any tables/stands that you feel do a good job and we can learn from.

 

Hi folks, I'm new to this site myself and I already love it. I an attending the CE and would love to help out manning the table, that would be cool. I'm currently in the process of making my costume. I'm planning on attending all three days with a pal of mine, so he would be able to help out too.

May the force be with you

Lacjo Fasli

 

SHOW TENCLO!!!!!!

Or the Documentary....

SHOW TENCLO!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Welcome aboard Fasli

It would be nice to show TENCLO as it would add great atmosphere and attract many people, but for the application we had to submit likely table content and we'll probably have to submit the finalised content to get clearance, and I fear TENCLO or any fanfilm would not get clearance

 

I had in mind listing all the different FanForce regions on the flyer, or certainly the countries that have a FanForce, which will help identify how global we are and that Europe has a mighty fine FanForce representation.

Johanna, I love the idea of the posterboard. I thought about having photo albums/scrapbooks but I think having them pinned-up on a board would work very well. Feel free to post links for photos we can use

250 colour flyers would cost around £50 (70ish euros). Black & White, around £30-40. So I think we are looking at around £150-200 for around 1,000 which is a heck of a lot. If anyone has any good prinitng contacts, feel free to help us out

 

guys if someone could tell me exactly what kind of leaflets, size, colour b/w, what we are having printed on them, There's a printers near where I work, so I could pop in and find out some prices.

 

lol, completely forgot to mention the size
I have in mind A5 size (measuring 14.5cm x 21cm). If you can get a quote for say one thousand, printed in either colour or B&W on just one side, then we can do some price comparing

 

Cool, I will find out tomorrow

 

Hello there

Have poped into my local printers and have obtained the following prices

A5 Digital Gloss colour

£103.27

A5 Plain paper colour


1000 £68.39 (inc artwork)
2000 £91.51 (inc artwork)

A5 single colour

1000 £58.27 (inc artwork)
2000 £73.92 (inc artwork)



Another option for black and white could be if someone could design a leaflet fitting 2 on an A4 sheet of paper, then we could make photocopies of the leaflet and cut them to size ourselves. More work involved, but it could work out cheaper. I have acess to a photocopier........

May the force be with you

 

Thanks Fasli

Those quotes sound very good, and the b&w photocopying option is definitely viable. The next step I feel is to do some flyer mock-ups and see how well (if at all) they will look b&w and decide from there.

Feel free anyone to do some designs and post them here. What we need to include is a brief description of the FanForce and what we do, mention somewhere the areas we cover and have some URL's pointing people into the right direction. At this stage use any imagery you like, and work in either full colour or b&w and at 300 dpi A5 size. See below for an example of the London flyer from last year.

As for covering the printing costs, it would be nice to set-up a kitty where people can contribute however much they can afford, with perhaps a maximum donation of £10. Any money not spent can then be given back fairly to the contributers. As much as I would like to, I had to fork out for flyers last year and didn't get any financial help and I can't afford to do the same this time, so I'm trying to do this as fairly as possible.

[image=http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a43/Lord-Tice/LFCC_Flyer72.jpg]

 

I've got some quotes for flyers from local (SE London) printers and they aren't for the faint hearted. For 1,000 flyers the average is around £150, although for 2,000 it's not much more (£160). These are full colour, single-sided A5 flyers on photo gloss paper.
I did consider maybe business cards instead, as a cheaper alternative, and that would cost £75 for 2,000.

So far your quotes work out cheaper Master_Fasli (btw what are the printers called and where about's are they based?)
I will try and get some more quotes this week.
EDIT: I think you're onto something with the idea of photocopying as that would work out to be very cheap and if we can get a good design, could work well. For around 1,000 photocopies (which would be 2,000 A5 flyers), I think it would only cost around £30, or around £50 if we copy onto a coloured paper for added effect.

As for paying into the funds, paypal would be the best and easiest option but if you haven't got paypal, then it could get tricky. It also means that the funds would be paid into my account so as long as everyone is happy with that set-up and can trust me, then that would be the best way to go. As I've said before, any money not spent will be given back as fairly as possible.

So far there are still some important issues we need to get round to discussing properly, now that we have less then 7 weeks to go!!!
They are:
? Flyer design
? Table content (still awaiting table details from Barry)
? Getting as many people to volunteer as poss and work out a rota (which is also dependant on the CE timetable of events).

Lots of work to be done

 

If you need someone to volunteer, I will. I need to brush up on my table skills for Gmex Collectormania

 

We should have STUFF on the tables - and by that, I mean fun things to bring people in - event if said stuff is just some kind of raffle where we given away something like...one of the ltd edition Hasbro figures for the show? It would be cool if we could get an internet connection so we can actually show FF to people - failing that, a laptop with some screen shots of the site downloaded or something - maybe someone in the PTB can give us some of the BB code to run a local version of the forums just for the event, we could let people post messages or whatever! I'm sure Excel will have Wireless capability - if not hard lines, so yeah...

Okay - rambling thoughts done - over to you.

Oh wait...volunteers...desk time? Hmm - i'll wait until the full schedule comes out before comitting to dates, hours and times, but i'll do some duty down there for yas!

 

At the moment I'm thinking of having the table quite clear and concise. The reason being that in past shows we've stalled-out at, there's been so much stuff on the table no one is completely sure what it's all about. Something I mentioned to Tim, and here, is that I think it's best we promote ourselves as just the FanForce, rather then the FF-UK but we also have a FanForce here, a FanForce there and another one here and one there too.....in other words just one flyer on the table advertising the FF as a global community (although the flyer will indeed state we have FanForce groups in the UK, Europe, US etc).. In the past we haven't seen great response from promotional activities and we've always tried to have lots going on at the table and so I can only conclude it's not really working, from the POV of new members becoming regulars.
I also don't want anything that will cause security problems, so I'm not keen on going down the laptop route. Again, in the past members have been left on their own on the table which is completely unfair and so I want a table that can look after itself and pose no secuirty problems. The fact that only a few have stated an interest in helping with the table proves this point, and I want everyone to enjoy the show as much as poss and so no one will be left alone for hours on end.

I'm still liking the idea of Meet photos being on display as I think that will capture exactly what we're about. The table should contain more detailed explanations of what we do exactly, which will coincide with the flyer of cause. But the way I'm approaching this is if I knew nout about the FF, walked past the table and saw a great looking flyer and/or poster that really stands out, making me pick one up and read what else is on the table and looking at the photos.

That's what I think based on experience, but if anyone has their own ideas or opinions then it would be good to get our aim for the table nicely defined ASAP