Spikesbird Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 Totally loved the whole weekend!! We had no problems with the hotel, or staff, although I agree that this Hilton didn't seem to live up to expectations of grandeur. We paid full for our room, as Con rate rooms run out, so we had a twin executive one. I didn't think the room was any bigger than a premier inn one, but the bathroom was fab, and very clean. Room service useful, as I'm a vegan, and couldn't eat anything in the food hall, and weatherpoons was closed in NEC as no event there. Can't fault the crew once again. Everyone lovely. Slight hiccup with Kai/Daniela photo shoot - we were about 10 people back in Kai's queue, but told to move to Daniela's first, as we were gold, and standards were first in Kai's queue. We were group 4, and were told 1-4 would be called together for Daniela. we stood for almost an hour, but when the groups were called, it was 1-3, so people who had just turned up went straight in, whilst we stood like idiots! It was no ones fault though, just 3 different crew members at different times. Oh well. I would have been upset, but it meant the last thing of the day was Kai's photoshoot, so it all turned out for the best, ha ha! As for the drinks reception, my sister and I are a bit awkward at them, but still go. We got in late on Friday night, so thought we'd missed it. When we were told it had been moved we thought we should make the effort, although we usually just stand like berks in the corner, not knowing what to say if anyone came near us! Luckily this time, we saw AJ and Jennie, and headed over. As no guests came over really, AJ went to speak to Deb, who sorted it all out - what a star! Although we had to follow Deb and join another group talking to Ben, (terrifying!!) who was lovely, and we were like startled bunnies for all of 5 seconds, as he makes you feel so at ease. His crew member was Claire, who was also great, and we had a good chat. WE re-joined AJ and Jennie, and met Rik aand Gareth too, which was fab. All in all the best drinks reception we'd been to, we had so much fun, thanks to AJ and the crew. I can understand peeps getting annoyed when attendee's kinda follow the guests through, but we were asked to join already formed groups to make it easier for the guests to get round everyone. My favourite part of every Hub is normally the talks as I love to find out how things work, and how the programme is made etc, and all about guests other roles. And also a great to time to have a laugh! This time didn't disappoint, but my absolute highlight was Kai turning up on Saturday night. I loved Gareth when he kept dropping in little comments about having someone else to do the skit with, and then quoting lines from 'land of my fathers' - I thought I was imagining it! What a great surprise for us all, I don't know how they kept it a secret! I still have a sore throat, and my ears are still ringing, lol! Haven't screamed so much in years! Don't know what came over me! I know we all love meeting new guests, but it just wasn't the same without Kai on Saturday. Although Gareth was fab at holding it all together. Sunday was totally fantastic once more - I missed Kai shouting at Paul (with affection) in Saturday's talks. Totally disagree with comments that Paul is wrong for the job: I think he's brilliant! He's been at every ME con I've been to, and I think it just wouldn't be the same without him! Well done Paul! I loved listening to all the new guests and what they had to say - Paul Copley is genius! Also had a few "ah, yeah" moments from hearing the guests talk about other projects - as I hadn't researched enough,. lol! You know you recognise people and have seen them in tonnes of stuff, but what??! It all comes flooding back. Thanks to all the crew and organisers for another truly memorable weekend. AS I mentioned on here before, I haven't been all that well lately, but the weekend with all you great guys certainly cheered me up, and despite being totally knackered, and sleeping most of the day, I feel pretty great, so thanks for that too! Cured by a Torchwood convention!! Ha Ha! I'll stop nagging on now, hugs to everyone I met at the weekend, especially AJ, Jennie, Hayz, Joy, Deb, and the 2 girls I kept meeting in the lift on Sunday. Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x_moonshine_x Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 I do hope that is your photo you're re-posting btw. No, it was mine... lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cazbutler Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 This was my second Showmasters/Hub convention and I thoroughly enjoyed it, - not as much as Hub 2, but still a fantastic weekend nevertheless. However, here’s a teeny list of gripes that I have about the weekend: The Hotel - After having stayed in several other Hiltons, I was unimpressed with this one and its standards, and am complaining to them directly regarding this. The Parties - Like many have already said, the music became boringly repetitive which made me not want to hang around for more than a couple of hours each night, and it was a shame to not see themed cocktails again. The Talks - Hecklers, please keep quiet and do not shout directly into my ears and deafen me! Also, and I’ll probably be hated for this, but would it be possible to not have photos taken during the talks? I don’t mean to ruin anyone’s fun from having a few snaps, but I’d like to be able to actually see the guests and not someone’s camera rammed into my line of vision the whole time. The Guests - Lovely as they were, once James cancelled, it seemed to be almost a Children of Earth event which was not the kind of convention I was hoping for, so some more variety in guests next time, please? The Crew - On one occasion I had a query regarding the new seating rule and how it would affect someone going to the first intimate encounter and I did not like the tone and way in which I was spoken back to. (big thanks to the attendees who backed me up as I tried to get my query across, and to the lovely crew member, - so sorry I didn’t catch your name hun, - who later cleared up the confusion that had been caused) There, grumbling over.... Again thank you for a wonderful time and look forward to attending Hub 4. Photos - I got such a mad headache from all the click click click - beep beep beep all the way through, I mean surely all those photos have got to look the same!!! LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spectrum Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 I didn't have to deal with the hotel staff much at all so can't comment on that, but I'm still SO glad we'll be back at the Park Inn next time. At the Hilton I couldn't afford the food and there was no where else to go within walking distance. Also, I had snotty comments from people there for the bridge thing or whatever, it's definitely better to have attendees at several hotels and the con taking over one completely so we can all do our thing without other events happening at the same time. You get the filthiest looks wandering across a hotel in the most innocuous costume. Gutted about James obviously, but SM really did try and make the best of it: getting Kai and then "revealing" him in the way they did was absolutely the best thing they could have done and I will be eternally grateful! His talk was brilliant, (although the poor man wouldn't sit on the damn chair!) they all were, especially on Sunday. Ben and Paul were especially good newcomers, and Gareth was well, Gareth! I really hope he does the Hub 4 because it just wouldn't be the same without him. I think there were too many Children of Earth guests if I'm honest, but I know how difficult it was to get any more of the main gang. Parties were fabulous, especially the skit on Saturday night - Gareth being John was priceless and to be fair, the DJ was choosing good songs. Just quite a few times each . . . Every single member of the Massive Events crew were all ridiculously lovely, patient, funny and generally wonderful, so biiiiiig thanks for that! (everyone join the Facebook group "Too Tall Is My Hero"!) Something I did miss however: the graffiti wall/where are you from map! That was endless fun, why did you not do it this time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Octarina Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 I understand taking pics when they do something funny, but just when they're chatting on seems a bit silly really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeatrixKiddo88 Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 Yeah and I know most cameras (mine does and its not new or special or anything) let you turn the noises off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cazbutler Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 Yeah and I know most cameras (mine does and its not new or special or anything) let you turn the noises off. One bloke had a big professional camera that was really noisy (mechanical clicky noises..) and was taking photos the whole way thru (why?? lol) - poor woman behind couldnt see cos it was in the way most of the time. Not joking must have took a pic every 5 seconds and had thousands of identical pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x_moonshine_x Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 I would have turned the noises off mine, but it was my dad's camera and I didn't actually know how... lol.. Sorry if I annoyed anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spikesbird Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 Hope I wasn't annoying anyone with photo taking! I don't think mine makes a sound though, and I don't lift the camera above my head as many seem to do. One girl near us on Saturday actually stood up for quite a lot of the time taking pix! I do try and limit my photo taking, but as it's 90% blurry rubbish ones, as I get excited/shake/laugh too much, so I take a few more. I know what you mean though, you end up with hundreds of similar ones anyway. I take way less now as the hubs go on. Just wanted to say thanks to Malcolm and Daniella taking the prof photos as forgot before - what a great job they do. I am so not photogenic, and I always seem to come out Ok at the Hub. And Malcolm - I have a happy chin now, lol! It seemed to be unhappy yesterday for some reason and wouldn't respond, ha ha!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeatrixKiddo88 Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 And man does Malcom carry off a dress well! lol As always, the prof photo team was AMAZING! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurkFox Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 In the Sunday talks, people were leaning on the back of my chair to take photos, so I had cameras in my peripheral vision quite a lot, clicking away in my ear. I'm quite sensitive to sound sometimes, it was really unpleasant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cazbutler Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 In the Sunday talks, people were leaning on the back of my chair to take photos, so I had cameras in my peripheral vision quite a lot, clicking away in my ear. I'm quite sensitive to sound sometimes, it was really unpleasant. I dont know if people get excited sometimes and dont realise they are getting in peoples way but this one person, the woman told him loads of times she couldnt see and dont think the other person cared much. It is a bit much when its right in your ear as well - constantly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natfrog5 Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 Definitely felt like a more chilled out Hub than previous ones. Didnt mean it was necessarily less fun but it wasnt quite as good as it's predecessors - sp?!! I was, and still am, ill though so that didnt help! There was alot of time spent doing nothing on both days waiting to be called for things and I'm not really used to that....esp being at the Twilight con last weekend which was busy busy! Didnt have any major hotel issues but am glad it's back at the Park Inn next time. Feels a lot more personal coz we literally take over the hotel. I didnt appreciate getting perved at by old men at the bar on Sat night in my cheerleader outfit!! For me, The Hubs are all about stuff like the Barrowman line......it's what makes the event different and fun. So kudos for getting Kai there and making the Sunday alot more like what I was expecting! Plleaaseeee get Rik back for another Hub. Hardly felt like I got to know him at all as he only had that one group talk and the auto line was really rushed. Rik actually said to the crew member when I was at the desk that he didnt like how impersonal it was getting and he wanted to be able to chat more to everyone! To everyone that didnt like the music choices......did you actually make any requests to the DJ?! Coz he wont know what everyone wants to hear if you dont tell him! xxxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spikesbird Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 And man does Malcom carry off a dress well! lol As always, the prof photo team was AMAZING! Is this something else I missed on Saturday night? Ha Ha! Sounds interesting, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Who Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 (edited) Plleaaseeee get Rik back for another Hub. Hardly felt like I got to know him at all as he only had that one group talk and the auto line was really rushed. Rik actually said to the crew member when I was at the desk that he didnt like how impersonal it was getting and he wanted to be able to chat more to everyone! xxxx Yeah, I've got to agree with that. I'd love Rik back for another convention, he was lovely but I hardly got to talk to him in the autograph que and as I was at one of his later signings, he was having to go through them quite quickly without personalising them. I'd have loved to have a longer chat with him like I did with some of the other guests and he was hilarious in the talks. His photoshoot was the first thing on my schedule. Rik Makarem was a fantastic guest. Edited October 26, 2009 by Doctor Who Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Never Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Thank you for the awesome times at the Hub 3, to the attendees, the guests and the crew. Think everyone made it awesome. I didn't feel rushed at all and the parties were amazing. Don't think they topped the 'from out of the rain' party from last time but I did rather like the Sunday night party. And the DJ was as awesome as always The talks were awesome as usual and thank you so much for Kai, that made my weekend I think. I had a great time and see you all in April. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Banished_From_Rohan Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Plleaaseeee get Rik back for another Hub. Hardly felt like I got to know him at all as he only had that one group talk and the auto line was really rushed. Rik actually said to the crew member when I was at the desk that he didnt like how impersonal it was getting and he wanted to be able to chat more to everyone! xxxx Yeah, I've got to agree with that. I'd love Rik back for another convention, he was lovely but I hardly got to talk to him in the autograph que and as I was at one of his later signings, he was having to go through them quite quickly without personalising them. I'd have loved to have a longer chat with him like I did with some of the other guests and he was hilarious in the talks. His photoshoot was the first thing on my schedule. Rik Makarem was a fantastic guest. I remember Rik making that comment to me (I was the crew member with him all day, including at the reception on the Saturday evening when I was barely more than about 5 feet from him the vast majority of the time) and whilst I agree with the sentiments it's very difficult to strike a balance between chatting (and Rik could chat for England!) and making sure everyone who wanted an autograph got one. After all he was only there one day. With regard to the party mentioned on page 1 I did my very best to get Rik around as many groups as I could but, as I stated previously, he does like to talk! If I didn't get to you I apologise, and there's bound to have been some we never made it to but not through want of trying. I agree that this part of the con needs better organising. His intimate encounter was probably the best I've sat in on. I may be biased, having spent so much time with him, but Rik for me was the star of the day - he held his own against Gareth in the main talk as far as I'm concerned and was a thoroughly nice bloke who couldn't believe the level of support he was getting from the public. He definitely needs to come back to another con, preferably 2 days next time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators etmuse Posted October 27, 2009 Moderators Share Posted October 27, 2009 I may be biased, having spent so much time with him, but Rik for me was the star of the day - he held his own against Gareth in the main talk as far as I'm concerned and was a thoroughly nice bloke who couldn't believe the level of support he was getting from the public. He definitely needs to come back to another con, preferably 2 days next time! He MORE than held his own in the group talk, would have loved to see him have the time to be in more panels. (And I remember in his autos in the morning you attempting to get him to hurry up a bit and him saying something about it being your job to hurry him up and his job to make that as hard as possible! He did like to talk!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glee Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 (edited) my feedback: (sorry, it's long!) good: - the crew (again) :) - despite last minute cancellations/change of plans, the weekend still went smoothly - did get a bit more hectic on the Sunday since had to cram Kai's stuff into one day, but all things considered that's pretty good! minor things (ie: if it's possible to improve on them it would be great, not the end of the world if not though): - schedule wasn't put up until quite late (was in transit) - understand the delay was due to needing to confirm things, and that can't be helped sometimes; if it's possible to put it up a little more in advance it would be nice just to know what's in store/what to look forward to :) this also would prevent/avoid having to answer additional questions about when registration opens/closes, etc on each day - know that TooTall and/or one of the moderators already put tentative schedule/rough idea up beforehand after it was requested, having the official schedule earlier might give people more peace of mind though ...? again, sometimes delays can't be helped though. was glad to see the big wall schedules were being used again though! - parties and strobe lights - several people have mentioned migraine/blackout issues so it may be deterring people from attending the parties (although at least there were clear warnings posted outside so we'd know what to expect) (luckily am not affected by them myself, can imagine it would be fairly horrible ) - the cheap food room was good idea, as mentioned the choices were somewhat limited, but still not too bad at least - possibly look at promoting/publicising the raffle tickets for the guest encounters more?? it looked like no-one bought tickets for Daniela or Ben on the Sunday bigger gripes: - the Hilton. overall no problems with room, housekeeping, reception/concierge at all (luckily); as previously mentioned bar/food service was awful - 20-30 min wait for potato wedges at the bar for lunch; someone mentioned they were told they'd have an hour wait just for chips on the saturday(?)! the queue at the party bar was often ridiculous, obviously it would be busy anyway but staff seemed inordinately slow (at the main bar in the lobby as well). supposedly there may have been a discount on drinks if you showed your pass at one of the other bars on Sunday night as there wasn't a tab/separate bar for that party, but many of the staff didn't know anything about it (spoke to the hilton's food & beverage manager on the friday as someone mentioned food discount, he told me one thing but later corrected himself after going to find out more information - which is probably not his fault per se, but it gives an indication of how confusing it would be if not even he was sure of what was meant to be going on!) also found the hotel itself somewhat maze-like - can't be helped with a big hotel, but a map might have possibly helped a bit - eg: trying to find york/lancaster rooms based on the hotel's own signs sent me around in circles because it turned out they hadn't put the names on the outside of the rooms anyway! - was getting the hang of it by the Sunday though I guess :) (yes, somewhat moot since Hub 4 is at Park Inn again, and most of these things aren't in SM/ME control ayway, but for future reference/other events perhaps - and so SM/ME can feedback to the hotel if they wish?) - Agreed with previous posts about the gold party & issues with circulating guests. My group stayed in the same spot for basically the entire thing (hey, it was near chips ;P ) so it wouldn't get too confusing for the crew circulating the guests, unfortunately somehow they seemed to keep going around us :\ eventually managed to grab Rik as he was leaving one of the other groups next to us, when he left we (I) started to panic a bit as we realised it had been 45 minutes and he'd been the first guest we'd spoken to - so ran over to a crew member (sorry Too Tall!) to let them know, it was sorted and we fortunately managed to meet the remaining guests by the end of party. Regarding guest encounters - not sure about the minimum bid idea. Can see the rationale behind the suggestion as was also really surprised that Daniela and Paul's went for relatively low bids; however I attributed that to people just being really keen not to miss the talk that was going on at the same time. It seems unfair to set an arbitrary minimum for appearances sake though, when that could mean that someone who really wanted to meet that guest might miss out just because they didn't have the budget to make higher bids (obviously it's an auction so money would always be a factor, but a set/higher minimum would obviously drive up the price) ...? suppose that's the idea behind raffling off two places (still very good idea, especially for the more popular encounters), as above, perhaps need to get the word out more about the tickets re: Paul the MC - if anything he's just too polite! (waiting to make sure he doesn't interrupt anyone's answer, etc - unfortunately the slight pause seems like eternity when people are hanging off the guests' every word). think it's easier having a single person asking the questions though as this seems more efficient than running around with microphones (ie: having the mix with MC first then audience asking questions was good so at least saved some time at the start). Agree that possibly the questions could be structured/ordered a bit better to set up a better flow, that would largely depend on the questions that were submitted though. edit: photos during talks (without flash obviously) - I like being able to take the odd picture during the talk (particularly some of the faces that get pulled at the questions/responses); at the same time can see how if there was constant beeping/noises/camera in your direct view it would get annoying :\ would say that you could ask the person to stop it if it was really bothersome, but if they don't guess there's not much that can be done - it would be a shame if that spoiled it for everyone else though Apologies the negatives seemed to take up most of this as overall was happy with the weekend, so it's just the bad bits seemed to stick out more in contrast :) Thanks again to SM/ME and all the crew and all the lovely people I met for a really good weekend :) Edited October 27, 2009 by glee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owlpost1992 Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 With regard to the party mentioned on page 1 I did my very best to get Rik around as many groups as I could but, as I stated previously, he does like to talk! If I didn't get to you I apologise, and there's bound to have been some we never made it to but not through want of trying. I agree that this part of the con needs better organising. His intimate encounter was probably the best I've sat in on. I may be biased, having spent so much time with him, but Rik for me was the star of the day - he held his own against Gareth in the main talk as far as I'm concerned and was a thoroughly nice bloke who couldn't believe the level of support he was getting from the public. He definitely needs to come back to another con, preferably 2 days next time! I was with a group slap bang in the middle of the party area and didn't get Rik, OK so he can chat for England but the other problem we saw was before we got crew to get us guests most of them circulated the outside of the room. We managed to trap Ben (still want to see those speedos you promised! ), Lara and Gareth. Was very disappointed Katy had left, know why but was so looking forward to talking to her some more. He was a shock to the system, boy did he more then match Gareth, he surpassed him!!! Kai's auto/photo how the heck did anyone miss an open extra queue? Seriously he was sat there with not many people going up to him, did no-one wonder over and check that guy on end wasn't someone they might have missed on their list? His photo queue was epic, didn't realise as gold I was meant to get Daniella first but having queued for a good 20 minutes-ish to get around the corner and see the corridor where Daniella's queue was I made the right decision in saying where I was, barely 10 minutes after getting into the back of Daniella's line, my group was called. One of my main gripes is with seating, I had a Katy intimate encounter which was first, I didn't realise I wouldn't get any decent seat or that my friends couldn't leave stuff on a chair for me so I got far right and no good view. I think if you have an early intimate encounter then you should be allowed in early to leave stuff. Another think was that I got told that one of the photo shoot areas was where Katy was doing her encounter but it turned out to be someone else's encounter (forgot who) and ended up following Katy to hers. I understand but hated the fact that gold party had to be moved to Saturday, it meat I had a less reasonable 30minutes to glam up and miss the auction. Plus it meant I had room at Hilton I technically really didn't need. FANGIRLS. Seriously don't let them in in such big numbers, Gareth was so surrounded at Friday night party he wouldn't go back on Saturday or Sunday which was a huge shame, because that's what we want at parties to be able to let our hair down and the guests too. And hotel guests, poss was my fault for slave outfit, but I had some really creepy comments by the other guests more graphic then the usual banter when seeing hot person 'you look lovely' et al. Think Gareth was the first non-creepy guy/comment and he told me I looked lovely which was a huge boost to my small bottle of self esteem, it came after I felt him watching me as he walked past lifts and I was waiting for it, didn't want to appear like a fan girl I left him alone till I had to comment on the looking which was 'how are you?' Lame, Cat. Very lame. Staff, service was terrible at main bar but my friend kept me amused so I didn't notice the time. Concierge/reception was very good (had key card problems) and cleaners left our room alone gave us clean towels cos I dumped ours outside. Food choice was terrible and quality not so better, had soup once and it tasted so salty I felt like I was eating 10 times my daily recommended in take. Slight disappointment in drinks service at party, I ended up getting drinks for friend and having no drink myself cos I only drink soft drinks. Overall, just felt like a night out with my friends then a con. Regarding guest encounters - not sure about the minimum bid idea. Can see the rationale behind the suggestion as was also really surprised that Daniela and Paul's went for relatively low bids; however I attributed that to people just being really keen not to miss the talk that was going on at the same time. It seems unfair to set an arbitrary minimum for appearances sake though, when that could mean that someone who really wanted to meet that guest might miss out just because they didn't have the budget to make higher bids (obviously it's an auction so money would always be a factor, but a set/higher minimum would obviously drive up the price) ...? suppose that's the idea behind raffling off two places (still very good idea, especially for the more popular encounters), as above, perhaps need to get the word out more about the tickets I don't actually know how much a raffle ticket costs...... I put a bid down on Katy (which is what it went for) of £5 cos that is literally all I can afford, but had the most cracking time ever, may have ended it squeeing to other people about TW preview and scifi collector signing..... I would like to say though can the announcement signs be bigger, seriously A4 sheets right next to bigger sheets gets lost in translation. I only knew cos I was looking for a friend and a different friend answered and asked me about it so I went to check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glee Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 (edited) I don't actually know how much a raffle ticket costs...... I put a bid down on Katy (which is what it went for) of £5 cos that is literally all I can afford, but had the most cracking time ever, may have ended it squeeing to other people about TW preview and scifi collector signing..... I would like to say though can the announcement signs be bigger, seriously A4 sheets right next to bigger sheets gets lost in translation. I only knew cos I was looking for a friend and a different friend answered and asked me about it so I went to check. Raffle tickets: £5 for a strip of 5 tickets (that then get separated into individual tickets to be drawn) - ie: tickets are purchased in set lots of five (eg: 61-65, 66-70, etc) then they'd be separated for the actual draw so you'd end up with single number being drawn eg: 63. obviously if more people buy raffle tickets then there's a decreased chance of winning, but at least it's a chance for people who don't have a big budget (particularly when some encounters are in the £40+ range) Edited October 27, 2009 by glee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owlpost1992 Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 I don't actually know how much a raffle ticket costs...... I put a bid down on Katy (which is what it went for) of £5 cos that is literally all I can afford, but had the most cracking time ever, may have ended it squeeing to other people about TW preview and scifi collector signing..... I would like to say though can the announcement signs be bigger, seriously A4 sheets right next to bigger sheets gets lost in translation. I only knew cos I was looking for a friend and a different friend answered and asked me about it so I went to check. Raffle tickets: £5 for a strip of 5 tickets (that then get separated into individual tickets to be drawn) - ie: tickets are purchased in set lots of five (eg: 61-65, 66-70, etc) then they'd be separated for the actual draw so you'd end up with single number being drawn eg: 63. obviously if more people buy raffle tickets then there's a decreased chance of winning, but at least it's a chance for people who don't have a big budget (particularly when some encounters are in the £40+ range) Oh right, thought they would be expensive, wish I brought one for Gareth now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Never Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 The thing I find slightly weird about the ways intimate encounters are done, is if say 8 people bid on a guest not many people thought it was worth missing the talk for then someone could come with a minute to the end and bid 1p so SM would make a whole 9p off of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galaxy-Song Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 I had a fantastic time at the Hub yes there was that split second of dissapointment about James becuse I was looking forward to seeing him and gareth together again but I was so bussy having a good time I then forgot he was even supposed to be there. The crew were amazing, got put into a group with ym friends no problem and other were really helpful:) Just loved evrything even that bloody sheep even though I am still aching from it. Sunday night had to be my fav party, loved when there was only like 5 of us up doing a dance to a song no one knewXD Kai made my year I love him so much. The Hilton sucked big time, I don't know if I had maybe got my self really excited about staying in 5 star and it wasn't what I expected but I am pretty sure the staff arnt supposed to ignore you or look down at you even if you are wearing some crazy costume but even during the day trying to get somthing to eat was insane, 20 mins to get served then an other 20 for chips. Might as well have walked over to train station and back would have been faster(what we did nexy day) I watched one waitress stand and polish clean cutlery and then reorganise a drawer of paper and pens. When I asked one of the bar staff for water he through a little metal dish thing onto the bar and stomped off, even people around me looked surprised. Was told I couldn't pay my bill in full when cheking in because it was cash and then when I tryed to get my card fixed for the room door was told had to pay the bill right then and a member of staff had to come up to room with me while I got money. Being a cleaner I probaly do nit pick but Im pretty sure wasn't hard to miss the balls of fluff that were evry were or the stairs that were thick with dust, the glass bottles that were left out side rooms for most of the day? The room was really nice but out of the 5 rooms between us not one of us had somthing that wasn't broke. Loved the event and so glad moving back to it's right home next year:P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookies41 Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 (edited) I had such a fantastic weekend at my first weekend con but like others i do have a few minor comments good and bad though: Good: -The Crew as ever were very helpful -The Guests: Seriously we so need to get Ben and Rik back they are such lovely people and relaly genuine. It was a shame Rik was only staying the one day and had to stop personalising quite early on because he liked to talk to people but i can understand why as he wouldn't have been able to get through everyone. He was also great in the talks, bouncing off Gareth well. Ben was so adorable, the first guest i met and he was lovely; he was soo good to talk to as well at the Saturday party and very relaxed, enjoyed seeing him dance and go on the rope thing. Shame some of the other guests couldn't come to the party though. Also having Kai there was brilliant. Managed to both get a photo and auto and he completely made my weekend. Such as lovely guy. The other first time guests seemed to cope well enough although Katy and Daniella seemed a little overwhelmed by it all. The security was literally glued next to Daniella when she was brought into the talk. Contrast to Gareth as he just walked in himself. -The intimate encounters - won both Gareth's and Kai's wasn't dissappointed by neither although i don't think their should be a minumum bid for a guest encounter as some people just might not be able to afford the amount that they were going for. Gripes: -The Hotel - Now i didn't really have a problem with the staff because i didn't really have to encounter them much over the weekend, found them mostly polite however. The bar staff were very slow though. What i found ridiculous was the insane extortainate prices of the drinks and food. I have never stayed at a hotel that charges £4 for a Smirnoff Ice which is why i stuck with the free water. I thought the cheap food was a good idea although wasn't much choice and on the Sunday quite a few of us were waiting outside and then someone kindly went in and came back out and said that they had been ready for a while. The other members of the public were friendly to me and asked what we were doing but I'm sure i did hear a few backhand comments about the event. I can understand where they are coming from as I'm sure if i was staying at a hotel for a weekend and it got taken over by a group of people i might be a little annoyed but then again there is no need to make snarky comments to people Parties - I think this might be just my own personal thing but i seemed to have less fun at the parties, i was happy that Ben and Lara came down for the party but perhaps Gareth was put off by the flock of people that appeared when he turned up at the Friday night party. On the note about the talks i thoroughly enjoyed them and thought it had the right balance of seriousness and interesting stories and humour. And as for Paul i thought he did a great job MCing and it seemed that both Kai and Gareth had a repore with him which shows how remembered he is. Overall though I had such a brilliant weekend and I'm almost sure i will be attending Hub 4 So cheers to all me old mates -special shoutout to Turk and Kris and to all the amazing new people i met -special shout out to roomie Rachel and the scooby gang Brad, Elaine, Lesley, and Dan Special thanks to you as well Bazz, you were a lovely roomie sorry i feel asleep when watching x factor was then runined for me on the train when i was told who went. and also Elaine and Lesley, Rachel, Hazel, and everyone else i met this weekend Edited October 27, 2009 by cookies41 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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