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Saturday col 15..the verdict!


Serenity1986
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I just wanted to say what a great time I had over the Friday and Saturday. I got all the autographs I wanted and the guests all seemed very friendly. The staff were helpful and the dealer room was full of bargains. Regretting not buying some bits already lol

I was a bit disappointed that the talks couldn't go ahead due to the weather, but as they don't normally have them I didn't feel like I was really missing out.

 

The only downsides for me were waiting so long for the photos. Because I got all autographs done on the Friday I didn't really have much to kill the time, so the wait probably seemed longer for me. Oh and it was bloody cold in the open areas and I only had a jacket.

 

So well done and thank you to the showmasters team on another great show. If you hold it there again I will bring a coat, and hopefully you can find a print shop closer to the show :)

Edited by gfanuk
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It was a good event but waay too cold and a kinda grim looking venue.

 

Certainly not the best CM I've ever been to. But I appreciate that it nearly didn't happen and that there was no charge to enter the venue, unlike other events such as Collectables.

 

But Jesus Christ Jason, you need to take an evening English class! Your spelling and punctuation are terrible fella!

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But Jesus Christ Jason, you need to take an evening English class! Your spelling and punctuation are terrible fella!

 

I believe Jason has dyslexia but even if he didn't there is no excuse for such a rude comment. To politely correct mistakes is one thing but talking to someone like that on a public forum isn't on.

Edited by Princess83
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It was a good event but waay too cold and a kinda grim looking venue.

 

Certainly not the best CM I've ever been to. But I appreciate that it nearly didn't happen and that there was no charge to enter the venue, unlike other events such as Collectables.

 

But Jesus Christ Jason, you need to take an evening English class! Your spelling and punctuation are terrible fella!

 

You shoud have some tact mate, have you never heard of something called dyslexia?

 

Just for the record; way only has one 'a', kinda should actually be 'kind of' and you should never start a sentence with 'but'. :D

Edited by keithporter23
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I went just on the Saturday, it was my first ever collectormania and I had a great time - got to meet everyone I wanted too. The guests were all chatty even though I couldn't talk for myself (I have laryngitits) my mum and dad talked on my behalf and I was giving well wishes by all the guests I met except Nimoy which was very speedy but I got a thank you.

 

The staff were very helpful when we needed help (to find photos and to find out where to go fore Nathan's shoot). I'll definitely be going to another collectormania in the future.

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As far as i'm concerned, I think it was a really great event. yeah it was cold but the whole thing was really cool!

Meeting the legend Leonard Nimoy was really awesome! :D even though he was really busy and the best moment was the photo session with him.

My best moment was undoubtfully with Andrew Robinson who I've wanted to meet since the first time I saw him n Hellraiser and Dirty Harry!!! HE was soooooooo nice :) :P

the entry was free which is not that often, we got our photos before leaving, which was great. the organisation is so great! they're so nice with the free buses and even were willing to call a taxi for us, as we're French and didn't have a phone to call a taxi!!! :D

All I have to say is a big THANK YOU to Showmasters!!!!!!

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Basil'

 

ok mate but what about the people that come on here and just out right LIE ? 15 dealers ?when there was 150 ? also you understand this is not were we are running this next year and if we only run one event a year in england ie lfcc that means you only get to meet 50 guests a year with showmasters

 

so maybe GIVE US A CHANCE as if every one felt like this CM MK 1 would have been the only event we would have ran 7 guests 40 dealers and we lost £25,000 if we stopped then were would everyone be ?

 

so why not stop being so hard and just give it some time

 

and i really mean this as we know what's coming and we know what we want to do

 

we have ran some of the bests event in the world and have proven ourselfs over and over again so why ont just trust us

 

as to delting stuff

 

it if not corect and its lies or ovelay negative and is there to damaging to our dream then we are going to remove this as its not helping what it is we want to do run great events and serve the fans

 

What you have to remember is your dealing with peoples perception of the event even if the facts are exagirated it shows how the atendee felt. We all know you weren't running an event at 15 dealer tables that would be rediculous. What that person is really saying however is that their perception of that issue is that there were not enough tables. Deleting a post instead of saying "there were actually 150 tables for dealers but I understand from you're post that you would like more next time a) however the next event can't support any more or b ) I'll make more available for dealers next time".

 

Points are made and dealt with and everyone moves on. Deleting post just gets people angry and then badmouthing happens on other places where you have no control and no way to answer any points/accusations and your dream takes a large step backwards. You can't control what people think or what they say elsewhere but here you can manage it.

 

I know that the good people at SM have run some of the best shows in the world, I've been proud to attend many of them I've been attending most for 6 years+ now. That's the problem. People see the name "Collectomania" and know that it means "quality event" so when an event is run which is dissapointing it is more so because of the very high expectation of the attendee. In this way you are a victim of your success.

 

As for "Give us a chance" well I think all posters have and most of us continue to do, as I said great guests, well organised (from what I could see anyway) and a very bad venue.

 

I'm very glad to hear from another thread that this was not your first choice venue which makes me feel a lot better. I was under the impression from previous comments that this would be the events new home!

 

If I can ask, whats happened with the MK centre? I'm sure it was said elsewhere but if someone could post a link I'd appreciate it.

 

Basil

Edited by Basil
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I'm very glad to hear from another thread that this was not your first choice venue which makes me feel a lot better. I was under the impression from previous comments that this would be the events new home!

 

If I can ask, whats happened with the MK centre? I'm sure it was said elsewhere but if someone could post a link I'd appreciate it.

 

Basil

 

I'm too lazy to find the link but it's in numerous threads here - basically there was a change of centre management, they wanted more money/didn't want the hassle and safeity problems (I've seen both theories/reasons) so it's been moved to the stadium. The move is permanent, but there will be a different part used next time

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I haven't been to a CM for while and I'd forgotten how addictive the flippin' things are! I was on my way home this morning and I found myself wanting to go back even though I'd achieved everything I'd planned to do on Saturday! :D

 

Okay, it was a bit cold, but it's not like that's going to be a permanent thing from what's been said. I was lucky and was forewarned so I wore an extra cardi and my hat. Wish I'd taken some gloves mind. I had a bit of a worrying moment just before I shook hands with Nathan Fillion cos I found myself thinking, "I hope his hands aren't as cold as mine or we might have an unfortunate 'licking a lamp-post in winter' scenario here!" :WINCE: No worries - his hands were lovely :wub: as was the rest of him! :D

 

Nathan was a doll. He seemed to be making an effort to speak to everyone. I usually just about manage to squeak out a thank you when I meet guests but he put me at ease immediately with, "Hi, I'm Nathan. What's your name?" and then chatting to me about being dressed for the weather lol. He was the only guest I wanted to meet and there were no probs there.

 

Have to admit that once I'd been round the dealers tables (which I kept discovering more of!) there wasn't a whole lot to do whilst waiting for a photo shoot so I did miss the shops a bit then.

 

One huge positive was the amount of loos available lol. Not that I have a problem in that area or anything, but never having to queue was fab!!! :D Also - the seats at the edge of the concourse - were they not available on Friday or something? Was this one of the things changed? Cos there were plenty of those even if they were a bit exposed. Mind you, I found a little table in a sheltered corner to perch on to eat my (packed) lunch, so again no complaints there.

 

There was one thing I witnessed which made me frown, but I don't know if it was a crew member or a member of Mr Nimoy's own entourage. When Mr Nimoy was walking to his photoshoot (I presume), the lady with him reached out and put her hand up into someone's face, pushing aside his camera as he was about to take a photo. I didn't think this was very nice especially as the photographer wasn't following or getting in the way, he was just standing off to the side near me, waiting for Mr Nimoy to pass. I didn't like that, but I guess it could have been Mr Nimoy's instructions. Anyhoo...

 

Yep, overall, I had a fun day :D Thanks SM!

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In terms of guests, I got what I came for and was very happy. I didn't mind the location once I'd found it (stupid satnav). The centre:mk was horribly hot and had been so last time I went, although I agree that the stadium would be a bit uncomfortable when things get colder in general so am happy that alternative locations are being sought. One thing which was really nice was being able to recognize attendees and crew from the more intimate Eclipse conventions so that added a little extra something for me I hadn't had before at a signing event of this size (and some of the people I'd met as attendees were actually crewing this time, so that was interesting!). Some of the photos took a while to come back, but they were worth the wait. (Am a bit shocked by your mobile nutter, Wyn - I did get to chat with a couple of people Id' never met before and they were fine, but there's always someone, I guess.)

 

So, on the whole, a good time was had. Can't ask better than that. :WINCE:

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It was a good event but waay too cold and a kinda grim looking venue.

 

Certainly not the best CM I've ever been to. But I appreciate that it nearly didn't happen and that there was no charge to enter the venue, unlike other events such as Collectables.

 

But Jesus Christ Jason, you need to take an evening English class! Your spelling and punctuation are terrible fella!

 

You shoud have some tact mate, have you never heard of something called dyslexia?

 

 

I know he has dyslexia, I have a co worker who does as well, but it would still make his postings a lot easier for the rest of us to read if he ran them through a spellchecker first. 30 seconds is all it takes. My spelling & typing are lousy*, but I still go back and edit if I spot a typo.

 

*two typos in that sentence alone. Horary for spellcheckers.

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But surely you can still read what they say without having to comment on it.

 

I for one can still read everything that is wrote on hear apart from chav text

 

I just have to say I feel very sorry for the crew member taking the money etc with John delancie. She looks every so lonely sat there as every time I went past he wasnt there. I was gonna come and give you some company but you might of thought it was a bit weird lol.

 

I wished I was crewing sat with Candice Orwell, she looked so much fun every time I walked past she was laughing and joking with everyone.

 

Pics to follow

Edited by lingham
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Didn't do this Con, Largely because I heard Leonard Nimoy didn't Personalise. Shame, he's a Legend...

Seems like you heard wrong from other people's accounts on here.

The biggest problem for me - waiting for the photo shoots to come back....Why can't they just be printed out right there and then? The technology does exist. I've seen it in action. It's quite good.

That's a matter of opinion; I think it's cr@p. The images are generally lower quality and less durable, because of the process used. Maybe in 5 or 10 years time things will have improved, but at the moment the portable printers really aren't up to scratch when compared to the large fixed installations used by professional printers.

 

Ah, really? :) I only knew of the Ikea and Asda. Still, that's the difference between two hours and three... either way I'd rather wait and have a good photo than not wait and have a crappy print-out.

We did a charity ball a few months ago, it was held in the middle of no where. Our photographer took shots of every one burned them onto separate CD's - so people could take the disc home and print at their leisure. - That could be a option?

Interesting idea, but probably not feasable, given teh number of photos taken. Between the two sessions, I would imagine there could have been 3000-4000 pictures taken. If you had two PCs burning CDs and each picture took 1 minute to burn and mark (with something identifying the attendeee), then it would take around 30+ hours to process.

Not to mention some people might want their photoshoot signed later by the guest - a signed CD doesn't have quite the same cachet :D There's also the wastefulness of it; a CD can hold 700Mb - how much of that is taken up by a picture? Less than 5%. It seems terribly wasteful giving out thousands oif CDs that are 95% unused. (I suppose you could burn them so they're multi-session capable...)

 

Horary for spellcheckers.

:YAHOO:

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I have to say that on the whole I really enjoyed my weekend at collectormania. Friday was disappointing and some of the guests looked so cold in those little signing booths. I know they get paid but even so, with the amount of complaints there have been here about the weather and the cold of the stadium, they do deserve a little of your sympathy. Hands in particular will get very cold and you can't wear gloves while signing.

I did notice on saturday that showmasters had altered things around a bit to try and improve it. I think they did the best job possible under the cirumstances. The venue was not ideal but hopefully the conference facilities will be finished for the next event and we can all stay warm and dry and have some fun.

If I had to criticise anything it would be the way the visitors treated the disabled friend I was with... wheelchairs can not easily move sideways and get out of the ay of people.. when you see a wheelchair, please don't push and shove at it, its very intimidating for the person sitting in the chair. Besides, you'll only end up getting your toes run over and believ me, that hurts!

Avery Brooks was lovely and while I was mildly disappointed that Leonard Nimoy wasn't signing, he was still friendly and smiled at me while signing. And yes I do understand why he wasn't personalising, it was the only way to get through so many signatures.

Will I be at the next one? Definitely!

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[Not to mention some people might want their photoshoot signed later by the guest - a signed CD doesn't have quite the same cachet ;) There's also the wastefulness of it; a CD can hold 700Mb - how much of that is taken up by a picture? Less than 5%. It seems terribly wasteful giving out thousands oif CDs that are 95% unused. (I suppose you could burn them so they're multi-session capable...)

 

I've never paid for photosessions with any guests - I have a few that guests like Mark Hamil practically insisted on - with my own camera, but I have paid to charities for their photo opportunities for a good cause. But again I usually ask them to use my camera instead of theirs. Why? A digital image is of more use to me.

 

I agree that CDs would be wasteful, but an emailed digital backup wouldn't be that expensive to set up, and could be done at the photographer's leisure, for a small extra fee. It's no harder than printing.

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I have to admit that this was the first Collectormania I've been too (and I've been to a few) that I really didn't enjoy and just wanted to get through as quick as possible. The venue was really horrible . . . being open-aired made it extremely cold and windy and being spread around the whole place was just weird. The guests must have been uncomfortable too . . . its a worry that this sort of thing might put them off coming in future. Also, the choice of food was diabolical. Those take-away places made the worst coffee I have ever had and the food looked too suspicious to eat. At least in the CentreMK there was such a vast array of restaurants and coffee shops . . . instead of having to drive in MK for lunch like we did yesterday. I don't know what future plans are but I really hope that some other arrangement can be made . .. the shopping centre venue was simply amazing . . . but even a hall of some sort would be good. Indoors is the key, I think.

 

As to the rest. The staff were nice and helpful as usual. Meeting Nathan Fillion made up for anything lacking. Oh and the costumed guys were simply fantastic so hats off to them! :)

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The biggest problem for me - waiting for the photo shoots to come back....Why can't they just be printed out right there and then? The technology does exist. I've seen it in action. It's quite good.

That's a matter of opinion; I think it's cr@p. The images are generally lower quality and less durable, because of the process used. Maybe in 5 or 10 years time things will have improved, but at the moment the portable printers really aren't up to scratch when compared to the large fixed installations used by professional printers.

 

Without going into details, I know of other events that have used on-site printing facilities and whilst the quality was ok (not as good as from a professional printer), they have experienced problems with the equipment (these things happen) and have still been printing photos out days after the event has finished.

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The biggest problem for me - waiting for the photo shoots to come back....Why can't they just be printed out right there and then? The technology does exist. I've seen it in action. It's quite good.

That's a matter of opinion; I think it's cr@p. The images are generally lower quality and less durable, because of the process used. Maybe in 5 or 10 years time things will have improved, but at the moment the portable printers really aren't up to scratch when compared to the large fixed installations used by professional printers.

 

Without going into details, I know of other events that have used on-site printing facilities and whilst the quality was ok (not as good as from a professional printer), they have experienced problems with the equipment (these things happen) and have still been printing photos out days after the event has finished.

I was just thinking that I doubt if the portable printers would be able to print them out quick enough!
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My only real problem with the event was that the guests were outside. I felt it was incredibly off to have both the guests and the attendees having to spend large amounts of time outside. I mean Leornard for instance is 78 years old and they had the poor guy sitting in the cold for two full days. When I saw Avery Brooks and John DeLancie that were wrapped up like artic explorers. It was absurd. The least Showmaster's could have done was organise some portable heaters for them. Worst part was that the dealers were housed away nicely in the warm...some the actors get cold outside, while the people ripping off the public with posters, t-shirts and mugs screened with pictures downloaded from the internet, got nice warm environs.

 

Next time an indoor venue please. Perhaps they could even consider having the next event somewhere other than Milton Keynes (it is such a dull and non-descript place after all).

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My only real problem with the event was that the guests were outside. I felt it was incredibly off to have both the guests and the attendees having to spend large amounts of time outside. I mean Leornard for instance is 78 years old and they had the poor guy sitting in the cold for two full days. When I saw Avery Brooks and John DeLancie that were wrapped up like artic explorers. It was absurd. The least Showmaster's could have done was organise some portable heaters for them. Worst part was that the dealers were housed away nicely in the warm...some the actors get cold outside, while the people ripping off the public with posters, t-shirts and mugs screened with pictures downloaded from the internet, got nice warm environs.

 

Next time an indoor venue please. Perhaps they could even consider having the next event somewhere other than Milton Keynes (it is such a dull and non-descript place after all).

 

Yeah... I think this has been mentioned/covered 100+ times already. If you read through the threads, you'll find one where Jason confirms that the guests WILL be inside next time.

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My only real problem with the event was that the guests were outside. I felt it was incredibly off to have both the guests and the attendees having to spend large amounts of time outside. I mean Leornard for instance is 78 years old and they had the poor guy sitting in the cold for two full days. When I saw Avery Brooks and John DeLancie that were wrapped up like artic explorers. It was absurd. The least Showmaster's could have done was organise some portable heaters for them. Worst part was that the dealers were housed away nicely in the warm...some the actors get cold outside, while the people ripping off the public with posters, t-shirts and mugs screened with pictures downloaded from the internet, got nice warm environs.

 

Next time an indoor venue please. Perhaps they could even consider having the next event somewhere other than Milton Keynes (it is such a dull and non-descript place after all).

 

Yeah... I think this has been mentioned/covered 100+ times already. If you read through the threads, you'll find one where Jason confirms that the guests WILL be inside next time.

Dude, look at the amount of posts I have. I just came on this board within the hour to leave my thoughts. I didn't need some snot nose to come along and condescendingly tell me I should be reading all the other threads. I'm sorry if I and ruining the board for superior persons such as yourself.

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Azrael, please don't take that attitude with anyone. Chris is just saying that these points have been addressed, and it's probably best of you read one of Showmasters' topics explaining all the different things. There's one pinned to the top of the section for example :D

 

I hope that information and explanation will help to ease some of your worries.

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