Showmasters Admin showmasters Posted June 9, 2008 Showmasters Admin Share Posted June 9, 2008 OK we had hoped to have been able to have pulled this off but with only 29 tickets sold 14 of them being gold it is impossible to try to run this event we had hoped to try and at least run the event with around 170 people 70 of them being gold which would have made it happen and we would have covered the costs of the event but with only 29 this is not posable we are not happy having to cancel the event as we are big fans of Red Dwarf and get along with the cast very well , we are also going to lose a lot on the hotel as well as we have to pay them if the event happens or not so all in all its bad news for us all refunds will be going out soon we will be bringing as many the cast to LFCC now and we will be offering the people that booked and supported us on this a free photo shoot. More to come as soon as it is agreed with the cast once again we are sorry for this and lets hope more fans get behind the next Red Dwarf event who ever runs it to help keep Red Dwarf alive . jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dufresne Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Big shame, but glad to have an answer...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stobbs Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 oh smeg! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Showmasters Admin showmasters Posted June 9, 2008 Author Showmasters Admin Share Posted June 9, 2008 Big shame, but glad to have an answer...... sorry mate looks like we are starting to become a dying breed a Red Dwarf fan ? jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzy Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Jason, I'm sure it was just the lateness of the announcement- I couldn't make it due to a foot op, my bf would only go with me, and my bro and sis in law couldn't make it cos they need to book time off months in advance. If the next one was announced with a lot more time to spare and more guests/ attractions, you could easily blow your target. I really hope that you decide to still go ahead with BTL sometime in the future, and if you do, I know you would at least have 4 gold passes to add to the number. What type of photo would be at LFCC? If its a photo with more than 1 cast member, you can deff count me in for that Make my year Thank you for the answer. xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruffy Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Shame all round that it had to be cancelled , there are no winners as Jason said. Glad to see that those faithful few will get to meet them if he can get the cast to go to LFCC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dufresne Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 .... and we have a better chance of a "full" cast reunion at LFACC since Hattie and Norman will have finished their standup tour ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DavidB Posted June 9, 2008 Moderators Share Posted June 9, 2008 Yeah, I'm honestly not thinking that it's because there's no Red Dwarf fans anymore. That's simply not the case as shown by the numbers meeting Craig and Chris etc at previous events. They're definitely out there. Unfortunately the lateness of this event alongside the fact that nothing much was offered in terms of pulling in customers meant that a lot of people weren't willing to book yet .. then as time went on, obviously it got too late. As I've said elsewhere, I totally understand the conundrum of the relationship between ticket sales and number of guests etc but, unlike Eclipse where people have already had 1 very successful event, these newer events really need something special initially to sell them. And two familar faces aren't really going to cut it for a short notice first time event. If every convention could be run to the high standard of Eclipse, and receive that much thought and attention, then I don't think there'd be any issues. However, with the falling apart of Lockdown and now BTL being unsuccessful, it's really going to make people think twice about booking straight away. It's something that can only really be fixed with time and successful events. I like many hope one day you'll perhaps return to the Red Dwarf fandom for a convention and do it justice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Fooku Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 It was the late notice for me as well, given a bit more time to plan/budget I reckon I would have come along as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Getting the time off wasn't a problem for me, as I can book holidays at very short notice, but there were 4 people who wanted to come with me who weren't able to - 3 because of work, and 1 because of her graduation ball. Just to say the same as others have said, I'm pretty confident it's not a lack of fans that caused this one to fall apart, just the short notice:/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiggerific Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 i think the main issue was timing, because there are so many events around this time of year i mean you had manchester, collectormania, eclipse, lockdaown, chevron the list goes on with other events i cant mention...... i think you should have maybe considered doing it at a different time of year as us peeps can only afford to go to so many in a short space of time!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lams9999 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 (edited) The late announcement of this con was probably a problem but also the number of events per year is simply too large ! And I'm speaking here just about the Showmasters/ME events ! There is a limited number of people who goes to conventions or signing events and the bank account of most of them is even more limited. I wrote at the beginning of the year that the number of events in UK this year is totally crazy. I really hope Massive Events will go on with organizing good events like Eclipse but I think that 3 conventions a year is already a good number. Also, the problem with cancelling an event or reducing the size of it (as it was the case for Lockdown) leads to suspicion from some of the customers who will be more reluctant to buy tickets for the following events. And if people wait to have a sufficiently large number of guests announced, this number will never be reached because guests are announced when ticket sales are good. I hope that the next events from Massive Events will not suffer too much from this. I'm still looking forward to Eclipse 2 and might consider going to The Hub if I have the opportunity. Edited June 9, 2008 by lams9999 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadOne Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Have to agree - I would have loved to come to this but just too many events in quick succession and no way the money would stretch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lordy Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 oh no just went thu booking everything hotel and a gold ticket then came on here ans saw this oh no what should i do now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyT Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 The late announcement of this con was probably a problem but also the number of events per year is simply too large ! And I'm speaking here just about the Showmasters/ME events ! There is a limited number of people who goes to conventions or signing events and the bank account of most of them is even more limited. Yes, and when you consider everything else as well... Because of the nature of my job, I tend to need more notice than most folks of an event, but I nearly booked when I saw this announced, as I thought it was plenty of notice - I thought it was going to be June 2009! 13 months notice was, I thought reasonable, if a little OTT, but I couldn't believe it when I checked again and saw that it was announced with just 50 days notice, especially since all the other con events SM/ME have announced have had 7, 8, 10 months notice. As others have mentioned, that lack of notice immediately knocks out those of us who unfortunately need 2 or 3 months notice to make arrangements. Additionally, it has been a very busy few months for other events, so budgets are stretched. Then, you also have to consider the time of year. Uni students will be finishing the year, and may have arranged a job or holiday (something which they may have planned around the con had they been given notice). Other people too may have booked holidays. We're also into the festival season; the weekend before is both the Download Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival; the weekend after is Glastonbury. I know big RD fans going to all 3. Some of them couldn't afford the festival expenditure plus the con expenditure, but most of them could, with a few months to plan finances, not just a few weeks. And there's no incentive for them to try to afford it when the convention looks less than stellar. I don't think Red Dwarf fans are a dying breed. Give us seven months notice, not seven weeks, come up with an attractive line-up (not even straight away, as long as it can be built over the first few months, hopefully selling more tickets all the way to finance even more guests), and keep us in the loop, like has been done so well in the build up to Eclipse, and Eclipse 2, and I'm sure you'll get a great result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen_Sindel Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 oh no just went thu booking everything hotel and a gold ticket then came on here ans saw this oh no what should i do now The refund for your Gold Ticket will be done automatically. You'd need to cancel the hotel as soon as possible. I'm assuming you booked in the Park Inn? Then it won't be a problem. The Ibis doesn't charge cancellation fees from what I know either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzy Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I don't think Red Dwarf fans are a dying breed. Give us seven months notice, not seven weeks, come up with an attractive line-up (not even straight away, as long as it can be built over the first few months, hopefully selling more tickets all the way to finance even more guests), and keep us in the loop, like has been done so well in the build up to Eclipse, and Eclipse 2, and I'm sure you'll get a great result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychosis Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 sorry mate looks like we are starting to become a dying breed a Red Dwarf fan ? jason Hmmm... I fully believe that your hearts are in it, but I think Jason, you may be misunderstanding where the blame is lying here if you think you're low on RD fans. There are very few people who can attend at such late notice, and nobody is going to go out of their way for two of the most common guests in convention land, so to speak. With more time for people to arrange finances and book time off stuff, you would have had a much larger initial sales boost in my opinion. I don't believe you would sell out a Red Dwarf convention, but I think you could have managed something fine with what you would have had if it was organised slightly more appropriately. I'm not saying this to be negative, I'm just a little worried that when you say "RD fans just aren't common", you haven't learned from this and it might happen again. I'd hate to see that again, for your sake moreso than ours. Of course, I could be preaching to the choir, in which case, here, you can use this chair - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators DavidB Posted June 9, 2008 Moderators Share Posted June 9, 2008 IF you are getting Red Dwarf guests to LFACC - why not use that chance to gauge interest in a future convention? Surely it'd be easy to perhaps give out a questionnaire to those people getting a RD autograph or something, offering potential guest options and what they'd like to see at a RD convention etc. It'd be a VERY easy way to find out how many RD fans there actually are out there that may attend a con that is properly organised. Nothing wrong with free market research at your own show!? That way it's not out of the blue like this one was. I think it'd be very useful for you to see how many fans there actually are out there. It'd be far more representative than what has happened with ticket sales here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzy Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Great idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metal Gear Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 You simply have to look at the posts on here to realise the problems with BTL, and hopefully learn from them. Everyone is giving the exact same reasons for not going - the same reasons for me and at least 2 friends not going: 1 - Announcement of event was too short notice. Not enough time to ask for days off work, plan finance issues, transport. 2 - Too close to Chevron & LFCC (and all the other events). I JUST have enough money & leave to cope with the events I want to attend, so can't budget for another one at such short notice. 3 - Quantity of guests. If I have to choose between Chevron, LFCC or BTL, I am obviously going to go with the one which has more guests I want to meet. We had no idea if BTL was going to consist of 2 guests or 20 guests as no-one was sharing any information. A possible 4th reason is what was being complained about for several weeks on here - lack of information. There was no incentive for us to go to this, like "Who would you like to see and we will try to get them" or "we plan to have X amount of guests from the main cast" or "we will try for a group photo shoot with the whole cast." All we actually got was "tickets are on sale." The Red Dwarf guests at past events were always hugely popular, and most of them would buy Gold passes if they were re-assured it would be worth it. Given the right planning, a RD convention could be one of the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BondageBarbie Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 It was the late notice for me as well, given a bit more time to plan/budget I reckon I would have come along as well. It was the same for me too - there just wasn't time to budget for it after I bought my Hub ticket. I don't think Red Dwarf fans are a dying breed. Give us seven months notice, not seven weeks, come up with an attractive line-up (not even straight away, as long as it can be built over the first few months, hopefully selling more tickets all the way to finance even more guests), and keep us in the loop, like has been done so well in the build up to Eclipse, and Eclipse 2, and I'm sure you'll get a great result. I completely agree. There are still plenty of RD fans but you would have been hard pressed to get so many of them together at such short notice, and the lack of guests must have put some people off booking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilgalad70 Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 No one considering other factors in the equation on this? Like maybe 'spare' money is being gobbled up on rising fuel prices, food etc.. Just like the rest of the economy, disposable incomes are shrinking fast.. and as I think Nicky said, two of the names are amongst the more regular autograph show attendees in the business. They almost make Kenny B look rare! I always thought it was a bit optimistic launching these single show conventions just at the time everywhere else was going spam up. Brave, but optimistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpharris Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 Just to add my twopenneth and hopefully to help Jason realise that the demand is there for such a convention, I was also someone who would have loved to go but hadn't had enough notice to book the time off work and also it would have been tight monetarily with the event so close to LFACC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casbuz Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 i would of gone to btl but it clashed with my a level exams and was really late notice i had only just brought my gold hub ticket but if you do plan it again i would go if you got good guest as i ve already meet all the main cast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts