imcaufieldholt

All great ideas guys. Loving the creativity. I hope we are listened too, making next year even more awesome.

So whilst I agree, I find this to really be becoming an excuse, rather than actually tackling the issue. The problem is that I as an attendee have to mill around in a mob, trying figure out and hear staff shouting numbers. This creates completely unnecessary stress. If I was challenged in hearing, height, sight, mobility, have young children etc, this is additional stress. All this can be avoided, especially for the photos but also VQ, with something that can be seen from a distance, up to date, clear to read (virtual or physical). As an organiser, I would prefer not to have stressed staff with possible hoarse voices talking time off, having been mobbed by visitors. As a stall holder, I want people to be spending time looking at my stall buying stuff, rather than hanging around the queuing areas for their number to come up. The solution can be high giant handwritting all the way to a digital app, I don't care. The problem is one of clarity. The giant letters for the photoshoot areas are a really good start. I would be really disappointed if next year I am writing, or I read, about the same issue.

There is a really good theme park app that does exactly that. The "crowd" updates the queue times.... far more accurate than the official wait times listed. I really liked it.

True. I don't really like the megaphone idea, but it was just a suggestion after a mild sense of frustration. I really felt for the people with limited mobility, ie wheelchairs, who had to fight through really bad crowds at times.

*pssst* I think I did too, or the year before... you never know, one day.... I realise the app suggestion is expensive but, giant paper or megaphones might be the cheapest, if a tad annoying, and feel more like a market than it already is ;-) "roll up roll up, get your photographs here, 2 for a pound..." LOL

Hi, I've been coming to LFCC for quite a few years and love the guests and the event and appreciate the huge logistics,,,but The one thing... the one big thing you guys could do above anything else is better signage for batch numbers and queueing in general. In short, have some sort of LED/whatever signs above the photo areas. These would simply have the highest batch number showing. For the popular guests the mob is sometimes so big it is impossible to hear what he crew members are shouting about batch numbers. In one queue, some bright spark simply held a piece of paper up with the batch number as it changed, well done that person. I would love to see this extended to the autograph queues... simple LED.lit signage that would say, Guest Name, and VQ Number, these could be seen from further away without having to elbow your way to through the queue to see some poorly written whiteboard marker pen number. If this is too much , then give the crew members megaphones so we can hear what they are saying. Actually, just had another thought, howabout an app that has the list of guests, their VQ number and/or photo number. Kind of like what they do at theme parks.... this would save people wandering across the venue, creating a mob, if they could simply look at their phone for their slot. Cheers, Ian

You have to be kidding me. Californication is one of the best shows ever aired... admittedly it took until the end of season 1 to really appreciate how good Dochovny is..... outside the scifi genre I class Weeds, Entourage and maybe Breaking Bad at the same level...

Just to add a couple more cents..... For us we have pretty much given up with the autographs for the very popular guests, but go for the photos..... why, because you pretty much guarantee to meet with the guest and come away with a souvenir, rather than the random-ness of the VQ option (I appreciate that Diamond or Gold would eliminate this but not really in my budget :-( ... ). So if we want to meet a guest for definate then we buy the photo tickets and chance it with the VQ, that way we know we don't have to stress too much about actually meeting the guest when they are at their desk. It may actually be more expensive now I think about it..... but I pretty much know we'll be able to shake hands. I apprecaite that doesn't work for everyone as we all go for different reasons and have different expectations AND for sure the photo won't get you much of an interaction beyond "hello...[smile]....thank you", but it works for us. So the real win is if we get a photo and win in the VQ (standard entry) lottery :-)

Dear SM organisers, As always our family had a great time at LFCC2017!!! Thank you for great guests and a great experience. The following is a short list of observations and advice that I hope, if not already known, are taken onboard. 1) Photo areas ABCD.. were a complete mosh pit at 3pm-4pm. The volume of people meant it was virtually impossible to get from one end of the hall to the other without just pushing through. In an emergency this would have led to some serious injury, we have seen this before, not at LFCC fortunately, so easily avoided. 2) Popular guest signing areas wre a complete mosh pit at certain times. Many people not just wanting a glimpse of a celebrity, but also to know what the VQ ticket number is up to and who is there and who is on break. All this information needs to be spread around the venue through live update monitors, like an airport, a mobile app etc etc 3) Getting to YALC was a complete pain with little signage and little knowledge by crew. However once there it was like an oasis of calm :-) 4) Very few party/family meeting areas with obvious above head height signage to guide people by phone eg "Meet me at the big overhead X in hall B". Please make meeting areas clearer. Advice: - Clear marked and crew manned passage ways for people movement in the crazy areas. - Above head height live updates of guest being photographed and batch number. Many people were there unsure of the batch number or had arrived early because guest was late, doubling numbers. - Monitors throughout the venue, but in particular outside the photo areas with live updates of the guest being photographed, batch number, guest end time and maybe even estimated final session end batch number (which can be calculated quite easily and automatically as tickets are scanned) - Similar monitors for VQ numbers. It would have saved me ages from pushing through the crowds just to see that the guest was on break or that the signing was no-where near my VQ number. - A mobile app with the above information. The cheapest thing to implement would be the mobile app if money is an issue as I suspect hiring a load of monitors would be quite expensive. We had a great time, but the above would have meant a more relaxing AWESOME time :-) Oh just on a free thinking point of view, an app could also unlock a whole host of additional feaures.....maybe a free marketplace for unused VQ tickets...that would probably devolve rapidly into a black market, so probably not. How about live venue updates of what the guests are up to... I'm sure others would have many better ideas, even ones monetisable by SM... :-) Many thanks, Ian

I just wanted to add our comments: - We've been to a number of Showmaster events over the past couple of years and enjoyed them all until this one! As many have said, the hall was so badly lit, no seating and just looked grotty (maybe it was meant to be an industrial effect ;-) ) - The stall layout was very confusing. - Arrived at 1pm Sunday, wasn't expecting to get any autographs from the biggies ie PS and HP, just wanted to have a gawp. Fat chance, they were too well hidden, even at Milton Keynes you can usually see the guests, although Shatner was well hidden. - All the crew we met were really nice, even when I was probably the 1000 person to ask if there were any VT tickets left for PS.... answer, yes but number 1200+ To make the event better from our experience: - Go back to Earls Court 2. - Allow people to be able to see (from a distance, not affecting the queue) the major guests. Best bit for us was the Total War sword fighting. Our kids loved it.......... After that the Milton Keynes event seems very tame with all the shoppers. Cheers.