183 replies to this topic

[showmasters]

hi all  

and let me say thank you all for attending this event you came out in mass and thats helped us move this event from the shopping center to the football stadium in a very difficult year.

because so many of you attended this show you have saved it as if this event had not of happened this year it may have been the last to have been held in MK, also if the numbers of fans attending was low this would have also meant that C15 would have been the last as we spent more on this event than any other CMMK event ever so thank you all for coming.

now this move has been successful we now have a chance to GET IT RIGHT for all and grow this event into a monster of events and push the Envelope and make this event one of the most amazing events in the world more than just a signing show  

so we now are back on corse and Collectormana MK now has a future and thats down to all the fans that attended so thank you all for giving us a chance to shine and keep running events in Milton Keynes


Now what did not work and why, and what we are going to do about it

1 the venue

this was always a temporary venue and we know it would not be finished till next year , but buy then we will be in a new massive Olympic hall located right next to photo ops "A" ,for the people in line in the photo ops over the weekend may have see as they looked down the stairs  you could have seen the black marble wall going down stars,  at the bottom is were the main doors for this new hall is, and its a  massive 3000 meter Olympic hall,

This hall will be ready for our next event and this will be a part of the event , so the venue for the next event will be indoors and much bigger for all

2 Road signage and directions

this did not get resolved before the event as we did hit some issues , we needed to get Permission to put up big banners and road signs pointing the way to the venue , we now know we needed to put in for Permission months before so there will be AA signs directing people to the show next time.

as to the signage at the vent its self we did need much more and much bigger it is only when you are there and working the event did we find out how big the place was and that the signage needed to be much more and bigger so this will be covered and fixed for the next event.

3 buses

these did work well on the day but they were very full all weekend, we needed more of them and more signage at the pick up points and times were they are and also times at the drop of points as well.

we will also run them for a bit longer as well , these did cost us quit a bit but we want to make it easy for you all so its well worth it so this service will be increased.

4 food at the venue

this time there was only the places in the stadium , but as from Nov there is going to be a MC D's , KFC and pizza hut  right out side dour 4 so the options for places to eat will be much better

5 hotels

in two weeks time the hotel will be open this is located above the dealers hall and in fact were the Stargate costumes were on display will be the front doors, this will be a great place to stay and we will be doing more things like evening events party’s etc, so this will be great for people wanting to stay at the event

6 talks

we were unable to put on the free talks this time due to the weather , next time as we will have more space we will be able to put on some free talks something we could never do at the shopping center and this time it was rained of but we should have space for this as a free extra activity for you all

7 photo pickups

this time we hit something we underestimated which was the time to get to and from the place were we had the photos process , it was not the time it took to get there and back it was simply finding a space to park at the shopping center on a wet weekend, parking every time you need to drop of the disks and pick up the images , and once we were behind it was very hard to catch up , in the end we did get everything back, but the last lots were late in the day.

so sorry for this we did try to fix this on the day buy putting twice the amount of people to run back and forth to make up time and this did work, but by this time we were always playing catch up , so next time we will have more runners on hand from when we start so make sure it never gets behind and they arrive back faster for you

8 the cold

this will also not be an issues as we will be indoors in the new hall


9 the dealers room being crowded

yes it did get get crowded for this event , and this was down to the large numbers of fans attending this event in fact we are still going over figures of the weekend but it looks to be one of the busiest weekends we have had for about 3 years or more so this is what cores this to be crowded but as we will be in the new venue with the bigger hall so all this will be resolved for the next year

10 security

i have heard about issues the odd person has had from security officers that worked the event for us to look after the safety if some of the guests

i cannot comment on any ones issues as I was not there , all i can say is theses officers and not amateurs, they work for some of the most important and high profile people of the world the company we use look after royalty and leaders of the world on many occasions there is a balance between security and blending into the background and not stopping peoples fun in meeting the guest, they are also trained to be polite , they are some of the most trained security personal in the uk

all this aside Mr Nimoy needed very good security as he has has some issues in the last few months, in fact when i talked to him i ask him how was his day going, he said in a very straight face "its been good i have not been assaulted or attack yet so its going well so far"  so maybe that’s why for this event you noticed the security we have in place, we had informed them we wanted nothing to happen on our watch , as this would not be good for our rep to be able to look after the big names we get to the event

i will also say this if you are walking along and a security team come up from behind in formation with a guest they will clear the people out the way, they can come up quite quickly and if you do not hearing what’s being asked of people it can come out of the blue a bit and people do not get out the was a lot of the time.

they cannot not what for people to stop and think about it or decide which way to go if you do not here or do not make the effort or cannot decide which way to go they will make a clearing, its there job to keep the team moving to stop can make it easy for someone to think about doing something , now we all know we are all fans and this is very unlikely to happen, but we use them to do this job and they do exactly that , and as to date we have not had an issues with safety which means we get some of the bigger guest attending our event .

i hope you can see now why there are there and why it has to work this way


11 the car park

well there were a total of 7000 spaces on the site and if felt that there was the right amount for every one i know at 1 pm it got a little full but it did work and it was all free which i think is great

there was some flooding in one or two spaces due to the amount of rain which was a lot on sat night , but the car park is not finished being built so by next year it will be finished and will work a bit better for every one

12 guests being happy

one or two people have said the guest were unhappy and will not becoming back , this is so far from the case.

i talked to every guest on Sunday and i can tell you that every gust was very happy with there time with us and all wanted to come back to another event , some did get cold on Friday but all felt we did a great job fixing this so it was good for them on Sat and Sun.

All felt that the hole event was amazing with raw amount of fans there and they could not get there head around how many people were there and them being in a football stadium it was like being a rock star , all did meet more fans that they expected and were very happy with the event and you the fans so there was no issues with the guest and we will be getting some back to other event over the next few years


well i think this covers most of the issues people have had i will be making some more posts about the weekend to day about the event later on the day

thank you all for coming and this was our first event here there were teething issues we know what, but we will fix them like we have done at every event we run so thank you for bearing with us over the weekend and trusting us to put on a great show , we will never let you down  

yours

jason  

[nyhobbit79]

Thanks Jason, I would have stopped you at the event but every time I saw you, you seemed busy. I thoroughly enjoyed the event and as you say there were a few teething problems. Nothing that cannot be fixed for next time.

Thanks to everyone for making this weekend brilliant for me and my niece.

[brp_lb]

Thanks Jason for this post.  Good to see you have taken on board peoples points about what worked and what didn't at the show.  I have been going to your events for about 4 years, have attended all CM:MK in that time and some London and Midland events too.

I originally hadn't wanted any autographs as the guests I wanted to see had cancelled in advance of the weekend but as my sister, who was going with me, wanted some we still went on both the Saturday and Sunday.  

I must say that although I was cold over the weekend, and for people who know me I never usually feel the cold, still enjoyed the experience.  Although only there for 3 hours saturday and not meeting any guests I still enjoyed looking round the stalls and purchased 3 autographs (my sister getting 4).

When we went sunday, I even met a number of the guests and got 3 autographs whilst my sister got 8.

I look forward to next year there as it my closest event so always go to the show at some time over the weekend depending on the guests visiting.

Again, thanks.

[nicky]

showmasters, on Jun 8 2009, 07:54 AM, said:

1 the venue

2 Road signage and directions

4 food at the venue

6 talks

1). I was wondering how the place could be big enough for 7x A listers as it was previously said it would be but then just read that SM must have been talking about this new massive 3000 meter Olympic hall that isn't actually ready yet?

2) Yeah, road signs were naff. Luckily I knew it was Saxon St but I went down the wrong end at first (and it was a LONG-ASS road) and then drove back up it and saw the only sign for the stadium (let alone the con); "football coaches this way" and that was it.

4) Food was fine, Asda was just a short walk away.

6) Shame there were no talks, it's always one of the highlights for me. I'd like to have returned on Sunday for the Richard Chaves talk but didnt wanna risk it being cancelled and thus travelling for nothing.

Edited by nicky, 08 June 2009 - 07:34 AM.

[sadfan99]

Hi Jason - thanks for posting this - I had a great time and will be there next year when I am sure it will be even better!!!

[pdt1984]

Thanks, Jason, for such a comprehensive post. I won't pretend to have had a great time on Saturday, but I appreciate the fact that Showmasters has acknowledged the problems and will be taking steps to fix them for next year's event :)

[sentinel]

After my initial disappointment of the venue - waiting in the rain for the door to open, and the cold and concrete miserable inside, my day was perked up by all the cos-role guys/gals. The Joker, Batman, Spiderman, the Stormtroopers who were having a great time interacting with everyone, and the Predator/Alien (who hissed at me and made me spill my coffee (lol) - my thanks go out to you all. Also to the crew who were universally friendly (especially the guys at Nathon Fillion & Leonard Nimoy on the Sunday morning). When the venue problems get sorted as listed by Jason, I'm sure this will become an outstanding event. All the best for the next one!

[showmasters]

pdt1984, on Jun 8 2009, 08:38 AM, said:

Thanks, Jason, for such a comprehensive post. I won't pretend to have had a great time on Saturday, but I appreciate the fact that Showmasters has acknowledged the problems and will be taking steps to fix them for next year's event :)

thank you we do not have time to right post like this over a weekend as we are running the show we look to improve every event we run and are happy to listen

thanks for coming to the event

and i know the event will be more fun for you next time

jason

[Indiana]

I had a great time as usual, only issue for me was the cold, but you can't help the weather!

[luie01]

yes it was cold over the weekend lol but the fun made up for that!

only thing i didn't like was the photo shoot I had. It's just a personal disapointment. I have had other photo's at MK Centre and Gmex and I prefer them. They were more laid back and you were away from the queue's. But the thing I didn't like saturday was the queue of people behind the camera man staring at you lol was a little off putting! like I said its just how I felt at the time.

thanks SM for another great Collectormania

[Count Fooku]

Maybe this event had one or two issues more than others but at the end of the day most of those will be solved by the move to the Olympic Hall within the Stadium.

Anyway a SM event with a few problems is still far more enjoyable than some other events when they are running at full tilt!

[Kyle Beech]

Even though there was all these issues we still had a great time just it was cold

[Chris Quartly]

It was far from perfect of course, but it's always nice to see posts accepting that there are things that need changing.

The main thing that was a real dampner for me was the weather, which you obviously can't control, I found myself bored and waiting for a lot of the time and the talks (which are a highlight usually) would have filled the day up perfectly, but hopefully next time all will be ok.

Btw, food at Asda was pretty rancid I thought, and other fast food chains won't be much better but of course, you can only use what is available to you.

I think the venue has a lot of potential when it will be finished so am looking forward to future events.

About the buses, however much they cost you must get more money back as a result because I'm sure many people simply wouldn't go if they couldn't get there by such means.

[abstractharmony]

I had an awesome time, from accidentally mooning at James Tolkan, talking to Marc McClure at length about Superman, his Dog and other stuff, seeming to be transported to a Carry On film with Candice Orwell (lovely guest BTW), house rivalries with Alfie (he now KNOWS that the 'Yellow and Black Attack' are the best - LOL), Tom Felton being incredibly awesome with a little girl in front of me and making her cry (in a good way...), Kerri Green (need I say more - what a lovely lady - she and her partner seemed to be having a great time), laughing and joking with JCB (yes...I couldn't belive it either...LOL) and a thousand other interactions with guests and attendees alike.

Thank you SM for easily one of the best shows that you have put on.

Can't wait for LFCC...

[7of9]

Jason and all the CM crew

Despite the cold and all the other issues - you did a sterling job!!!  You made the weekend a brilliant weekend.  It was my first time and both my boyfriend and I are already saving for next year - so dont worry you have done a great job and for us first timers we are hooked!!!!

It was a magical weekend and we still can not believe we may Capt Sisko and Cdr Spook!!!!!

You all did a fantastic job - a large pat on the back and enjoy a pint on us!!

    

It rocked guys just like you d  

[nicky]

Chris Quartly, on Jun 8 2009, 09:42 AM, said:

Btw, food at Asda was pretty rancid I thought, and other fast food chains won't be much better but of course, you can only use what is available to you.

You mean the food you ate or food in general at Asda? Like any other supermarket there was plenty of food to choose from the shelves - why would Asda's stock be any different from any other supermarket? I bought sandwiches and pasta salads and Ginsters pasties etc.

Edited by showmasters, 10 June 2009 - 04:29 PM.

[keith69er]

hello to all at sm and to u jason i thought the event was great i loved all 3 days i was there and the way all the Qs on the day where well run


thank you so much cant wait for london bring it on  

Edited by keith69er, 08 June 2009 - 09:08 AM.

[Chris Quartly]

nicky, on Jun 8 2009, 10:03 AM, said:

Chris Quartly, on Jun 8 2009, 09:42 AM, said:

Btw, food at Asda was pretty rancid I thought, and other fast food chains won't be much better but of course, you can only use what is available to you.

You mean the food you ate or food in general at Asda? Like any other supermarket there was plenty of food to choose from the shelves - why would Asda's stock be any different from any other supermarket? I bought sandwiches and pasta salads and Ginsters pasties etc.

I'm talking about food in the asda restaurant, of course food from the supermarket shelves is going to be of varying degrees. If you wanted to sit down and eat somewhere it was one of the few options.

I'm not expecting fine dining by any means, I was weighing up the options of heading back into town on the bus, getting something better to eat and then heading back in, but our itinerary didn't give us enough time (photoshoots, etc), which was a shame. Again it's not really something anyone can control, you just have to deal with the options available to you.

Maybe I just have slightly higher standards than being ok with football stadium food, McDonalds (and the like) and ginsters pasties haha!

Not a particular gripe at anyone in particular, but it's a little surprising if anyone was satisfied with the food options available, but what can you do.

Edited by Chris Quartly, 08 June 2009 - 09:15 AM.

[lisa2004]

Jason....

Myself and my mates came along for the Sunday and once we had found the venue (not SM's fault at all... I think that the whole of  this area of MK is sign posted appallingly!!!) we had a great time...

Yes... It was FREEZING!!!  But that is not your fault and the venue were the next CM will be sounds great

All the guests we met were lovely and the photo sessions were excellent!!

All in all a great day... see you at Comic Con!!!

[chimmykins]

Hey Jason.
As a CM first timer, my parents and I had a great time at the event and will defiantly be coming back again to another one in the future. :)