Simon Plumbe has provided the first of the now weekly updates for Auto Assembly 2008, with complete details of all goings on so far.

With only 62 days to go until Auto Assembly 2008, we thought it would be worth starting the first of our pre-convention weekly updates bringing you some of the latest major happenings in the final run up to Europe’s biggest Transformers event in 2008…!

Quite a few things have happened in the last 7 days and we’ve been fairly busy so we’ll try to cram as much in here as we can…

* Guests *

Our guest line-up for AA2008 is probably one of our biggest and best ever and we currently have TEN confirmed guests so far! Our guest of honour is Dan Gilvezan – the voice of Bumblebee from G1. Supporting Dan is a plethora of comic guests including legendary writer Simon Furman, artists Andrew Wildman, Simon Williams, Geoff Senior, Staz Johnson, Lew Stringer, and colourists Jason Cardy, Liam Shalloo and Kat Nicholson.

That’s not all though, we are STILL talking to more possible guests although it’s partly down to YOU whether we get more! Remember, the more people who pre-book, the greater our budget is for the convention!

* Competitions *

We’ve got a load of competitions taking place at the convention and in the run up to the day itself – art, fiction, model and kitbash competitions, a kids colouring competition and a quiz on the day itself. We’ve now got full details of all of these and information on how to enter up on the website as well as a downloadable entry form! There will be plenty of toys up for grabs so why not give it a shot!

* Charity Auction *

We started to give you all some details on this year’s charity auction earlier in the week but it’s already looking great. As well as a load of signed items from a lot of Transformers voice actors, we’ve now confirmed at least three pieces of BRAND NEW artwork from some top Transformers comic artists that have been specially commissioned for Auto Assembly 2008! Obviously, we’re open to anything that anyone wants to donate to this or our charity raffle so please get in touch!

* Goodie Bag *

The infamous goodie bag is shaping up reasonably well at the moment. We’ve got four items confirmed right now with more in negotiations. Every attendee will get two more Auto Assembly exclusive postcards, one featuring Bumblebee illustrated by Simon Williams. The other will be drawn by another top TF artist but we’re not saying who yet! Also, all attendees will receive a pack of Cards Inc G1 stickers and we have plenty of other gifts but these are going to be limited so if you want some of the other items, you’ll need to register quickly. For example, we have assorted copies of the ladybird G1 storybooks, but these were limited for the first 80 or so attendees so they’ve all been allocated already. We do have a lot more items to sort so keep an eye on the website.

As you can see, it pays to pre-book early!

* Booking Confirmations *

We know that many of you have been asking – both directly and through various forums – about booking confirmations and when you’re going to be receiving them. Well, now that we’ve been able to secure our guest of honour, we’re now working on getting them sorted!

We’re working like crazy on getting the information pack finalised, talking to hotels to chase up discounts on accommodation so we can sent out the most accurate information packs possible and these should start going out in the next 7 days to the first batch of attendees who have booked.

Obviously, as soon as we have hotel discounts sorted, details of these will also go straight on the website and we’re hoping to have the first of these done by the middle of the week at the latest.

* Pre-Registrations *

One thing we can’t stress enough for those of you who haven’t already done it is the benefits of pre-registering for Auto Assembly 2008. Not only does it get things out of the way and means that it’s one less worry for you on the day, but all pre-registrants get earlier entry than those paying on the door so you can get at all those bargains sooner!

Not only that but pre-registering helps US as convention organisers. At Auto Assembly, we have a break-even point financially. Not only do we have to pay to hire the venue and cover our guest costs, but printing, postage and numerous other expenses. However, once we have covered all of those, anything left over can be reinvested to make AA2008 a better convention either going towards bonus guests or extra gifts in the goodie bag.

For example, we are producing two exclusive postcards this year but once we have covered all of our costs, all it needs is an extra 15 adult attendees to give us the extra funds to produce a THIRD card for everyone but we can’t do that if people leave booking until the last minute or pay on the door and it’s the same when it comes to finding extra funds towards bonus UK comic guests!

Put simply, if you want a bigger and better Auto Assembly 2008, it’s in YOUR hands…!

* Volunteering *

Finally, as always, we’re looking for volunteers to help out with the convention on the day and in the run up to the event and in helping us to promote it. For more information, see the volunteering page on the website and download a form!

Well, that’s it for now, but we should have a few more announcements over the next few days so keep an eye out on all the major TF websites and forums and look out for our next update next weekend and we hope to see a lot of you all on 2nd August!

As always, for all the latest information on Auto Assembly 2008, to book online or to download booking forms or for more information on anything in this weekly update, visit the website at www.autoassembly.org.uk
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly 2008

email: enquiries@autoassembly.org.uk
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com

tel. +44 (0)7860 948296 / +44 (0)7804 951406