Britfan

The more people who come to these events the more guests Massive Events can afford to get. If you are still only thinking about coming then you should definitely buy a ticket. These events are fantastic, great guests, great fun, and if you do have to pay for autographs you can choose on the day who you want. My experience has been that the less well known guests can often be the best at these events, and make the whole event great value. I guess I`m saying it's not just the big names that make these events. Best one I attended was when Ben Browder and Chris Judge cancelled, the "alternate" guests were fantastic.

I guess that the cost is probably a big issue here, but considering there is nearly always an episode of Stargate in Sky, I always think it is a shame there is no commercial advertising the Chevron events. I was a fan for years before I realise that there were events in the UK. I had always presumed you would have to go to the US of Canada to attend conventions. Especially consider the quality of these events and the great guests that attend.

I felt so sorry for the crew on Sunday, they were doing a fantastic job, but some of the people queuing were really quite rude to them. I was in the same boat as everyone else, as a Gold ticket holder I did the photo shoots on Saturday assuming that the queues would be okay on Sunday. Interestingly, the photo queues were a good example of how to, and more importantly how not to move large numbers effectively. The queue being look after by Ian ran really well because he was making sure that Gold A was first, followed by B then C and so on. This meant that you knew where to queue and your queue was able to move quicker because it was in order. ON the other side this didn't happen and the Gold A were queuing with the Gold G, and the Silvers and it was a mess. No-one knew where to wait, how long the queue was of even if they in the right queue. If you miss when you number is called you can join at the back, but if you are there at the right time you should have a queue for your group, this way the Gold A - C batch are done and out of the way, so that when Gold D - F start going through they are already moving into the next queue. For this to work you would need more space to queue so that you had room to stack people, and to make sure the right people were in the right line (I am referring to the Gold E ticket holders in the first group - you know who you are . It would be great to have more guests, and remember sometimes it doesn't matter how efficient the process it, the reason the queues for David H and Paul were so long is that they were happy to meet the attendees and have a bit of a natter. Good for us, bad for the scheduling. Overall, it was still a fantastic weekend, and hasn't put me off buying my ticket for next year. I also am looking for half a person to bring along. Think I'll go for the legs that way, when my feet get tired I can borrow theirs!!

I was VIP at a previous event, and would suggest asking the crew member who is running the room, or the queue for each guest so that you don't offend anyone. The crew were really helpful, and so long as you are friendly about it no-one minded me queue jumping. Although, I tended to go in about 5-10 people from the very front just to be polite. You have many more photos and autographs to get, so you will struggle if you have to wait in every queue. If in doubt, just ask the crew, especially Too Tall who is the go to man for VIP's.

Such great news, she is the only one who has yet to sign my Massive Events poster, so this means I can hopefully complete the set. Fantastic guest, will be great to see her there.

Fantastic, met him last week at Chevron, so can't wait to repeat the experience. Thank you Showmasters.

I have left my Stargate Mug at the hotel. If they are able to track it down for me is anyone available to pop along from the Renaissance this weekend and pick it up for me? Loved the mug, can't believe I left it behind

Does anyone know how many VIP tickets have been sold? I noted they were still available on the online shop today.

Thanks for posting, Guess I won't be drinking too much Friday night since the photo shoot with Michael is early Saturday. Dead excited - can't wait.

Was starting to panic that Hurricane Sandy and all the cancelled flights was going to ruin the chances of the guest getting over here. But realise I was being slightly selfish with all the devastation caused on the East Coast. Love and best wishes to all those affected in the US, and safe and happy travelling to all our guests.

Pretty sure Patrick Gilmore was in SGU!

Good tip - and the meals at the pub are huge and for a very reasonable price. Just check you timing so you don't miss any of the talks.

Most important thing to remember is to wear comfortable shoes! you will be standing up for a really long time in various queues for photo's and autographs. After that it's up to you, the people at these events are really friendly, so feel free to start up conversation, we are a chatty bunch and always happy to welcome along new attendees. Another tip is to get to the room for the talks in plenty of time for your number to be called, if you have a low number ticket you will get ti sit closer to the front, but they fill up in rows so if you are late there is no guarantee you will get to sit where you want. This is especially important at the first talk session, as this will usually be your seat for the weekend, and you are not allowed to reserve seats for others. Even if you don't plan to buy anything the auction is usually really good, especially to see the sort of money people are willing to pay for one-off and unique memorabilia. There are also some really good bargain's to be had, and some of the stuff is totally unique and not available anywhere else. If you like to party the discos are great fun, but usually the majority of the chatting happens outside in the bar area, plus this is where you are more likely to find the Guest's if they come out for the evening. These events are really well organised, and all the crew are extremely helpful, so just relax and enjoy..

Agree totally, she has done so much stuff, especially here in the UK, and I'm sure she has loads of stories to tell

Fantastic news about a new guest. I was at the Con when Ben and Chris cancelled, and people were disappointed with the guest's that replaced them. Those guest turned out to be wonderfully funny and charismatic and a real treat. Sometimes it's the less well known stars who are the real gems of the weekend. Meeting Michael is going to be fantastic, and I am really looking forward to meeting Bill and Patrick, but they are the well known stars and everyone will be flocking round them, it's the lesser known stars that turn out to be really interesting. Can't wait... Would be happy with a 5th guest as well.

I bought my ticket at the event, and can't for the life of me find my receipt. I have purchased another ticket for a friend via the website, so hopefully the two letters will come together.

Have been reading your messages about prices at the bar, and my recommendation would be to bring you own and enjoy a few bevvys in your room before you go out to the parties. Your hotel room is considered your space, and the hotel will not take any offence with you enjoying a glass of vino. Also, the service charge is not mandatory, and they cannot insist you pay it. Although, you have to be quite brave to turn round and say I'm not paying that, but really, you should tip for good service, not just for being served - that's why they have wages. I know bar staff don't get paid a fortune, but many Con goers are on a budget too, so tip for good service, and decide whether you are happy to tip for the rest.

I'm VIP for this event. Bought my ticket at 7.8, as soon as they announced Michael. I paid more than £1,300 to see him in Paris, and all that I got there was a handshake and an autograph. Considering the amount of money people will bid at the auctions for the evening meal with the Guest the cost is actually not that high, and you get a lot for the money. I guess it's all about personal taste, I'm a huge fan of Michael and really want to meet him, plus missed out on seeing Partick at 7.8m and have never met Bill, so all in all, worth the spend. It was either that or a week on a beach somewhere, and you can do that anytime. Hoping for a few more guest announcements, at least 2 more would be fab, but happy with the 3 we've got so far, and confident SM won't let us down.

Agree completely.

TooTall did call in groups by by ticket numbers when the hall was loaded. If you leave for a guest encounter leave something on your chair. As stated before the talks, the chair is yours for the day after loading the hall. If you have a guest encounter that starts around the hall loading time please go and secure your seat first. That's both stated in the programm book, but I'll check if this can be made any more obvious. Thanks for the update, I probably missed this, and thought you couldn't hold your seat if you left the room. Good information for next time. The events are designed to run for two days and staggered so that you are kept busy. If you could see all the guests, get everything singed in one go, and not have to wait for anything you would quickly get bored waiting for the next event to happen. As long as you were able to get everything signed eventually then it's all good. A friend of mine was leaving the event early Sunday morning, and the crew very kindly allowed her to get her extra items signed on one go. This was a very generous concession as she had paid gold, and was going to miss out on some of the photo shoots, but if the crew hadn't been so helpful, she would have missed much more.

Having attended 3 of these events know, I agree that the system works really well, trying to organise a large number of people who all want to send as much time as possible with their chosen guest cannot be easy. I had a gold ticket at 7.8, and needed to come back 4 times to get his autograph, but it was explained to me that he was spending extra time chatting with everyone, and this made perfect sense, I was told to come back after about 30 minutes, and hopefully my group would be called. This was really useful, because i was able to nab an extra photo shoot, which i would have otherwise been unable to do (although i realise this was more by luck than design). I believe RDA was really slow at signing autographs, but everyone got there in the end, and for those people who paid for the autograph they had that extra time with him. The only thing I noticed at 7.9 was on the Sunday all the Gold seats were full, whereas on Saturday there had been plenty of space. We had really low ticket numbers, but had to sit right at the back of the Gold seating, this was because we had left the room to do a guest encounter. Please can we have the queueing by numbers system again to make it fair to those who got up early to be first in line to buy their tickets.

At 7.6 Richard Dean Anderson hosted an auction raising money for his charity, Sea Shepherd, and again it was really well attended. I think the money from the main auction goes to ME to help fund for future events, but the guest auctions are always really good as well, and nice to know that we are helping to raise money for good causes. Maybe Michael Shanks will host an auction for his chosen charity The MS Society of Canada.

For me my guest dreams have been answered, and considering how entertaining all the guests were at 7.8 (especially a certain person from the Sanctuary cast list who will not be named, but had everyone crying with laughter) I am sure any guest will be great. I would love it if Claudia Black could be there, or Kevan Smith, or Cliff Simon. The lesser known guests are great as they are more likely to interact at the parties, and tend to let their hair down more, which from a fan perspective is brilliant.

I know it probably way too early to start a topic like this, but I will have forgotten to mention it by the time July/August gets here. I will be travelling to to Con from Bristol, and going by car. At Chevron 7.8 I had space for 2/3 passengers (depending on how much luggage they had), so will be posting closer the time to see whether anyone is looking to car share. We can reduce the costs of travel, and be kind to the environment at the same time.

Tickets purchased, and ready to go. I can't believe I now have to wait almost 10 months, I am too excited. Oh well, at least it will give me time to pay off the cost of the ticket so I will be able to afford to buy the odd glass of coke at the hotel. Really looking forward to seeing you all soon.