girlingray

I'm sorry I won't get to meet Jewel again at this Chevron, but I wouldn't want to travel all that distance with a baby as young as her little Wilder! So I completely understand!! I hope to get another opportunity to see her soon and in the meantime I look forward to seeing her on my TV instead ... .not long until Legends of Tomorrow starts!

Brilliant! I've met Jacqueline before and she is lovely. Look forward to seeing her again

Brilliant! Can't wait to meet him

I booked with a credit card, and no money taken is now - I'll pay in full at the hotel.

Thanks for sorting this. Booked now!

Rats! I'm going to miss James Marsters again! Oh well I suppose the silver lining is that this saves me some money - Brighton's too far and expensive for me to get to, and I don't have any spare annual leave left to use getting there and back. Regarding these mega events - any idea what that'll mean for the May / June Collectormania Milton Keynes for the future?

I met him at, I think it was, winter LFCC last year. Really great guy. I'd love to see him at a Chevron event

Claudia Black JR Bourne Morena Baccarin Bill Dow Beau Bridges Lexa Doig Robert Picardo Mitch Pileggi Ming Na Wen Elyse Levesque Brian J Smith Julie McNiven Robert Carlyle

Many thanks for the post-event analysis Jason. Always interesting to hear your thought on the event and the future. I'd just like to echo other people here with a request that when you take more space next year you don't increase the number of tickets you sell too. We desperately need more space to move around in so we can see the stalls without fearing that our stopping to look is going to halt the queue of people trailing in the same direction as us, get to the guests and easily see what the VQ ticket number is up to see what is their queue versus what is just people trying to move past them, and move between photo areas. Like the last 2 years, this year was crowded and hot; and this made the experience much less pleasant than it could have been. Like others here, it affected my photos too; in most of them I'm redder than usual, and in 2 my hair is blown back due to the fan which had to be put in the area to keep the guests cool (- a fan that I don't begrudge them having at all, as it was definitely it needed in that area given the temperature inside). I'd also like to request that when you're deciding how to use the space next year, please consider grouping all the photo areas together, away from lifts and stairs and as much general through traffic as possible. So there's space to queue and wait to queue. And so it takes less time to get between them in the case of clashes. As I mentioned in another post I had one photo on the ground floor, one on the first and 2 up in F (on the third floor) all in a half hour window. Unsurprisingly I missed the 2 in F. Luckily this was Saturday and I was also attending Sunday so I was able to get them swapped. But it would be far less stressful and pressured if all the photo areas were on the same floor in close proximity. Regarding your addition to the post - I like the sound of the app in theory. But when this is introduced please may I just ask that you don't rely solely on this for updates. I was meeting with different friends on Friday and Sunday and it was quite problematic trying to communicate by text and What's App as we didn't have phone service thoughout most of the venue. So I'd still like to have physical information about updates (boards, signs etc) too please. Thank you again for your comments and for a generally great event.

All the guests I met were great. The busy ones all looked up, smiled, said hello or thank you when I got my autograph - which I always appreciate when they're rushing through people and can't personalise etc so it's an exceptionally short meeting. But, as usual, my favourites were some of the 'smaller' guests I met - as there was more time for a bit of interaction. Peter Shinkoda was lovely. He seemed so pleased and appreciative to have people coming to see him. I went to meet him because of Falling Skies, but we talked for a while about his episode of Supernatural - which I had forgot he'd been in as it was way back in Season 1, but one of the photos on his table was from the show so I asked him about it. And also the excellent first season of Daredevil, which I've only just finished watching. And both Michael Traynor and Steve Coulter were great too. Michael was very funny when I selected the picture of him escaping from the revolving door for him to sign, and he came out from behind his table for a photo, which is always nice when the guest is on the end of a row. I didn't talk to either for long because I was rushing a bit at that point on Friday afternoon, but both were very nice and happily answered my question about their time on The Walking Dead.

I think this was the crew member organising the James Remar and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe queue at E on Sunday (?), assuming so - yes, he was really great. Admittedly these weren't massive queues like some of the others I was in over the weekend, but he had everyone exceptionally well organised, calling people in to the queue in such a way as not to cause a mad dash and keeping a good handle on who was there with what type of ticket etc. He was also super polite and kept the atmosphere light and exuded a confidence that we were all going to get our photo with no problems. That experience represented a stark contrast to my Saturday experience for the only photo op I had in E, which I must stress he wasn't sorting the queue for, which was disorganised with a crazy number of deliberate queue jumpers and also people joining the queue in the wrong place because they didn't know what was going on. But when I asked the blue shirt to please sort he just told me to tell people not to jump ahead of me. Not helpful. I could have done with Andrew for that op! I look forward to being organised by him for future photo ops!

Not the best first day for me, it took 55 minutes to get in from my place in the queue when the doors opened - 55 minutes mostly in the sun, surrounded by people smoking and queue jumpers - a frustrating start. Very hot and crowded inside. Way too much time wasted going between the various guest signing areas and the photo op areas. I felt these were too spread out and having them on multiple floors was a pain, particular when inching along behind a slow moving line of people that suddenly stops because someone decides to look at something on a stall. I only had 3 photo ops today due to 5 cancelled guests. But I'm way into double digits for tomorrow and I have several clashes - and after today I suspect it's going to be very stressful and rushed getting from one end of the hall to the other and up and down the various floors to make all the shoots. Why can't these areas be grouped together? I'm not advocating a complete separation between the guests, photo areas and the vendors, but having all the guests grouped together would make it easier for checking back to see what VQ ticket numbers are at for guests I'm waiting to meet whilst getting other autographs. And having the photo areas all in the same area of the hall would make dealing with clashes easier, particularly in that situation where the photo op queue you're in starts late and you're super tight for time to get to the next one. This said, I did get the autographs I planned to today (with one exception, RDA - who never got anywhere near my VQ number) and all the guests I met were really great - very nice, friendly and chatty. And all the crew members I encountered (a few situations of me being completely clueless where something or someone was, as those maps - not very helpful. To scale and with 'you are here' marks on would improve them) were really nice and helpful. So I had a successful day, but it wasn't as enjoyable as usual. I'm still looking forward to tomorrow (negotiating my way around the building to the various photo op areas aside!) and hope for a fun day for us all

Buying up popular tickets to sell later at an inflated price is selfish and unfair to the real fans, in my opinion. I'm sorry to hear this is happening, but I'm not surprised. I heard about it happening with Stan Lee last year. And my own view is that this is only going to increase with the new ticket system (which I am a fan of, don't get me wrong, even though it doesn't work reliably on mobile devices! Not having the shop close a couple of weeks before the event is going to be super helpful for those instances of last minute guest announcements!) as to sell on now all you have to do is email someone the ticket. How to get around this though ... it's going to be tricky. Any system needs to not slow things, like entry to the event, down too much. Particularly now the events are so popular and there are so many fans in attendance. You don't want to spend ages checking IDs at the door with massive queues of people getting increasingly frustrated about how long it takes to get in after the doors open. And it also needs to take account of situations where people buy for other people, for example I always buy both mine and my brother's tickets. And I've always got early bird entry and him the standard entry ticket (when these used to be available), because I needed to get in earlier for photo ops - a lot of the time we're not together when we're doing things at the event as I always get loads of photo ops so he's wandering doing other things whilst I'm queuing for those. So any 'identification' system would need to make allowances for where one person buys for multiple people in a group, a group who may not arrive at the same time or split up to do their own activities once inside. I think a system authorised and overseen by Showmasters of fans selling to other fans, maybe here on the forum, and / or a buy back system is worth considering. Ensuring that tickets would have to be sold at face value or less. There are situations when people would like to sell their tickets for genuine, not profit, reasons - like not being able to make the event due to illness or a great Sunday-only guest being announced when you had planned, and thus got entry tickets, for Saturday only. With a Showmasters system for reselling etc, such tickets wouldn't go to waste and other fans could get the benefit of them if the event is sold out. And would hopefully then be a place for fans to turn in the event of a sold out show, instead of having to resort to unscrupulous people on eBay.

Yes, Jewel Staite, Doug Abrahams, Alaina Huffman

I just wanted to thank everyone involved for a great weekend. All the guests were brilliant, as great or even better than expected. I'd met 4 of them previously, but it was fun seeing them again, particularly in different panel combinations - the panels were really entertaining this weekend. And the guests who were new to me, Kira and Jay, were both really nice. David Blue, my main reason for going after meeting him briefly at CMMK a few years back, was so lovely. Friendly, funny, chatty and great in his panels. Completely worth the trip! The event was well organised. All the crew I encountered were helpful and on the ball. It was nice to have a smaller number of attendees (thanks Sherlocked!) than usual. It all felt very relaxed, but at the same time still planned and structured (and not just a free for all). My photos all came out well - thanks to Chantal (sorry if that's not spelled correctly!), who I've always found to take great pictures. And good checking by the guy manning the printer on Saturday morning (I had a weird mark in the corner of one of my photos, which he noticed immediately so he sent me round again for another photo). And I met loads of friendly fellow attendees, which is always really nice when coming alone. My only suggestion for the future would be to have a higher stage or higher chairs for the guests to aid visibility in the panels I was only about 5 or maybe 6 rows back for both afternoons of panels, but I could see very little around other people's heads. And people in front were constantly restricting my view further by putting their cameras up in the air to take pictures - which I can understand, as they couldn't otherwise get pictures of the low guests. This was particularly problematic on the occasions when the guests were slouched in their chairs (although it was fun to see them so nicely relaxed on stage!!). I know that we have the view screens on each side, for which I am very grateful. But it's not the same as actually seeing the guest live in front of me and it's a pity to have to rely on the screen to see the guests when they are actually so close, but just too low down to see in the flesh. This suggestion aside, I had a really fun weekend and I hope to be able to make the next one.

Brilliant! Very much looking forward to meeting Noah

Truly excellent announcement. Photo op and talk ticket for Saturday purchased. Michael is someone I've wanted to meet ever since I started going to these events years back, but I never thought it would really happen. Thanks SM!

Thank you for confirming this Queen Sindel. I can now get organised and sort my tickets

Any update on Robert Emms? It's still saying Saturday in the shop and Sunday on here. Thanks

That's unfortunate. I was looking forward to meeting him. Indeed, let's hope for Carlos at another event soon. And let's hope for a replacement guest too - that would be great, please and thank you. With a couple of cancellations recently and no news about whether any replacements are being tried for, the talk about Chevron not playing second fiddle to Sherlocked is beginning to feel a little less convincing to me.

Sorry to hear this. Particularly because Michael and Matthew (who also had to cancel) were guests I hadn't met yet. Here's hoping for another opportunity some time soon.

Hi, quick query Is Robert Emms Saturday or Sunday? It says Sunday here. But the photo op ticket in the shop says Saturday. Thanks

All the guests I met were great. In terms of 'unexpected star' of the weekend, that would have to be MC Gainey. He was so nice. I was chatting with him for longer than I'd planned and he gave me a free autograph, which was a completely unexpected treat. A really lovely guy. I was very pleased I'd met him.

I know a couple of people who didn't come because they'd had such a bad time at the summer event. I tried to convince them that the winter event is nice and quiet, to no avail unfortunately. But for me it was as expected for the winter London event - in a good way! Quieter than the summer (regarding the crowds), well organised with helpful crew, generally less rushed to do everything I planned, and great guest experiences - overall a good weekend. In particular, I like having free talks because I can rarely see the whole talk due to photoshoots and, as such clashes invariably happen, I don't mind missing 5 or even 10 minutes of a talk to go to a photoshoot if I haven't paid for it! And there were a good selection of talks on offer this weekend. Alan Ruck, in particular, was great. I'd forgotten all the various movies he'd been in until he talked about Speed, Twister etc!

I had a photo op with him, during which he was super lovely asked my name and shook my hand. But I didn't have time to meet him properly for an autograph unfortunately as my time was so manic with photo clashes etc, so I'd love to have him back.