Hi,
 
Now that things are starting to move along, we thought it was time to bring you the first of our regular updates on what is happening with Auto Assembly 2009...

BOOKINGS

Since we opened bookings less than a month ago, it would seem that we are already on target for setting a new European attendance record once again! We have already beaten the attendance figures that we set for Auto Assembly 2000 and Auto Assembly 2001 and what that has meant is that - sadly - for those of you who have not already registered, the free DVDs that are part of the goodie bag have already been allocated. We do have plenty of other items that will be in the goodie bag for ALL attendees though so don't worry if you haven't already booked as no-one will go away from the convention empty handed!

For those of you who are reluctant to book your tickets online using PayPal, we now have the Postal Booking Forms on the website for downloading so you can print these off and send them to us with your payment. The early registration discounts still apply if you book this way, as do the family discounts.

DEALER TABLES

If you want to attend Auto Assembly 2009 as a dealer, we have also opened up bookings for dealers tables this year so get in touch if you are interested. We have sorted out the room layout and as well as reserving space for all of our regular dealers who will be returning, we do have space available for new dealers but tables are limited so hurry if you want to get involved!

GUESTS

We already have a fantastic guest line-up for Auto Assembly 2009 with no less than ELEVEN guests confirmed so far with more in the pipeline. Right now we are being joined by our first guest of honour, Ian James Corlett (the voice of Cheetor from Beast Wars) and supporting him is our usual array of comic guests - Andrew Wildman, Simon Williams, Jason Cardy, Kat Nicholson, Staz Johnson, Liam Shalloo, Lee Sullivan, Mike Collins, Lee Bradley and John McCrea. We are currently in talks with a second voice actor and additional comic guests.

What we can now confirm is some of the extra involvement of some of our guests during the weekend... As we have already announced, we will be having a live voice actor script reading on the Saturday evening. Taking to the stage will be Ian Corlett, Simon Williams taking on the role of the narrator, and our second voice actor in a brand new script penned by Simon Furman!

Many of our comic guests will be doing sketches for fans during the convention, usually for a small charge, and we can already confirm that Andrew Wildman and Simon Williams will again be doing these for any fans who want an original piece of artwork! Simon will also be bringing artwork and prints for sale.

Still with the weekend activities and we would like to announce that IDW and Titan comic colourist Liam Shalloo will be taking charge of one of the comic colourist workshops taking place during the weekend and as with ALL of the activities and workshops at Auto Assembly, there is no additional charge once you have paid your registration fee!!

As always, guests are appearing subject to work and personal commitments.

AUTO ASSEMBLY SHOP

Just added to the website is the new Auto Assembly Shop. You can now buy back issues of our convention magazine, The Cybertronian Times, the Auto Assembly pin badges that were produced for Auto Assembly 2005 and Auto Assembly 2006, and the full range of keyrings produced for Auto Assembly 2008. We will ship these worldwide and all proceeds will go towards Auto Assembly 2009's guest budget and providing additional activities and events during the weekend. We have been offered additional guests for the convention but the only way we can get these is through extra funding so if you are coming to Auto Assembly and you want to see them, then every penny from these sales helps!

THE CYBERTRONIAN TIMES ISSUE 10

After a brief delay, we have opened pre-orders for this year's convention magazine through the bookings page on the website. For those of you who have already pre-registered, you can still pre-order the magazine by going to the bookings page and placing your order and we will match it to your booking so it will be ready for collection on arrival. We will have a limited number of additional copies available for sale over the weekend but we do recommend ordering in advance as most of the earlier issues have sold out completely!

CAR / ROOM SHARE

A lot of you may be travelling to Auto Assembly 2009 on your own or are planning on coming to the convention on your own this year and are finding the cost daunting in these difficult financial times. To make things easier, we have established two new areas on the Official Auto Assembly forum where you can find other Transformers fans who may be willing to car share or room share to help you cut your costs.

For those of you who still want to go it alone but need help, we're only too happy to help you find the best travel deals, good prices on car parking or anything else that you need to get your money to stretch as far as possible!

GOODIE BAG UPDATE

We have now confirmed the seventh item for our infamous goodie bag! Courtesy of reprolabels.com all attendees will be receiving a sheet of custom insignia stickers as part of their goodie bag. We don't know exactly what will be on the sheets yet, but rest assured that they will be up to the usual high standard from Reprolabels.

These gifts are in addition to the DVDs for the first 49 pre-registrants (which have now been allocated), and packs of G1 stickers for the first 100 attendees (although we may be getting a further supply of these soon), keyrings, two postcards, and lanyards (the last four guaranteed for every attendee). We are still in talks to bring you even more free gifts as part of your goodie bag so keep your eyes peeled!

**

For those of you who still don't know, Auto Assembly 2009 is taking place at the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre, Smallbrook Queensway, Birmingham, England from Saturday 15th - Sunday 16th August 2009. A bonus programme of activities will take place on the evening of Friday 14th August 2009 for those fans who are attending the convention for the full weekend.

Anyway, that's it for this update but we'll be back with more news soon. We hope to see many of you in August for what we think will be the biggest and best Auto Assembly ever!
 
Simon and Sven
Auto Assembly
 
web: www.autoassembly.org.uk
forum: http://autoassembly.proboards7.com
email: autoassembly@aol.com
tel: +44 (0)7804 951406