Count Fooku

That was Clare Pritchard-Jones, not sure if it's her full signature or not, she was involved in quite a long conversation at her desk which I didn't want to to interrupt but she saw I was waiting!

A go on a scooter and a helicopter ride, some people get all the luck!

Couple of my things from the weekend

That's as good a way as any to look at it!

It would be good to see more of these types of guests at this show, even if I haven't quite forgiven Nicholas Meyer for slightly signing over the Leonard Nimoy signature in my book!

For about the first time ever this didn't happen to me, I was surprised because my bag was pretty full when I left for the event on Friday and I'd given no thoughts to the trinkets and baubles that came with the platinum pass, I didn't realise it was going to be a proper bag that came with it and just assumed it would be another cloth one like last years gold one! Still got there in the end with it all, only slight concern is my left heel still feels a bit numb!

I think that was a difficult one because by that time the event had effectively closed for lunch, most of the guests were on (well deserved) breaks so it felt to me that a lot of people were milling about and so naturally gravitated to where they next needed to be. i think that's what makes these sorts of event so difficult to manage is that you aren't just selling customers a product, people are so emotionally involved a fair bit of rationality goes out the window.

I don't think there is an easy answer to this, although I suspect the easy answer is if all of us as attendees did as we were told by the crew!

At the events I've been at, they have had open slots for the solo bridge photos then allocated times for the photos with you on the bridge with a guest or guests. Generally any time they aren't doing photos with guests or preparing for them etc then you can go and get yours done. The schedule usually has the open slots marked up though.

It's always felt to me that there has been a close link between Star Trek and NASA down the years. Not least with the first shuttle being named Enterprise. From some talks and interviews I've heard down the years its seemed to me that many of the original series cast took an interest in the space race and it's not uncommon to hear astronauts now talk about how being a fan of Star Trek partially influenced their career choices. I know it's not uncommon in the US for astronauts to attend Star Trek events and for Star Trek guests to attend space related events. To me it seems like a natural fit.

I think this is probably the most difficult element of a convention to manage. I thought the crew member manning the line for the morning Cumberbatch job was doing a good job of telling people who didn't have platinum (or possibly golds) that they would not get done in the morning and to come back in the afternoon. I don't know what the answer is really, you can only have so many areas set aside for people to wait in and you can only tell people so many times to come back in half an hour. I think everyone to varying extents loses their heads a bit at these shows and suddenly being 5th in a queue rather than being 27th suddenly feels like the most important thing in the world!

I've been thinking this over, and have been struggling to think of too many other improvements, maybe a few more things on the Friday night might have been good, but my main idea would be to have replaced the Una, Wanda and Timothy talk with a succession of coffee mornings with them! I could happily have sat and listened to them for hours!

From memory, there is a wetherspoons on the NEC site and I'd expect that to be still open into the evening, probably places like subway as well, but you may find not all places are still open.

It did seem with Sherlock that we got a flurry of announcements for packages, guests, group photos etc as the event got closer so it may well be similar with this one. Different events I know with different logistics, but as much as the late announcements did cause some planning issues, they were well worth waiting for. Hopefully the same will be true of this event.

I didn't get a sense of it being overwhelmingly busier but I think if there were extra crowds with people with day tickets they were mainly congregating in areas where I wasn't. I thought the crew did a good job there of setting people's expectations so crowds didn't build up needlessly.

Really aching quite a lot this morning and struggling to wake up, also dropped my razor down the toilet so get the impression this is going to be a long day!

Agree, all the crew I dealt with were great, they kept things moving but always seemed to remember they were dealing with people. I saw several instances of them going above and beyond to help people out.

I had an idle wander towards his queue before the last talk today, I didn't see the number he was up to but there was a big queue of people waiting for him. One of the crew said he was staying till six so I can't think he got up to massively high numbers.

The title of the last talk was something of a misnomer as they said right from the off that they couldn't discuss anything about the new series or any future story plans. In the end it was more of a general Q&A, they revealed the titles of the first two episodes of the new series. I have to admit, my minds gone blank on the rest of it but some bits might come back to me!

Brilliant weekend, feel absolutely shattered but all credit to the guests, organisers and crew at the event and of course QS on here for fielding so many enquiries in the run up to the show. Chatted to a lot of different people in various queues for things, always seems a strength of this particular event that there is always such a good atmosphere about the place. It amazes me the distances that people travel to come to this show, I think I spoke to more Germans thus weekend than last time I was at Oktoberfest! Really good way to round things off with Benedict's talk and the panel with Sue, Steven and Mark. Encouraging to hear, unless my ears were playing tricks on me, that they are looking at another UK event at some point. Final thought, the platinum pass was worth every penny!

I'm sure most of you are here already but just in case it seems they aren't doing entry by package, just looks to be one long queue.

Just about got to the end of what has been a long but good day. Got all of the autos I wanted today, just leaves Mark, Louise and himself tomorrow. All the guests seemed in good form, be interesting to see if Amanda can talk Martin into attending a future event. I managed to make a couple of talks as well, would have been nice to get to a couple more but you can't have everything! Took myself off to the theatre tonight, getting a standing ticket probably wasn't the best thing, my feet are killing me but the play was good and got an autograph from Ian McKellan afterwards!

I'd say it's been good so far today, busy but not horribly so. Tomorrow may be a different glass of tea though!

As much as this show does need some more information to be released, it is very unlikely to happen this weekend (I'm at Sherlocked and also going to DST so have a vested interest in both), I'd also say by setting your own arbitrary timelines for announcements you are likely to be disappointed and ultimately that is probably going to lead to you getting more frustrated.

Fairly uneventful for me, didn't seem as busy tonight as last years preview but that was all to the good. It'll be interesting to see if that translates into the show as well. Managed to buy all the 10x8s I wanted for the weekend without too much drama. Interesting the likes of Arwel etc seem to have their own signing desks this year as opposed to having their own seperately areas like last time. Managed to walk round the exhibits section, so,e really good stuff in there thus year. Interesting selection of carpet and lino samples for sale this year, unlike last years wallpapers!