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Feedback/suggestions following C13


gobo1979uk
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As there is no formal feedback/improvements/suggestions thread I though I would start one as I have one specific suggestion that I would like to make.

 

My suggestion is related to the gold passes. I personally buy the gold passes so that I don't have to get up at 4am to start queueing, or hang around all day waiting for my number to come up (and sometimes see it not come up at all). None of my friends are really into sci-fi/fantasy so i have always gone to showmasters events alone. However if I wanted to take my g/f (who only likes Harry Potter) there would be a problem. If I got a gold pass would be able to get in at the normal time and join any queue without the early morning queue or wait for VT number to come up. However my g/f would not be able to queue up with me so she would be left hanging round all day waiting for me (unless we bought another £175 gold pass).

 

At Star Wars Celebration Europe (how I can mention this show now as it was a year ago) they had a system where priority pass holders (star wars fan club) got 5 tickets to allow 5 friends the same privileges as them. Maybe we could employ the same system at showmasters events. A gold pass holder would be given 5 tickets which would allow a friend (who had paid for a normal or early entry ticket) to join 5 queues withough a VT ticket. A ticket would be take off them each time they entered a queue with VTs. Alternatively a gold pass holder could bring 5 friends (again, each of whom had paid for a normal or early entry ticket)and give them one ticket each so they could all join the same queue. As there are only 50 gold passes available and not all the friends will be interested in all the guests this shouldn't put queues up too much.

 

I can see that the first comment that most people would make is that showmasters would rather sell them all gold passes at £175. However this probably isn't realistic. Discounting this there are two other options described below.

 

Example when taking 5 friends

Current System

I buy a gold pass £175

5 friends buy normal tickets £10

I spend £150 on autographs.

5 friends spend £125 each on autographs

(unable to get autos of big stars at £25 due to queues)

TOTAL = £1000

 

My System

I buy a gold pass £175

5 friends buy normal tickets £10

I spend £150 on autographs.

5 Friends spend £150 each on autographs

TOTAL = £1125

 

Current System Taking my g/f

I buy a gold pass £175

I spend £150 on autographs.

My g/f spends £25 autographs

(unable to get autos of big stars at £25 due to VTs in 5 queues)

TOTAL = £360

 

My System

I buy a gold pass £175

My g/f buys a normal ticket £10

I spend £150 on autographs

My g/f spends £150 on autographs

TOTAL £485

 

I know some of the figures are arbitrary but you get the general idea - more money for SMs with my system. Any thoughts?

Edited by gobo1979uk
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The showmasters system is alright after all they have to make their money somewhere.

 

Saturday was brilliant but there were 2 difficulties yesterday including the photoshoots running over - maybe there should be a smaller amonunt of tickets sold for popular guests.

 

The other was the situation in the Barrowman / Myles q on Sunday where if u only wanted to meet Eve, you were still given tickets in 300s because people in the Barrowman q wanted them as well and had been in the larger q longer. Maybe a sign or something / information should have been given to tell people there was one q for both Torchwood guests.

 

I might bite the bullet next time and buy a gold pass.

Edited by reddragon
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I like the idea of the tickets with gold passes - even if there were a nominal charge (£2 a ticket say) I'm sure people would pay it rather than what you describe would need to happen for you and your girlfriend.

 

The queues are better now, starting outside and then taken in, but I still saw a lot of pushing in (probably the 'arrived at 8.00 and got ticket 13' in another thread was one of them!), it would be great if VTs could be given out while it was outside from, say, 1 hour before doors opening so those genuine 'early birds' would get the number they actually should.I'd ultimately like the option to buy a numbered VT online beforehand but I know the logistics of cancellations etc make that impossible.

 

Generally, although mad with the number of people around, Sunday seemed to run far smoother than some of the older MK Collectormanias with large guests, so :lol: for making it slightly less fraut!

 

Oooh, the photo pick ups could do with a sort out though. The square arrangement of tables led to a huge crush, and a lot of people were refusing to move even though their pics weren't even being put out. A straight table, with a label saying which card the pics were from, might stop the scrum in future

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all was OK for me, got everyone I needed to.

Saturday was a perfect day, the only problem with Sunday was that we were in a queue for Natalia Tena which went across the walkway opening and down the side of lewis', if VT's had been given out earlier as John Barrowmans had, instead of bang on 10am then a huge obtruction wouldnt have been casued.

 

My only other suggestion would be to give VT's out as people arrive even if well before the show start time

 

obiton

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The showmasters system is alright after all they have to make their money somewhere.

 

Saturday was brilliant but there were 2 difficulties yesterday including the photoshoots running over - maybe there should be a smaller amonunt of tickets sold for popular guests.

 

The other was the situation in the Barrowman / Myles q on Sunday where if u only wanted to meet Eve, you were still given tickets in 300s because people in the Barrowman q wanted them as well and had been in the larger q longer. Maybe a sign or something / information should have been given to tell people there was one q for both Torchwood guests.

 

I might bite the bullet next time and buy a gold pass.

 

On Saturday there was a single queue for BOTH Heroes guests, there was no sign it just kinda happened.

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That wouldnt work c.parkers-girl because only Malcolm (the photographer) could have coped with the large amount of photographs needing to be taken. I know there was a second photographer taking the 'smaller' guests but I dont think she's able to take the number of shots required for John and James.

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lol, nobody can match Malcolm when he's on a roll. And I don't think they'd want to!

 

My one criticism is a pretty huge one - Sunday photo collection. What?! Half of it was crew not telling people to move away and half of it was people refusing to move away. Something had to be done. It took me HALF AN HOUR to get to the front of the queue to see if Teryl Rothery's photoshoot was back yet, only to find that hers weren't even going there. Signs please!

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Photoshoots

 

Dont want to sound too much like a moaner :D

 

Is there anyway they can be distributed where any tom spam and harry cant grab hold to look?

Im talking the fact at MK where the shoppers think somethings coming out for free so they surround the tables and the people whos photographs they are are pushed to the back.

These people then start picking them up and putting grubby/greasy marks on a print which hasnt come cheap to you.

 

I know 1000s of these things are done and its time consuming.just wondered if it could be done another way!!

 

One of the members pointed out in a section that her photo was scratched,maybe by another person whilst trying to get theirs,maybe by a nosey shopper who knows!!

but i dont find it fair when you pay a lot of money just to find your photo has been ruined!!

 

i hope it doesnt sound like a whinge!! :wub:

 

Im sure one of you can come up with something.Maybe i could man the photos?Ok when not driving trains!!

 

looking forward to a few responses

 

Cheers

 

George

 

sorry forgot to add.........this is nothing against the crew who had the impossible job of distributing these photos....you did your hardest and deserve a special mention...well done!!

 

I think you need more help in future!!

 

:wub:

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I actually think it all went smoother than I anticipated on Sunday - I queued from 5:45am because I expected to have to (as I read this forum and know that JB is in demand big style at the moment) so it was all fine. The photoshoots themselves went pretty smoothly as well and I had a great time all 4 days.

My only constructive criticism was the marshalling of the JB photoshot collection - the poor guys in the centre attempting to make some sense out of this would never in a million years be able to control that chaos and I think Showmasters could have predicted that that would happen and had more people there to keep the crowds controlled and enable people to get at their photos a lot quicker - the small table was 5 people deep at one point with no-one moving or letting anyone look etc. - needed someone like Too Tall with a railing around it to control people as there was a lot of unnecessary pushing and shoving.

 

Other than that - had a fab time!

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I actually think it all went smoother than I anticipated on Sunday - I queued from 5:45am because I expected to have to (as I read this forum and know that JB is in demand big style at the moment) so it was all fine. The photoshoots themselves went pretty smoothly as well and I had a great time all 4 days.

My only constructive criticism was the marshalling of the JB photoshot collection - the poor guys in the centre attempting to make some sense out of this would never in a million years be able to control that chaos and I think Showmasters could have predicted that that would happen and had more people there to keep the crowds controlled and enable people to get at their photos a lot quicker - the small table was 5 people deep at one point with no-one moving or letting anyone look etc. - needed someone like Too Tall with a railing around it to control people as there was a lot of unnecessary pushing and shoving.

 

Other than that - had a fab time!

 

 

someone on same wave length!!

 

:D

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My suggestion regarding giving out the VT tickets for John Barrowman would be to give them out as the doors opened at 9am. That way the people who had queued from early on would have got an early number as they deserved and those further back would be allocated an appropriate number without people pushing in from elsewhere as was happening on Sunday. Once they had their ticket the crowd would hopefully disperse.

 

Those in the JB queue were let in to the centre at about 9 but the tickets weren't given out for about another half an hour. When the tickets were being given out other people were joining the queue from the sides having already got an early ticket for other guests. I did see crew trying to control this but if all the tickets for JB were only given to people as they come through the door this could avoid this problem.

 

Its just a suggestion and in the circumstances I thought the crew did a good job. I think there should have been a seperate queue for Eve Myles though so that those who specifically wanted to meet her and not JB could get the early ticket they wanted.

 

As it was I got there around 8.15 and got ticket 318 and met JB just after 3 o'clock so have no complaints (although I was disappointed he did not personalise I do realise the reason for this and accept that it was just one of those things).

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loved the two booths for photoshoots it meant more guests could get them done and that some guests had photosessions both sat and sun this meant there was a choice of what day to go instead of if you missed it for what ever reason you would be able to get them the next day (hopefully sm will have the same method at lfcc).

also on the sun because the others where so busy no one else would have been able to have photosessions with the old method.

 

as for the photo collection it would have been easier for the quiter photo sessions to be collected at the area next to the guests instead of JB photos. i think they did change it later on.

 

and finally JB and others tickets were colour coded it would have been easier for the photos to be placed in there groups for collection e.g. if you where in the red group ticket then you went to the red table etc as there was no order in which photos were placed on table.

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lol, nobody can match Malcolm when he's on a roll. And I don't think they'd want to!

 

My one criticism is a pretty huge one - Sunday photo collection. What?! Half of it was crew not telling people to move away and half of it was people refusing to move away. Something had to be done. It took me HALF AN HOUR to get to the front of the queue to see if Teryl Rothery's photoshoot was back yet, only to find that hers weren't even going there. Signs please!

 

Sounds sensible.

 

My suggestion regarding giving out the VT tickets for John Barrowman would be to give them out as the doors opened at 9am. That way the people who had queued from early on would have got an early number as they deserved and those further back would be allocated an appropriate number without people pushing in from elsewhere as was happening on Sunday. Once they had their ticket the crowd would hopefully disperse.

 

Thing is, if they'd opened the Barrowman/Miles virtual queue earlier, then people might have dispersed to the other signing area, which would have caused worse congestion. If you open one queue early, you'd have to open them ALL early and there may not have been crew available at that time to do it.

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and finally JB and others tickets were colour coded it would have been easier for the photos to be placed in there groups for collection e.g. if you where in the red group ticket then you went to the red table etc as there was no order in which photos were placed on table.

 

Photos were placed in order of the cards used from the camera, which you should know your number because we handed out slips as you left the photo area.

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I found the worst congestion to be not near Barrowman or Myles, but by the Costa coffee shop. So many shoppers pausing to gawp at the guests, it was just impossible to move in that area. The Organizers Booth was absolute choas on the Sunday morning. I had to queue up twice because I was directed to the cash line instead of the credit card line by mistake even though I couldn't have been anymore crystal clear that I was paying by credit card.

 

Other than the crowds, which are annoying but to be expected, the only other issue I had was the £2 postage I was asked to cough up to recieve my JB picture. Considering I'd already paid £17 for it that seemed like a bit much. At least I'll be prepared for next time I guess. I'm just grateful I even had the change to spare as my funds were almost gone by that point and there was no warning beforehand, otherwise I could have happily put the £2 aside and not worried.

Edited by Princess83
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and finally JB and others tickets were colour coded it would have been easier for the photos to be placed in there groups for collection e.g. if you where in the red group ticket then you went to the red table etc as there was no order in which photos were placed on table.

 

Photos were placed in order of the cards used from the camera, which you should know your number because we handed out slips as you left the photo area.

 

This could just be me but I find then that I end up with 3 white slips with a number on them from the 3 photo shoots i did that day and no clue which ticket corresponds with which photo session.

So that still doesn't make it any easier, for me anyway! I don't know if anybody else had that issue!!

But I managed to find my photos ok with no problem as it was, I just waited til the mad rush had gone!

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I had a slight problem with the female photographer, don't know if it was her fault or not, (could be an equipment problem) - I have red hair, with malcolm in the photos I had RED hair, but with her my hair was BROWN. It didn't look right, and was quite disapointed, they no way matched the quality of Malcolms photographic skills (or his photographic equipment. lol).

 

Would it be possible to have a lighting test or what ever it is they do before shoots begin so that both booths have the same lighting and photographic quality? Please?

 

It's not a moan - more of a suggestion with begging.

 

thank you

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The backgrounds in the pics I had in the 2 different booth look very different in the prints. were they supposed to be the same colour? I didnt notice. One looks very bright blue (in Malcolm's booth) and the other a kind of grey colour.

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I don't know how many of the screens SM have available, but it would be a good idea to screen the windows near John Barrowmans queue as well as James Marsters, it was a little offputting having members of the public gawping at you and gesturing at you to move out of the way so they can take a photo through the window. I felt a bit like an exhibit in a zoo, so goodness knows what poor John must have thought.

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I had a slight problem with the female photographer, don't know if it was her fault or not, (could be an equipment problem) - I have red hair, with malcolm in the photos I had RED hair, but with her my hair was BROWN. It didn't look right, and was quite disapointed, they no way matched the quality of Malcolms photographic skills (or his photographic equipment. lol).

 

Would it be possible to have a lighting test or what ever it is they do before shoots begin so that both booths have the same lighting and photographic quality? Please?

 

It's not a moan - more of a suggestion with begging.

 

thank you

 

I have red hair too (okay, it's out of a bottle!) :D and I had photoshoots done by both photographers and they both came out okay. Was the background was lighter in photo area B than A? It looked that way in my photos.

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I had a slight problem with the female photographer, don't know if it was her fault or not, (could be an equipment problem) - I have red hair, with malcolm in the photos I had RED hair, but with her my hair was BROWN. It didn't look right, and was quite disapointed, they no way matched the quality of Malcolms photographic skills (or his photographic equipment. lol).

 

Would it be possible to have a lighting test or what ever it is they do before shoots begin so that both booths have the same lighting and photographic quality? Please?

 

It's not a moan - more of a suggestion with begging.

 

thank you

 

You'll find that the quality of the photo differs within one photoshoot :D It's a problem in post as much as anything else. I've had two consecutive shots where one background is light blue and one is dark blue, and my clothes are different colours.

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and finally JB and others tickets were colour coded it would have been easier for the photos to be placed in there groups for collection e.g. if you where in the red group ticket then you went to the red table etc as there was no order in which photos were placed on table.

 

Photos were placed in order of the cards used from the camera, which you should know your number because we handed out slips as you left the photo area.

They were, you did, but it was still chaos because there wasn't anything really obvious saying which bunch were which card on the table, so everyone kept asking the people behind the tables, and then STILL refused to move when they were told they were in the wrong place! Standing signs like the VT ones would be fab

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Only a little one (as it didn't directly affect me, just other members of my family).

The queue outside john lewis's for JB was very civilised and organised. Why not open one door at nine AM and ticket them as they walked thru.

It is not as though they could do anything with their ticket until 10 am anyway.

IMHO this would have been a calmed less stressful way of doing it with out the obvious panic for the fans and the crowd would have dispersed upon entry to the mart.

 

My other wee suggestion was to do with th JB photoshoot ( and this didn't really affect any of us) but we were trying to get thru to the car park and hundreds of people (chancers) were trying to get a snap shot of JB when he left the photo shoot and walked back to the table. It was rammed. Kids were stuck, older people were stuck. To be fair if there had been a fire ... well it doesn't bear thinking about. I know that the vast majority of the people there were casual shoppers and not hardenend mart-ers like us, and they don't know the rules of the game but it really need the loudest crew member Showmasters had, armed with a loud speaker doing a little crowd control.

 

With reference to the people outside the window peering in .. let me tell you. They felt they were within their rights and it was very amusing. My brother and I had gone to stand out there for two reasons, Firstly I needed a nicotine fix ( a dirty filthy habit I know) and secondly we were under instruction from our respective "others" to help choose a photo from the table. There were people out there swearing profusily cos they couldn't get a clear shot of JB, and the glare of the windows was reflecting the flash. I heard one woman say it was riduculous that it was blocked of as she couldn't see him! I almost told her that was the point and to get in there, spend £20 ... join the back of a huge queue of people dedicated enought to have been queuing for hours and THEN try and complain... but I didn't ... cos she looked scary and I didn't want a black eye!

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