After the huge success that was ‘the Clevs do Minevention Athlone‘ back in July, when we saw tickets were available for Minevention Galway event we jumped right at them. Once again O’brien event management really knocked it out of the park.
Funny story – My friend and her kids were due to come over that week, so I had kind of written off the Galway event, assuming the kids would all rather just spend time with each other frolicking and playing in dirt. Wow was I wrong. Turns out William and Paige are even more into Minecraft than my kids!! Luis, William and Paige had a great day out at the Raddison in Galway with each other and Youtube stars (Maxi was at hospital so didn’t get to take part but we have promised to take him and the rest of the gang to the huge conference later this year + the kids did all do plenty of playing in the dirt together later in the week, see this post).
The way the Minevention workshops work are that they are set up with a Lego area (thanks to Kids Brick Club – open one in Athlone please? I have your first 3 customers ready and waiting here!), then banks of xboxes and screens, a gigantic wall projector screen and laptop area plus the 3D Oculus Rift gaming area. The schedule they follow is Q+A with the Youtube stars, games and challenges, hot lunch provided by the hotel, more games and challenges, Minecraft chat, even more games and challenges then goodie bag collecting, autograph/photo session and home time.
This time round the Youtube sensations were SnakeDoctor, Solidarity Gaming and MadHatter who were all so kind and chatted with the kids, signed autographs and posed for photos.
Since going to the Athlone workshop and now the Galway one Luis has set up his own youtube channel. I’m a mean parent who makes my kids do chores for Xbox and Computer time, they can buy anything up to 45 minutes with little jobs like making their beds and putting away washing. Since meeting his Youtube idols he has been inspired and now uses his time constructively to write stories, and create his own videos. Maxi is even starting to do the same. Its awesome as I feel like Im encouraging their imagination while also building their skill set. Minevention has been really good for encouraging them and giving them confidence and plenty of ideas too.
The kids all had an absolute blast and at the end of the day picked up another awesome goodie bag, which Becky helpfully photographed for me. In the interest of a full disclosure I’m not personally affiliated with Minevention nor was I compensated to write this post but from personal experience I know how much youngsters enjoy the day, and want to share what is an awesome business, a great team and a fab day out. As I said in my previous Minevention post it is absolutely 100% worth the money and the kids love it.
You can find Minevention on Twitter, Facebook or at their website.
Tickets for their Galway and Meath Minecraft Convention’s 2015 are currently on sale and the event promises to be awesome, I’ve seen the Galway venue first hand and its huge and will be packed full of traders, stuff to see and even robots. Buy your tickets HERE.
UK People – Minevention are hosting a huge convention in Peterborough on 12th September. It will be amazeballs. Visit their website here, and grab your tickets here.
See you again in November Minevention 🙂
