dirksteele

This weekend was my first ever Con and I signed up to give my feedback on what I felt was a brilliant day! Negative first, then the positive: The Not So Good As already mentioned, the entrance queues were a bit of a shambles. We travelled from Shepherd's Bush on the overground to Olympia and upon exiting the train had NO idea where to go, the only signs we saw for us ('On the door tickets') were a long way up the road to the left. We eventually found the end of the queue with the stewards' help, but for newbies like us the sight of what seemed to be three queues all entering in different directions with no indication of what they were confused us a lot! We wasted a bit of time wandering up and down initially. The Dredd talk was very quiet and you had to strain to hear the guests, we were sat about three rows behind gold pass members too. In order to compete with the noise spillover from the hall the PA needs to be a lot louder, I understand that you probably don't want people outside listening for 'free', but that shouldn't mean those inside with tickets should have to strain to hear the talk itself. If I'd have paid to see a talk then I would have been very annoyed (the Dredd talk was free, luckily). The gaming area was a bit disappointing, not really much there! It was also very tight in there. I played Golden Axe for a bit with my girlfriend but my controller was beyond useless, haha! It was very tight down the vendor alleys but this probably can't be helped. What can be helped is people being generally rude and shoving/bumping excessively, this is more 'human error' than anything. Charles Dance was hard to get a signature off due to the sheer number of people wanting to meet him! We should have planned ahead for that one :) The Iron Throne wasn't where it said it was on the map, so we wandered around for a bit wasting time trying to find it. The Good Free wi-fi was great, thanks! Meeting Alex Winter was really cool, easy and fun. He was very nice, friendly and posed for a photo too which was most excellent! The ability to go upstairs to the balcony and catch a breather from the crowds was very welcome. Could have done with some seats and bins up there maybe but this is probably an Olympia problem. I thought the stewards and staff were all excellent. Everyone we spoke to or had a question for was polite, helpful, nice and efficient. It's quite daunting being at one of these for the first time when you're still not that clear on the proceedures for autographs/photos etc., so well done folks. And thanks! I thought the range of guests there was very good and appealed to a wide range of fans. The Dredd panel was interesting and the exclusive footage looked cool. Karl Urban seems like a very nice guy, shame I didn't meet him but it was just too expensive. I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my favourite digital artists, Matt Dixon, there on his stall. I didn't know he was going to be there and I had a good 15 minute chat to him about his career and techniques (I'm an artist myself), which was another highlight. Cheers Matt! Super nice bloke. Finally, the Iron Throne photo op was the highlight of my day! Thank you VERY much for such a cool addition, I was expecting it to be just in the middle of the floor with a queue for you to have a quick snap on it. To have a proper section for it with a pro photographer, some props and a great looking shot at the end of it all blew me away. Best £5 I ever spent, I thought it was a bargain for such a cool memento. All in all my girfriend and I had a great time and were totally exhausted by the end! We'll definitely be back again.