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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
Edited by Rhianydd, 17 July 2012 - 07:50 PM.
