Ben Lonsdale says there are five or six different mini-conferences every month in the UK, and I would be inclined to agree with him. While conventions try to avoid clashing with Adepticon, one of the world's biggest trade shows and where both Trench Crusade and Warhammer revealed new minis last week, I can list a handful that will be in its shadow. Chillcon in Sheffield, Salute in London, Fringe Fest taking advantage of the sojourn down south to offer something weird and wonderful beyond Salute's predominantly shopping based experience… But now, there's a new kid on the block: Spru. And Lonsdale wants to do things differently.
“Spru is basically a conference for small indie people to get a platform,” he tells me via video call. No, this does not mean that this convention is only open to gnomes and faeries. He's talking about small companies that struggle to afford tables at large conferences.
Spru: A platform for independent creatives
“I want to give artists and creators who are well established in the digital scene a real physical space to be able to meet everybody else, and actually get out there and meet people, see people, and so on,” he explains. From his research, he found that tables at large conferences cost between £200 and £400, usually hovering around the £300 mark. This is fine for a successful company, but a prohibitive obstacle for someone casting pewter miniatures in their garage alongside their full-time job. “With the whole Spru setup, whoever has a table, I'm not charging them anything. […] I'm not even taking profit share, the cream of the crop, nothing.
“Regardless of the seller, I don't have anything to do with them financially. And that means a commissioning artist, or a guy who designs wargames in his spare time, or someone who makes fun stuff out of putty and clay, can actually bring in like a box of stock, sell it, meet people and share it socially and hand out all kinds of business cards. A real physical platform without trying to fight Instagram advertising or three to 400 quid to go to a real conference. unpaid and perhaps lost little by it.
The lack of fees or profit sharing makes it difficult to balance the books, as Lonsdale eschews advertisers or even corporate partners for the first edition of the conference at Nottingham's Albert Hall conference center this September. He is relying solely on ticket sales to prove he can run the show before looking to sponsors for future iterations. But that means he sells 221 tickets to break even.
Rooted in root vegetables
However, this is not Lonsdale's first rodeo. He's the host of the annual TurnipCon, which celebrates the absurd miniatures game Turnip28, a topic I can't believe I haven't seen on TheGamer's virtual pages before. Watch this space. TurnipCon began when Lonsdale and his friends arranged to play Turnip28 at a gaming space in Bristol, and grew “out of control” to an annual 76-person event with a 50-person waiting list. If he could potentially attract 125 people to play the Turnip, Lonsdale could get double that number through the doors of Spruce, a much smaller venue.
The connections he made through TurnipCon are fundamental to the creation of Spru. Turnip28 creator Max Fitzgerald originally suggested the event in collaboration with Annie Norman of Bad Squido Games. They also connect Lonsdale with many vendors. Lonsdale also noted that he received advice and counsel from a professional conference organizer. How did you meet him? Her partner loves turnips.
Lonsdale is quick to praise others, and even has an inherent selflessness in the event. “I'm in a luxurious position where I don't have kids, I don't have to worry about any crazy expenses, and I love doing it,” he says. “I'm happy to see how it works and take money out of my own savings to keep it moving into the future.”
For the event, there are 40 vendors booked, including the likes of Hecate's Garden and Planet Smasher Games. About half of these will be pure vendors, peddling their homemade figurines or hand-crafted rulebooks. The other half will run their introductions to “strange little games,” as Lonsdale describes them. Have you seen Necropolis everywhere online but never had a chance to try it? This is your chance. Camping Kitbash will have a big presence, finding a home on the stage at the Albert Hall and performing Kitbash throughout the day. Lonsdale also hopes to use the venue's breakout room to host talks from builders.
While he admits he's not trying to compete with the big conventions, Spru has already made his mark online and tickets are selling “really well.” There are still some available, though, if this article has encouraged you to support independent creators and gather with fellow hobbyists in a room filled with more creative energy than Picasso's paintbrushes. Better to get in on the ground floor, before it spirals out of control like TurnipCon and you end up at the bottom of the next waiting list.
In a world where everything seems to revolve around making money — monetize your hobbies, run ads on your Instagram account, create a paywall for your blog, set up a Patreon for your particular creative output — Spru is a breath of fresh air. Sure, basically a room full of shoppers all hoping to make money. But you know that each of those vendors has poured their heart and soul into their creations, and not been ripped off by a corporate overlord to share them with the world.
As conventions get bigger and more corporate with each passing year (seriously, have you been to Comic-Con or a Pokemon TCG convention lately?), it's time to get back to our roots and celebrate the creatives who make great things and are desperate to fund their next great thing. This is where the real hobby is.
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