tenaciouspirit

I mostly agree with this. For the photo, I personally don't mind waiting behind higher numbers, but if that"s the way LFCC decided to go, I can"t think of too many problems (other than just the extra time this would take to organise everyone). They did the autos thing for Chris' queue, and Matt's AM auto queue this year, and it worked out really well (not just beause I had early DPs I promise :P), it just made things a lot smoother. I guess it's a bit trickier to pull off fairly for autos though, as people can arrive at any time, and often over multiple days. Maybe i'm just nitpicking, but if they start calling autos by number, you want to leave enough time to give all those numbers a chance to queue. Otherwise, when they arrive later, they'll probably complain about having to queue behind so many higher number people. For example, if they started a Meat Loaf call of 1-50 on Saturday, then it might not get much attention, as most DPs may have got him on friday. In this case, how long do they then wait before moving on to 1-100? If they don't wait long enough, sods law means you'll have Mr diamond pass 001 who arrives 2 minutes later, complaining that he is now behind 100 people in the queue, instead of near the front. I know this also happens if all diamonds are called up at once. But at least in that case, you're not assigning any importance to the number, so there's not as much reason to feel hard done by. Does that make sense? I'm a bit rambley Not saying it's not possible to do, but it can be hard to get right, at least compared to a photo.

From my experience, it does seem to be an exception, rather than the rule. I"ve had around 15 DPs so far, and it"s not happened to me once. Oddly enough though, I did have Jeremy Renner's DP, and still didn't experience this. However, I did arrive super early for his AM photo (basically as soon as it opened). At that point, Diamonds were just queueing up as they arrived. Must have been something they did when it got a little busier. I don't really mind either way though! As long as I get my photo

Can honestly say Noel Clarke is one of the best guests i've ever had the pleasure of meeting. I was waiting in his line, around 2pm on Saturday, as he was due to come back from a break. As I was waiting, I heard a voice behind me say 'so who are you lot here to meet then'. I was just about to turn around and speak to the person, when I twigged that I recognised the voice. Sure enough, it was Noel Clarke himself! He moved through the crowd, with his phone out, capturing a video for his instagram story. This already endeared me to him, especially as was moving directly through his line, rather than going round the back, or getting people to move out the way. As I approached the front, you could tell he was taking his time to interact with all the attendees, and actually cared about what they had to say. He also recorded another video of us all during this time. Finally, when it was my turn, he gave me a polite greeting, and told me he liked my shirt (the one I got with Christopher Lloyd's DP in 2015). However, it's what he did next that I really love. The first thing he asked me was 'are you here tomorrow'. I was a bit confused, but said that I was. He said 'right, well you'll want to get Chris to sign this DVD too then' (this was indeed my plan). Noel then made sure to sign towards the bottom of the DVD, leaving plenty of space over the Ninth doctor's picture for Chris' signature on sunday. This may sound like a really dumb thing to be happy about, but i've lost track of the amount of times the following has happened to me : I start a multi signed item, and a guest signs in the wrong place (even if I mark it), or covers so much of the space that I have to squish other autos around them. Don't get me wrong, i'm grateful for the chance to meet the guests at all. However Noel showed a great deal of consideration by thinking about this as he was signing, and it really helped make the meeting that more amazing. Finally I also managed to get a picture with him, so that was a great bonus! Will 100% meet him again for a Doctor Who series 2 signature.

The wonder woman cosplayer in that video was the person just in front of me in the photoshoot that's as close as I get to that video.

Great read, just like last year! I think I only saw you once this year. I was in an auto queue on the backwall (would have probably been either Zach, Meat Loaf or Matt Smith). A friend of yours was stood behind me, and had got some VQs for you I believe. Didn't notice it was you until it was too late

Finally worked my way down the forum to this. Thanks for another great quiz Pen! A lovely way to end the Saturday. I'll be back next year!

Another small low I did want to mention, was that I had less paid talks this year. I know this is SUPER subjective, as it depends who you're in to (i'm not blaming SM at all), but I only had one (for Meatloaf). It's a shame because some of my fondest LFCC memories are from the 2015 BTTF talk, or the Renner talk, or last years late GoT talk. The free talks are lovely, but at 25 minutes long, they do lose something that the paid talks bring to the table. I would have loved to find someway of squeezing in a blackadder paid talk, or even just a Tony Robinson talk. I've been to a talk by him, and he's such a great speaker. Possibly also a bigger paid GoT talk that featured Mamoa, Paul Kaye or Iwan (obviously those two came on different days). I think SM did the best with what was given to them, especially with a lot of the bigger guests only doing one day, but it is still quite sad for me that I couldn't hear some of these brilliant guests speak for 40 minutes.

Highs Every guest I got an Auto from was at least polite, and said 'Hello' 'Thank you for coming'. That's where I set my baseline for a good encounter, and they all at least met it. Special mentions go to: Chris Eccleston - Far surpassed anyone's expectation (going by what i've read) Matt Smith and Zachary Levi - Both so chill! Noel Clarke - One of the best experience i've ever had, and happy to pose for photos. Shauna Mcdonald - Easy to talk to, and easily the guest I spent the most time with. Other highs include Ben from Photo area A (i've mentioned him so many times now, people will think i've fallen in love). Great at queue management and customer service. Meat Loaf's talk. Anyone who was there will know why. So genuine, so funny, and so polite. I thought the organisation was great. I'd always just walk up to a queue member, ask 'what's the current situation with X guest' and they'd tell me straight up. Sometimes that meant joining the back of a long queue, sometimes that meant waiting for ages, and sometimes it meant being able to meet a guest almost immediatly. The outcome didn't matter, what mattered was that they always gave really clear advice. I felt confident that if I joined a queue, I would get an auto. My golden rule to anyone is always to seek out a crew member as soon as you approach a line; then ask them what's going on with the guest. I've lost track of the amount of times I've seen people waiting in a long queue, only for that queue to be for the wrong photo, or just a bunch of VQ holders waiting for their number to be called etc. And the most important high: Helping my wife attend her first LFCC, and watching her excitement after meeting Daniel Gillies it was so precious. Lows - Not much really. James Caan's short signing time on Friday was a bit annoying, but I knew i'd get him Saturday or Sunday, and I did! A few problems with the Friday Meat Loaf queue, as has been discussed. I also have to echo what was said about the Miranda Richardson photo. A bit bland. Felt a bit annoyed with some attendees giving staff a hard time because the attendee had misunderstood the rules. But then I also get that situations can be frustrating, and everyone wants to meet the guests. I just wish people would be a bit more understanding and self reflective. Otherwise, it was a great convention! Possibly my favourite ever. Right up there with 2015, but I think that one also had a BTTF and Sigourney Weaver buzz that was infectious to everyone in the building.

These are all my opinions, but I assume Jason J has a lot of SW contacts, given that he is one of the worlds biggest SW fans. Therefore he has good relations with these people, and can get them to lots of cons. Also, I've heard that first time/ rarer SW guests are highly sort after by the really serious SW collectors, even if these are only extras and background characters. I think these guests are big draws for those crowds, but those crowds are only a minority of people. Also I think wrestling guests are huge in other countries like America. At all the american cons i've ever been to, wrestling guests have almost been as popular as superhero guests, or GoT guests (to name a few popular fandoms). It may not be as big over here, but again I think it helps draws people from a very specific (yet relativly small) crowd. They must earn enough money by attending, otherwise they probably wouldn't come.

These make sense :) I must admit i'm not one for getting my photos signed. I also tend to try and manage all of my clashes at once, sometimes running between 5 photo areas. But that can't be easy (or even do-able) for those people with extra help, or who suffer from anxiety etc. It does still seem like there was a disproportionately high number of people still waiting though. I heard 100 + DPs were still waiting to be seen from 5pm. I just hope everyone got through in one piece!

I had one VIP thing at a US con. It worked, but I was SO stressed trying to fit everything in. Not sure i'd want to put myself through it again. But, like you said, they do work. It does seem a bit wierd that there were so many diamonds doing a PM shoot, who still hadn't got their autos either. Maybe I'm missing something? Or I guess people just had really full schedules? Genuinely curious here, not trying to be passive aggressive.

I think this was all a fallout of the delayed photos, because I went to him in the morning (10:30 ish) and it was really well managed, and they were doing dedications. I think sadly the delays pushed everything back. As said above, could have got a dedication from Chris too. But chose not too for that one. Both were very lovely. My friend and I said Chris was like a good mentor/ teacher: polite, pleasent, and willing to answer questions. Matt was like that guy you'd want to have a pint with: cool, smiling, laughing, and telling a joke or two'. I had a great time

I don't feel taller than most XD maybe when I meet guests I stand a little straighter. No slouching in the presence of Matt Smith!

I know it's only a minor thing but: Thank you SM for making the DP mugs really cool this year. I really wasn't a fan of my Mads one, as I thought it looked really tacky. This year they were all distinct, and looked really cool!

I like the idea in principle, but I would be a bit worried about it in practice. You'd have to make sure all the diamonds got their guarenteed autograph on the day, which, as we saw yesterday, can be a hassle if things go wrong (ie with the TARDIS photo shoot). The obvious answer would be to limit the number of passes, but I can see this being hard to get right. Imagine of you just said something like '150 passes per day per guest'. Some slow guests like Chris Lloyd or Meat Loaf might only see 100 people each day, and then you have 50 angry Diamond pass holders complaining that they haven't been treated well. I'd imagine they have to sell a certain amount to make money on the guest too. I like the current system, because my DPs give me a lot of freedom throughout the weekend. When I know I have to get a guest on a certain day, I end up sat in a queue 1 hour before the guest arrives, just so I can get it done. Personally, it creates a lot me stress for me. TLDR: With careful management, something could be done, but I imagine it would be difficult. I also reckon we'd see a LOT of teething pains over the first couple of years that things were implemented.