EVENT RECAP: ELUAL 2015 | SANTIAGO, CHILE

EVENT RECAP: ELUAL 2015 | SANTIAGO, CHILE

This year I had the privilege of attending the Encuentro Latinoamericano de Usuarios Adultos de LEGO® 2015 or ELUAL hosted in Santiago, Chile. The event’s name, ELUAL, translates into English as the Latin American AFOL (adult fan of LEGO) Meeting. As well as being my only business trip to South America of 2015; this was also my last trip of the year.

After about 15 hours’ worth of traveling, I arrived in Santiago on the morning of Friday November 13th. Christian Breinbauer, current LAN Work Group Leader and member of ChileLUG, had agreed to give me a lift from the airport and was waiting for me upon my arrival. As the event’s set-up was not scheduled until Saturday afternoon we opted to spend some time catching up over lunch and then do a little sightseeing.  As Chile is in the southern hemisphere, their weather is exactly opposite of the northern hemisphere. So I was delighted by the wonderfully warm weather that was quite different from the chilly temps back home in Enfield, Connecticut. As we drove about the city, I snapped dozens of pictures capturing the beautiful greenery and surrounding mountains.

One of our stops presented me with the opportunity to see where ChileLUG holds a majority of their group meetings. It was a nice cozy spot in a shopping mall near a rather large hobby shop. There were a number of tables and chairs about so I could certainly see why such a spot would be an ideal meeting place for AFOLs! After chatting a bit we browsed the shop, which carried a number of different LEGO products and many additional fun and unique items to occupy one’s time.

Afterwards, we visited one of the five local LEGO Certified Stores in the city of Santiago. It was here that I learned that the country of Chile currently has 10 LEGO Certified Stores, which is quite remarkable! The layout and selection of these stores is nearly identical to what you would find at a LEGO Brand Retail store in Europe or the United States. Walking around in the store provided me with a sense of both familiarity and uniqueness.  The staff was very friendly and I was able to chat with them a bit before departing.

After leaving the store I headed over to check into my hotel. After taking a few hours to rest and settle in a bit, I again met up with Christian to go to dinner at a lovely local restaurant. As other members of the AFOL community began to arrive in the area, we had the opportunity to join up with a member of LUG Brasil and another from LUG Perú. The restaurant had served us some delicious Chilean cuisine and even featured wandering musicians who entertained everyone with song and dance. During dinner, we all discussed a number of topics and overall had a great time. My first day was over and I already felt that I had gotten a nice bit of exposure to both the culture and the city.

Christian picked me up from my hotel Saturday around noon so that we could grab lunch before heading to the event for set-up at the venue. We once again met up with our friends from last night and even snagged another member from LUG Brasil, Daniel. It was great seeing Daniel again as we had just bumped into each other a couple months prior in Skærbæk, Denmark for another AFOL event, Fan Weekend!

The event took place at the Centro Cultural de España, or rather the Cultural Center of Spain located in Santiago. This venue took great use of the beautiful weather by allowing areas of the event to take place outside, under a few tents, as well as inside in a few open areas. There were a handful of AFOLs on hand to help with set-up which included the building of tents, construction of tables, laying out of table cloths, and set up of MOCs. As the afternoon carried on, more and more fans showed up with boxes, bins and enthusiasm!

Although the bulk of set-up wrapped up in the early evening there were still a few activities planned by Christian and Miguel, ChileLUG’s RLUG Ambassador. Some familiar games kicked off in which AFOL was pitted against AFOL in friendly competition. The first game had two teams of two compete to build a small LEGO City set the fastest. What made this challenging was that in each team, one participant’s hand was tied to one hand of their teammate. This created a very entertaining arrangement and coordination became critical! Following this up was a traditional blind build activity in which four AFOLs competed against one another to build their LEGO Creator set the first without being able to see the LEGO elements nor their build. The final game focused on the accurate identification of LEGO Collectible Minifigures from their sealed pouches. I was pleasantly surprised to hear my name called during a particular round and upon handing over my camera, I swiftly began squeezing the small pouch in my hand. My opponent and I both called out what we believed to be the figure held within, at exactly the same moment. We decided to open and pour out the contents together. The verdict was a tie. The evening concluded with some pizza and beverages before everyone headed back to their hotels or homes to rest up.

For AFOL events in North America there has long been a focus on AFOL to AFOL interaction through the hosting of various games and activities during the event. However I noticed that this concept is still quite new in South America. Typically, the primary focus of an AFOL event in South America is to share your MOCs with a public audience and not necessarily to compete or participate in games, activities, workshops, etc with other AFOLs. So while the activities that Christian and Miguel hosted at this event were quite familiar to me, it came as somewhat of a surprise to the attendees. Seeing ideas from LEGO fans on one part of the world transfer to others is is truly amazing and really drives home the notion that the LEGO fan community is a global one.

The event was free of charge to public visitors and opened on Sunday at 10:00 AM. I had arranged a lift over to the event approximately an hour before the public were scheduled to arrive.  Daniel, a member of LUG Perú, (not to be confused with Daniel from Brasil) met me at my hotel and we headed over. With another beautiful day upon us, the doors opened and families began flowing in. As typical at any AFOL event, fans were scattered about touching up their builds and attending to any last minute details. I took this as an opportunity to wander around the venue and snap pictures of the amazing original builds on show. It was also at this time that I was able to get an accurate overview of all the RLUGs present. This was an amazingly diverse group which included ChileLUG, ConceLUG, SupraBricks, LUG Brasil and LUG Perú. I also took note that there were two food vendors who had opened for business at the venue. One providing snow cones, which was certainly a nice treat when the sun was high during the afternoon, and the other fries and canned soda. Each AFOL participant was provided with vouchers to receive one item from each vendor at no costs, a nice touch by the organizers. The atmosphere and spirit was pleasant and festive as children and adults alike enjoyed their confections while wandering about the venue looking onto the amazing works on display.

The ELUAL aims to bring together the entire Latin American AFOL community at one central location each year. I’m very supportive of this initiative and could not be more proud of the local community for putting emphasis on this with coordination and sharing of responsibilities each year. The goal is to both continue growing the event each year as well as allow different RLUGs in the region to host it. This event really does have the potential to become an AFOL hub in the region for not only South America but also Central and even North America. Although the exact dates are still to be confirmed, I am pleased to share that ELUAL 2016 will be hosted by LUG Perú in Lima, Perú. I sincerely hope that any AFOLs in the area consider attending the event next year, and I would be ecstatic to see participation from other RLUGs in Central or North America.

As my flight home on Monday wasn’t scheduled until late in the evening, I had another beautiful day to sneak in some sightseeing. Christian was again to the rescue as his schedule allowed him the opportunity to meet up with me once again. I left our itinerary for the day up to my native guide, and he certainly didn’t disappoint. We made a number of amazing stops! One of these stops was the Gran Torre Santiago, which is the tallest building in Latin America. The view from atop was simply breathtaking. From there we could see all of Santiago and even our next stop on the tour, the statue of Virgin Mary on San Cristóbal Hill. The large beautifully sculpted statue sat upon a large green hill within the city. We took a short train up the side and walked right up to the top. I took the opportunity to fill my camera with dozens more amazing photographs.

Christian also took me for a stroll through a serine artist community where skilled and talented artisans were crafting and selling some amazing souvenirs! There were a myriad of things to browse such as clothing, bags, statuettes, jewelry and so much more. I took the opportunity to bring home with me a small, hand-carved, wooden Moai after learning that Easter Island is a part of Chile. This piece is now safely resting on my office desk as a wonderful memento of my experience.

Lastly, we took the opportunity to visit a second LEGO Certified Store. This location was much smaller in footprint but had some unique design features such as large sculpted LEGO elements on the front entrance and transparent tiling that housed thousands of multi-colored LEGO elements. After my final day of exploration in Santiago, Christian kindly dropped me off at the airport and I began my long journey home.

I’d like to thank Christian for taking so much of his personal time to host me in Santiago. I felt very welcomed and truly enjoyed my entire experience. It’s not often that I have the opportunity to do much sightseeing while traveling for business. The duration of my stay in Santiago wasn’t much longer than my typical trip business trip; however I feel like I had an absolutely wonderful experience and got some great insight into the culture, landscape and challenges the local AFOL community faces. Many thanks for allowing me to end 2015 on such a positive note!

For those interested, I’ve uploaded all the photographs taken during my trip to my photostream on Flickr. A few have been highlighted here but there are hundreds more to enjoy!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and please do let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns by dropping a note in the comments below.

Sincerely,

Kevin Hinkle

Community Manager

AFOL Relations & Programs

LEGO Community Engagement