BJD Convention Panel

I had this problem last year, but what I came up with is, your showing your hobby to people who might want to know more about it so the basics should be essential. What I did is go over a tiny history, where they are produced, different sizes, what you can do with them, and a few FAQs like why it takes so long for the doll to arrive. I made it into a slideshow which is in movie format if you'd like I can send the link to, its not the best slideshow or info about BJDs but it might give you a direction?

 

Here are some ideas for talking points:

-different resin types and how they are affected by light (white, tan, special colors, french resin)
-Care and maintenance of your bjd
-Faceups and modding
-doll options (fullsets, blank dolls, additional fantasy parts, etc...)
-Doll price ranges and some suggested companies
-Things you can get for your doll (clothes, eyes, wigs, accessories, weapons, pets, furniture, etc...)
-Different types of wigs (fur, fiber, mohair) and eyes (glass, acryllic, urethane)
-What to do with your doll (photography, meetups, photostories, youtube vids)

 

When I did my panel at PMX in 2009 I made a Power Point presentation. I talked about:
resin
how they are made
why they cost so much
different sizes
different companies
BJDs vs Dollfie Dreams (this is very important since DDs are hugely popular now)
wigs, clothing, accessories
events such as Dolpa
doll culture in Japan compared to what it is like outside of Japan

I also included lots of photos of dolls, photos of events I went to in Japan, and the video of my Omukae at Sato. I did the panel with Batchix so we included photos of her casting process and she even brought in some of her equipment and explained the high cost of raw materials and now time consuming it was to cast a doll.. We brought in our dolls to show and even had our friends bring in examples we thought would be interesting to show.

It was a lot of fun. If I hadn't been roped into the fashion dept I would have done another panel again last year.

 

I think why they cost so much would be a good topic for a 101 pannel. When I first started into the hobby I almost ran the other direction because I thought the dolls were way over priced. Understanding why they cost so much would be a good place to start for a beginner.

 

It's been mentioned a few times already, but think this is definitely a big point. Most people immediately drop their respect for you like a rock when you admit you spend something like $800 on a doll. They still believe doll=toy. I think the biggest hill to climb is communicating that these are NOT toys, they aren't meant for babies, and they aren't sold in the pink section of toy stores. The best analogy I've been able to relate to people is that they are art. They are made by hand, by artists, for me to customize artistically. Art is something that people easily accept as being expensive (even those infamous "blank canvas" masterpieces hanging in modern art museums? Yeah, that's a gazillion dollar fine art piece.)

So it's a customizable art piece, and the hobby has its own masters and celebrities, and every new doll is a new work of art for you to enjoy.

Just my two cents of course ^^ From my own experience talking with non-BJD people.

 

In addition to why they're so expensive, a general reasonably price range vs. totally unrealistic price expectations would be helpful. I see so many people wondering where they can get a BJD for $50 or less and then being unable to wrap their heads around just WHY that is such an unreasonable price range. You can probably tack this on to a discussion of why they're so expensive pretty easily. If you can find a way to emphasize that the cost of the doll includes a lot more than just the doll that might also be helpful.

Also an addition to the BJD vs. Dollfie Dream category -- an explanation of how BJDs differ from other dolls that happen to have ball joints (e.g. Delilah Noir).

A small list of online resources for doll information might not be a bad idea either if you can swing it. DoA is kind of obvious but might not even be the best one to list for newbies since it seems like DoA is still only allowing new members by invitation, and some newbies might not have anyone around them who can give them an invite.

 

For those of us that have either been to or hosted a BJD Panel: What have you seen/done? And for those that haven't: What would you expect to see?

I just thought it would be interesting to throw this out there to see how each panel varies from another. How does one person do things in comparison to another: and how can we all help one another to become better? Here are just a few discussion questions. ^^

Was it a beginner's panel or an intermediate one?

What did you expect from the Panel when you went in? From a beginner? From an intermediate?

Were there any points that needed to be hit but were not?
Were there things that could have gone better?

What went great in the panel?
Were there games? Discussion times?

If there was one thing you could pick a BJD panel to have, what would it be?

 

Hopefully they'd have a few for sale so I wouldn't have to pay shipping fees e.e

but sadly I'm not going to any cons this year v.v

 

I went to one at Dragon*Con a couple years ago. I can't recall the DoA name of the person who hosted it, but she is around here. She basically had all her dolls set up in the front of the room so you could look at them closely, and she took one of them apart and demonstrated her technique and tools for restringing. I found that really helpful, because I had never restrung one (too intimidated).

Discussion topics just kind of naturally evolved as people asked questions, and there were probably as many questions answered by the audience as by the panelist. It was a lot like participating in an in-person DoA thread, with everyone taking turns to have their say. There was a good mix of people with dolls, people wanting dolls, and friends who got dragged along.

After the formal panel time, people hung around to show off the dolls they had brought with them. It was neat seeing sculpts in person that I'd only ever seen in photos. I also got to see an older French resin doll, and how butter yellow she was!

Overall, I thought it was pretty successful. It was definitely geared towards a beginner, but the more knowledgeable people there enjoyed taking part too in the role of educators. I don't think anything like games would have been beneficial. Maybe in a small group as an ice breaker, but there were 40 or so people at this one. I do think that a chance for anyone who brought a doll to go up front with it and give a brief talk (what's the sculpt, how long have you had it, character / background, etc.) would have been fun, as I was too shy to really go up to people and ask those kinds of questions.

 

I've run two panels so far, both at the same convention the past two years.
The first year I only had a few people show up, but it was really nice having such a small group because it was a lot of one-on-one discussion and very informal. I feel like it suited the panel better because we all got to talk about our dolls and there was no awkwardness or nervousness. I didn't go over much information, just some basics on sizing and companies, but it was fun.

The panel this year had more people show up, so although I was more prepared, I must admit...it was nerve wracking. Talking to twenty people is vastly more difficult than talking to five. I stumbled over my words and forgot things and I feel like I looked majorly unprepared. However, I definitely think that it's shown me what I need to look into and discuss next year.
Ideally I'd set it up so half of the panel is spent giving information and half spent having a photoshoot of everyone's dolls and talking to people individually and such.

To present the information, I've used a powerpoint presentation both times. It includes basics on sizing, pictures and information about different companies, where to buy dolls and clothing, and other beginner information.

While showing this, I discuss the information and companies a bit more and show dolls that are present from these companies. Here's where I'd say to be more prepared, I didn't expect many questions and was caught off guard by a lot of questions about how old the companies were and other details that I'd neglected to brush up on. But it's all a learning experience...I was actually learning a lot from my audience this year!

After finishing up my powerpoint and answering questions, a lot of people that only came for that part left. But a few doll owners and people very interested in owning dolls stayed behind. We had a lot more time left over than I wanted, but overall it worked out well. People took pictures with the dolls and exchanged numbers/emails and a friend's father who is a photographer took loads of pictures of the group of dolls.

Half the fun of running a panel is the audience, you never know what you'll learn from them or what unique dolls you'll see. I love seeing custom faceups or companies that I've never even heard of.

I'd like to set up some sort of game for next year if I run a panel again. It would be nice to give out some sort of cute little things like accessories or fake food for dolls as prizes. Maybe a game of identifying sculpts/companies? Or quizzing them on the powerpoint? Or maybe a crossword puzzle or wordcross of doll vocabulary/info? So many ideas!

 

I first learned of ABJDs in a panel at Anime Evolution 2010, and I was completely ignorant to sizes, sculpts, and companies.
The lovely woman who ran the panel went through a brief history of dolls, the early days of Volks, then briefed through sizes and summarized the most popular companies from China, Japan and Korea. She even went through resin colours, clothing, wigs, and the different types of eyes. It was very informative, although if I hadn't recorded it to watch later I would have forgotten most of the facts.
There is so much you should know about the ABJD world that it's quite overwhelming when you first start out.

If I ran a panel (god forbid, I derp in crowds), I would see if I couldn't get printouts for the participants outlining the range of sizes and prices, popular companies to buy from, a summary of eye types (glass vs. silicone vs. acrylic), and basic jargon (body blushing, faceups, seams, mohair). Just keep it short and sweet, so newbies can familiarize themselves with a new hobby, and leave plenty of time for a Q&A. It might be tedious for seasoned doll collectors, however.. But they can always busy themselves by admiring the other dolls. ^^

 

Been to the panel at Dragon*Con Very interesting to see all the various dolls - & there was stuff for sale too!
I've been on panels at Cons, just not BJD ones. All sorts of people wander in so it is best to have introductory stuff. The panel at DC is long (I think she gets the room for 3 hours) so it's easy to divide up (intro, tutorial, wander around & look at everybody's stuff).

 

I think that's something more for the dealer's room at a convention. Panels are more for showing the dolls and the hobby rather than for sales.
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Restringing is a good topic for beginners and intermediates - there are people who have been in the hobby a while who still shrink away from unstringing and restringing their dolls and it's really such a simple and basic skill to have. Demystifying restringing is important I think. It might help if you had identical dolls, one strung and one unstrung so that people could see how the doll is supposed to look in one piece and another taken apart so that people could see where the parts fit together?

Face-up demonstrations are really nice, but might not work for a large group.

Having a glossary of terms on a hand-out might be useful for beginners who don't get the 'face-up', 'blushing', 'layaway' jargon at first. I'd also suggest having a few web addresses for useful sites that people could refer back to in their own time; a few companies with excellent customer services (so newcomers to the hobby aren't left to struggle), some reputable dealers in your country (to avoid customs fees - this is a big issue for Brits in the hobby!), and online resources like communities, wikis, size-comparisons, reviews...

I find that when people are excitedly watching a panel and taking part in Q&As, they can often forget a lot of what they've been told. Having a flyer with the basics of what you've been covering that they can take away is a good memory-jogger.

 

When I ran my first BJD panel last year it was major nerve-wracking. I never expected as many people to show up that did. The panel room was so full people were standing not only in the back of the room but out in the hallway as well. @.@ All in all though I think we did a pretty good job. I also did a powerpoint presentation with basics and I even had a chart done up to show the different price ranges between the companies. It was interesting to see that, for the most part, there's not a large gap between the prices of Yo-SD's and MSD's, but there's a large gap between MSD and SD. Very few companies have the prices evenly distributed.

I think in the intermediate panel I'll have a restringing demonstration, but for the beginning panel I'm lacking my adorable floppy tan DZ Hid. He was a great example to show the different between the skin tones of a company, especially since my friend had a WS DZ Hid. I was going to do a print out then but I ran out of time.

What my friend with the WS DZ Hid did was contact companies like JunkySpot and Mint on Card to send her things like bookmarks and other little goodies to hand out during the panel. We also had several people from the audience sit their dolls on the observation table with ours to show just what a wide range of customization there are. One gentleman even made a nature box that he used as a background for his little one. The one thing I wished we had more time for would have been discussion. One of the best topics we used was, "What got you into the hobby?"

This year I think I'll still pass around my Custom House Junior Jupiter as an example to poor restringing. One of the owners before me strung him too tightly so he has cracks on his wrist joints. It really is a perfect example, and he gets some lovins during the process.

 

I ran a beginner's doll panel at a local con for the past two years. The year before I only had about five people show up and didn't have a projector like the con people said I'd have so it was a little difficult. Last year I had a better turnout with about twenty people or so, I was amazed. The whole panel was pretty much based off of a power point that I had made describing a little bit of everything; where they come from, what are they made of, sizes, ect. I encouraged people to ask questions while the presentation was going and after but I think people got a little burnt out so it was mostly me chattering. ^^; I was joined by another member who had a re-stringing tutorial afterward but most people left... Don't know if I will have another panel this year but we'll see.

 

I'm bumping this thread up ^-^

I might be planning to give a lecture myself about BJD. I've been gathering info, asking people around and reading this thread very throughly. I still have a question to people who have been to a BJD lecture: Whattopic did you found wasn't covered enough? What topic did you think was left out but should have deffinitly been in there? Did you have a feeling some things should also be talked about even though they aren't as important, convenient or big topics about BJD's? a

Maybe some information: I would like to give a starterlike BJD lecture. These are some topics I'm thinking about to at least mention or talk about. They might seem a lot but I'm going to see if I can cut the lecture in 2 parts so people can come listen to the part they're more interested in (or stay for both).

• what is a BJD
  • history
  • sizes and kinds (like human, fantasy, anthro, ...)
  • what are they made of (resin, vinyl, ...)
  • difference with pullip, fashion doll, ...
• how are they made (and why are they so expensive)
• why would you buy them/what you can do with them
  • customization
    • wigs, eyes, clothes
    • face-ups
    • modding
    • skin colors/dying
  • creative skills
    • sewing
    • painting (tatoo's, face-up, ...)
    • photografy
    • sculpting
    • writing
    • role-playing
• where to buy them (what to look for, how to make a good choice for one personally)
  • dealer vs company
  • second hand market and the risk of the second hand market such as scammers or recasts
• where to find more information
  • forum
  • wikipedia
  • bjd collectasy
  • DOA
  • ... (I still need to make a solid list of where to find information ^_^ )
    I would also like to mention how some dolls are off-topic or banned on forum

Thanks in advantage for reading this and taking time to answer my questions!
And ofcourse a big thanks to the people who have helped me a lot up till now for making this great beginning/list allready!

 

My biggest tip: Don't be negative. DON'T be negative. DON'T be NEGATIVE!!

I know that sounds weird, but I've seen BJD panels where the presenter focused more on bad things in the hobby than good--that dolls are SO expensive, you'll absolutely have to struggle for years to get one, that strings break all the time, that restringing is nearly impossible, that it's very easy to get tricked into buying recasts, that everybody in the hobby will bully you if your doll is too cheap or not a Volks or Fairyland. We want people to understand the hobby and maybe even join, not be scared away or think we're even crazier for basically buying drama!

Another thing is to be absolutely sure you or your co-presenter is very knowledgeable in the basics, and can answer simple questions. You don't have to know everything, but at least know how to string a basic doll, know safe faceup supplies, know places to buy dolls, difference in sizes, basic history, and why the dolls cost so much. Think about what questions you had as a beginner, and have answers ready for those.

 

Well I was more planning on being as objective as possible rather then giving my/some opinions. I want them to understand and form their own opinion. But thanks for the advice! I can see how that is helpfull and the other advice was good too (about the co-presenter and own beginners questions).

 

One of the things done at the "local" con I love (it's not really local to me anymore, but I still consider it my "local" con since it was for so long, and I still go even though I've moved out of state for now) is, when we do the "show and tell" panel (formerly part of the panel, but now the whole thing), everyone says one good thing and one bad thing about their doll, to make it more objective for those who might be interested in that particular line or sculpt. For instance, "I love that my DollPamm has such a unique, cute look, but it's tough to find clothes for her!" So I don't think negativity needs to be ruled out entirely, but should be heavily moderated with positive aspects. ("The wait times can be long, but when you get your brand-new doll made just for you, it's totally worth it!" And as someone who restrung a doll in the middle of a box opening in less than the time it took the other two people to dress theirs, I will forever disagree that restringing is difficult.)

I think good, succinct information is definitely the best thing. Cover the highlights of what someone new should know, and then be knowledgeable enough to open the floor up to questions afterward, rather than try to flood everyone with as much information as possible right out of the gates.