Greetings, TFNationals!
With TFN2023 on the horizon, we'll shortly be asking for your help, by way of inviting volunteer applications! Volunteering is not only your opportunity to contribute towards making TFN's many cogs turn, but it's also a great way to make new friends... all whilst wearing a rather fetching shirt!
As we gear up for applications to go live, we thought this might be a good time to share some thoughts from our Shorts-clad Volunteer Coordinater, @DaveInShorts !
The following are notes for a sort of blog post, written by Dave following our big return to live events in 2022. Unpublished until now, save for a brief early access period for our Patrons, we hope it might be interesting for you to read, as you'll get to see an event from a TFN staffer's point of view. It's quite a read, but (hopefully!) worth it!
So sit back, and let us take you back in time... but just a little.
It is the year 2022...
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TFN Recap
I hope you’re sitting down…
It’s Tuesday 23 August, a week since I arrived home and only now do I feel in a position to reflect on TFNation 2022. Maybe that’s because just earlier today I finally took off my ‘Crew’ wristband. Maybe it’s because it was straight into A Level results when I got back (for those that don’t know, I work in education). Or maybe, perhaps, I’ve only just come to terms with the fact that, after three years, we put on a show again which has come and gone in the blink of an eye.
Let me set the stall out early: I’m not going to tag everyone here because I know I’ll miss someone and cause offence. Plus, as I’m not particularly active here it’s probable that I don’t know the usernames/handles/tags/whatever-you-call-its of most people I’d want to mention.
[ed note - Dave had originally drafted this post with the intention of releasing the same via social media, hence the references to tagging]
So, I guess, know this people: it was great to see/speak to you, old friends and new, no matter how fleeting our time was. On the one hand I would have liked to have spent more time with many people during the weekend. On the other, had I done that I would have developed some kind of ‘guilt’ for not working hard on ensuring everyone has a great convention. And that’s what ensures *I* have a great convention. But more on that later.
So, while TFN is a year-round undertaking alongside the main day-job, event “weekend” started for me on the Wednesday with a two-hour drive north to our not-so-top secret storage facility. There I would meet @billystripes who had already found a couple of surprises I had in place. Knowing the additional challenges we faced with the Commonwealth Games, along with trying to help @Tricky, the addition of a second mobile shelving rack, folding flatbed trolley and two smaller trolleys with handles all achieved the reaction from Billy (and subsequently the others) I had hoped. The rest of Wednesday was spent sorting, organising, re-sorting and labelling boxes and shelves, all to make the move-in and set-up that much more manageable. Wednesday evening with Billy = a burger, a beer and bold dreams of the future!
Thursday. Loading day. It began with breakfast in Birmingham city centre and a trip to the printers to collect some artwork. “Just one or two boxes” said Billy… before we carried four boxes, a carrier bag and a rolled-up something through the city! Around lunchtime, Team Mapes arrived with the van and we loaded. Nothing exciting here, nothing significant, nothing to really write about. But it was smooth, and to me that was important proof for what we knew was to come. With everything we needed for TFNation 2022 packed into a Luton van, there was time for a bit of a tech update from @steve before Billy and I headed off to another not-so-top secret location to begin Operation: 4am start.
Yep, you read that right, a 4am start on Friday morning. Apparently, we weren’t as important as some athletes, so the AV team were booked to start rigging the panel room early, which meant being there early. It was quite eerie being the only ones (hotel staff and AV crew aside) in the enormity of the hotel, but it allowed my scheming, planning mind (and body) to wander. Some open doors, some locked doors, as the layout of TFNation 2038 materialised in my mind’s eye (disclaimer: TFN2038 hasn’t been planned, yet!).
Somewhere inside, as I found hidden meeting rooms, sensible me knew that starting the weekend on 5 hours sleep was not a good idea. But I had to do this. For my fellow organisers, for our crew of volunteers, for all the wonderful attendees. Because I saw that as my role in all of this: the silent operator who just ensured everything… worked.
And then, one by one, like the cavalry coming over the hill or Prime and the Dinobots arriving in the shuttle during the attack on Autobot City, the team began to assemble. Like a well-oiled machine that never stops – let alone one that hadn’t operated for three years – everything needed for setup was happening. The Registration team were hooking up devices, the Merch team clothing tables and displaying our wares, and the never-seen “Lifting team” were putting over 200 tables into place ready for our traders to arrive. Me? In all honesty it’s hard to recall what I was doing. I couldn’t at the time and I can’t now. But I know lots was happening.
Let’s not beat around the bush here. Friday was a big challenge for lots of reasons. A bigger show with an incredibly jam-packed Friday schedule courtesy of @kalelprime meant an earlier start to what was on stage. I’m sure it all went very well and trust everyone enjoyed the panels they wanted to see. Setup in the trader hall is always frenetic and this year was no different. I do remember placating a Parcel Force delivery driver who had been sent to three different locations by hotel staff by offering to see who his delivery was for. My theory being, if I recognised the name then I take it. The driver showed me a label for @IDToys, so I said ‘yes’. He then pointed to another eight boxes. Eight BIG boxes. So I took these in and moved them to the trader hall. You saw the size of ID Toys’ stall - you’re welcome! For everyone involved in all that went on with the trader hall on Friday, and you know who you are, I am eternally grateful for everything you did. Know that you have my deepest admiration for life.
I also remember losing count of the number of times I said “popping off-site” to run an errand throughout the day. Initial plan was for this to be around 11am… think I finally left about 6pm. Used this as an opportunity to give my wife a quick call and here was emotional moment #1: I hadn’t even got as far as the main road into Birmingham and I was sobbing on the phone. It was a pure release as a culmination of not much sleep, the intensity of setup day, and just some relief that everything was ‘go’. Note that I have no issue with showing my emotions, but this caught me out. Five minutes of blubbering later and I was back to my normal, stony-faced killer self. Ready to kick the whatsit out of the rest of this show. With the showing in the panel room over, barriers and queuing systems in place for Saturday morning, and a final walk around everything before locking up, I flopped into bed at 2am. Oh, after moving rooms because I had been put in the wrong room-type, but full kudos to the hotel team for resolving it swiftly.
Please don’t ask me about what happened Saturday because it was all a blur. Although sad I missed the opening ceremony (for reasons known only to a very small handful), working with the dependable @Gruff to manage two queues was more important. I remember him remarking how it all seemed “too smooth” and it was, strangely, calm and collected. But that’s his influence over the years. Gruff’s professional knowledge has helped TFNation develop and grow in this area so that we look after all our attendees as best we can. Queue breaks, avoiding bottlenecks and ‘buffer zones’ have all been employed to get hundreds of people in (and out) of those rooms as efficiently as possible. Cheers pal.
During the day I saw old faces, and met some new ones. “Can’t believe it’s been three years.” “Has it really been three years?” “…last year…” “Weren’t we just here last week?” There was some kind of strange time parallax going on as all these comments seemed right, but also wrong. I think that’s one of the greatest strengths of this community. You might not be close friends with everyone, but you “know” so many people that a quick hello or nod of acknowledgement doesn’t feel out of place. As mentioned earlier, more time with people would have been nice, but I think that will always be a sacrifice I make to avoid that guilty feeling of not “working” for you during your event. Nonetheless, so many smiling faces, so many heart-warming positive comments which kept it (me) going. ClubCon came, happened, and went. There were Sharkticons, there was a great (re) telling of the movie with a train-train-snake courtesy of @drivaar and some live music. I think I ended up in the bar Saturday night. I may have spoken with you. It was 3am when I hit the pillow.
There’s no such thing as a lie-in at TFNation and soon enough it was Sunday morning. More of the same, but with the opportunity to actually see what delightful wares were in the trader hall. I’m a toy guy. That’s how I came into this, but my extensive MP & 3PMP collection is thinning out as I’ve lost the buzz for the toys and am refocusing (go see my sales album in the Fb groups!). I’m at peace with that, and so had no ‘wants’ for the weekend. But a loose G1 Skorponok (no accessories) caught my eye and was snaffled up to replace my heavily sun-damaged childhood one. My other purchases were art. I’ve come to appreciate TF artwork more in recent years (plus it takes up less space than toys) so grabbed a couple of prints from @BenK and @GeshGav, and sketchbooks from the incredibly talented @EdPiz and @AndrewT. I also threw (quite literally) money @ToyFu because what they do is incredible and someone else refused to take it (you know who you are!).
So let’s talk about emotional moment #2: the TFN Round Table. The chance for attendees to ask us questions, and I was particularly taken by a question which asked about our TFN “bucket list” – what we would want in an ideal world. While the concept of TFN: Barbados is a great one, I seized this moment to really highlight something, or rather, someones, with some transparency. No doubt we could all list guests, panels, exclusive items or freebies that we’d like to add. But in all honesty, my TFN “bucket list” is simply looking after our incredible volunteers. These are attendees who come to TFN, mostly year-on-year, paying their own way to stay in the hotel (typically a night or two longer than most other attendees), all while working hard to make the event run. I do my best to create a crew rota that enables them to see panels they want to and have some time off to explore traders and socialise with friends, but the beautiful (and damning) reality is that they work far longer than expected to make everything happen. And what do they get in return? Tickets for the next show, lunch (eaten on the go) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and our eternal gratitude. That’s it.
In explaining this during the Q&A session I felt it all. Everything I said about how tirelessly the crew works during the weekend, how they pull out all the stops to help each other, and how it never feels like we do enough for them was all from the heart. And the hardest part was knowing that this bunch of wonderful human beings don’t do it for reward – they do it because they care like the rest of us. If you were at the panel you will have heard mention of some of the sacrifices made by individuals to make sure the show went ahead. Some of the crew had started their journeys early in the morning so they could be there to help. Some of the crew had taken unpaid time off work to be there. Some of the crew were away from their families and loved ones for the best part of the week, paying their own way for not just two or three hotel nights but five or six, to make sure the show goes on.
So, my TFN “bucket list” is simply this: a show where those sacrifices are not required and where we can reward our volunteer crew appropriately for what they do. I’d also like more volunteers in the future… more info on that coming soon!