Geekzania

Unfortunately there are major engineering works at London Bridge impacting on trains running too/from London

It was working all weekend, much more noticeable than Earls Court, you could see the large banners in the main Hall downstairs moving in the 'breeze' - and it did more to keep things cool than last year, but there is a limit to what any system can cope with in a large venue (short of having your own Nuclear Reactor on hand)

An interesting read. It was noticeable that things were running much more smoothly on the Sunday with an appreciable sense of more space. It is incredibly encouraging (and obvious to note) to see that Showmasters are constantly striving to improve. After the weekend I felt that only 'tweaks' were needed rather than wholesale changes for the UK to suddenly have a world class, world leading event - that is incredibly exciting. There is always room for improvement, and probably there always will be, I'm not sure it will ever be possible to stage the perfect event (well at least not for everyone) but LFCC is definitely getting there. A few years at the same venue with the same space will help I'm sure though you can only plan for so much, there is always the possibility of unforeseen circumstances causing issues - such as the lift breakdowns etc. this weekend. I'm very much looking forward to seeing where things go from here

I'm not going to add to the numerous posts listing everything that was 'wrong' with this weekend - for some people almost everything was a 'disaster' - for others it was the best weekend of their life. I did though want to congratulate the Showmasters team for an incredible event. Yes it wasn't perfect, SM will be fully aware of that and what they need to improve on. Yes there were some issues that were annoying/stressful for many people, but actually, you know what, there doesn't need to be much 'tweaking' for those issues to be addressed, I genuinely believe now that SM are on the verge of putting on a truly 'world class' and potentially 'world leading' event. Yes, the size and scale of the event now, which is always going to lead to crowds, and the escalating costs, are never going to be to everyone's taste, there will be many who 'yearn' for the LFCC of old, but there are plenty of smaller events now that offer that quieter, more relaxed, con experience, there is nothing though, certainly not in the UK, to offer what SM now give us, and they deserve a huge vote of thanks for giving us that choice. In a wide and varying career I have some experience of event planning (though on a much, much smaller scale) and am involved in a few small cons, so I know, perhaps more than many, what is involved in putting on an event of this scale, of the costs and effort involved in getting the level of and number of guests that they now attract, of the fact that the 'public' don't always behave as you expect them to and that you can't plan for every possible eventuality, even though that's exactly what you try to do. There are numerous areas that need improvement, but each of those areas only needs small improvement to make the event truly amazing. It was also good to see that there were areas which had clearly and obviously been improved from last year. SM DO take note and listen. Jason really does want these events to be the best that they can possibly be. Yes SM is a business but NO it's NOT all about the money. There are risks involved with putting on an event this size, for SM to be able to continue, they need to be sure of covering those risks, so there won't ever be big changes to the pricing, number of tickets sold etc. if we want the big name guests that we are now getting. It's also worth saying that I'm nothing to do with SM and have been a very clear critic where criticism has been deserved, but you have to recognise just what SM have pulled off with this event and give them massive, massive praise for it so a huge huge WELL DONE and thank you to the whole team, volunteers and all, take a rest and then start making sure the next one is even better :)

No, there are different halls being used so some levels are directly above another, others are in a different hall entirely - e.g. National Hall level 1 (the gallery and side rooms) is above National Hall ground, but the Conference Centre (level 3) is in an entirely different area. This gives an idea of the layout and how the levels fit with each other http://www.olympia.co.uk/organising/seven-venues-connected- there are flights of stairs, lifts and in some cases ramps between the levels

The Google maps view makes the space look a lot smaller than it is - the balcony area for the National Hall is a bit bigger than the balcony area for the Grand Hall as there are no protruding support structure beams etc. There is plenty of space for signing desks at the sides (and the side rooms are being used according to the venue website anyway) and more than enough space for a small cosplay stage and multiple rows of seating at one end - there won't need to be any 'flow' that end, it will just be the stage and seating - it should work well - I've been to events just using the National Hall which have had multiple trade stands on the balcony area and there is plenty of space

Thanks for this - looks great :)

I wasn't there in 2012 but when I went to LFCCW 2013, they used 1 hall. This is in 6 so if 2012 was the same then I'd say there will be more space. Yes, a fair bit more space than 2012 - in 2012 they used the West Hall (lower level) and Grand Hall, it appears those are in use for another event this time around (though that event finishes on Thursday, the breakdown/setup of the events overlap) but with the other halls in use there is more space overall than then, or than last year for that matter.

The venue has good disabled access to all halls, either lifts or ramps see http://olympia.london/visiting/access-olympia-london

We won't know until the floorplan is up they may use multiple entrances or they may be one main entrance. The halls are all then interlinked

That's just really odd, because they do have those events in the US. But other than that, very cool! I'm worried about it becoming overcrowded, but I guess the extra halls will help next year. Although they have the big events which get BIG name guests and panels, I'm not aware of anything like LFCC in terms of the number of big name guests actually signing and doing photo shoots. As LFCC continues to grow in the way it is, the chance of getting exclusive panels/screenings can only increase. It's incredibly exciting that the UK is finally getting an event of this size and stature :)

Until the floor plan is released we won't know how they have arranged things but SM have a great deal of experience with these events now, you can be sure that the layout will be what they believe will work best for everyone but it's also true that you can't please everyone all of the time, so no matter what the layout I'm sure there will be one or two unhappy with it - Not all the halls being used would be suitable for every element of the event and it's going to make sense to have some things in some areas rather than others - I would expect the side halls/rooms to be used for the big guests, the conference centre will I guess be used for panels/talks so that just leaves the main hall spaces and what works best in terms of flow/space - We'll see on Monday, though won't know for sure how well it's going to work until part way through the event. Incidentally, as Jason has pointed out, they've used all the space they could this year, if you look at the Olympia website you can see that the Grand Hall is being used for another event which overlaps so it's probably not the case they've chosen not to use the Grand Hall, it simply doesn't appear to have been available for these dates. I'm confident that the best use of the space available will be suitable for the numbers attending

Though it seems counter-intuitive drinking warm water is better at cooling you down than drinking ice-cold. Drinking ice-cold water can actually reduce blood flow, hence the body can't dissipate heat as efficiently. Drinking a small amount of a warm or hot drink stimulates the body into 'losing' heat - it's why small, hot drinks are popular in hot countries - the most important thing though is to drink and stay hydrated

I've generally found Olympia to be more 'airy' than Earls Court, even with the glass roof but for any large venue with a lot of people on a hot day there is only so much that the air cooling is going to be able to cope with. The last time LFCC was held at Olympia in the Summer, it was warm inside but nowhere near as bad as last Summer, having said that, if we get temperatures like we've seen this week it will be uncomfortable in any venue. I think if it looks like it's going to be very hot (which it might) then people need to be sensible, dress appropriately and have plenty of water to drink. I actually think having the event in multiple halls should help as well.

Yes, though the short District Line 'spur' from Earls Court to Olympia only runs on Saturday and Sunday with trains running only every 20 minutes but is only a 3 min journey and would save a walk The 'spur' is just the short stretch of track branching off the District Line from Earls Court to Olympia. On the Friday you can also get the Piccadilly line to Earls Court, then the District Line to West Brompton (towards Wimbledon, just one stop) then change to the Overground platforms and it's a short ride on the Overground to Kensington Olympia