Ironside

Plus it's funny hearing the American's pronounce it Cuventry...

My faves were Dean Andrews and Marina Sirtis. I love down-to-earth celebs and they were both great.

Thinking about it, Coventry did nothing wrong at all in my eyes. It wouldn't bother me if the event was held there all the time. I'm just being selfish as I live in Derby and would like it more local !!!

He said to my GF that she should dump me I let him off though as this is probably his usual schtick at these things. Although he then repeated it at the talk which made me go beetroot (hate being singled out in crowds). I was half tempted to send him a guestbook message saying 'thaanks for that brent shes upped and left me now'...to make him feel guilty but I can't be arsed. Funny bloke with a weird sense of humour, he had a real hangup about his domain name being taken didn't he? Although I don't think he's looked into this very closely as i'm pretty sure he could sue and get his real website back if he really wanted too from the bit of investigation i've done on the web. Thought Marina was a great counter-foil to him, she was lovely. Nice to hear her 'proper' accent. Dare I suggest Showmasters do a full on-Milf convention? :) Sophie Aldred, Marina Sirtis and Gates McFadden could be the starters for 10?

I think the Notts Arena would be a great venue. I'd suggest Pride Park Derby but it hasn't really got the conferencing facilities, which is a shame as its real near to the Rail station and its dead central. Anyways, I thought the Coventry event was excellent. Me and My GF had been to Milton Keynes and the LFACC before. Milton Keynes was ok but quite hassly, but we had a dreadful experience in London. It would take a lot of convincing for me to go back to either of those. I've yet to experience Manchester and Glasgow. Coventry was perfect. It was quiet, but thats how we like it! we got all our autos without overdue hussle and bussle, the talks were great (although I'd like to have had longer on Marina and Brents talk), and the bus shuttle worked well too. I think everyone was relaxed and this is the way the events should be.

The above comment simply does not come close to reflecting my experience and pleasure of meeting Mr Stewart on Sunday. Having previously survived the JCB-controlled 'Shatner Experience' in Milton Keynes, it was more than obvious that SM were adopting the same procedure, which I felt was acceptable on this occasion given the limited time available for signing. Having been herded through the conveyer belt system to the signing table, I expected nothing more than the three in-person autographs I had requested. I was therefore delighted when, after signing the first piece he stopped, looked up and asked how I was. That provided the opportunity to open up an albeit brief and limited chat on the success of his recent Shakesperean roles and the resulting move of the production to the West End, all ending in smiles and encouragement to go and see the play(s). I found him extremely friendly, good-natured and more than happy to engage in a brief conversation. It may have been that he was simply resting his hand but for me it was a fantastic and unexpected experience, all the more special for having been prompted by the man himself. My apologies to the people around me in the queue who may not have been so successful but I left completely happy and satisfied with the experience. Well it seems that you were one of the lucky ones then as we had watched him for quite a while and he barely looked up and didn't hardly talk. When you compare him to people like Nana Visitor and her wonderful personality, there is no comparison. I know he is very much in demand but it doesn't cost anything to look at each person (who is paying a hell of a lot of money in some cases) and say hello then go back to signing. By the time he told the previous person in this thread he was signing and could not shake hands, he could have shaken the hand. I understand these people are incredibly rushed but a smile costs nothing and can make your day. I know these stars are not anyones property and we have no right to a quick hand shake or conversation but to not even look up is very upsetting. Without the fans these people would be nobodies. At the previous convention in London he did exactly the same and it was just as uncomfortable there yet it cost 45.00 per autograph. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE and look forward to every event and always have a wonderful time looking around the stalls and getting very starstruck! but nevertheless, my husband was very disappointed and I am disappointed for him. I wasn't really over-awed with the experience of meeting Patrick at comic-con because of the rushed atmosphere, but the latest news is that he is playing Claudius in Hamlet next year with David Tennant as Hamlet! Thats got to be worth a ticket. To be fair what can you expect him to do in such an environment?

This was my second convention having attended MK earlier. To be fair to the MK crowd I slated the MK area when I attended it, and people did say wait until you go to London to make judgement. So I have to say, hands up. I think MK is the better venue than the one on Saturday, I agree with the general consensus that the lighting was too dingy, and the arena as a whole was a bit grotty and there could have been better seating, waiting areas and queuing. I also thought that the main stars should have been spread out a bit more and maybe some of the other guests who had only a few people interested didn't merit such a big area. The space could have been so much better used. Pros: * It was a good line up of guests in the end, it would have been amazing had their not been some of the good guest pull out though. I was especially looking forward to Brent Spiner and Zachary Quinto. As my GF pointed out generally Collectormania has a better spread of guests than its rivals. So fair play to showmasters for getting the Petrelli bros at short notice. Me and my GF had early bird tickets, but because we waited so long to make sure we got Patrick we unfortunately didn't get any heroes autos. Which was a shame as I'd just finished watching the series and thought it was awesome. I guess quite a few people had to make that particular choice even with early bird tickets. We got VTs as well for the heroes crowd but didn't even come close to one of them. I had the general feeling that showmasters underestimated how many people would turn up for the heroes crowd, but we intend to make up for it at MK with the heroes guests there. * For volunteers the staff did a good job, but I think they were let down by the general organisation, especial thanks to John who seemed to be using his commonsense on the Patrick Stewart queue in circumstances that were beyond his control and for helping us out when my GF lost her ticket. * Good to see the cos players and the gaming community sneaking into the comic con :) Was good to see the Guild Wars and Total War stands as i'm a big fan... but I felt on the whole MK had more of a 'fun' vibe. Cons * The General area and atmosphere of the place as above * Couldn't find good Star Trek TNG or heroes posters as we wanted to start them off for future conferences. A little suprised we couldn't find good ones. * Poor general organisation. Although I did like the idea of having a photo with the Petrelli brothers and Hayden I think this meant a lot of people were ultimately disappointed at not getting their autos. I'm not sure how Showmasters could improve this though. Maybe be listening to some of the people on this forum and installing tannoys and boards as in Milton Keynes (big boards!!!) In this day and age couldn't some of this be computerised somehow? * Patrick was great, but to go down from a weekend to a day then to 3 hours was a bit off, plus I think £25 is a bit steep for saying he didn't personalise anything. Mind you, if he did then he wouldn't have seen many people at all. I do think though (as I said to the GF) that you get better value out of some of the other less costly guests for example I think she had a better time talking to Nana Visitor and Louise Fletcher than she did with Patrick) * My GF didn't get her 'near dark' DVD signed by Adrian... maybe next time Having attended two conferences now, I am getting used to the fact that there will be some inevitable stress and that if you want the autos of an A lister its something you have to put up with, but that also makes it understandable how people are annoyed when they can't get anywhere near them be that due to their bad planning or somebody elses. How about some kind of loyalty scheme showmasters if you attend so many cons???

Damn fine Wallpapers ! Glad I wasn't the only one to namecheck C&C !!!

I'll second that, I thought Rene was an absolute gentleman. He took a lot of time answering my GFs questions. I would say Rene, Avery, William Sanderson and Aron Eisenberg as well.

I was slightly dissapointed with the Dr.Who items as I couldn't really find anything 'old school' enough for my mate, but I made up for that with an autograph from Mat Irvine. The did sell a lot of new series stuff though, thats only to be expected. I thought on the whole there was a good selection though, particularly the guy selling the canvas art, we brought two off him, I thought at a reasonable price. I could have spent a small fortune, but spent most of my cash on the guests..

Don't get me wrong, the event in itself was great, I enjoyed it. And most of the locals were pretty polite, the organisation was ok and good friendly guests too, no problem in that capacity. But how anyone can say the place has any character I don't know. I guess I should say exactly why I found the place depressing. There just isn't any character to the centre of MK. Its functional, yes, but for me a little too antisceptic. Its concrete, glass and steel, like a giant skate park (and it was being treated like that). I just didn't like it from an architectural or asthetic point of view, thats my opinion. As with the local football team it feels something that has been 'transplanted' from somewhere else. Want to go somewhere to eat and drink? well, thats ok if you want to visit an overpriced uber-global chain like Costa, Starbucks, Mcd's pizza hut etc. I looked around, couldn't find anything but theme pubs. I was itching to find somwhere, well a little bit grimy, a bit normal. I can think of a million better towns for a weekend out, Canterbury, York, Durham, Nottingham, somewhere with a bit of history. Yes, I know it was a shopping centre what did I expect? your right, its like any other centre, but bigger. and being in MK Amplified everything I hate about shopping malls because its so big. And its fair enough people going 'well its free', but don't tell me Collectormania didn't make an absolute packet out of the autographs and photo shoots, plus the trade through to the shops wouldn't have done the centre any harm. Swings and roundabouts I reckon. I personally would be prepared to pay to enter somewhere where you can chill out for a couple of minutes in between the madness. The way I felt was when I left the show, you went to an outer layer to a crowded shopping centre, then out of the centre, just concrete and subways. I didn't feel I could 'escape' anywhere. Screaming kids every five minutes didn't help neither, although I blame the roaming Alien for that Maybe its just because its the first con i've ever done, but after two days I felt drained and I was glad to get home. Next time, i'll probably just do a day. The other two things that I really hated about the place was that we went to see Spiderman 3 at the Odeon (about 8pm) and the kids in their were the rudest I've ever known in a multiplex - they talked right through the film and used their mobile phones all the way through the film. Total chav Brats. the second thing that really narked me was down at the Railway Station, i know it was Sunday night on a bank holiday, but there was hardly anything down there in the way of facilities. I thought that having a major event on, they might have had a few places open. And whats wrong with Newbies to the forum having a good moan, do I have to be registered for five years to have a point of view??? jeez i hate forum snobbery!

She was lovely, I had an autograph and photoshoot, she seemed a bit puzzled by my command and conquer reference though....

Midlands would be better IMHO (from Derby)

Hi all, first post. Visited the show on Saturday and Sunday, and the signings, photo shoots etc I had no problem with. Just one thing.. Milton Keynes. What a horrid, horrid place, totally soul-destroying. And I really didn't like the shopping centre, what a monstrosity. Please ditch it as a venue !!