Heroes Signing

[BluebizzieB]

Just got back from a loooong weekend and i enjoyed Saturday, met Andee, Nana and Billy West.

 

Sunday: What was the point in EARLY BIRD tickets because it was a stampede of people, Early people should get priority. Anyway the venue was too dark the queing system was not as good as other events.

 

Meeting the cast was great.

 

Could have been better but i enjoyed+survived the expereince which i will never forget but what REALLLY got me PISSED off was that my Hayden Photo was LOST and had to be printed again at 5pm, i wanted it signed but got other stuff signed as well.

[Stacey]

I only managed to get Milo and Jack's autographs but I was pleased with that as I only got there at 10:30am and I was expecting to get none!

 

I was pleased with my Hayden photo, I hope the Milo and Adrian one is okay!

[Jola]

Sunday: What was the point in EARLY BIRD tickets because it was a stampede of people, Early people should get priority.

 

That stampede was Early Bird people - the standard entry people weren't allowed in until 11am!

[Psychosis]

The stampede was the early bird people! There were a lot of us and we all got priority.

[BluebizzieB]

WOW that was crazy, i went to Patrick's Que and that was loooooong and then the mass of people for the heroes cast. I can not believe in all the years i have attended, how busy it was. By 3:30pm i was getting annyoed and tired.

 

I hope MK Heroes signing in Oct will be better but that is smaller than London so i hope that will be organised better.

 

My numbers were 320/400+ and 500+

Edited September 2, 2007 by BluebizzieB

[indy]

Just got back from a loooong weekend and i enjoyed Saturday, met Andee, Nana and Billy West.

 

Sunday: What was the point in EARLY BIRD tickets because it was a stampede of people, Early people should get priority. Anyway the venue was too dark the queing system was not as good as other events.

 

Meeting the cast was great.

 

Could have been better but i enjoyed+survived the expereince which i will never forget but what REALLLY got me PISSED off was that my Hayden Photo was LOST and had to be printed again at 5pm, i wanted it signed but got other stuff signed as well.

I rest my case about them taking photo's, I rather I get my girlfriend to do it as I can trust her.(Not other people who don't know how to take pics or operate the camera,.

[PyleaDude]

By the time I'd got my Patrick Stewart VT - getting a Hayden ticket afterwards meant it was nearer 600. Got fed up of waiting for her and left by 3pm. Suppose you have to prioritize. Robert Rankin was brilliant tho'

[fate42]

They should have split the heroes lot up just to avoid a bit of confusion. Fantastic time though. Met three of them.

[lams9999]

Definitely one of the worst experience of my long list of events ! Adrian and Milo were okay when I met them at the autograph session but what happened with Hayden in the end was ridiculous. I could only meet her at 16:20 despite the fact I had VT #277 . When I entered the queue, there were about 20 people in front of me and 2 or 3 minutes later, I was out of the queue .... done with my two autographs, about 8 seconds in front of Hayden, no talk at all (no hi no thanks not even a look), that's not what I expected from my £40 !!

 

That said, I don't want to blame Hayden or the organizers, probably both are responsible partly for this situation. How could Hayden still be at numbers 1-250 while the others were in the 500 or even 600 for Jack while they were actually talking briefly to peopleand personalising ?? Something definitely went wrong there!

 

Also, I was in the queue for entering at 8:35 AM and probably in the first 200 but then inside, I was given only VT #277 and saw friends of mine who had not bought early bird tickets that were already inside before me and had smaller VT numbers

 

The only great thing I will remember with the Heroes guest was my interaction with Jack which was definitely a cool guy

 

So, Jack Coleman for Eclipse please

[Psychosis]

I agree, Jack Coleman was such a nice guy, he randomly scooped me into a hug and said something about me being cute in the photosession, which had me pretty much happy for the day! He was friendly in the autograph session too, but also made the effort to try to get through people as quickly as possible.

 

Unfortunately, although I got Milo and Hayden's autograph, I didn't get to see either of them. Hayden was only up to #250 by the time I had to leave for Milo and Adrian's photoshoot (and I was #399 because people kept shoving me out of the way). I had to get a friend to get Hayden's for me while I was in the queue for Milo and Adrian's photo, then I was one of the last ones to see Adrian before the show closed at 5.

 

Having said that, my friend who got my photo for me said that Hayden was friendly and courteous, but very fast. She said that she gave her a smile, a "Hiiiiiii" and a thank you whle whipping through the photos, which is all we can expect.

[jael001]

The reason why Hayden was so far behind with the autographs was that she had a very long photosession in the morning, that took more than the 45 mins to an hour allocated. While that was happening, the other guests could get through more people obviously.

[lams9999]

I know about her photo session obviously but Jack did also a photo session (shorter though) and was 400 numbers ahead .... I don't want to blame too much Hayden but something went wrong with her autograph session, for example it was blocked at numbers 1-250 for ages while the other Heroes guests who were signing next to her were increasing continously.

 

Anyway, I had a real bad experience but am willing to give her another chance if she gets invited at Eclipse. My friend Sebastien would probably be happy with that

Edited September 2, 2007 by lams9999

[Phoenix Will Rise]

Hayden - When I met her for the photo I wished her best of luck with her album when it comes out and she seemed genuinely happy.. she said "Ooooh... your so sweet thank you so much..." then the woman letting in people told me to get outta the way!!

 

Then I got her autograph at 4.55 (i was the 4th last person she saw!!) and I congratulated her on holding up so well with all the autographs and photo's and she again seemed really upbeat and happy and thanked me!

 

Milo & Adrian photoshoot was very rushed (unfortunatley).. I was near the end.. u could see they were very tired.. at one stage Adrian stopped the photo's... people in the queue were so afraid that he was gonna leave... but Milo seemed to have a quick word with him and they finished off the photo's!! They were both very pleasant, but again, so rushed, i was there for about .5 of a second!

 

Jack, autograph, again, at the end of the day, however he was very chatty!! such a lovely man!!

 

Overall, amazing day, Hayden was by far the highlight!!

[mihakeeper1]

Well, I went today (just for Jack Coleman I must admit ^^) and I had vt 765!!!

I brought with me a chocolate box we did for him (personalised with the addy of a "website" we did for H.R.G.). He was so tired (and without glasses, guess he hadn't his lenses on cause he couldn't read well) he began to sign the box... . We had to explain him it was a gift

I must say I was really not feeling ok at being there seeing how exhausted he was, but he was kind enough to personalize the sig anyway... (except my name is now changed in Angela ^^, real one is angélique but asked for Angel cause I know it's hard to spell) and tentatively put some words in ... french!!!

So I already heard he was really a nice guy and I know he is a great actor, but now he is really on the top of my favorite actors list!!!

We tried Adrian's queue after that but they stopped it four people before us... Too bad for us!

 

To sum things up, we came all the way from Belgium and France for just one sig, but after all, gotta say I don't regret this at all ^^

 

Angel(a)

[lams9999]

I agree, Jack Coleman was such a nice guy, he randomly scooped me into a hug and said something about me being cute in the photosession, which had me pretty much happy for the day! He was friendly in the autograph session too, but also made the effort to try to get through people as quickly as possible.

 

Haha, actually Jack was the only one noticing my tee-shirt. I wore a grey tee-shirt with "Jack Bauer could save the cheerleader" written on it. He laughed a lot about it during the autograph session and then told me I should show it to Hayden because she's a friend of Kiefer. I told him I already did during the autograph session. And that's true, I actually talked a little bit with Hayden because the photographer had to change the film, so I could quickly show her the tee-shirt, she smiled and said it was true, Jack Bauer could do it ;-) She said she really likes 24. I almost forgot this nice little talk because of the really bad experience I had at the end ....

 

Hayden is probably lovely, hopefully she'll be invited at Eclipse and less rushed !!

Edited September 2, 2007 by lams9999

[Psychosis]

That's cute He's such a nice guy, I'd actually love to have him back for Eclipse.

 

And my photo came out so badly. I'm disappointed! The photographer took it at a point when my eyes were closed and I was looking at the floor, which was a pose I was in for less than two seconds, so I'm a little bit irritated that he couldn't have made sure he was actually taking a decent photo. When Jack hugged me, I giggled and looked down, and by the time I looked back up I was being ushered out.

Edited September 2, 2007 by Psychosis

[Elainec]

My experience was mixed this weekend. The negatives were as follows and includes some suggestions for maybe helping to improve the organisation of certain things:

 

Arrived at 9.20am and found about 250 in front of us - we queued for about 20 minutes and then things suddenly started moving - however this was as a result of the queues being expanded from me standing with the people I had arrived with, to finding people who had been in the queue behind me moving up alongside and even in front of me as we were suddenly moved into 5/6 deep lines. Sorry SM but if I join a queue I expect to find the people who started behind me to stay behind me at least until we have got into the event at which point it is every person for themselves.

 

Finding out that Patrick Stewart was only signing for 3 hours should have been advertised - we had hoped to get his auto but when we saw the queue decided not to bother.

 

The distribution of tickets for the Heroes actors was stupid and involved p***-poor organisation. We got to the area where Hayden's tickets were being handed out only to be told to form a queue at a certain point. We did, as did many others only to find that the person handing the tickets out was passing them to everyone who then ignored said queue and pushed to the front. We then found at least three other people handing tickets out - fair enough they wanted to disperse the queue, but how did we know which might have had the best tickets to take from? We were then told to join the back of a queue for Jack, then Milo and finally Adrian, only to find that another steward was telling people to jump from queue to queue and just pushed their way through and still got better tickets than the people who were attempting to do as we had been asked. Needless to say we eventually ignored the joining of queues and pushed like everyone else.

 

We also spotted the staff member who was standing on the chair handing out Hayden's tickets nod his head several times after shouting people and indicate that he had a ticket for them - sorry mate but being either a steward or staff doesn't give you the right to do that, the people should have got the tickets themselves the same as everyone else had to.

 

The ignorant steward who was looking after the area off to the side of Adrian's queue. People were attempting to take photos, but he kept leaning back on the barriers to get in their way and then kept telling people not to lean on the barriers. The only time it wobbled was when he kept walking up and telling people to move. Not once can I recall him saying please, nor did he say we couldn't take photos yet insisted on constantly moving into shot - doing that just means that people get irate when they don't need to and also stand there for longer than they need to trying to take a photo around people.

 

Hearing a member of staff tell a steward that if he saw people trying to take photos of Dominic Monaghan whilst in the queue that he had the right to chuck them out of the queue. These sorts of comments, especially if they are misheard, can again cause problems that SM don't need to have. There is a way to have those sorts of conversations and they shouldn't be in earshot of attendees.

 

The general organisation of the Heroes areas - the collecting of autographs from a group of people from the same show could be organised in a far easier manner. Another event has the right idea that they have put the actors all together in an area to themselves and then people pick up a ticket to join that queue and move from one actor to the next instead of them having to join four separate queues. Since there were enough stewards roaming up and down the queues they could check to see if anyone only wanted one of the actors and for those who sign faster than others, that person could be queue-jumped to that actor.

 

Photos of the actors - I really don't see why there is a problem of taking photos whilst you are standing in the queue for an actor. Again, since stewards were roaming, if a person is holding a queue up they are asked to move forward. If they don't move then they can be asked again and if they still don't move they should be removed from the queue. The majority of people are capable of taking photos and moving through a queue at the same time - the minority should not dictate when it is obvious that people will want to take photos. I understand that posed photos shouldn't be allowed for the busy guests, and even taking them whilst you are at the front can cause problems, so perhaps have a cut-off point of say 5 people in front of you - once you get to this point you can't take anymore photos. Again if you ignore this and are asked to stop but still ignore it - kick the people from the queue.

 

The venue - again very dark, with a few lights being out - it meant that the flash was required more than usual which often causes problems for the actors. Why leave the Star Wars actors in such a big open area with no attendees going to them and where there were no dealers nearby and then cram the Heroes actors, Dominic Monaghan and Patrick Stewart into a small area where crowds are expected to gather and cause blockages.

 

Now the positives:

 

The actors were terrific - SM have once again excelled themselves and seem to be attracting a lot of actors who know how to play the game. When you are paying so much to meet a person, either a hello or handshake (or both) give such a positive feel to the experience. Saying hello to someone won't slow the queue down. Credit has to go to Nana Visitor and Andee Frizzell - both absolutely fantastic guests who couldn't do enough to please their fans - I saw Nana come around the tables on Sunday morning to pose for a photo with a young boy who was in a wheelchair - her queue was a decent length but her priority was obviously the individual - brilliant. I also managed to have a quick chat with Jack Coleman and Adrian Pasdar who strangely enough were the fastest of the Heroes actors when it came to signing, but still seemed happy to chat to people. Louise Fletcher was also lovely and I had a nice chat with her.

 

The stewards - I found several of the stewards very helpful and indeed they went out of their way to respond to queries and help us out. As attendees who have done many signing events we are experienced enough to not need to speak to a steward very often, but when we did today most were very helpful despite obviously being very busy.

 

The venue - overall it was obviously bigger than Earl's Court 2 and whilst some actors had acres of space others didn't. It was generally easier to move between the dealers tables because of the size of the venue.

 

Overall:

 

I don't doubt that this type of event takes a lot of planning, but sometimes an attendee might have a useful suggestion which could make things work even better. Whilst I'm not saying that all of the above should be implemented, they have often been suggested by many other people and yet SM don't seem to take any notice of the ideas. If you don't try something new how do you know it won't work?

 

Despite the length of the post, the amount of detail included for the points and the longer negative list I did have a good weekend and usually do. It was hectic, very long and very warm and there were a few people I purposely gave plenty of room to! I will continue to support the SM events whilst they continue to get guests I'm interested in but please, please, please at least consider the options above as ways to maybe help to improve the events.

 

Elaine

[Valentine]

 

The only great thing I will remember with the Heroes guest was my interaction with Jack which was definitely a cool guy

 

So, Jack Coleman for Eclipse please

 

I was looking after Jack today (oops make that yesterday lol...) and was explaining to him all about Eclipse and he was very interested in the event. The organisers have been informed so fingers crossed he'll be back, if not at Eclipse then another event. I know he had a really good time today and felt really bad about having to go to non-personalised autographs by the end of the day but he wanted to meet as many people as possible. He was an awesome guest to look after and Im hoping he comes back too.

[lams9999]

That's cute He's such a nice guy, I'd actually love to have him back for Eclipse.

 

And my photo came out so badly. I'm disappointed! The photographer took it at a point when my eyes were closed and I was looking at the floor, which was a pose I was in for less than two seconds, so I'm a little bit irritated that he couldn't have made sure he was actually taking a decent photo. When Jack hugged me, I giggled and looked down, and by the time I looked back up I was being ushered out.

 

My pic with Hayden is not really good but that's just my fault. Too bad though that the photographer did not take my tee-shirt completely.

 

My pic with Jack is really nice because of course he remembered the tee-shirt and so we are both laughing about it and the pic turned out great.

 

I don't know about Milo & Adrian's one because they looked sooooooooo tired and bored at the end.

[sydney_bristow]

The distribution of tickets for the Heroes actors was stupid and involved p***-poor organisation. We got to the area where Hayden's tickets were being handed out only to be told to form a queue at a certain point. We did, as did many others only to find that the person handing the tickets out was passing them to everyone who then ignored said queue and pushed to the front.

 

I couldnt agree more. I got my Milo ticket and then joined another queue for haydens (as instructed by a steward), ended up in a a scrum of people only to be in dominick Monaghans queue. I was then directed into another queue, which happened to be Jack Colemans! Eventually when I was in the right queue two stewards were giving out hayden tickets to anyone who asked and could reach, so the queues were pretty pointless anyway.

 

The reason why Hayden was so far behind with the autographs was that she had a very long photosession in the morning

 

This is what i cant understand, photo sessions are great, yes, but what about the people that cant meet the guest because there is an hour less to sign? Surely if photos were allowed over the desk (not specifically the heroes lot, but other guests as well) this would lessen the professional photo queue ? I would be happy to fork out £15 for an over the desk shot (they do this at some american cons) on my camera, therefore not having to queue, wait for it to be developed etc, and still have the option of paying for a pro photo being taken if I chose.

 

Other than that a fantastic day.....

[lee1987@mac.com]

Jack Coleman wrote HRG on my autograph......what does it mean?

[Phoenix Will Rise]

Jack Coleman wrote HRG on my autograph......what does it mean?

HRG is what his character Noah was referred to before we knew his actual name!

It stands for "Horn Rimmed Glasses"... since that was the best way to describe his character before we knew much else about him.... and it kinda stuck.. he signed my one HRM too :)

 

Jack Coleman wrote HRG on my autograph......what does it mean?

HRG is what his character Noah was referred to before we knew his actual name!

It stands for "Horn Rimmed Glasses"... since that was the best way to describe his character before we knew much else about him.... and it kinda stuck.. he signed my one HRM too :)

[dufresne]

The ignorant steward who was looking after the area off to the side of Adrian's queue. People were attempting to take photos, but he kept leaning back on the barriers to get in their way and then kept telling people not to lean on the barriers. The only time it wobbled was when he kept walking up and telling people to move. Not once can I recall him saying please, nor did he say we couldn't take photos yet insisted on constantly moving into shot - doing that just means that people get irate when they don't need to and also stand there for longer than they need to trying to take a photo around people.

 

He was an idiot ! No inter-personal skills whatsoever - just kept sort of spreading his arms out and shuffling sideways up and down that "wall". He actually spoke very little (let alone say please) which just made him all the more annoying. And if people the other side of the wall want to talk to a mate IN the queue, that's ok !!!!

[lee1987@mac.com]

That guy looked like he was hung over

[Psyclepath]

I must admit that the crowds were manic just for the vts, but i half expected that especially when Milo and Adrian were last minute signings!

 

I met and had brief conversations with all 4 and had my loverly Heroes pic signed (will post photos later).

 

Had a wonderful time! Roll on C12 with four more Heroes guests!!!!!