7 replies to this topic

[dufresne]

I want to meet Myanna Buring for Doctor Who, but wouldn't fork our for a Twilight con.
I wanted to meet Stephen Toblowsky for various things, but not at the cost of a Heroes con.
I wanted to meet Mark Rolston for The Shawshank Redemption, but wouldn't be fussed with a Supernatural con.

Get the idea ? Of course we could all wait for these people to show up again, hopefully at EMS or LFCC, but that might never happen. So ...... what if ME offered a special ticket (£5-10) where you could get into ONLY an event's auto sessions, and fill your boots at £15 a signature (like full-on attendees getting "extras"). Of course there would be an obligation on punters to be there whenever in the day specific signings were, but surely nobody's gonna play the usual "logistical nightmare" card ?

[Lizzy]

I would 100% do this!

[reddragon]

Totaly missing the point of a convention. No I can't say I would be interested in this. I wanted to meet Mark Rolston and paid to go to the Supernatural con. It was brilliant.

I think if this was offered it would take punters away from the cons altogether - use the pre order service its easier.

[1of2]

Unfortunately you can't just ignore the logistical issues that it would raise. Time being one, for example. It doesn't happen often but some guests take longer than their allocated signing sessions which results in the schedule being amended and some attendees missing out on another activity for a period of time. Add in an additional hundred or so 'auto only' attendees and that becomes a real issue. Who would get priority, the weekend ticket holders or the 'autograph only' people? Yes, the auto sessions could be extended but then other things on the schedule may have to be dropped as a result, which wouldn't really be fair on the weekend attendees.

This is an extreme example but it would apply with a number of guests. It's safe to say that John Barrowman has a large fanbase, many of whom already attend The Hub event to see him despite not being fans of Torchwood. An autograph only ticket would increase the number of attendees considerably. Factor in his previous one day appearance and I suspect that chaotic would not have come close.

I can relate to the idea as there has been the odd ME event where there has only been one guest that I have been interested in seeing but refused to attend the event just for one guest. That said, I wouldn't want to loose the convention format of the current ME events to cater for that of a signing event format.

Where would it end? People would ask for tickets just for the talks, or photo shoots (apparently these photo shoot only people exist. Although some are being converted slowly to autograph collecting    )

Peersonally I don't think it will ever happen.

[TerraHawk]

dufresne, on Jan 23 2012, 06:44 PM, said:

Get the idea ? Of course we could all wait for these people to show up again, hopefully at EMS or LFCC, but that might never happen. So ...... what if ME offered a special ticket (£5-10) where you could get into ONLY an event's auto sessions, and fill your boots at £15 a signature (like full-on attendees getting "extras"). Of course there would be an obligation on punters to be there whenever in the day specific signings were, but surely nobody's gonna play the usual "logistical nightmare" card ?

I can't say its a service I'd ever use, since two of the biggest hurdles - travel times and costs would still be the same. So for one or two guests, that would never be worth it.

So just using the preorder would work out a lot cheaper.

Myanna's done at least two Dr Who conventions, and CM/LFCC she's not that rare a guest.

[yahweh70]

I wished that service had been open for I believe a Chevron con that had Lexa Doig.

No interest in that franchise. No interest in the others at the show. Andromeda/CI5 and her Maxim shoot for Sci-Fi Babes a few years back.  Wouldn't want to pay for any Con-package, or the hotel (It's nearer to me than Brum, for a start). And as for all the 'you vill sit here, ya! You vill party now, yah!' stuff? no thanks..

You get her hubby for LFCC/CM, why not the missus..

Day Passes might have worked, too.

[showmasters]

the guests at a con are there for the attendees and we want every attendee to get what they are supposed to get in there package any time we think that a guest would have spear above the time it takes for talks signing meet and greets etc we use to offer more value to the fans supporting the event .

and thats just it , we are running the event for the attendees that pay to make the event happen, and as such you will see a lot of the time the guest extra auto prices are reduced for the fans attending by around £5 compared to signing show prices.

its funny that people sometimes say we are in it for the money when this would be a easy way to make a little extra on the side , but the fact is we run these event with the fans they support us and back us to run these events and they come first every time, we want then to get everything they are meant to get over the weekend and having a bunch of people that have paid very little to make the event happen just to get one autograph would not work for them or us , also it would also become an issue when they also wanted all the guest attending or wanting them at the con reduced price, so we are going to leave it just the way it is as it works very well for the fans that help us to make this happen .

as to day tickets this also dose not work for the masses , the event works as a weekend event you have signings over the weekend and if people came in to get there autographs all on one day i do not think that is fair to the fans that have paid for the full weekend, if someone really cannot make a full weekend then we try to help them as much as we can but they have to buy the full weekend ticket and we cannot guarantee they will get everything if they are there  for only one day .

most cons get between 4 and 6 guests attend , you get a nice goodie back with some cool items and 2 great parties and some great talks with the guests and the autographs are worth between £10 and £15 each so what you have is the value of the con ticket price just in the autographs alone .

so weekend cons are good value they are really great fun and you really do get to meet new friends and chill with people that like the shows you like .

some of the guests we have at cons you would never get at a signing event as they would just cost to much for a signing event for a guest that guest stared in one episode of a show and that there other body of work is not of interest to a signing show audience , so some guests you will only meet at a con , something to think about .

anyway i hope that shows you were our mind is at and help to explain why we feel this way and shows we value everyone that supports these events

thank you all for letting us run these events for you .

Jason and the massive events team

ps we get to party with you all each night which is a lot of fun too :-)

[timelord81r]

Id love for this to be an option, obviously sometimes it may not be logistical, say with RDA at chev as he was too busy and the crew would need to be on extra guard to stop ppl entering talks ect if they only had this "cheap entry" ticket.

But I totally understand, these cons although good can be expensive in one hit, persoanlly I think 4 guests isnt enough for these cons, I think the minimum should be 6 including at least 1 'name' or 'star'

im in a similar boat with the upcoming chevron, now id like to meet all the guests BUT im only really interested in tom and amanda, £100-£200 for 2 photo shoots and 1 auto is alot for me right now especially with the risk of cxls, now at a LFCC type event even if your main aim cxls, entry isnt that much, photos will be refunded and you have 30 odd other guests to choose from and massive stalls.

if your main aim cxls one of the ME cons you could be stuck with an expensive ticket with nice guests yes but not who you would pay the higher ticket price for.

Id love to be able to pay £10 entry and buy my photo shoots with amanda and tom or at other ME cons where I really want to meet 1 guest but am not too fussed about the others.

yes the con is great, you get alot for your money, but with tight times sometimes you would sacrifice a talk, a party ect for just 1 shoot and 1 auto from the main guest you want and off you go.

its a hard call, I wanted to meet barrowman again but no way I was going to pay £100-£200 to do so at the last hub and he was only 1 day.

so yer some sort of thing to help those interested in an actor but maybe not the show the con is based on would be nice but I cant ever see it happening. first you could not guarentee selling those cheaper tickets that the ppl could meet that 1 guest and second SM need to at least cover their costs, if everyone cherry picked they might not meaning no more ME cons.

tough one.