Auto Assembly 2015 To Be The Final Year For Long-Running UK Convention

It’s with a great deal of sadness and after a lot of deliberation over the last couple of months, that we have to bring you the news that this year’s convention, Auto Assembly 2015, is going to be our last. Auto Assembly has been running for a long time – 15 years in fact – and has grown immensely since it’s humble beginnings at the Ibis Hotel in Birmingham when just 31 fans attended the first event run on 22nd October 2000 by myself and Sven Harvey.

Having been involved in running fan clubs, events and conventions for over 25 years it has now started to take its toll on me – emotionally, mentally and physically. Certainly I’m not as young as I used to be when I started out back in 1989 (before many of you attending Auto Assembly were even born!) and over the last few years I have been struggling to cope with declining health issues and the day to day pressures of family life as well as running what has grown to become Europe’s Largest Transformers Convention. In fact, several of us on the team are now starting to struggle with declining health issues including my wife Trish and our deputy head Billy Edwards is currently undergoing tests on his injured hand which is limiting the time he can spend on the convention too. All of this is adding up to make the convention a great strain physically on many of us.

Unfortunately as individuals, our lives are getting busier all the time as well making work on the convention increasingly difficult. While we don’t want to dwell on this too much, some of us on the team aren’t able to dedicate as much time to Auto Assembly as much as we have been able to in the past because of work and other personal commitments and this is making the convention harder and harder to run. The last year or two this has been made worse as we have had to say goodbye to a few team members and although this is only natural with all conventions this has increased pressure on the remaining team and with a group that works so well together the last thing we want to do is compromise the quality of the convention not being able to be at our absolute best.

However, we certainly don’t want to see this decision as being as something negative for this year’s convention. Instead we hope that you’ll all come and join us one last time as we celebrate the last 15 years of Auto Assembly and how it has managed to bring Transformers fans together from all corners of the globe to share their passion for the franchise. For those of you who have never been before, this is your last chance to come and be a part of something magical as we aim to raise the bar one last time and make 2015 the best convention we have ever given to all of you…

To do this while we have already made a lot of announcements about guests and activities that will be taking place over the convention weekend, we have a lot more in store for you and we’ll be making these announcements on a regular basis over the coming weeks and months in the run-up to the convention. Here at Auto Assembly We’re all committed to making Auto Assembly 2015 something really spectacular and even though We may be bringing the event to a close, we’re certainly planning on going out with a bang!

We will be bringing you updates and information on what will be happening to Auto Assembly over the coming weeks and posting an FAQ here on the website to answer all of the questions that we know all of you are bound to have about what is happening but rest assured that this year’s convention won’t be the last you’ll see of the name Auto Assembly!

Thank you all for your support for the last 15 years – it’s been a fantastic ride!

Simon Plumbe
Auto Assembly