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Loved her for letting me do this Even more than I did already,

I didn't have a problem waiting for photos to be displayed. The problem i have was with the selfish customers that stood in front of the entire table setup because their photo was not there and so they would wait until it was put out. Looking around they see other people trying to see if their photo was out yet they ignore this and continue to stand in front blocking everyone's view until their photo is out.

This is the biggest problem with photo distribution, it is not the staff or the process it is the selfish people that don't give a toss about anyone else besides themselves.

I'm just upset, when I saw the thread title I thought "finally I'm going to be announced as a guest!", but no

Hi everyone

just want to put all your minds at rest :-)

when we booked Peter we knew he was going to be filming Xmen , but as we had come up to the bar and had agreed to all the points he wanted from us he agreed to attend our event and it was also agreed that he would commit to attend over his filming commitments , so we got an agreement that meant he would attend our event even if filming was taking place over the time of the show , when the filming times came up Peters agent put in the request to keep the LFCC dates clear and it was agreed so we have Peter for LFCC and he is very much looking forward to seeing you all :-)

we are at a point now were the shows we run have quite a big reputation and we are now getting some of the guests to commit to our shows over there filming commitments which helps us on future guests and shows .

so we will see you all there in July

Jason

An ok guest, but the hyper was way too much for what was delivered. Without the hyper this guest would seem so much better.

Hi everyone,


I have been reading some of the posts on here and thank you for the feedback.

I would like to say first that this event was the collaboration of two companies, "Showmasters Ltd" and "Media 10”. This being the first joint event we both had a lot of things to understand and learn from each other. It was a big task for both companies to come together on, and we feel that each day both companies learnt and understood so much more and helped to create strengths that we will need to take with us on future events we run together.

For us at Showmasters this was a giant leap in the events we run, the first licensed event we are a part of and a record breaker as well. Looking after over 18,000 fans from one fan base is also something new for us, this was the biggest Star Trek event in the world and it being our first Official Star Trek event we feel now we can take the shows we run in the future to a even greater level of entertainment for fans of these shows.

We are well aware there were things that did not work as well as they could have but I think many of you will see that we did get on top of most of these issues and fixed them as soon as we could, we do make mistakes but we very rarely make the same mistake twice.

All in all we are very pleased to have had the chance to put on a massive event like this, to be able to show the fans what we are capable of and the future could hold for you.

Now I’m going to cover some specific points which people are asking about or I feel will help people understand why things happened like they did, plus some thoughts on what went very well on the day.


1) On Friday there were long delays for ticket pickups:

This was down to many more people than expected picking up their weekend tickets on the first day. As well as the Friday attendees, people living nearby who planned on only attending on Saturday or Sunday also picked up their tickets on the Friday creating a much bigger demand and bigger queues than were expected by the See Tickets or ourselves. On Friday one of the main people at Media 10 helped people to try to fix this unexpected issue and try to speed the process up, also pulling anyone out of the lines who may be about to miss something they had booked for the Friday. He stayed there all day long until the line was gone and he had helped everyone he could.

On Saturday we increased the amount of people dealing with ticket pick-ups and this issue was fixed on both the Saturday and Sunday.
So to summarise we were caught out by the number of fans queuing up on Friday which we fixed as best we could, and we solved the problem totally for the rest of the weekend.


2) Tickets for talk zone B:

On Friday there were no problems with talk zone "B" but on Saturday we did have issues with large queues wanting to collect tickets for the free talks. We once again did get caught out by the demand first thing in the morning to get the tickets. At our other events fans usually get virtual queue tickets for guests first so the queue for talk tickets is a lot more staggered. However at DSTL it was very different and the queues were full on from he start. Again as soon as we found out there was a issue with queues I started to try to fix this system myself. This was a tough line to get into and fix and it did take me an hour to get on top of and close, and again Media 10 and Showmasters looked at what did not work and came up with a plan to resolve the queue issue. This was unrolled on Saturday and after 1 hour all tickets had been given out and in a fair and safe manner.


3) Talk zones:

With hindsight we agree that they all needed to be bigger. We had thought that with so many things going on at the same time and many people being there for more than one day having things on at the same time did not really matter as they can be done on other days. We agree they needed to be bigger and we will know better for next time. The main stage was also tight, we had the size worked out but with so much of the world’s press also very interested in attending the opening ceremony we needed to also accommodate them as well, so that’s why it was this way. Again we know for next time and this will be fixed.


4) photo sessions:

Well this is something that we really felt worked very well, The new system worked smoothly and the images are very good. The number of people we can now accommodate means that the big guests who attend our events can see many of the fans waiting for photo ops and no one has to be there too long. So this major investment was a great thing to have done this year and our photographs have really come up to the bar.


5) The Museum:

This was something I have wanted to do for many years. It’s really nice to have a lot of free things for people to see and do and this zone was very busy all day. It was so nice to see people enjoying seeing these original props and costumes, and as a prop collector myself it was really fun seeing both Martin’s and William’s collections with some amazing items.


6) The guests:

Well this event had an amazing guest line-up which was fitting for what is now officially the largest Star Trek event in the world! The main cast had a great time and really enjoyed the event and meeting you all, and I have to say they were all on top form. We look forward to seeing them all again at future events.


7) Guinness Book of Records:

This is something which Media 10 really thought would be cool to achieve but for a first event it was going to be a tough challenge. However on Saturday you made it! We broke the world record for the most people in Star Trek costumes in one place, which was a really amazing feat.


8) The venue and the numbers of people attending:

This was always going to a busy, busy show and we hit reached 18,000 people attending over the weekend, but the hall space coped very well with these numbers and the layout of the hall also worked well. I must say the look of the stands and features looked amazing and that has a lot to do with the way Media 10 run their own events, something which we will be looking at for future events.


9) The future:

Well after the amazing success of this weekend we all feel there is a very bright future for Showmasters and Media 10 working together on more events. We are both the leaders in our respective fields and coming together to achieve such a great event where we bring together the Captains from all the series for the first time in UK history all at the same time, and then to break a Guinness World Record and to get more Trek fans to attend the biggest Star Trek convention in the world has been quite amazing! So we all feel there is going to be lots more events from this new collaboration in the near future.


This has been an amazing 12 months for us, we have worked harder than ever before but its been very exciting and we can see an amazing future for new events like this as well as the events we have been running for many years now.

This must be a great event by any fan’s standards, and even though there were some things which need to be improved in the future I think we can all see that this was a great first event. You all know us at Showmasters, we try to get it right first time and we never make the same mistake twice, so we listened to the feedback and will move forward and keep on improving the events we run. This is something that Media 10 also feels the same about and that’s why we are working with them, as we both want to put on well run amazing events the likes of which no-one has seen before.

Thank you to everyone who supported us on this journey and I hope you can see that both Media 10 and us here at Showmasters know that without you the fans we could not have put this event on. It is you whi drive us to make these events the best they can be and really fun. We intend to push the envelope with bigger guests and stronger line-ups for future events and that is only possible with you behind us. So thank you all for an amazing weekend and thank you for the trust you have given us. We will always try our best, improve on the events we run, and remember that you are the boss.

Thank you so much for helping me achieve one of my dreams.

Jason

People have asked for a map and so I've created one as I know the guys in the office are now at the venue starting to get it set up.

BUT please let me be clear that things can and do change! So although this is roughly correct right now, it MAY be different on the day. You have been warned!

Obviously it's not to scale and it's just me using paint, but it should give you a good enough idea of where to head.



1: I do not currently know where photo shoot D will be, it is likely to be next to photo shoot C, but I don't have confirmation of this yet.

2: SIGNING AREA 4 = Karl Urban, Jeri Ryan, Gillian Anderson, John Simm, Freema Agyeman.

3: Other guests with VQs will be in SIGNING AREA 1 and 3.

4: All photo shoots, credit card vouchers and paid for talk tickets are being sold from the SALES desk.

5: I will edit this post once it is confirmed where the FREE talk tickets will be picked up.

6: If it's not on the map, I don't know where it'll be!

Hello everybody,
I'm a noobie here on the forum but having read a lot of posts i would like to say what a pleasure it is to see so many of you doing the cosplay thing, must take some amount of time, effort and expense.
This will be my third collectormainia Glasgow and myself and my two Sons cant wait until August.

Cheers.

I just hope for once, it is somebody who is not associated with Star Trek/Wars, Dr Who or Stargate. As that already more than dominates these events.

Murph, is your name Robert? If so, I found it and handed it in to one of the organisers desks. It's the one opposite the entrance to the hall, not the one on the same side.

Just looking through the forum, I think people need to chill out, why is everyone so angry about this event? I for one am excited by whats already up hence why I bought tickets, anything else is a beautiful bonus :-) Prices aren't cheap, but very clear about what your getting for your money, I'm happy with my purchase

hi all

sorry it has take me so long to get back on here properly its been a very busy last week and after what was the biggest and busiest LFCC it took a lot out of everyone in the office , things are getting back to normal now here and we are finishing off the last few things from LFCC and starting to get on with new things from EMS .

anyway here are my thoughts and things i thought worked and a few things that we have worked our how to make work better for the next shows .

info and thoughts


1 this years event was the largest paid entry event of its kind in Europe

2 it was the largest event of its kind in Europe and when we booked the hall going from last years
   9000 sqm to this years 17000 sqm we thought this would be big enough space for the next two years
   , we we were wrong it was full at 1 pm on saturday , so we are going to need a bigger boat :-)

3 we tested out our new LAB for processing photos , this was a big test , on saturday we has some
   issues with the software missing off the odd image this created major issue for us combined with us
   still using an outside LAB to produce photos, also had an issue where we did not know what LAB
   was producing what images , that combined with some other internal issues created the problem
   we had on saturday , that night my team and i went over what we had learnt and came up with a
   way to resolve most of these issues , this was implemented and worked for the sunday.

   this week the team involved with the photo ops zone had a big debrief and went over what we had
   learn,t and also how we could make things work better.At the meeting we discovered that there was
   a major way of improving the turnaround time on the development of the photos and we looked into
   a system were we can get the photos back fast and affectively, we have worked out this new
   system and its going to be introduced into the shows over the next few months and will work very  
   well .

   lots of people have commented on here how we should try this or that but what a lot of people do
   not see or understand that there is a lot more to rolling out a new system than just jumping and
   changing something to a new way of doing things , last weeks LFCC did have some issues but 50%
   of this was down to the old way of doing it not being able to keep up with what was needed , and
   some of the odd issues with colour was down to us still using the outside LAB and the cameras
   being tuned into the on site printers so this will not happen again as we move over to on site
   development all together , i would also at this point point out that having the LAB on site cost us
   more money not less , so we are doing this to make the quality of the product better not worst and
   after last weeks show we can all now see this is the right way forward for you the fans , and we will
   have it right for the next event , so thank you for your understanding on the day and this week and
   we look forward to you all being happy with how we run this aspect of the show from now on.

4 film screenings , this year was the first big screening we have had and its something we have found
   hard to break  into , but after this years show we have now cracked into this , it all came in at the  
   last moment , and thats why we had a few things like the lights in the signing zone to deal with , but
   we got it all together in time and i think went down well, we are working on more of these things  
   for future events , so keep an eye our for more.

5 the friday night preview night worked very well again numbers are up on last years night by double
   and even though we did  not have a VQ system in place it all worked out well , its a great way to
   avoid the crowds on the saturday and get any last moment photo ops etc you need before the
   saturday crowds come in and it takes a bit of pressure off the guests over the weekend and the
   guests do have more time to chat to you all and it get the guests and crew warmed up to the next
   day so this is something we will keep on doing and maybe the year after we will make the friday a
   full on day but we will see how things go over the next few months .

6 our crew , well what can i say , we had the biggest amount of them this year , around 220 in total ,
   there were around 30 newbes there all making the event happen , they held this" big jump in size of
   event" together and they did do an amazing job , even though they were tired and also the fact their
   bus got stuck on the M40 and did not get back to the hotel till around 11pm they stuck by us and
   looked after the running of the show , great job each and everyone of you.

7 the comics aspect of this years event grew an amazing amount this time thanks to the hard work,
   and their love for comics, of Mike and Cassandra Conroy , they have helped us meet and book lots
   of comic writers and artists and with out these two great people we would not have had so many
   guests attend LFCC , both Mike and Cassandra are going to be with us at Collectormania Glasgow
   and EMS and they plan to help get us more comic guests for this show and our other events for the
   foreseeable future , so its looking very good on the comics front at all our events.

8 SIZE is bigger better :-) ok since we started running events in the 80s the events have gotten bigger ,
   and because of this we have bigger budgets to play with and that means when like this year we are
   asked to pay for two upper class flights at the last moment for £12,000 we can find the money to do
   this and be able to book a big guests, so the bigger the event the bigger guests we can have attend
   , also we can buy more space for the show which in London cost a fortune and also we can spend
   more on free things like the film batmobile etc , so its good its getting bigger and more people
   attend , but we also want things to work as well as if it was a smaller show , this time the event
   grew about double the size from last years show , so we just make it work as we were stretched a
   lot , this has happened before , collectormania 4 with the hobbits was crazy , CM5 was just as busy
   but we fixed the parts that did not work , then the next big jump for us was the LFCC with the
   Heroes cast again the show jumped a big amount , the next years event was just as busy but we
   fixed the aspects than need looking at and it worked that next year , as the person that is at the end
   of the day responsible of the events when things go wrong its all down to me ,and I do not put on
   events to make people have a bad day or make people unhappy, i want you all to have an
   amazing day and for me to have been a part of a team that has given you all a day to remember for
   the right reasons , so if something does not go right , we will get on top of it and try to fix it the best
   way we can , and we learn from it and make it right next time , we very rarely make the same
   mistake twice, its one thing we try to do is get it right for you , so yes these events are getting bigger
   but off the back of that you will have much more of a chance to meet people that you may have
   thought you would never get the chance to meet , at least now the UK has a big event to invite the
   stars you have wanted to meet .

9 feedback these events are getting bigger and because of this we do not see every thing thats going
   On as it's a really big place , so if you have an issue over the weekend it's best to tell someone , it  
   helps us to get it right and stop something that happening at the time its happening also it stops
   someone else having the same issues as you are having, and sometimes it can be just be  
   something you may have misunderstood or you have been told something wrong, ether way we are
   all here to help and get it right and make your weekend work for you so you can have fun.  Now it's
   fine to come on the forum and give constructive criticism as that is one of the reasons we have a forum
   , but its much better to fix it on the day there and then , our crew it the red tops are the best to talk to
   about this and if that does not work you can talk to someone at the organisers booth.

10 sound in the talks , this is something we are working on , this years new venue we thought it
   would work better being in the lower roofed hall , this did not work how we thought it would and its
  something we will range for future events , we are also looking at other rooms off of the main hall  
  for future events this is something we are aware of and are looking to improve.

11 the signing zone worked well this year the more signers than before at a LFCC and i did not see a
time that i felt it was not working well

12 the queueing system outside and the running of the lines outside the venue was down to a company
called showsec and it was them that managed to not keep the line running well on saturday , on sunday
showmasters crew took it over and it ran fine , we do not plan to use this company again , we have felt for
many years we are best at running the lines but have been told that we have to use a outside company , i
think this year we have proven that we can look after the running of the lines on the mornings better that
others so this should not happen again

13 i have to say that the increase of fans attending this years event was great as we are taking the
show on a new journey to amazing places and its the stepping stones to an incredible event that is
on the horizon , we did have way more fans that we expected and because of this it took us by
surprise but we do did get through the weekend , but most of the issues that did happen over the
weekend are down to the extra volume of fans attending this years event , we now know this and will
be ready for the next few shows and the growth that may occur , thank you for being there backing
us, supporting the show and making it what it is today , we will listen to what you have to say we will
improve and learn and together we will bring you the most amazing event europe has so that you
can come and play and meet your friends and collect things and meet some incredible guests and
do things that you just cannot do anywhere else .

i know i have lists more to talk about this is just what came to my mind right now , thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for letting me run these events for you all , its the best job in the world and its you that makes it posable

thank you so much

yours

jason

Rose McGowan please!

Had an amazing day and loved the throne :) everyone was really nice and we will deffinately do it all again next year. Has anyone got any pictures of us? It was too akward to keep pulling out the dying iphone so we only have about 3.

Hi all

just thought I would come on here share some of what happened at the weekend and what worked and what did not and how we plan to improve the things that need improving.

Well the weather this needs to be improved a lot but thats a little out of our hands i think

First to some of the points people have brought up:

1 Jake Lamotta. This guest was brought in by his own team of people like a lot of the boxers from the US like Tyson. They have a team of people that they work with all the time and go around with. We provide a venue and staff if its needed, but the way it's run and the people around him are his team and they run the signing for Jake. We had a space inside if it was needed but his team wanted to be with the other sports guests. I know he was an older person but they kept an eye on him and made sure he was ok. At one point he wanted to go off and when he got into the hotel fell unwell. At that point his team came into action and took him to the local hospital where later on he was released. We do look after all our guests and have things in place if they need any extra help. All I can say is his team wanted to do the signing their way and that was agreed to before the event. So we provided all that they asked for over the day .

2 Car park. This year we had less space than the year before as some of this car park was being re surfaced. So we lost around 30% on the day. We had been told that this would have been open or at least usable by this weekend but it was not. On friday it worked and there was no issues so we thought it was going to be workable. But on Saturday we have around a 30% increase of people attending the show than last year which created some issues that we had to deal with on the day as they came up.

Sunday we paid for car park marshals to direct traffic and help the public use the space we have and on sunday the event worked much better and there was little problems with the car park.

How to fix this:
Well by October this year the car park will be fully open. The building work around the stadium will be done. The upper seating will also be down and the stadium ring and new upper ring will also be open and fully undercover so for the May show next year. The car park space will be fully open and new car parks for the new M&S will also be available for people attending the show. So next year i think we will have around another 50% more space for cars to park. We will also have a alternative car park were the buses will stop if the main car park gets full next time. So yes, we were caught out this time on the Saturday but we did get it all under control by Sunday .

Busses

These would have been fine and would have worked if it was not for the 6 ignorant people that parked their cars over the main road entrance of the car park outside door 4. These 6 cars blocked the way in and out to the car park and meant no one could leave the place. I personally took over the clearing of these cars and managed to get them cleared after around an hour and we kept it clear for the rest of the day. But because of this the Buses we paid for to give you all free bus service over the day could not drop off or pick up because of the really dumb people that had parked across the road. The bus people did not inform us of this issue for around an hour. As soon as we found out we got on top of it and organised a new pick up point the other side of KFC. This was not perfect but was the best we could come up with on the hoof and we soon got people on their journeys again. We paid for marshals to also do this job on the sunday all day and this issue was resolved for sunday .

Saturday photo op A Queuing system override on Saturday

We have a Queuing system that we have used many time in the past that has worked very well for us. But at this show we had some factors that created an issue for the Karen Gillen photo ops. As we have said before we had an unexpected 30% more people on the Saturday of the show. That meant we had a lot more people on the stadium ring and at the same time we had few issues getting the guests to the photo ops which meant that the photo ops started late and got behind which in turn created more people standing outside of photo op A which created a bottle neck on the Stadium ring. I came in to see this was happening and felt that the only way to get some order in were people was queuing  and get things organised was to use the railing and the space behind this to queue all the people that were waiting for the photo ops. So i informed as many people as we could that we would not be using the colour system or the numbers not the tickets and we would just be calling them in first in line first serve. This happened and we got everyone throughout in around 50 minutes and managed to make up some of the lost time. This is not what we would normally do but as we had things things creating this issue we felt it was right to abandon calling people up in colours or numbers and make it work as efficiently and quickly as possible I hope. I talked to quite a lot of you and I think you all could see at the end that it worked out well and helped resolve the problem for this photo op and the others later on in the day .

Photo ops being printed on site

This was the first time we used the new on site photo technology and because we used it it cut down the time it takes to get the images back and even on saturday when we had sold more photo ops than ever before at Collectormaina we still managed not to have a big back log. So after this successful test of this new photo print technology we are going to expand this aspect of the show and have many more machines on site which should do away with long whats for photos to be picked up and people hang around to pick them up so all in all. This is going the right way.

The Venue

The building work you saw at the weekend is the final part of the building of the stadium and by October the upper part of the stadium will be finished with an enclosed ring above the one we have been using. This will be enclosed.  As well as this the Hotel ball room will be mirrored on the other side of the stadium. Also, there is another very large room bigger than any space there is available last weekend it will be around 3000 meters in size so with this and the two ball rooms and the two stadium rings this venue will be the best venue in the UK for such a free event as Collectomaina.

Sso thank you for holding in there whilst this venue was being built for us and we can say that this was the last time that the weather will affect the event in this way and as we will have so much more space this will help with crowding and it will also help to allow us to put on many more activities and  have more space for bigger talks and bigger parties and also as there will be many more rooms available for you to stay in at the venue over the weekend .

The party

What can i say wow what a lot of fun was had. I know it was just how I thought it was going to be and the guests hung out with us all and chilled out and many of you became friends with these cool people and with having a bucking broncos, bouncy castle, Batmobile and the A team van giving rides for hours I know all the people I talked to  had a great time and this is something we are going to add to in a big way at future event .


Signposts for the buses

This also will be looked at again. This time the building work at the train station did also create some issues for us. But I do not see this being the case next time. But we are aware of this issue and we will be looking into it .

After every event the pit bosses and heads of department meet up to go over what worked what failed and what we need to do to fix and the things we need to fix. We work out ways to fix them. So thank you for all your posts as constructive criticism. It does help in case we have missed something .

Well I think that covers most of the important things. I know my team will have more to add over the next week after we all meet up and they come back into the office. We will be looking at all aspects to the show and changing things to make them work. Now and again a show will grow and this weekend Collectormaina grew about 30%. So its now down to us to look at what we need to do to keep it working well for you all .

Thanks so much for attending the show and we look forward to seeing you all in a bigger and better venue in 2013 and we also plan to run the show twice a year like we used to as the venue will be ready for us to use throughout out the year what ever the weather.

See you at LFCC in a few weeks.

Now on with booking some more guests for LFCC

Jason and all the team at Showmasters

Can't wait to meet all of you from the UK and across the EU this summer. I've got a lot of crazy pictures. (My legendary bike jump in T2 that put me in Stuntmens Hall of Fame)! And a lot of crazy behind the scenes stories from Arnold and I's 15 films together! Come out and say Hi!

Latest Guest Sarah Wayne Callies

Sarah will be taking part in photo ops signing and a talk over the 3 days of the show.


The Walking Dead (TV series) - Lori Grimes (35 episodes, 2010-2013)

Prison Break (TV series) - Dr. Sara Tancredi (69 episodes, 2005-2009)

House M.D. (TV series) - Julia (1 episode, 2010)

Black November - Kate Summers
Faces in the Crowd - Francine
Lullaby for Pi - Josephine
Whisper - Roxanne, Soundtrack (performer: "MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS")

Queens Supreme (TV series) - Kate O'Malley (5 episodes, 2003-2007)

Tarzan (TV series) - Officer Jane Porter / Detective Jane Porter (9 episodes, 2003)






http://imdb.com/name/nm0915637/

That's really disappointing. I mean saying a real show stopper etc etc .. Alot of us here were expecting a BIG guest.

Well worth the wait for me! Have some manners guys, I've participated in loads of waits for big guests and not been interested in meeting them once they've arrived. But I had the courtesy of not complaining because they weren't of my interest.

Be polite, geez.

HI Everyone

on Friday 25th of Jan we will be announcing a really great guest for this years LFCC.

A real headliner.

A first time world signer.

This guest will be taking part in a talk.

This guest will be at LFCC on all 3 days.

This guest will be taking part in a Photo op on each day.

This will be there only planed public signing anywhere.

This guest is someone that people will be talking about and this guest is a "Show Maker".

All will be revealed on Friday 25th of Jan at 8pm.

Talk tickets and photo ops will go on sale at that time as the announcement go's live we feel this is someone that you will not want to miss.

This years LFCC is now made with this great guest , we will have many more great guests to come and take this years show far beyond 2012's event.

we will also have some other very interesting news this week so keep an eye on the forum as more things that we have been planning are announced.


we have backed up the forum and have checked all is working as we are expecting a lot of traffic when this all go's live.

see you all on here Friday.