BuildCon is back!

Are you a player striving to improve your craft and building skills? Looking for inspiration or new friends to help you out on a project? Perhaps you’re like me who just wants to create explosive maps with TNT or build a giant statue of yourself so everyone can bask in your greatness? Whatever your motives might be, there’s a big chance the answers lie in a certain event scheduled to start this Friday. BuildCon is back!

Not familiar with BuildCon? Lucky for you, I’m be happy to share you the details - It's an international convention held entirely online! A community-run server event featuring several amazing builders (many of whom we've featured on the site before) passing on their building expertise. It spans over five days, from the 8-12th of June, and best of all – it’s free! Everyone is welcome, no matter how familiar you are with Minecraft.

“It was originally created to help share what people are doing within Minecraft Creative and to show the realms of possibility as almost endless,” says Jordan Lavialle, Director of BuildCon. “Every year we’ve had showcases from the biggest and the smallest teams [in the scene], and sometimes the smallest teams are the ones that have the most impressive showcases.”

Since its first event back in 2014, BuildCon has grown steadily each year, inviting more and more people from around the globe to learn new techniques and improve their craft. Players attending can participate in panels, masterclasses, compete in build battles or check out different showcases.

“Last year we had [a] really cool [showcase] with command blocks making flags fly and stuff,” says Jordan. “It’s basically a celebration of Creative. We just pull everyone together into one place and say “This is what you’ve been doing in Minecraft Creative” and we help people with panels and masterclasses realise their dreams.”

One of the more popular formats at BuildCon are masterclasses, where builders teach players the concept of a specific type of build, and how to improve their skills. This year has plenty of well-known creators, like Boorizz, Bulix, Plutouthere, and Necrosys. Plus many more!

“Masterclasses are really about trying to help people grasp the basics of how you don’t have to be limited by what you think your skill is,” explains Jordan. “Masterclasses are really there to help either give the basics, or perhaps for the people who are a little more skilled, to improve their skills as well.”

Making a grand return to BuildCon is the booth format. “Booths are small plots that allows build teams, servers or just different groups to submit a small area that showcases what they do, who they are and what they’re about – just to generate knowledge about them.” Jordan explains. “For example, a group of renderers might make a booth that has a painting on one of the walls to show what they’re about, who they are and what you might want to do if you wanted to join or learn how to render and stuff.” Great idea - make sure you check out as many booths as possible!

In fact, Buildcon is full of great ideas - after all, Minecraft is a social experience, best enjoyed with others! Unless you’re me of course. No one wants to help me with my personal 30 meter statue. Is it because I rigged it with TNT?

Anyhow, there are plenty of reasons to attend BuildCon/avoid helping me, and Jordan informed me what YOU should check out as a visitor of the event:

“Everything! As much as possible! Check out as many showcases as you can, because even if you haven’t heard of someone or a team, you might go to the showcase and be absolutely taken aback. I’ve certainly had that experience before – people I’ve never heard of have submitted a showcase and I’ve been blown away by how fantastic it’s been, so check out all the showcases.”

BuildCon opens at 3:00 PM BST on June the 8th and closes at midnight BST on June the 12th. Feel like checking it out? Head over to the BuildCon site to find all the information you need!