Eclipse 3 Details

[chris_mk]

Wow, sounds great. What a pity there was no actual mention of the free group photo and free 'guest encounters' *at* the event. I found out about the group shot on Sunday while queuing for autographs. When I asked a steward about it, she actually seemed angry - like she thought I was trying it on so I could get more free stuff or something. It was really quite distressing. I saw the blocks on the schedule for shoots and so on - but I didn't hear that extra payment wasn't required. And I'm into free stuff, so I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed.

 

This has to be the most upsetting convention ever - I went alone, and felt like sitting in my room crying most of the time. And now I find out I could have actually had a chance to meet the guests on a more human level. What a total bummer. All the guests seemed really nice too, a bit of a chat would have been cool.

 

The print of New York exploding was very nice though; and the posters and mug were cool.

 

I'm sorry to hear you didn't have a great time, but in fairness, there was a box for the free photoshoot on the back of the programme, along with the free autograph boxes and the schedules for all of the guest encounters were on the large posters, listing all of the badge numbers and showing when your encounters were and with who.

[Ra Ra Rhade]

I'm sorry to hear you didn't have a great time, but in fairness, there was a box for the free photoshoot on the back of the programme, along with the free autograph boxes and the schedules for all of the guest encounters were on the large posters, listing all of the badge numbers and showing when your encounters were and with who.

 

I saw the photo shoot and guest encounters on the schedule, but read and heard absolutely nothing to say they were free. Having been to conventions in the past, and knowing that at every single one these have been pay extra items, I assumed this was a case of "this is when the photo shoot/guest encounters for your ticket number are taking place, if you have paid to take part, go at this time". I also assumed that any change to the norm would have been mentioned at least once, if not frequently.

 

And rather stupidly and even though I (thought) had read over each page of the con book looking for information, I had to be shown where the autograph voucher was, and so didn't see it until I was queuing for autographs on Sunday morning.

 

I guess I'll know for next time. At least I have 2 months to recover before the next show.

[slaycandy]

I would have hated to have had an experience like that! I am glad to have met loads of fab people through conventions over the years, but don't know what I'd do without them around.

 

I'm not sure if you're aware, but the photo shoots and guest encounters have not "always" been pay-for items... at the Lost event Lockdown when it too had a low turn-out the group photo and guest encounters were done for free, and again the badge numbers were printed on the schedules so that people knew who they would get a guest encounter with, and at what time it would be, similarly there was also a voucher for the group photo shoot to be taken. So there has been one instance of this in the past, but I don't remember whether they had been marked as 'free' at the event itself or not, but I do know it had been announced online prior to the event itself much like for E3.

 

For me personally, have done all of the ME events, I immediately noticed the difference in the schedules, and had just assumed that others would too. I guess it wasn't as clear cut as I thought. However:

 

At past events when guest encounters have been paid for, they have been available to everyone to get via auction so that it is fair to the most number of people - if you are willing to bid then you can get it. And never has it been limited to only a certain number of attendees to be able to bid for that particular guest encounter, it has always been open to everyone. The guest encounter would be on the schedule but it when it is a pay-for item it has never specified who can actually go and bid for it, it has always been open to everyone - so me seeing numbers appearing is a big give-away that it's been done differently.

 

At this event however the schedule did specify which guest encounters people got with their ticket numbers, it split them up into Standard, Silver and Gold and specified the guests and times, both on the main schedule and in separate tables to ensure that everyone knew exactly when/with whom their encouters were. As this has never been done before at another event, I, personally, felt that it made it obvious that if you had those numbers that was the encounter you went to. And since each encounter only had 20 or so people assigned to them as per usual I also assumed that meant people would understand that meant they could all go to that encounter.

 

I realise that it didn't say 'this is free' in bold letters anywhere, but I still thought that since it was very specifically rota-ed on the schedule that it was understandable that these encounters were a part of the main schedule and had been divided up so everyone could attend some. Not to mentioned the fact it wasn't just included in the schedule, but TT had reiterated in a separate table, the ticket numbers with a list of times to go to each guests' encounter I thought it was really clear that this was 'different to the norm' as it's never been done this way before, and it clearly showed a timetable for these.

 

For people totally new to events however I can understand that they wouldn't notice a difference like that and may not know how these 'encounters' have been dealt with in the past so the comparison of the schedules may not jump out as it did to me.

 

I just hope that enough people who spotted the guest encounters listed realised they were a part of the scheduled events and came along as they were really fab, and the guests seemed really enthusiastic in each of the ones I saw.

 

As for the autograph voucher being on the back of the convention booklet, this is the method it has been done for all ME events this year and as far as I'm aware the way it will be done at all of them from now on. So if you do have an event in the future be sure to look out for that!

 

Anyway, I would not have liked to have had an experience like that at an event, and not have gotten to speak to some great guests and attendees - so hopefully next time you come along to one of these you'll get to speak to a lot more of the attendees, find out whats going on right away, that way you won't miss out on anything again! :-D

 

SJ

xox

Edited May 4, 2009 by slaycandy

[thewhiteladyofrohan]

 

 

This has to be the most upsetting convention ever - I went alone, and felt like sitting in my room crying most of the time.

 

sorry you didn't enjoy it i can assre you i know that feeling (infact it's the feeling i have right now) sorry you didn't enjoy yourself more