choc1

Couldn't view your album despite being logged into facebook. In case you weren't aware, there is an option in the photo album settings somewhere that will give you an url for anyone to view the pics, without needing to be a member of facebook. I think this is is http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6309...mp;id=657680370 Try that one. Excellent, great pics, cheers for sharing. I'd been looking f/w to meeting Romero and a few of the other horror related guests for ages but I was too ill at the weekend so didn't attend : / Those are very cool photos. Do you have an awesome camera?

Me too! :-)

No worrys, and am sorry too if I sounded irritable. Ive got caffiene withdrawl and I usually have a set routine every day which I havnt managed to do today so am probably a bit tempremental lol So no need to go back into lurking! And I could see what you were getting at. The thing with SM offering to pay flight costs first is, if the guests approached them they might not have even know about it. For all we know, someone could have given them a showmasters leaflet on saturday, the guests mentioned to their agents in the evening, agents then contact SM sunday, work something out, then all seems ok for an announcement in the evening/early hours or something similar, but we'll never know anyway so no point giving it deep thought lol Hey no problem, sounds a bit like me when I'm chocolate deprived!

To book a one way flight to LA Upper Class with only 6 days before flying are as much as a full return trip. If we were to pay half of the return trip that the other event has paid for then they would save 50% of the cost on the flights and we would have got another guest for the show with out taking any public being taken away from the other event. and also it is hard to pay for a full fair as we did not have the advantage of having a long add run to help recoupe the ar costs i hope that helps now Let‚s get down to it. We and the other event will probably never get along. I have put the hand of friendship out many a time to have it thrown back at me. It‚s a simple thing we try to put on the best events we can and try to get along with most of the other promoters like 10th Planet, Starfury, Cult TV, Sector 14, shambles, another show, Tellynation, and more - all good people running good events, fans running events for fans, but some promoters just think they own the convention scene and that anyone trying to run an event is a threat to their domain and get really nasty about it. Anyone should have the right to try to run a convention and every one as long as they are responsible with the fans‚ money should be given a chance to have a go. No one owns fandom, we are all fandom. If you love something then get together with friends that care about the same subject and see what you can do. That's all we did. It‚s not about one person, it‚s about enjoying and sharing the experience of putting on an amazing event. Some of you know me, but i am only one person but it takes around 150 crew that help on the day and around 20 or so that put their free time in to make it all happen. Without all of them it would just not be possible. We are a family: the Showmasters family. We all work very hard and have a lot of fun and are responsible for some amazing events. We have a motto: no one is bigger than the show. And it‚s true. Sorry for going on, I had a bit of time on my hands and just wanted to share my thoughts. See you all at the weekend and we all hope you all have a great show Jason If you don't get on then it's even more important to proceed diplomatically isn't it? If they found out only when you announced it on your boards is not only rude, but it doesn't make sense when you say you offered to contribute to the flight costs. At which point did you do this? Beforehand, which would have been prudent considering your relationship, or only when you were found out? If you have a bad relationship and you let them find out about this on your forums, then you must have expected them to be not be very happy with you. I'm going back to lurking, making posts and asking questions here just makes me more confused. :-(

I said PROBABLY not refundable..not they def were..or did you miss that bit? Do you ever fly? If so, how many of your flights are non-refundable? I know a lot of people who book flights for something, cant go, then lose the money because 99% of the time the flights are non-refundable..I'd imagine long haul would be worse than most for that.. And Jason already said SM did offer to help with flight costs: Sounds to me from that the offer was made, but refused. Sorry didn't mean to get your back up! I seemed to have irritated you. I'm clearly not very good at this and am reminded why I don't post much and usually lurk! I would loved to have seen these 2 on Sunday, but now they won't be there, I'm simply trying to work out why. If these 2 organizers had spoken to each other nicely it would have worked out. I know Jason already said they offered, because my last post refers to it, it doesn't make sense. It is not an option that the other organiser should be give to them retrospectively, SM should offer it the outset of negotiations. It sounds like the organizer had no idea the guests were thinking of attending Collectormania at the weekend. But if SM had offered to pay towards flight costs, that would have been a clue that SM wanted them to appear at Collectormania! So I don't understand his comment.

Depending on how far you wanted to take it, you could prob get your lawyers and the guests agents/lawyers to demand to look at the contracts with the other event, and if theres def no exclusion clause, might be possible to take the other event to court for loss of earnings! They might learn then to just be nice and get along with other events as they lost out event wise in no way with the announcements being after the event closing! This is true. Sunday the 4400 guests and eureka guests were bouncing a baloon to each other over the dividers, writing things on 8x10's etc and putting on the other shows side and generally having fun. They were all smiling all day that I saw. No idea about Saturday though. Unfortunetly I doubt we'll hear something from the other side. There was a thread started on their forums which was promptly deleated, and its turning into a repeat of the last time something similar happened. Their stance is often say nothing, crack down on any mention and bury their heads till it blows over. Thing is, their flights were probably non-refundable, so even if they cancelled and SM paid for new ones, the others would be loosing the money for a wasted flight still. And who would likely get the backlash from that..the guests most likely. Plus theres always the argument "so and so booked so many months in advance and got flights for £xxx, so and so had to book flights a week before the flying date so had to pay £xxx which was £xxx more etc.." When it comes to buisness, theres no end of ways to argue about money. I don't know how you or anyone would know if the flights were refundable or not, except the person that paid for them! It's a complete unknown but it's a possibility they weren't refundable, just as its a possibility that they were and it would have made it fairer for each organizer to pay half each. I'd hate to pay for guests to come over only to discover that I've helped fund their trip to another show and the other show were only paying their fee and not paying any airfare at all. If Showmasters had offered to pay half then that would have been fair, and it's a shame they weren't given the opportunity. However I don't understand why they weren't given the opportunity. The time to offer to pay half is BEFORE a guest is announced, not after you've been found out! If I'd paid for them to come over I would have welcomed Showmasters offer to contribute to the airfare but I would have expected them to contact me before the guests were announced.

I don't understand the problem. Surely if the 'other organizer' had cancelled their return flights, then Showmasters would have had to pay for new flights, which would have been fair, cause both organizers would then have paid half the air travel each. That's fair isn't it?

quote 'keith'Jun 16 2006, 10:57 AM' With the very greatest respect, I would suggest that is complete rubbish. THREE AND A HALF SECOND per pic ???? To say it would be a production line job is an understatement. Yes, you could easily shoot a line of people 'machine gun style' with a fast pro digital SLR, but the problem is people don't move fast. Unless you really want to manhandle people like cattle Yep and really pi$$ them off Double yep leaving them with an experience they will want to forget, Again yep that just cannot happen. And at 3 1/2 secs per person, that does not even give the photographer a chance to check each image. No, sorry thats fantasy land and an absolute nightmare if anyone really did try that on. It would be a horrible experience for everyone concerned - you'd barely have time to blink....and if you did blink, you'd hold the production line up and completely screw up the timetable. No, sorry 1000 in an hour...... KEITH It should never have happened. I think it was done for fun but lots of attendees had a horrid time. I would recommed SM didn't try this!

They spelt Katee's name wrong on all the Virtual Tickets, but she said she didn't mind. I voted for JCB, am I the only one? I think she's great!

Why do people keep calling it a convention? It's a signing show. I came home with all the autos I wanted, and apparently the lurgy cause I'm off sick right now. :-( I find signing shows quite tiring. I'm not very good on my feet and I was so tired getting pushed about and knocked into all day that we left about 3. I loved Manchester, I found all the transport connections really easy. Never been to the Gmex before. We got off the tram at the right stop which turned out to be the bottom end of the Gmex! It wasn't really intuititive finding our way to the queue at the front door and we took a couple of wrong turns. A lovely big colourful 'Collectormania Gmex' sign directing us to an automatic door that was locked shut didn't help! But then we turned round and there was about 20 people had followed us off the tram, they didn't know where they were going either, how embarrassing!

I might get to see him 3 times in one year! Can't get excited about it till nearer the time though, and if JCB is anywhere near him, I'll have to send my other half to get an auto, cause she scares me!

To be honest, I think 25 quid is very reasonable for the Shatner. Somebody said it was too pricey cause they remember when autos were free! But how do you expect the organisers to pay for them to be there? The whole way that SM treat people, and the way they let JCB treat people just cause they're scared of her, really makes me angry. It makes me think they are all just bully fan girls and boys who get off on pushing people around, JCB is just a bigger bully than they are. She really should be put down, she makes small children cry for crissakes! As for pushing people in the queue, and threatening to take cameras off people, just tell them to eff off and call the police! It's harrassment! Properly trained bouncers and security guards deal with situations with far more diplomacy and respect. Physcial contact and verbal threats are a last resort. If JCB and the SM heavies are going to Manchester please let me know (not that SM ever replies to posts!) cause I won't be going if they are. I was really looking forward to it too. Hopefully if Labour have another party conference at the same time then the heavies won't be there. They'll be at their day job manhandling 82 year old hecklers.

Erm, to be honest, I don't know who any of these people are. I can't wait for the Narnia film, but are these the type of people we will only see if we buy the DVD for the deleted scenes. I'm still coming, but not for Narnia. I was really excited when I saw Narnia guests, but I'm not interested in background artists. But that's just my opinion.

I think this is the best name submitted so far, in fact that's what me and my mate are calling it already.

Hello, haven't posted for a while cause I was embarrassed at the offence caused, but apology accepted, ta. It honestly wasn't a reference to what you thought, as the substance in question is famously known for being used by people in London and NI a few decades ago, I didn't think about linking that with current events. It was just a stupid throwaway remark. I don't post very much, now I know why! Sorry.

Think you mean Harvey Nichols. A yummy place for shopping. Cheers for the info moggy!

Yep, Trafford Center. Though nearer the centre is King Street? Is that still cool for shopping?

But the Gmex is the Gmex! I'm sure they've already copyrighted that one. Besides, I prefer CM Semtex.

This quote thing is weird. Anyway, is that the one near the Lowry centre? There are FANTASTIC shops near there, picked up loads of bargains at the nearby Nike outlet shop, plus a few mins walk further is the biggest mall I've ever seen!

Not really keen on Maroon 5, but loved their version of that Neil Young song - Keep on Rocking in the Free World.

Am watching it gradually on telly, as I was out most of the day at 2 parties on Sat. Anyone know why The Killers only did one song, and other people who were rubbish were allowed to do 3?

I have to say, I have never ever found that to be the case. Her mum sorts out a lot of stuff like that for her, and her mum did not tell SM she was coming, someone else did. That's why I can't figure it out. Still bothering me.

I'd like to see the post though. When you remove the post it just looks like you're scared of anyone else reading it.

Like I said elsewhere, it was probably too late too change. What I DON'T understand is why they thought she was going in the first place when she never ever could. They wouldn't have bothered advertising her on the leaflets if they thought she was going, so it appears someone told SM she was going when they shouldn't have. She couldn't understand why she was advertised, so someone inbetween perhaps? She has loads of lovely photos, so if she comes back her selection should be alot better than photos for other guests this weekend.

I'm sure that wasn't left on there maliciously to hoodwink people into buying tickets for the talk and party, they probably had their leaflets printed before they found out she couldn't come, and it was too late to change. SM have confirmed in her guest announcement thread that she is not coming. What I DON'T understand is why they thought she was going in the first place when she never ever could? It's not like something came up and she could no longer make it, she was ALWAYS unable to go. Weird.