Texas Spring Workshop - May 5th and 6th - Christmas Group Information to Share. Read Only. No more posting. - PlanetChristmas! Forums. Read Only. We've moved to http://talk.planetchristmas.com - The Forums of PlanetChristmas have moved to http://talk.PlanetChristmas.com
The train cars and engine have been started. I am using skateboard wheels and axles for the cars and using roller blade wheels for the engine. The cars are upside down right now while I am setting up the proper axle angles. You can see the prototype train on the back side that I am working from. I am scaling it up to fit my setup better and adding a few extra cars. There will be a total of 5 cars plus the engine when it is complete.
I am on an Conference Call right now for this event and it looks like it is going to eclipse the San Antonio Work Shop I hosted last year. Right now we have over 70 attendees signed up coming from Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, North Carolina, and Washington DC. If you are interested in coming and haven't signed up yet, there is still time. We will be located at a facility near Love Field (airport) so flying in is quick and easy! And remember you don't even need to rent a car if you fly in to Love and stay at one of the airport hotels.
Edit: For those that were at San Antonio, don't worry about space, this facility is HUGE!
Last edited on Friday April 13th, 2007 03:05 am by Jeff_Womack
Jeff_Womack wrote: We will be located at a facility near Love Field (airport) so flying in is quick and easy! And remember you don't even need to rent a car if you fly in to Love and stay at one of the airport hotels.
For those who want to take advantage of our group rate for the hotel, please keep in mind that the special rate expires today. If you are even thinking about coming, I would highly recommend that you book your hotel, today. You can sign up for the workshop over the weekend if you wish, but to get the hotel rate, you need to get on the stick and do it today!
- We will have a keynote speaker who is a Pulitzer Prize Finalist who is working on a new project about Christmas Lighting Enthusiasts, profiling one particular TCL member. I believe he will have books to sign also. (I will check on that though)
- We will be offering FREE wireless internet connectivity for all attendees so bring your laptop if you want!
- As usual, our own home grown computer control company, D-Light will be in attendance!
- We will be demonstrating new products from Light-O-Rama.
- But wait, what about AL? Heck they decided they needed to be there also so AL will be demonstrating how to use their products to control DMX products and do cool video presentations! There will also be more very cool info about new products AL will be carrying! DISCOUNTS may apply!
- We will have a presentation of a new professional grade snow machine on site!
- Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we will have a LOR Certified Dealer on site with INVENTORY on hand! Time to stock up and get it immediately!
- Swap shop and demo room!
- And as both the Chicago and San Antonio events set forth as a presedence, we will be feeding you meals on both days (two lunches)!
- Continuing the great success of our mega dinner at San Antonio, everyone who wants can join the group for a Saturday night dinner, more discussions, and friendship building.
- Finally, I would be remiss not to mention Go Carts and Drag Racing also on Saturday night after dinner.
It's not too late to sign up and with the facility we will have we only have limited seating available (about 75 more on top of the 75 we already have!). Ok the "limited seating" part was a bad joke but seriously, we have a HUGE facility and plenty of room so sign up, book your flight tonight and see us in Dallas in a few weeks!
____________________ Chuck Smith at http://www.PlanetChristmas.com
Don't forget our three PlanetChristmas rules: Positive, family friendly and Christmas centric
If you have registered for the Spring 2007 TCL workshop - please check your e-mail for a message from the planning committee (actually from don@texaschristmaslights.com). It contains a .pdf link to important information on your registration as well as facility security information and a parking pass that you must have to attend the event. If you are registered for the event and did not receive the e-mail, please contact me directly - jeff@trykoskichristmas.com
If you have not yet registered for our event and are still interested in joining us in Dallas May 5th - 6th, there is still plenty of room and of time to register at http://www.texaschristmaslights.com. Registration is still a bargain at $30 / person and covers all materials as well as a full, catered lunch on both days. Due to demand, our hotel block has been expanded to meet demand and rooms are still available. A full schedule is available on our website.
We are pleased to announce that we have not one, but two special guests joining us at the workshop. Chuck Smith - founder of PlanetChristmas will be in attendance at his first Texas Christmas Lights workshop. Also joining us is our keynote speaker - two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Washington Post reporter, and accomplished author Hank Stuever from Washington, DC. Mr. Stuever is currently working on a non-fiction book about "Christmas in an American Suburb". He will have some brief remarks about his current project as well as observations on his 4-month immersion into the world of Christmas lighting. Mr. Stuever will also facilitate one of our educational sessions - "Working with the media" (you won't find a better facilitator for this topic ANYWHERE). He hopes to have a few copies of his past books available at a special signing table in the swap-meet and demonstration room at our workshop.
And to top it off, representatives and authorized dealers from several computerized lighting vendors are scheduled to be in attendance at our event as participants and will be available for questions.
JeffTrykoski wrote: And to top it off, representatives and authorized dealers from several computerized lighting vendors are scheduled to be in attendance at our event as participants and will be available for questions.
We also expect many of these vendors to have stock on hand available for purchace. Buy it there and take it home that night.
Well the ten days of Fiesta San Antonio are over and now I am getting ready for this weekend's Work Shop! If you have trades with me for the swap shop, please email me so I can get the stuff ready! See you in a few days.
If you are a registered attendee for the Spring Texas Christmas Lights workshop, you should have already received your attendeee information packet (a .pdf link) via e-mail. This has important information about our event, including a special parking pass that you will have to have in order to access the facility.
We are quickly closing in on 90 registered attendees and have many great presentation and events lined up. If you haven't registered yet and have thought about joining us in Dallas, there's still time! Visit our website at http://www.texaschristmaslights.com to register today. A copy of our schedule and other information is available along with a quick sign-up form. As long as we know you are coming, we even pay at the door for no additional charge.
Our last day for new registrations is Wednesday, as we need to provide our catering partners final figures on food for the event 48 hours in advance.
5 days and counting...
Jeff
p.s. If you didn't receive your information packet with parking pass, please e-mail me directly (jeff@trykoskichristmas.com). We had a few e-mail addresses bounce last week but have been working to ensure that everyone has the materials. At this point, we feel like we have contacted everyone and/or responded to people that we missed. If we still missed you, e-mail me and we'll get you what you need.
JeffTrykoski wrote: We are quickly closing in on 90 registered attendees and have many great presentation and events lined up. If you haven't registered yet and have thought about joining us in Dallas, there's still time! Visit our website at http://www.texaschristmaslights.com to register today.
Ok, we need at least ten more people to come out of the wood work for this one! The San Antonio event was great but space limited us. Micheal Gardner has taken care of the space issue in a really big way.
Coming off of 10 days of partying like a rock star (Fiesta San Antonio) you might think I wouldn't be pumped for this weekend, but that just isn't the case. This is going to be great and as long as I don't forget a bunch of trades at home, I will have a blast! I can't wait to meet some new people and see all my old friends.
Progress is still being made on the tree train but it is slow when you have to explain everything to an 11 month old. This is a picture of my son Carter getting a sneak peak at the engine plans (pencil sketch on paper).
Side panels have been added to enclose the base. Trim pieces will be added to give it a more finished look. The tree will sit on top of this structure and the train will be visible from the sides. As you can see there is still lots of work to do. The rain this week in Dallas is hampering my paining efforts but I am very motivated to get as much done as possible before the workshop.
Here is a progress picture of the engine. The original design called for using multiple roller blade wheels to give it a more prototypical look but I ran into issues of having all the wheels touching the track at the same time. Some wheels where free-wheeling while others were making contact. I could not adjust them enough to consistently work using 6 wheels so I went and bought another skateboard and used the wheels and trucks from that. By the way, I will have 6 skateboard decks for the swap meet room if anyone has kids into skating Looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend, this is going to be a great workshop!
Looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend, this is going to be a great workshop!
