Great atmosphere! aka What everybody liked or disliked about the s

[Mara Jade]

Myself, my girlfriend and two other friends attended the whole weekend, and I must say, I was very surprised. In the most positive way. I've attended LFCC two times before, went to C4 in LA and I've been to severel Swedish cons, and as this was much smaller than I was used to, I was actually afraid of it being boring, and not worth the money. However, we were all very satisfied with the whole weekend. The fact that it was less busy meant, that there was more time to chat and walk around, meeting the other fans and making new friends (Thank you Malcolm, I had a blast in your company :) )

The guests were extreemly friendly, and again, the size of the con meant, that I felt like they noticed me, and I was not just another one in the crowd of 1000+ people attending. The Parties were great fun too - the one saturday beeing the best one in my oppinion. It felt more relaxed, like people had gotten to know each other there. I'm not too much a fan of loud music, so the only negative so far is, that the music could have been just a tad lower, so we could have actually talked in the "Disco" room. I personally found the DJ funny

As for the talks...oh god...I've never laughed so much in my entire life. Or, I have, but god, my cheeks hurt efter the Chris and Michael talk!

As for the audition sunday, I can only say - I had a blast - but then, I was the girl who won the best Carter, so... But really, it was so much fun being up there, and Carmen was really fun with his advice and stuff. I'm glad I signed up

So, from a fairly experienced convention-goer and crazy girl's (anyone remember the four girls singing the Stargate song i the MS line? Yeah, I was one of them too ) point of view - it was fantastic, I had a blast, I hope I can afford a gold pass next year.

[Queen_Sindel]

Could they not have dedicated the other cancelled guest times to the ones we still had so they had extra time? Would've been nice to see/hear more talks/stage time, but it was still an enjoyable experience in my opinion.

 

Personally I agree with you, but I am sure this is a reason why this wasn't done.

[princessjo]

I found all the guests charming and chatty both in the cocktail party and when doing the signing, we had a good 5 minutes with Michael, Chris and Carmen and about 15 with Gary at the end of the cocktail party and had a good few minutes chat with the guests at the signing tables including Gary who laughingly crossed out his name badge on his 8x10 and wrote Walter when i pointed out that it said Norman.

 

In response to the negative aspects - you will always get people either moaning that there was nothing to do for X amount of time or that there were 2 things on at the same time and people had to choose one and miss the other, in this instance you can not please everyone, yes there were a few gaps and realistically a second signing on the sunday wasn't really needed and the time could have been put to a better use with the 3 guests that remained.

 

=

 

I obviously felt more obliged to move along at the signing then - Michael & Gary barely spoke, Chris bless him smiled lots and Carmen tried to chat.

 

I wasn't moaning - I was simply stating that I paid a lot of money (ok not as much as the gold pass holders - I don't have that much cash!) for what I feel was a disappointing weekend. I would have loved for it to be great, to get a chance to speak to the people I admire - but I didn't. It's not moaning to state an opinion when I feel so sad about it. Plus if opinions help future events be better (even tho I can't afford to be there) then great.

[pez]

i personaly think the music on sat night was ok, not everyone loves con songs and i think that that should be taken in to consideration, not everyone likes the same thing, crying over the fact that you don't get what you want isn't going to go anywhere, he played songs that were requested, he then went back and played more songs that were requested, if people hadn't thrown hissy fits over not getting what they want they would have gotten what they wanted as simple as that.

made a change to have something that wasn't a throw back from the 90's pop explosion for a change.

[DavidB]

Could they not have dedicated the other cancelled guest times to the ones we still had so they had extra time? Would've been nice to see/hear more talks/stage time, but it was still an enjoyable experience in my opinion.

 

Personally I agree with you, but I am sure this is a reason why this wasn't done.

 

Was there not a fuller schedule announced with guest encounters, and that was changed?

 

So if they didn't want to be doing that much, it's not surprising they didn't fill it with more talks.

[Queen_Sindel]

i have no intrest in football cant plat pool to save my self lol and got board with walking about the town for hours

 

I can't play pool very well either, but that's part of the fun. At least for me.

Maybe next time we should play together and see who's worse?

 

i never said i wanted 24 houre entertain ment but since i have been doing con and events now for over 6 years in that time going to over 50 run by many different organisers me one are the ones where there are only a few houes where there are thinks 2 do all the other cons u dont have much time to go out the hotel for more that 30 40 min during the day or u will miss something only in the evening u have time to leave the area to get food change for the partys that night

 

Just to make this clear: This is my 8th year of going to events also. I stopped counting ages ago, but I think we're about the same level number-wise.

 

You make it sound like it is a bad thing that there was time to leave the hotel. 40 minutes maybe give you time for a McDonalds run. I agree that McDonalds is con food, but occassionally something close to a more real meal is nice.

 

more talks 4 in stead of 2 guests on together that would have used up 2 more hours if there were on individually or if they preffer being on together give them 90 min or 2 hours

 

screans needed in the hall as pointed out by crippsy if u were more than a few rows back u did not see anything

 

the so called dj i use that term loosly when asked dozens of times to play cons songs all he wanted to play was music for his friends i dont expect every song to be a con song but one or 2 con songs 2 3 or 4 non con songs would be fine then when he seen we were getting annoyed he started to take the p*** out of us when we left the hall he then put the con songs on

 

Thanks - that makes much more sense.

 

I think it's kind of a trademark thing for Massive Events now to do the 2 guests on stage together thing. They've done the same at Lockdown with 4 guests, so it's not that Chevron 7 was an exception here.

 

I'm not a technical person, so forgive me if this is wrong: but for the screen thing you'd need a steady camera somewhere and the picture of that camera would be the one shown on screen, is that correct?

 

I'm not even sure if this will work with the small camera that I've seen Shabs using. At the very least this would mean an additional camera is needed because he wasn't filming all the stuff going on on stage, and possibly more equipment.

 

But I agree with you here, if you are a short person (like I am too) seeing something from the back rows must have been difficult.

 

ive been to other cons where there were only 3 or 4 guests and there were still tones more 2 do at that one than this weekend

 

It's been a while since I did an event with only 4 guests, but the only difference I remember was that this event was larger, hence the photo sessions overran and blocked additional time.

 

But this is again a personal point of view and we can't really talk about other events here - so let's write this down to personal impressions.

 

 

Was there not a fuller schedule announced with guest encounters, and that was changed?

 

So if they didn't want to be doing that much, it's not surprising they didn't fill it with more talks.

 

Yes, that's right.

 

I thought Christoff was thinking about splitting the two "double talks" into four single ones, that's why I didn't mention the guest encounters. But maybe I got him wrong. I haven't been home for too long yet.

[crippsy_99]

Ok by now anyone reading the great atmosphere thread knows I didnt like the event, yet some people absolutly loved it. Fair enough.

Im going to list here why I personally didnt like the event. Feel free to add your own dislikes if you like, and Jason and Mark can then see where their going wrong and hopefully sort it for future cons :)

 

1) Fridays opening ceremony - Guests were on stage for like 1-2mins each and then that was it. Ok I know it was going to be short, but at less than 10 mins long, it was almost pointless even going on the friday..could have just been done in the morning before the first talk!

 

2) Ok I wasnt at the gold pass cocktail party thing, but spoke to several people who were, and I was told they only saw TWO of the four guests!! Apparently they took ages going around the tables, then just left without seeing everyone. I dont blame the guests for this, but someone must have said "right, you've been here long enough, we're off now!" or something similar. Considering that was about the only extra activity gold pass holders got, it must have sucked to be them!

 

3) Fridays party - Average, but better than saturdays at least! Was at least a wider range of music, and more people I thought attended. This one I actually dont see much wrong with, just more of an annoyance that it could have been better.

 

Saturday morning started fine. Good first talk, gary photos were called during the talk but we were taken out, through the photo, and back into the talk in no time whatsoever and hardly missed a thing. One talk however, I cant remember which, was only 45 mins long because it started late, but was made to finish on time. Oh, there was one thing. For the opening ceremony, the chairs were arranged in a curve, which I thought was and excellent idea as many more people could see, but

4) By saturday morning, they were back in lines, and if you were any more than about 5 rows back, most people I spoke too couldnt see a thing on stage when the guests sat down! All my friend trying to take photos got was peoples heads in most of the screen as shes only small. Why not have a screen on the side next time so everyone can see the stage?

 

But then I go onto point

5 Second talk/photoshoot - Great talk again, but just over halfway through, carmen photos were called, so I left with everyone else assuming we'd be through and back in again within maybe 10-15 mins. Wrong! We qued up as before, then presumably due to Carmen arriving back late from wherever he was, it took ages before there was any kind of movement! Eventually the gold passes started moving..

When there was about 3-4 gold pass people left in the que, the talk ended! But it got worse as pretty much all the gold pass holders that had stayed in the hall then joined the que for photos seeing as they had them free, which meant the standards had to wait all over again!!! Was stood there for 40-45 mins in the end before I got through for my photo, and I was only about halfway through the standard que! If id have known, I could have stayed in the hall listening to precious talk time but instead missed half of it because I felt the standards were pulled out way too early.

 

At that point dispersed for lunch and went back to the hotel to kill some time. Went down a little later, and was through the auto session in 15-20 mins roughly? After that, absolutly nothing to do!! No 'strangers' seemed interested in chatting, everyone had formed their own sort of groups amongst themselves, and my other friends that were there were so bored they went up the town to kill some time!

 

Came back for the party then, had the potential to be good, and loved the cocktails, however

6) The choice of music was just dire!!! If the purpose was to drive people to buy more alcohol to drown out the noise, it worked as I was drinking the cocktails by the jug load, but to no avail. The 60's music lasted about half hour, then a couple of normal songs, then the rest of the night was awful rubbish the dj was playing for a few of his friends or himself even. Kept asking people to request songs but at least out of my group of 10-11 people he refused to play anything we requested. Even gave him a cd with con music on and he flatly refused to play it, then later on in the evening when most people had given up on the party, he started MOCKING us and making fun of my friends!! A few stormed out in a rage then, and rest of us followed. I heard there was like 6-7 people left in there after that..

 

By sunday, expectations had fallen dramatically, friends were still fuming, and we wondered what the day had in store for us! Didnt take long for something to happen.

7) A friends friend, who has 2 very young children, couldnt get away that early on sunday for Micheals autograph in the morning. They only arrived late sat, so missed that session. The revised schedual said he was signing till 11, so they came down at 10:30, only to be told that he had now stopped signing and had gone, so there was nothing that could be done and he'd missed out. We DID speak to Jason and mark about this later on though and it was dealt with so no need to dwell on that too much.

 

Good talks again, abit short but then we did get the gary jones standup as an extra activity and he as great as usual, however I felt it was very short and could have gone on at least another 20 mins, as wasnt like much else was going on in the afternoon to eat into! Then another round of boredom, before the final 'talk'..

8) Structured seating had apparently ended and we were told it was a free for all, sit where we liked! Que lots of people pushing and fighting to get down the front. I took a seat, got the camera out ready, when the crew started coming around telling everyone no cameras and to put them all away! When things started fair enough we could see why, but I wasnt told why no cameras at first and just figured we were being robbed of photo time for the last talk as apparently some people had been filming and the hall staff were threatening to ban cameras outright.

9) Then things started, and we didnt even have a final q&a, just the auditions thing with JCB doing most of the talking and the attendee's doing acting

 

Pretty much everyone I know personally had left after the final talk, and if im brutally honest, they didnt miss much really did they!

 

10) Sundays dead dog party was just as I predicted..dead!! We went over to the hotel about 9pm, saw just ONe group of people there who looked like mostly crew, but either way no-one either of us felt comfortable sitting with in awkward silence, so my friend and I turned straight around again and headed to the bar next to the ibis instead!

 

So overall, good points were hilarious talks, what little of them there were.

Bad points, pretty much everything else!

Thats my rant/opinion done for the night!

 

PS if you read even half of that..have a pack of cookies!

[Queen_Sindel]

crippsy, I merged your topic with this one.

Can we try and keep the discussion here, please?

 

Otherwise we will have the same discussion going on all over the place as it happened after a certain cancellation.

[Psychosis]

Actually, I think the main criticism I have is that SOMETHING really, seriously has to be done about the seating situation at talks. Gold passes should give you the best view available, not the ONLY view available! I literally could not see a single thing, not even a hair on either of their heads at the Michael/Carmen talk when they were seated, and I applaud them for being kind enough to stand up often. And I was only two seats from the middle of the aisle! You either need screens or to figure out something for the chairs.

[crippsy_99]

crippsy, I merged your topic with this one.

Can we try and keep the discussion here, please?

 

Otherwise we will have the same discussion going on all over the place as it happened after a certain cancellation.

 

Fair enough, I was actually trying to get the original thread purpose back on track..it started off as a 'great atmosphere' thread, but has been turning into a negative complaints one, so I had made it a seperate post so the negative stuff could have gone there, and this could have returned to positive things!

[majorkennedy]

I can't play pool very well either, but that's part of the fun. At least for me.

Maybe next time we should play together and see who's worse?

 

lol the one and only time i played i hit the ball but missed the table and the ball went flying and hit my boss where it really hurt lol

 

Just to make this clear: This is my 8th year of going to events also. I stopped counting ages ago, but I think we're about the same level number-wise.

 

they really do become addictive lol

 

You make it sound like it is a bad thing that there was time to leave the hotel. 40 minutes maybe give you time for a McDonalds run. I agree that McDonalds is con food, but occassionally something close to a more real meal is nice.

 

its not a bad thing to have some more time for a real meal like that fantastic chinese but even after we spent over a hour in there we still had a good few hours before we needed to be back at the con

 

Thanks - that makes much more sense.

 

I think it's kind of a trademark thing for Massive Events now to do the 2 guests on stage together thing. They've done the same at Lockdown with 4 guests, so it's not that Chevron 7 was an exception here.

 

I'm not a technical person, so forgive me if this is wrong: but for the screen thing you'd need a steady camera somewhere and the picture of that camera would be the one shown on screen, is that correct?

 

yea at the other event s they have had 2 cameras one at each side of the hall so it can be put on the big screen

 

I'm not even sure if this will work with the small camera that I've seen Shabs using. At the very least this would mean an additional camera is needed because he wasn't filming all the stuff going on on stage, and possibly more equipment.

 

But I agree with you here, if you are a short person (like I am too) seeing something from the back rows must have been difficult.

 

and the tall ppl always sit in frount of u lol would be good to have a booster seat for the short ppl

Edited June 16, 2008 by majorkennedy

[Queen_Sindel]

Fair enough, I was actually trying to get the original thread purpose back on track..it started off as a 'great atmosphere' thread, but has been turning into a negative complaints one, so I had made it a seperate post so the negative stuff could have gone there, and this could have returned to positive things!

 

I edited the title now.

 

People can as well keep posting positive things in here too. It's just that the discussion bit for the negative things has already started and of course that takes more posts, as usual.

 

 

lol the one and only time i played i hit the ball but missed the table and the ball went flying and hit my boss where it really hurt lol

 

Hitting the ball is one thing I learned Sunday night.

 

they really do become addictive lol

 

Oh hell yeah.

My boyfriend always says it would be way easier if I'd just move to the UK.

 

This was the 13th time I've seen Michael.

 

its not a bad thing to have some more time for a real meal like that fantastic chinese but even after we spent over a hour in there we still had a good few hours before we needed to be back at the con

 

I'm beginning to wonder if I fell asleep some time and that's why I am missing a few "unused hours".

 

and the tall ppl always sit in frount of u lol would be good to have a booster seat for the short ppl

 

Now that's an idea. *grins*

 

Alternatively maybe give the guests higher chairs to sit on? I've seen some of the bar stool type of chairs used at other events.

[crippsy_99]

i personaly think the music on sat night was ok, not everyone loves con songs and i think that that should be taken in to consideration, not everyone likes the same thing, crying over the fact that you don't get what you want isn't going to go anywhere, he played songs that were requested, he then went back and played more songs that were requested, if people hadn't thrown hissy fits over not getting what they want they would have gotten what they wanted as simple as that.

made a change to have something that wasn't a throw back from the 90's pop explosion for a change.

 

Thing is, stargate CONVENTIONS, wether their in the uk, canada, france, germany etc con songs are a big part of the experience. We wernt asking for wall to wall con songs, but some would have been nice, say every 5-6 songs or something then put one on?

And the point is he WASNT putting on requests..he was point blank ignoring at least 2 tables worth of peoples requests to play utter rubbish all night. We even heard the DJ say at one point 40-odd people wanted a con song, but 2 didnt, so he wouldnt play one!

 

I'm not a technical person, so forgive me if this is wrong: but for the screen thing you'd need a steady camera somewhere and the picture of that camera would be the one shown on screen, is that correct?

 

I'm not even sure if this will work with the small camera that I've seen Shabs using. At the very least this would mean an additional camera is needed because he wasn't filming all the stuff going on on stage, and possibly more equipment.

 

What usually happens is the center camera that records also feed's out a live video to a projector which puts the picture on screen.

Would be the same as what Shabs was doing, sitting in the middle with the camera, as it was recording for professional things so obvously must be stable enough id have though, so all it would need is a cable running into its output ports or whatever then going off into a projector or similar for the screen for live viewing.

[majorkennedy]

i personaly think the music on sat night was ok, not everyone loves con songs and i think that that should be taken in to consideration, not everyone likes the same thing, crying over the fact that you don't get what you want isn't going to go anywhere, he played songs that were requested, he then went back and played more songs that were requested, if people hadn't thrown hissy fits over not getting what they want they would have gotten what they wanted as simple as that.

made a change to have something that wasn't a throw back from the 90's pop explosion for a change.

 

im not crying but it is a con u expect some con music to be played most of the ppl there are geeks we love cheese so the con songe are what we want

now more ppl that are not so into all the cheese are going there are all different types of music but there is normal stuff then con music so eveyone is happy with with all typs of music covered

 

he played all requested stuff EX THE CON SONGS THAT AT LEAST A DOZEN PPL WERE REQUESTING

 

how would u like it if u payed all that money 2 go to a con then were mocked and had the p*** taken out of u cause of the music u were requesting

[Christoff]

PS if you read even half of that..have a pack of cookies!

 

I read it all, can I have a pack of cookies?

 

As for short people not being able to see, well I'm tall and could barely see too, and that was even at being at about the 5th/6th row most of the time, people standing up to take pics in the opening ceremony and I think the 1st talk got extremely annoying as we couldn't see anything with them in the way, and somehow we always managed to be sat behind people who were big, or had big hair lol, the only time I actually got to see properly was at the audition where I managed to get on the 3rd row due to being told we could sit anywhere we liked, but anyway, even us tall people find it hard to see when we're in the standard ticket chairs, so I dread to think what it'd be like at a busier convention, so yes, something needs to be done with the chairs, and a couple of screens would be good too for people further back and unable to see.

[Queen_Sindel]

Thing is, stargate CONVENTIONS, wether their in the uk, canada, france, germany etc con songs are a big part of the experience. We wernt asking for wall to wall con songs, but some would have been nice, say every 5-6 songs or something then put one on?

And the point is he WASNT putting on requests..he was point blank ignoring at least 2 tables worth of peoples requests to play utter rubbish all night. We even heard the DJ say at one point 40-odd people wanted a con song, but 2 didnt, so he wouldnt play one!

 

Did you see Jason's other post?

 

The DJ issue has already been considered.

 

We will also be having a new DJ who is more used to playing convention music, as I know this was an issue this time around. We know this is very important to you all and we do listen to your comments. This will be rectified for the next show.

[Christoff]

Thing is, stargate CONVENTIONS, wether their in the uk, canada, france, germany etc con songs are a big part of the experience. We wernt asking for wall to wall con songs, but some would have been nice, say every 5-6 songs or something then put one on?

And the point is he WASNT putting on requests..he was point blank ignoring at least 2 tables worth of peoples requests to play utter rubbish all night. We even heard the DJ say at one point 40-odd people wanted a con song, but 2 didnt, so he wouldnt play one!

 

Umm, what's a con song? lol

[crippsy_99]

Yeah I did see that bit..good to know somethings being done.

Was pointing out to pez though the importance of con songs at a con!

 

As for seating, I def reckon the opening ceremony style curved seating was a better arrangement..even on the sides you could see better then.

[majorkennedy]

Did you see Jason's other post?

 

The DJ issue has already been considered.

 

glad of that i know several fantastic dj who have been doing cons for years and the partys are always fantastic there is not often there is a empty dance floor for thouse cons in less thay have been evil and player 4 or 5 con song in a row and we are all dying at the sids getting out breath back pmsl

 

would be fantastic if they were free do do some of me cons

[crippsy_99]

Umm, what's a con song? lol

 

Cheesy pop style usually.

Blame it on the boogie by Jackson 5, Doctorin the Tardis by the timelords, baby give it up by kc and the sunshine band, cha cha slide by dj casper, steps, queen etc that type of stuff..

The stuff you generally wont admit to liking in public because you'll be ridiculed if its not that rap rubbish.

[DavidB]

The stuff you generally wont admit to liking in public because you'll be ridiculed if its not that rap rubbish.

 

I do love these crazy generalisations you come up with

Edited June 16, 2008 by DavidB

[majorkennedy]

The stuff you generally wont admit to liking in public because you'll be ridiculed if its not that rap rubbish.

 

I do love these crazy generalisations you come up with

 

its true u have a conversation when u go to work or uni or what ever bring up music if u say u like all there cheesy con songs the normals think u are mad ppl at my work think im nuts for doing all the cons but i dont care i love them

[DavidB]

Well I don't think people majorly get ridiculed if they like music that isn't 'that rap rubbish'.

 

Plus I know a lot of people that like 'con songs' for cons, or drunken parties etc, but wouldn't particularly listen to them casually.

[pez]

i'm not mocking con songs or music ( i worked in musical theater and tribute acts since i was 6) but they did play a lot of requested music , and both sides were mocked, jason is sorting it out and i know it's a con and you want your songs but sulking when you dont get your way is slightly childish.

 

 

jason is sorting it but your never going to please everyone all the time on friday night we requested a load of songs and he wouldn't play them, it does work both ways.

[Christoff]

Umm, what's a con song? lol

 

Cheesy pop style usually.

Blame it on the boogie by Jackson 5, Doctorin the Tardis by the timelords, baby give it up by kc and the sunshine band, cha cha slide by dj casper, steps, queen etc that type of stuff..

The stuff you generally wont admit to liking in public because you'll be ridiculed if its not that rap rubbish.

 

Yep, I agree with your comment on rap being rubbish lol, and that that con music is much better, especially Queen, big fan of them ;-) Though most of their stuff isn't cheesy pop, but quite a bit is rather cheesy I suppose lol