They’re ba-ack…Pelikan is at it again, announcing their third annual Pelikan Hubs event appropriately dubbed Pelikan Hubs 2016. The 2015 festivities saw a 56% growth in attendance over the year prior and I’m sure Pelikan is looking to keep that momentum going into this year’s event. If you’re curious as to what a “hub” is, it involves Pelikan fans from across the globe gathering at an appointed time in order to share their passion for fountain pens and all things analog. There is no specific agenda and anything goes. Pelikan does grease the wheels a bit with some great take home items for those who participate. Last year they even supplied a complete line of their Edelstein inks for the group to sample. Since the activities for the event are open to the interpretation of the group, no two venues are the same. There is a great diversity in the people who attend which facilitates some amazing conversation particularly with people who you might not regularly encounter. Not every city can host a hub and not everyone can attend so, in keeping with Pelikan’s social media focus, a lot of the excitement is shared via the hashtag #pelikanhubs. Hubs get selected based on a pool of online applicants. A minimum of seven people are required to make a hub and you can nominate your city when signing up. Hubs will be chosen and announced on June 30th. Once the cities are selected, a hub master is chosen to act as the local point of contact and organizer who designates a centrally located meeting space in the appointed city. With those details out of the way, it’s simply a matter of eager anticipation for the awesome pen camaraderie that is sure to follow.
Pelikan Hubs 2016 will take place on Friday, September 16, 2016 at 6:30pm local time. Online applications are now being accepted through July 30th. Please pay attention to that deadline because there were a lot of people disappointed to have missed it last year. If you think that you’d like to be your hub’s master, there is a separate space with a fill-in box on the application but you must get your name in the running by June 30th. Once submitted, Pelikan will send you an email with a link that you have to click on to activate your submission so please don’t forget to complete that step. I suggest that if you are at all interested in participating, get your application in and do so as early as possible to ensure that your city gets selected. Also, get the word out to all of your fountain pen friends. You don’t just have to be a fan of Pelikan to appreciate a good pen. For your reference, I’ll include a list below of the cities that were selected in 2015’s event. One thing that I’d like to stress is that each participant should register so if you have a friend or spouse that you would like to bring along, make sure that they also submit an application (makes it easier for the hub master to arrange a venue). Also, if you take note of the color scheme used in this year’s logo, I believe that it’s no coincidence that the colors match Edelstein Aquamarine, the 2016 Ink of the Year which I’m sure will play a prominent role in the event.
Pelikan Hubs 2016 Official Page & Entry Form
Pelikan Hubs Terms and Conditions (PDF file)
Pelikan Hubs 2015 – Philadelphia: A Recap
Last year’s event was a lot of fun–I’m all signed up for 2016.
Under Cindy’s leadership, Portland is signing up. It was a winning location this year! Go Pelikans! And Ducks and Beavers!
Hi Joshua,
Loved the article (actually, I avidly read them all), and I just signed up for this year’s event. I do wish we had one taking place here in NJ, Princeton would be a good choice seeing as how it’s a university town; but I’m so glad to be able to have one that’s within reach.
I hope you’ll be Hub Master again. You are the perfect man for the position. I just wrote Tom over at GOLDSPOT to see if he and Sal would be attending again. Waiting to hear back from him. Please let me (us) know asap about where we will meet and if you will be our host again.
All my best. Have a wonderful day, and thanks for all you do. Karen
I have applied for the hub master spot again but would be happy just to participate as well and give someone else a chance. Just happy to get to hang out and share the experience. Look forward to meeting up with everyone. Be great to have the Goldspot team there again as well.
Joshua,
Thanks for the information. I signed up immediately! Last year’s meeting was great, however I agree wit Karen about the Princeton location, or if in Philadelphia again would like to see it moved to center city somewhere as it is a long way from most of the New Jersey folks.
Thanks again and I really enjoy your guides and roosting at your Perch every month.
Thank you for the kind words. Center City Philadelphia was a no go last year because the Pope was in town and shut the whole area down. Left us a bit limited unfortunately and caused a lot of people to cancel. Pretty low likelihood of that reoccurring this year. That once in a lifetime coincidence aside, it is rather difficult to find a location that can accommodate 30+ people on zero budget. Should certainly have more options this year though which will expand the horizons.
I didn’t quite be brave enough to go for hub master, but I did sign up. For Munich, though, so that’s a bit away. 😉 But I do hope that Munich, Germany, would be a spot where they go and do another one this year as well. The meeting of new fountain pen enthusiasts alone will be pretty amazing.
I’m looking forward to this 🙂 I love the idea. And we’ll see if you’re right with the color scheme. I wasn’t quite as flashed by the color as I thought I’d be. We’ll see.
Good luck on getting Munich selected. Pelikan does host a lot of hubs in Germany since that’s their manufacturing home. A very good chance of a hub at least nearby to you.
thank you 🙂 I’m looking forward to the event
Apparently, I am incredibly fortunate to live in Toronto which has a group of pen enthusiasts (I just found out about them and met up with them last month) and has been a hub city the last couple of years. At the urging of the pen group, I have signed up and am really hoping 1. that our city is chosen and 2. that my new Pelikan gets here by then! Still waiting…
Good luck on both accounts!
Hello, Joshua, Pelikan HUB official site says 6/30/2016 will finalize the cities, so possibly by now also the HUB Masters. Have you gotten words from Pelikan if you would be the Hub Master again? I wish I were in your area. Reading all the posts in your site, it makes me feel that you are a friend already. Feel a bit awkward and intimidated to show up in an event knowing no one! Anyway, by any chance you know where to look for write-ups of last year’s HUB event in San Francisco? Thank you.
Last year, Pelikan notified the chosen hub masters and released the prospective cities on that cut off date. We are now 2 weeks past that and I’m surprised that we haven’t heard yet. I have gotten no notification as of yet. Not sure why the delay this time around. I do know that they were concerned that as at the hubs popularity grew last year, the participants frequently numbered >25 and there was concern that this would put too much of a burden on hub masters. They may be trying to figure out a way to mitigate this while still allowing everyone to participate. Sorry that you’re not on the East coast as I’m sure that it would be fun to meet up. I am not very socially gifted but there is an ease meeting up with people of like mind and interest. You already have something that your passionate about in common which makes conversation easy. There is no need to be intimidated. I have seen no official write-ups for the San Francisco hub of 2015. There was a closed Facebook group for hub masters where a little blurb was shared. I’ll send you the post via e-mail.