Paid Talks Seating Plan?

[mjocovers]

Yeah if everyone wanted to sit alone, the plan was fine. But lots of people bought together so they could sit together, in which case it didnt work.

 

I also think it was a good idea in theory, and it could work if there is a master list made by the person dealing with ticket orders at the time of purchase, just highlighting which tickets were bought together. So for example the first 14 on the master sheet might be

1

2(red)

3 (red)

4(red)

5 (red)

6 (green)

7 (green)

8

9

10

11 (red)

12 (red)

13 (red)

14

 

which would mean that tickets 2, 3, 4, 5 were bought together. Tickets 6, 7 were bought together, and tickets 11, 12, 13 were bought together. (It would be necessary to use 2 different colours otherwise if it was all the same highlighter it would look like tickets 2-7 were all bought by one person, rather than being 2 separate orders!)

 

Then when it comes to the actual seating plan, simply use the same principle they use in the theatre of allocating the best available seats, so, for example if there weren't 3 good seats together in Row A for ticket holders 11-13, allocate them seats in row B instead.

 

Then on the day of the con there could either just be a seating plan sheet like there was before which matched ticket numbers to seats, or people could be given (or asked to swap their ticket for) another ticket (or piece of paper) which has their actual seat number on it.

 

Anyway that just an idea.

[hells childe 17]

The nice crew lady came and gave us our seat numbers for the Torchwood talk. But by the time i got in i was confused, it doesn't take much, and sat in completely the wrong seat !! No-one came and moved me tho, so who ever seat i was in thanks i had the best view My friends were all over the place !! But then we didn't mind because we wouldn't be talking but concentrating on the talk and guests

The print was a suprise to thanks, lovely print but poor Ianto

Edited December 1, 2009 by hells childe 17

[misskitten]

If it's clear in advance how wide each row is, isn't it possible to take this into account when orders are made for more than one ticket? Like say if you know that it will be in rows of 25 seats, and someone is the 25th buyer, but buys two tickets, then rather than putting one on the first row and the other on the second row, keep them together on the second row and let the next single buyer have the last one on the first row.

 

I've not yet been to a talk at a showmasters event and other events I go to have not had ticket-based seating arrangement, so I have no idea how well my idea would work, but it's just a suggestion...

[welcome_earthling]

I think the solution to this problem with seating is to adjust Too Tall's idea of giving good seats to early buyers and not abandon the idea completely.

 

I think it would be more beneficial and easier to understand if the seating was done in coloured zones rather than specific seat numbers.

 

 

ie. The central asile seats near the front, say about 50 seats, could be classed as a red zone, then the first 50 tickets sold are red tickets and people with red tickets can sit in any seat within the red zone area.

 

The next couple of rows behind the red area and perhaps to the outsides of the red area could be classed as the blue area and they are given to the next lot of purchasers

 

Then the next rows are the green area for the rest of the tickets.

 

 

This way people are not give a single specific seat but rather can choose from a certain number of seats in a single area, people can be called into the talk by their ticket colour so there is no huge rush much like the photo areas. Seats would just then need a sticky label with a certain colour on it to identify the zones.

 

Anyway if that makes sense I would think that would be the way to go

 

Carrie

[TommyT]

I also think it was a good idea in theory, and it could work if there is a master list made by the person dealing with ticket orders at the time of purchase, just highlighting which tickets were bought together.

If it's clear in advance how wide each row is, isn't it possible to take this into account when orders are made for more than one ticket? Like say if you know that it will be in rows of 25 seats, and someone is the 25th buyer, but buys two tickets, then rather than putting one on the first row and the other on the second row, keep them together on the second row and let the next single buyer have the last one on the first row.

I think the solution to this problem with seating is to adjust Too Tall's idea of giving good seats to early buyers and not abandon the idea completely.

 

It was obviously an idea inspired by trying to be fair to the early buyers, but which fell down because of the varying numbers and positions in the queue of the "multiple buyers".

The two options are to have some sort of seating plan at the ticket purchase phase, so you can see what blocks of tickets or single tickets are available, and purchase as required, same as with many conc ert tickets. I suspect this however would needsome sophisticated web software for the ticketsales, which might be rather costly. The alternative is to have a list of who purchased how many seats in what order, and then either write a computer program to automatically allocate blocks of seats, or do it manually. The first of these might be an interesting intellectual exercise for any programmers present, but possibly time consuming. The second would just be time-consuming. And both would require probably holding more info (order of ticket sales plus size of each sale) than is seemingly currently held. I'm sure it's not beyond the wisdom of somebody like Too Tall; it might be beyond his time available, and indeed the information readily available from the current ticket sales system.

[mjocovers]

I also think it was a good idea in theory, and it could work if there is a master list made by the person dealing with ticket orders at the time of purchase, just highlighting which tickets were bought together.

If it's clear in advance how wide each row is, isn't it possible to take this into account when orders are made for more than one ticket? Like say if you know that it will be in rows of 25 seats, and someone is the 25th buyer, but buys two tickets, then rather than putting one on the first row and the other on the second row, keep them together on the second row and let the next single buyer have the last one on the first row.

I think the solution to this problem with seating is to adjust Too Tall's idea of giving good seats to early buyers and not abandon the idea completely.

 

It was obviously an idea inspired by trying to be fair to the early buyers, but which fell down because of the varying numbers and positions in the queue of the "multiple buyers".

The two options are to have some sort of seating plan at the ticket purchase phase, so you can see what blocks of tickets or single tickets are available, and purchase as required, same as with many conc ert tickets. I suspect this however would needsome sophisticated web software for the ticketsales, which might be rather costly. The alternative is to have a list of who purchased how many seats in what order, and then either write a computer program to automatically allocate blocks of seats, or do it manually. The first of these might be an interesting intellectual exercise for any programmers present, but possibly time consuming. The second would just be time-consuming. And both would require probably holding more info (order of ticket sales plus size of each sale) than is seemingly currently held. I'm sure it's not beyond the wisdom of somebody like Too Tall; it might be beyond his time available, and indeed the information readily available from the current ticket sales system.

 

 

er, I think that's more complicated than I intended. My idea (as outlined previously) would just mean that someone (presumably the person who processes/issues the tickets) would have a sheet of paper with just a basic list of numbers on it (so it there are 500 tickets, it would have 1 - 500), and would just mark off on the list at if the order is for more than one ticket. This 'ticket list' could then, at some point, be given to whoever was doing the seating plan

 

My idea was to then,at some stage, transfer the numbers from the 'ticket list' to the 'seating plan sheet' in the same way that seemed to be done at the weekend, but just making sure that (based on ticket list), tickets purchased together are seated together. It doesn't have to be an exact science with equal blocks of tickets, just that if, for example, the person allocating the seats comes across a group of 5 tickets on the ticket list that were bought together, and which in theory would entitle the ticket holders to central seats in row A, but there aren't enough central seats available, just put them in the centre of row B instead.

Edited December 2, 2009 by mjocovers

[lizzy88]

I think a lot of the ideas in this thread are good ones, but possibly, if when buying tickets people could state whether they wanted to be sat together or didn't mind being split up, that would work best. That way, it's easy to see where tickets are needed together, where there are single tickets, and where there are people that don't mind.

 

which would mean that tickets 2, 3, 4, 5 were bought together. Tickets 6, 7 were bought together, and tickets 11, 12, 13 were bought together. (It would be necessary to use 2 different colours otherwise if it was all the same highlighter it would look like tickets 2-7 were all bought by one person, rather than being 2 separate orders!)

 

Then when it comes to the actual seating plan, simply use the same principle they use in the theatre of allocating the best available seats, so, for example if there weren't 3 good seats together in Row A for ticket holders 11-13, allocate them seats in row B instead.

Once again, in theory, that's a good idea - but I don't mind if I'm sat with who I bought my tickets with, and wouldn't want to get a potentially worse seat simply to be sat with who I booked with as I honsestly don't care who I'm sat with, and wouldn't want to pay extra to book seperately.

 

I think it would be more beneficial and easier to understand if the seating was done in coloured zones rather than specific seat numbers.

The thing I don't like about that compared to numbers is then it would be a free for all - and people would be queuing early to get a good seat in their allocated block as opposed to just getting there and taking their seat, and I thought the numbers were to help cut down with people queuing for the seats. Speaking for myself, I liked being able to turn up at the talks and know my seat was there and reserved as I had booked early, and didn't have to queue for half an hour or so to get a good seat like I did for the Kai and Gareth talk on the Sat.

Edited December 2, 2009 by lizzy88

[stace]

But then we didn't mind because we wouldn't be talking but concentrating on the talk and guests

 

true but its fun to sit next to someone you know and laugh with them rather than sitting on your own

[nasreen77]

My only thing was that the letters F & G got mixed up on the paper plan but not on the seats themselves, so my sister whose ticket number was higher than mine was a row infront of me instead of behind.

It was only a row.

 

But its the details ya know.

 

;o)

 

 

Nas