I recently got the chance to interview a very old friend of mine, Billy Edwards, who I’ve known for 20-something years. Billy is a solicitor in Liverpool, but it’s more interesting that he organises and runs what I think is Europe’s largest Transformers convention, which takes place in Birmingham each year, TF Nation. I got to speak about TF Nation, what the future holds and what it’s like for Billy dealing with anxiety and having initially struggled to attend a convention to then end up running it on stage with a microphone.
DARREN: So, Billy, you’ve been running TF Nation since 2015. You had your massive TF Nation event planned for 2020, which had the biggest guest we’ve ever had in a UK convention –the almighty Peter Cullen, voice of Optimus Prime, and it was completely curtailed by events outside of everybody’s control. What was that like for you and the TF Nation team when that hit?
BILLY: We felt a bit like a team of people who had to steal Christmas away from people! We were monitoring the situation and it was getting to the point where we were thinking “right, we might make a call on this event sooner or later anyway because we don’t like the health situation, we don’t necessarily feel that promoting an event in this environment is something we want to be doing”, and as we got closer and closer to that, it became apparent to us that we needed to.
The hardest part was going to be the actual pulling of the plug because you have all manner of contracts and stuff in the background that have to be untangled before you can make an announcement in regards to the event, so it was strange. Part of it was very regimented and the other part was this constant dread of knowing it’s gonna happen and we’re gonna upset people, but what more can you do?
DARREN: And I believe from conversations we’ve had as well that the insurance you had to cover all this didn’t quite help out as much as you wanted it to, is that right?
BILLY: No, and to be honest, that’s a position for I think pretty much everyone across the hospitality industry – you spend a lot of money on insurance for a lot of different things, and then ultimately something that, to be fair, was even outside of their control, but was also outside of what they could reasonably foresee to be a risk that they would cover, and then all of a sudden that insurance basically isn’t there anymore.
I must say that practically everybody we work with was brilliant about the insurance situation and I should give a big heads up to Peter Cullen actually, because not only was there was there no financial ramifications from him whatsoever, but he got back to us and he just said “look, just let me know before you want to go ahead with this if it’s something that’s going to put you in any kind of difficulty”, and he said that before COVID as well. He is very, very nice and upfront about things because they understand it’s big international flights and all that kind of stuff going on.
DARREN: I imagine running an event like TF Nation, where you’re getting hundreds of fans from around the world and you’re getting guests from around the world to come in, is not just a logistical nightmare but a financial nightmare to do as well. How do you how do you manage all of that?
BILLY: When we first started back in the tail end of 2015, we decided to self-fund. So, myself and the other directors all put loan money in up front because it was quite important to us that we didn’t want to be held to do anything that we didn’t want to do, and that can come with large sponsorships. So that got us off the ground, and then it’s very much um just ticket sales that paved the way for us, with the odd bit of merchandise as well.
As a result of the pandemic, we revisited the ticket prices and more so the ticket structure. We’ve come up with a solution whereby we will generate extra revenue but at the same time keep a family friendly environment and also give people flexibility to book what they want, and we hope it’s working, obviously we need to get to the other side of this event but feeling okay about it right now
DARREN: One thing I’ve always wondered about you is why the hell are you doing it? Because when we first met, which I think was online wasn’t it, in 2001, 2002, something along those lines, you were very shy, weren’t you? You didn’t go out much, you didn’t go to the early auto assemblies.
BILLY: No, so I mean obviously it’s your website that led me to find my way into the Transformers fandom, which was the transformers.net. To be honest, the way it happened was I’d started university in about 2003, I think it was, and because we are very old, not everybody had internet at home at the time, and certainly people didn’t have wi-fi. Going to university in Preston, I didn’t know anybody, and I’m very, very boring if that has not come across already. I would spend a lot of time in the library looking like I was doing really well but actually just trying to work out what on earth was going on. Then in the evening, the library had a mezzanine internet, and I spent my time on Transformers.
I was just kind of on the verge and getting to know people online and stuff, but by 2006, there was really no excuse for me to not go because I’d made so many friends that it would just seem bizarre that I had nothing else on, it wasn’t out of the country or anything but I just didn’t go anyway. I’m an incredibly anxious person and so the idea of meeting people in person at that point in my life was just terrifying, so it was easier to just not do it.
But then there was a group of you from transformers.net there, and there was a colouring competition. Somebody nicked one of the entries and didn’t colour it in, instead they turned it over and got everybody to sign it for me, which was very nice, including Andrew Wildman, who literally signed it saying “I have no idea who you are”. So everybody signed that and sent it to me, and it was very nice, and I took that as a very polite kick up the backside and “you better come next year”, which I didn’t, but that wasn’t my fault, it was a gap year in 2007.
BILLY: I had really geared myself up to do it as well, and so that became 2008 for me.
DARREN: It’s interesting you talk about having social anxiety about going and meeting people, because I imagine there’s a lot of Transformers fans who go to a Transformers convention for the first time with huge social anxiety about meeting people, and you’ve done that. Now, you now stand on the stage and host some of it, you pass it over to people who talk.
So, what was that like? I’m going to use the word transformation, what was that like for you to change from somebody with social anxiety to getting up on the stage and doing it?
BILLY: It was brilliant because it was very apparent to me very early on that it was bigger than me, if that makes sense. Whether or not I get on stage and say a thing doesn’t really matter, but if I get on stage with the background I have and then on a platform like this I can explain it to somebody else, that’s useful, so in that sense it was bigger than me.
So at my second event in 2009, I started volunteering, and I did it because I did not know what to do. I was walking around and other than when I was with all of you guys together in a safe social circle, it was very strange for me to think “right, what do I do here?” I didn’t feel useful, so that’s why I started volunteering, and then progressing onto stage stuff. It’s just a natural progression of that. I always think that using a microphone is actually quite good for somebody who’s got anxiety because when you’re the loudest person in the room people will listen. I personally find it much easier to speak to many, many people than I do to speak to one person.
DARREN: Being a solicitor, you work in a very serious office in an important role, and you’re also a Transformers fan. I obviously work in digital marketing and web design, which is slightly more accepting of people being a little bit geeky. What’s it like working as a solicitor yet also running a Transformers convention?
BILLY: The vast majority of people have been really supportive. I think once people realise that it’s quite a professional production, they think “oh actually, that that’s quite cool”. I’ve had people who’ve got no interest in Transformers whatsoever come to our events because they’re just so interested in in hearing about it. Ut’s very rare that you get anyone push back and try and try and say anything rude, and it’s more the point that some people just won’t get it and so they just they just won’t have the conversation with you
DARREN: So, there will be loads of people at this next convention who will be there on their own, probably at their first event, scared to talk to people, trying to avoid eye contact and just trying to mingle around on their own. What advice would you have for them, or possibly more importantly, advice for other people who see them?
BILLY: Iit always feels very easy when you’re beyond it, but here’s the thing – when you suffer from anxiety, it doesn’t ever go away. You don’t think you’re getting over it, because you’re not, what you’re going to do is come up with coping mechanisms that mean that you can get the most out of life for any given situation.
The first step really is the most difficult because once you’ve gone into that situation and said something, it can be really easy. I don’t want to suggest that it shouldn’t be genuine, but what I think is that if you’re suffering from anxiety, it almost helps to come with some like pre-loaded questions. So if you’re playing with a Transformer, it’s “oh, who’s that Transformer?” or if you’ve got that Transformer, tell them. It’s a way of interjecting yourself politely into a conversation. I find that so many people use those initial questions to get into conversations, and they don’t talk about Transformers for the whole weekend, but you just talk about anything else like you would with anybody, but because you’ve established, there is no prejudice, no preconceived notions of what it means to be a Transformers fan. Then, it becomes that much easier all of a sudden. To answer the other part of your question, I’d always encourage people to just go in and say hello to somebody.
DARREN: And for the people that are coming to their first ever TF Nation, what can they expect?
BILLY: Depending on where they are in their journey as a fan and their journey with anxiety if they’re anxious, I know not everybody is, but they can probably expect to be overwhelmed at some point. They can expect to be overwhelmed by how friendly and open and engaging the attendees are. Imagine going to a pub and just sitting down with a group of people and joining the conversation, they’d look at you like you were weird, but that’s exactly what you do at the convention. You will have people mingling between groups and it’s brilliant.
At first that can strike you and you can think “I didn’t realise they were going to be this friendly”, but they are.
DARREN: So if anybody is interested in coming to TF Nation or helping out in TF Nation, or even getting in touch with you for just a an idle chat, what’s the best way they can contact you or TF Nation to do that?
BILLY: So the best way to contact TF Nation if you’re interested in volunteering or just coming to the event is if you go to tfnation.com. The event dates this year are the 12th to 14th of August. I definitely wouldn’t recommend you just engage with me but if you want to, you can find me on twitter @billystripes and if you want to engage with really strange black and white photos of bits of metal, then that’s what I do on Instagram under the same handle.
DARREN: Thank you very much Billy, it’s been an absolute pleasure to speak with you as always.
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