thefreckles

Positives * Nice large venue with a surprising amount of space. It never seemed to get too crowded, unlike some past LFCCs * Well laid out on the whole and easy to navigate round * The lovely lady on the credit card machine for autos in the morning and then photos in the afternoon on Saturday (you're a star!) * The chap manning the Joe Flanigan photoshoot queue on Sunday. Thank you for being nice, treating us like humans (rather than cattle) and your great sense of humour. Made the wait more bearable! It doesn't take much but you managed it. * The equally lovely lady who seemed to be in charge of Talk Area A on Saturday (multi-coloured hair). She was awesome, chatty, helpful, so friendly and everything was, generally, very orderly. Shame she wasn't she there on Sunday. * The experiment (?) with not issuing talk tickets. Seemed to work well for the free talks. * The guests themselves! Friendly, chatty and so welcoming even when busy. Everyone I saw had at least a little time for you. * The efficient clearing out of the halls on Saturday after each talk(much appreciated!) * The very clear and helpful signage (for the most part) * Too Tall! * The generally very friendly and very chatty other attendees. Thank you all! * The lack of a queue when I got there on Sunday at 10 am in to get in :) Less then positives * Oh my gosh, so hot on Saturday and then Sunday afternoon! Saturday was way worse though. * The shambles that was Eve Myles' talk 'queue' on Saturday (much more organised on Sunday) * The fact that there was no sign stating no personalisations for Arthur Darvill Saturday afternoon. Would have saved him the embarrassment of having to apologise to me himself when I asked for one for a friend (no need to apologise for that anyway!) * A certain assistant to one of the guests who could have done with being a little more friendly (won't say whose but it was a shame as all the others were so nice - there is a certain way to talk to us and addresss us and s/he somewhat spectacularly failed) * The lighting especially in the hall for the talks. Why can't portable lighting be brought in? It was appalling! * All the issues with the sound in the talks. Could hardly hear the chap at the beginning of Eve's talk (was quite far back) when giving out the photography rules. Was pretty sure he said no photos after the first few minutes (no mention as to if non-flash was still allowed or not as is the usual case and usually stated). Put my camera away just in case though after a little while. * All the people I saw filming. To be fair, an announcement wasn't always given but most of them should have known better and no one was checking. It would be a shame if guests stopped doing talks or stopped being so open in them if such footage ever gets leaked out. One attendee in front of me was actually filming with a small, hand-held video camera! * The fact that hardly anyone was taking control of Talk Zone A on Sunday leaving us pretty much in the dark as to when we could go in etc. and the fact that the halls were not cleared after each talk as they had been on Saturday and as they usually are most of the time. This meant that despite me being one of the first in the queue for Joe Flanigan's talk (and queuing up for an hour for it to get a good seat) and first in the hall after the preceding talk, this saw me only being able to get in Row 5 (Gold were only the first two rows). A few of us were 'good' and left the hall after Joe Flanigan's talk to join the end of the enormous queue for Eve's talk but many, many others didn't and just stuck around and/or moved up rows. This also meant getting out of the hall took quite a while due to all kinds of congestion. Was most disappointed no one was around to organise this as had been done the day before and most of the time at other events. Had a lovely two days all in all. Shame the organisation of the talk hall on Sunday let things down a little. Arthur was busy, a little shy, maybe, but very sweet. And a darling for allowing a photo (not a posed one). And Eve Myles, the Star Wars guests and Joe Flanigan were by far the highlights for me of a wonderful weekend. Thank you!

Saw Luciana Carro with one of the photos from the 1955 Chelsea squad in her hands wandering by their tables :)

I know, but thank you. I was on about the free talks. The last event I went to, the hall after one of the paid talks (which I didn't go to) wasn't cleared out properly for the free talk that came after that. It was rather annoying given all the time I had spent queuing believing the hall would be emptied. Same thing happened after an auction once too

I know the halls are usually cleared after each talk but can someone confirm this ought to be the case again this year? Just asking as the last two CM events I've been too have not cleared out the halls properly after paid talks in particular (or the auction) and those of us that had queued for a wee while to try and get good seats behind the Golds ended up being quite far back (and this was with me being first in the queue on one occasion!). I've also read other reports from more recent events where the halls weren't cleared properly too, which is such a shame. *is getting very excited* Many thanks!

It's one person for SM events (Hazel) and Yvie for ME shows. ::hands you a large virtual box of chocolates or a big bottle of your drink of choice:: Thank you for all your answers to our panicked (and in my case stupid) queries. You've the patience of a saint. Much appreciated!

In my own (limited) experience, a loooong time (or on two occasions never). But then others do have more luck and I haven't had to call on them for a response for a while. I do know they are very busy right now and don't do this full-time (or should that be she doesn't do this full-time as I think there's only one poor bod that deals with these type of queries). I was just being impatient as I'm about to go away.

Thanks, QS! Well, it let me through all the way once I had filled in my new details... Perhaps there is a final step that would have stopped me from being able to complete if I hadn't actually managed to purchase my ticket then? I'm a tad confused, as you can probably tell, as I'm pretty sure I went through all the steps but it could be that it didn't at all. Can't for the life of me remember what it normally does as just kind of point and click on auto-pilot by now However, one minute my ticket was still in my basket at the top or on the right-hand side and then it wasn't. I have no idea what was on the screen last as it happened at lunchtime. Not sure if I pressed a final 'confirm purchase' button or not if there was one. I guess my order was not fully processed but don't want to buy another ticket in case it is. I'm just really puzzled as to why I haven't received any e-mail(s) asking me to confirm my registration. It's very frustrating not being able to access my account as that would easily tell me the state of play, as it were. Oh well!

Stupidly forgot my old username and password for the shop and no longer use the original e-mail I signed up with so decided to re-register under my new e-mail address. Tried to buy a ticket for the Sat Doctor Who talk but towards the end of the process saw I had inadvertently left out my street name. Duh! Added it to the delivery address after filling in my card details and then tried to amend my billing address but...it then seemed to lose everything and I have no idea if my order went through or not. I thought I'd be able to check my account on the online store but it keeps coming up that I need to confirm registration and that an e-mail has been sent asking me to do so but I haven't received any such e-mail Does anyone know how long this normally takes? I'm about to go on holiday to a place with no internet access (yikes!) and would really like to know if I have a ticket for this or not before I leave. Anyone else experienced any problems registering with the shop? I've checked my spam box and there's nothing there either I've e-mailed info@collectormania but I know it usually takes them an age to reply to anything as they are so busy and don't do this f/t. I'm a bit anxious as I don't want to miss out on a ticket and don't want to be really, really far back at the end of the hall if I end up having to buy a ticket after I come back from holiday if my original order didn't go through. I find it hard enough to see and hear in the halls close to the front as it is! Any advice or thoughts? Thank you!

I will second that things do find their way back to people. I lost my purse one year and didn't realise for a couple of days *sheepish grin* However, upon contacting Showmasters I found out that they had contacted the political party I belong(ed) to as my membership card was in there and sent it on to them to be forwarded to me. They are absolutely brilliant and tip-top! I honestly cannot thank enough i) whoever handed it in and ii) the enormous effort Showmasters went it getting it back to me. Of course, I'd cancelled all my cards well before it landed back on my doorstep and had only a few pence left by the time I lost it but, despite being a tatty old thing, it used to belong to my mum and has much sentimental value. I do hope the camera makes its way back to its owner.

Oh, would you mind letting me know which tool you use? I shoot raw and adjust the white balance if necessary in either Lightroom or CS3 but have never managed to get any good results with the lighting in Earls Court over many years. The last couple of years, I've ended up converting my non-flash photos to black & white as it was the only way to save them It's the one venue I really struggle with ::sighs:: Great photos by the way! Karen looks as if she was having great fun

Definitely Richard Hatch (for someone I've never seen) and Joel Gretsch (for someone I have already seen). Am living in vain hope that Joel might be announced as doing a talk on the 3rd stage but I guess that has been put by for other types of activities

Dear Showmasters, May I please respectfully request that you cease with adding all these utterly fabulous guests to this show? Yours sincerely me and my bank manager

Woo Hoo! Thank you so much, Showmasters! An awesome guest and someone I have wanted to meet for a long time. Will keep my fingers crossed he does a talk as well.. Am so excited about this (had such a crush on him when he was in the original BSG). You've just made my weekend

The hotel website says this: Due to major security measures currently in force at Birmingham International Airport, we are no longer permitted to use our courtesy bus service direct from the airport. All clients travelling from Birmingham International Airport should take the mono rail to Birmingham International railway station where we will be able to collect. Guests can use the free telephones in the airport or the station to ask for the bus to collect them. The journey takes around 5 minutes and our courtesy bus runs every 30 minutes. So maybe there is a shuttle bus after all. Just not directly from the airport. I'm curious if anyone can confirm this. When I was at Chevron last Feb there was, indeed, a shuttle bus from train station. Both myself (and Bam Bam - he was looking too *g*) had to hunt to find it but the nice woman at WH Smiths pointed me in the right direction. You'll then need to go to the ground floor to pick it up (there are escalators)- the phone is near where the trains come in on an upper level. That was just over a year ago but I doubt things have changed. Someone who's been to a more recent con there might be able to confirm though?

Did you try to take pics that weekend during the talks? I think that is what most (though not all) people are on about. I got some pretty good ones with my external flash but I was in the second row and had to stop down quite a bit. The pics I took without flash were ghastly for Chris Judge and barely okay for The Matrix guests (bad light, darker skin tones and a dark background do not a good combination make). Even shooting at 1/4 sec at ISO 1600 didn't give great results. FYI, my camera (a dSLR), lenses and flash cost a four-figure sum and have done me proud at many other events. Other than Earls Court 2 (with the horrid, horrid lighting each and every year), these were some of the worst conditions I have ever tried to take photos in. Gave up using one lens as it was too dark to see if I had correctly focussed on a guest or not (legacy lens so needed to manual focus with that one). Unfortunately not everyone has a lot of money to spend on camera equipment and a lot of people on here have managed to take acceptable pictures at other events with the equipment they have, hence the slight moan (I know a friend of mine complained at the event itself about the background/lighting for the talks). Some portable lighting would have gone down a treat, not only for taking photos but for actually seeing the guests themselves!

Am re-iterating what I said above: "In the case of a real emergency, seconds can count people! You could not only be potentially putting your lives at risk, but those of the emergency services too. "

As Safety Officer where I work I was also appalled at the situation (chiefly venue issues). First we knew about it was when a crew member asked us to evacuate the hall for the SW talk. No alarms, no tannoy message or anything that we could hear. She was brilliant (calm, efficient, knew where everything was) but so many other (generally non-crew) people didn't seem to know about it and/or were not taking it seriously. In the case of a real emergency, seconds can count people! You could not only be potentially putting your lives at risk, but those of the emergency services too. Perhaps crew could be a little bit firmer it if ever happens again? As long as you're not panicking, you probably won't panic other people so there's no need to worry that a firmer tone will create unwanted problems. That's been shown to work in an emergency and people will respond to it. When we got to the bottom of our exit we thought, at first, our doors were stuck as the crew couldn't get them open. One strong chap finally got one door open and then myself and another person struggled to get the other open from the outside. It took some doing! We were then left in an area where, I presume, deliveries etc. were made. The signage as to where to go was incredibly poor. I eventually picked out a poorly placed, unlit and dirty sign and told the crew member and others around me and we made our way into the car park. At first it seemed that the attendant didn't know what was up, then he gave us the all clear and told us to go back in but this hadn't filtered through elsewhere and we carried on waiting outside for a while. When we did go back in, the entrance was initially blocked further up and we started to direct people back down the stairs again when it was finally opened. Didn't leave me with a lot of confident in the safety of the building, I must admit. Biggest issue for me was the unlit exit signs outside (and all but covered up with dirt/pollution) and this was really dangerous (think potential crush etc. with people coming out and then being unsure where to go). Kudos to how most of the crew handled it in general though. However information being filtered thorough could do with being improved and there really ought to have been a designated someone in charge of that area coordinating things and letting us/other crew know what was happening 'down on the ground'. A suggestion to think about in future, perhaps?

Can anyone from ME give us a rough idea of how long RDA is expected to be at the con? The 'limited time' given as a reason for Standards getting pre-signed only autos has me wondering. I know schedules etc. can change but is he only expected to be there on the Saturday for talks and maybe Sunday am for autos/photos a la John Barrowman at the Hub 1 or is he currently planning to be there for the whole weekend? Also, is he planning to attend the Gold ticket Cocktail Party / Reception on the Friday evening too or not? Many thanks!

You're a star! I thank you most heartily More options! Am always a bit worried going into pubs in a place I don't know as a single female (thought the Wetherspoons in Braehead might not be too bad) but was just saying to a friend I haven't been to the cinema enough this year so that gives me a choice! Thanks once again to all leaving advice. Truly appreciated!

Oh, will have to look again at the options then. Any idea which company runs that. That makes thing much more interesting Thank you again!

Yikes! The last bus from Braehead leaves before 6 pm on Sunday from what I can see and the idea of spending four+ hours in a bus station doesn't fill me with much glee, especially since any food there stops at 7 pm and my coach leaves around 10.30pm ::sighs:: Don't know the area at all so have no idea if there is anywhere near that is safe and nice-ish to spend the time whilst waiting for the coach back down south of the border. Thanks for the reply! Make have to re-think plans...

Don't much fancy spending 4 hours or so at Buchanan Bus Station before the coach back so does anyone have any idea how much a taxi would cost from Braehead to there? I was thinking of plonking myself down in the Wetherspoons for a few hours for dinner and a drink or two. If it'll cost too much I'll just have to lump a long, boring wait at the station. Many thanks!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for getting this out early Should be a fun day!

If there are going to be any talks as advertised, would it please be possible to put the schedule up before the end of this Friday if you can? I need to book my coach up to Bonnie Scotland and the mucho cheap fares end then. Would like to know which day would be the best to go ::bats eyelashes pleadingly:: Alas, can only make one day Thank you!

Fabulous news! Thank you! Hope Bobby Tambling is still able to make it too as that line up has even tempted my father to come along with me. I had a poster of the 70/71 team on my bedroom wall for ages growing up as a kid so this has made very, very happy to say the least Not forgetting Roy Bentley to, this is going to be expensive for us Chelsea supporters but well worth it. I have already been looking at replica 1971 shirts and I'm very tempted at getting one signed by all 10 players. Oops! How could I have forgot Roy too?!? This more than makes up for missing JFH and others in previous years.