oldnick
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Posts posted by oldnick
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So thinking of going from Essex to there, and whats parking like round the con?
And once of the motorway is it easy to get to?
The venue is built into the side of a large modern football stadium - as such it has plenty of car parking (although I don't know how much is allocated to the event or whether there will be a charge), and itt is also well signed from all around the city.
The biggest problem in finding it is finding the exhibition centre itself - the ground is large, obvious, and has 'Ricoh' in huge glowing red letters on the side, so can be seen for miles.
It's close to M6 Junction 3, on the A444 Phoenix Way, a modern dual carriageway, running directly from the motorway junction, and is well signed. It's under a mile, at the first roundabout away from the motorwa junction.
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G...amp;A=Y&Z=3 ]Here's a link to a map[/url]
Please ignore the arrow on the map - the Ricoh Arena is the Football stadium near the bottom centre, and the exhibition centre is the bulge on the left side of the stadium.
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Coventry City Football Club is now in the process of changing hands. A new chairman and funding are now in place. The panic about their future appears to be over.
The ground is not affected directly, a;though in future the club may be attempting to buy a greater stake in the ground.
Mr Ranson finally gets his hands on a football club at the fourth attempt. You must be delighted that someone with the club close to his heart is at the helm...
Frankly, I couldn't care. I'm a rugby fan, not a football fan.
However, someone had asked a relevant, and on-topic question about the future of the ground, and I had some up-to-date information on the subject, so felt it worth sharing.
I can't quite see the point or usefulness of your posting.
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This post isn't made to get people worried, but I was wondering if the imminent administration/bankcruptcy proceedings by the Co-Op Bank against Coventry City Football Club will impact the venue being used for Collectormania Midlands.
Coventry City Football Club is now in the process of changing hands. A new chairman and funding are now in place. The panic about their future appears to be over.
The ground is not affected directly, a;though in future the club may be attempting to buy a greater stake in the ground.
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WHERES THE MIDLANDS.
In this case, Coventry.
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I this place anywhere near the Coventry Connexion? I believe that's owned by some Cov fottball team?
No. Nowhere near.
Connexion is an old training ground to the south east of the city, in the countryside.
Ricoh Arena is a modern football stadium, on the northern edge of the city.
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thanks you guys! having never been to Coventry before, I am very grateful!
how far is the train station from the city centre shops? can you walk there? I like to get to MK/Manch/London early (on the Thursday at MK/Friday otherwise) to have a wonder round and a look round the shops
cheers!
surfy sah xx
As stated elsewhere, five minutes walk from the station to the city centre shopping area, with no major roads to cross.
Basically, you come out of the front of the station, walk down into a subway that leads onto a large roundabout done out as gardens, and walk across the inner ring road into the city centre through those gardens.
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In the "So Hands up who is going" several people have suggested that Coventry is difficult to get to. Clearly they've never been there. Coventry is in the centre of England (The two official definitions of the centre of England - depending on how it is calculated - are either side of it in Meriden and near Nuneaton), and has very good transport links.
By Air - Coventry has its own airport, and is very close to Birmingham International airport. East Midlands airport is not very far away, but does not have as good public transport links..
By Train - Coventry Station is on the Birmingham New Street to London Euston line. As someone has pointed out, it's the same line as Milton Keynes, but more services stop at Coventry. Nuneaton station, which is on the fast line from the North West and Scotland to London is also pretty close to the venue.
By Car - Coventry is on the M6 motorway. The venue itself os within a couple of miles of the motorway, so if you don't fancy driving in the centre of town you don't have to.
The one slight catch with the location is that the centre is out near the motorway, not in the centre, and the bus and railway stations are on the edge of the centre. However, apart from huge numbers of taxis there are bu services out to the area of the venue. I'll post details of them on here later.
Edit buy showmasters
WE WILL BE PUTING ON BUSES TO AND FROM THE TRAIN STATION ON EACH DAY
TIMES TO GO UP CLOSER TO THE EVENT
AS WE THINK OF MOST THINGS
SORRY NICK THANKS MATE
Jason
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From the commets above the Midlands event is being held in Coventry. Thats not to bad for me got a lot of friends over there so can kip over or just go straight there as I am not far (Wolverhampton) is there any comments coming forward on where the event is actually being held?
As stated elsewhere, it's at the Ricoh Arena, which is on the outskirts of Coventry, close to the M6 junction three.
As a local, and a Showmasters crew member, I'll try to answer questions about local facilities etc. as soon as an appropriate forum is available. To give an idea of the venue though, it's a modern exhibition space attached to Coventry City's football stadium. It has very good road access, and simple public transport access from the city centre, where the railway station (Euston to Birmingham line) and coach station are located.
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Thanks all of you who I got to work with over the weekend.
It wasn't a perfect event, for a number of reasons, but through it everyone seemed to be doing their best and coping very cheerfully with whatever the fates threw at us. I'll be raising a few things (communications for lates, sandwiches, and the need for an ops room strike me as important at the moment), at the next pit boss meeting.
Particular thanks to those on the Next Wing on Saturday, and the Next End on Sunday for making my life as a pit boss so easy, and the 'sticks' crew for help on takedown. With a bit more drill we'll get it done even more smartly next time.
Thanks also to the organisers, and especially suppliers of pizza!
Nick, (Not Idris) ;-)
(Edited for spilleng mistooks)
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Rather a lot of pictures here!
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About the photos, would it have been possible to set up a computer and printer in the hotel???
Surely a really good quality printer with decent archive paper could be bought by you guys who run the event and use it over a couple of years? Must be cheaper than the poor chap on the m/bike (sorry mate, don't know your name, hope you don't get any unwanted mail...).
Past experience has shown that although photos printed this way look nearly as good as lab-printed ones, they fade badly with time. Given the high value people place on these photos, especially when signed by a major (and expensive) celebrity, it would seem to be a very false economy to risk this. Other shows have had this problem.
The alternative would be for Showmasters to have a lab-quality set-up, printing durable photos, but I can't see this being an economic action, when used for about 10 weekends a year, when these machines are intended for use 6 days a week, 52 weeks per year.
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I must admit I'm a bit bemused about it too - but at the end of the day it's different strokes for different folks - one of the good things about SM events is that they cater to everyone.
Exactly.
And yet, you seem to be the sole representative of the Bill fan club on this forum....
Not at all - it's just, as with almost all things here, it's the naysayers and whingers who bother to post.
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Me and my daughter met him, and yes, what a lovely man. he asked if we wanted our pic taking with him, so the man sat with him did it, and he was just charming. Chatted about Filton, where Concord used to land alot, and I used to live there and watch her fly in, and take off, so it was good to talk to him about that. He answered all my daughers questions, and really made her day with a lovely dedication on her photo. a top guy, and well worth meeting.
sam
As 'the man sat with him' I'd have to say he was an extremely professional and organised guest, and as a result it was a very easy and pleasant day's work.
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don't be fooled by TooTall's nick......just look for the shortest guy crewing!
No - Too Tall's not nick. I'm Nick.
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Sounds like you had a great weekend Nick
bet you didn't get a chance to do any of your candid action shots though lol, maybe next time!No, the camera stayed firmly in the bag. THis was partly due to being busy (although that doesn't usually stop me) and partly due to the stygian gloom.
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Thanks to everyone on "Team A" on Sunday, and to the team on the sports desk.
We may not have had the mega crowds that the other side claim, but we certainly had the pressure, and very little time for anyone to take breaks, or to go autograph hunting.
Well done everyone for working so hard, and being so co-operative when we had to juggle seats to keep all the guests crewed.
Thanks all.
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i must say i am impressed with the hotel. the location is perfect and it looks very funky. and breakfast too. how i missed the breakfast at the last hotel. hopefully we will have a late bar too.
I was going to say the exact same thing! I'm a greedy cow and I want breakfast
Thanks Jola!
xxxxxx.
We will of course be moving the crew briefing to half an hour before whatever time the crew hotel begins serving breakfast.
From what I've seen, the hotel would cope. They were serving breakfasts fifteen minutes before the specially agreed time this time around.
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Crew photos
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Brett has been judged by the green room crew!
...and?
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I think they did have different contents each day, unless each one had different contents
Having helped unload these, I can confirm that they had a mixture of different contents. As far as I could see they were randomly mixed, not sorted by day.
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I'd just like to see showmasters do some photo shoots with guests they think arn't going to be as popular as James Marsters was.
Ok they might not make as much money but maybe they could get more guests in overall to do photos with, if they were less popular guests, and please more people overall?
I've been to many events that do photos with and so far 'from what I can see' showmasters only do photos with, with the most popular guest to get the most of that, (please correct me if Im wrong) i.e. more people like the guest in question then more people are likly to want a photoshoot with them therefore showmasters would get more money in the long run.
I've never been to another event where they have had problems like I am hearing on here and they ALL use there own printers (well the ones I've been to do and some also have 'photos with' with the less popular guests at the show) and from what I could see they really didn't look like they cost much more then £1000 (please correct me if wrong.)
The amount of stuff showmasters has to cart to these events, one or two extra items like a printer isn't going to make that much difference is it?
Regardless of the problems some people found with having there photos with, done last weekend, as Im quite often not there for the major guests, its most likly I wont be having a 'photo with' at a showmasters event, any time soon...
LLAP
That's an interesting idea - I can see some of the less major guests being very popular for photoshoots because they have such a good reputation as guests. They'd also have the advantage of it having less of an impact ontheir signing if they spent half-an-hour away from their desk.
The idea of using other printers was discussed while we were sitting waiting for the last batches of photographs. The key concern was with durability of the prints produced by the lower priced (and we're talking lower-priced commercial, not domestic) printers. Some used elsewhere are known to fade at about 4-years.
As to the amount of kit - as one of the poor fools who helped load the van post-event, anything you can suggest to reduce, rather than increase, the volume of kit carried would be welcomed. The suggestion of fitting the Tardis to the back of the van to increase capacity didn't help. ;-)
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For some reason - I suspect the turbulence on the forum - my previous thanks has gone.
So - thank-you everyone I worked with this weekend. As I said in the last posting, in the chats I had with other PBs at the end of each day, the one point in common was that we had had an excellent crew to work with.
Thank you.
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Crew photos
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Oldnick, you've clearly stated how the situation was managed after it was allowed to happen, which is all very well except you haven't addressed the fundamental issue of why the situation was allowed to, excuse the pun, develop in the first place.
I doubt an arrangement between Showmasters and Happy Snaps would've been agreed without Happy Snaps being told how many photos they would've been expected to develop within a certain time frame.
Given the complaints about the huge lengths of both the queues and waiting time for the most popular shoots, is it too much to postulate the theory that Showmasters misled Happy Snaps, deliberately or otherwise about the amount of developing which would have to be done?
You don't suddenly find you've oversold your photoshoots by, for the sake of arguement, 500 tickets without either some serious mismanagement or having done it deliberately.
I was only involved in the process after it went wrong - as one of the crew drafted in to sort out the problem. I can therefore only answer definitively for that period. I've tried to do so openly on the areas where I know what happened.
As to what happened before. I have no idea what was said in negotiations with the developer, but as been pointed out in other replies it was in no one's interests for Showmasters to mislead the developer. If anything, they would gain by overstating the expected demand, both to make sure the developer could cope, and to get the best price per shot.
One sold-out session, and the rest busy, but not sold out does not make serious mismanagement. It makes one relieved that the rest weren't sold out as well.
I'm sorry - but conspiracies about Showmasters plotting to make the photoshoot go wrong just make no sense. The simple problem was the, for whatever reason, the developer failed to deliver what had been agreed.
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Canterbury,York have been around for hundreds of years....of course they have character....they've have that time to build character....Milton Keynes has only been around for less than 35 years!
40 years, this year.
Do you think you spend too long on the internet?
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Posted
Flyers - As I live in Coventry, I can get these out.