A view of LFCC 2010 on reflection

[enrohm1963]

My family and I were on holiday in South Wales and drove over to London on Saturday morning to reach Earls Court by the Early Bird entry time. We arrived at 9.10 and got straight in by paying the increased charge for the privilege.

 

We spoke to the front desk to check where we purchased photo tickets and other vouchers for autographs. We were directed to the end of a queue which did not seem too long at first but it quickly became apparent that this "snaked" a long way into the hall. It did not seem to move for ages. My own reason for queuing so early in our visit - and one of the reasons I drove from Wales - was to get a ticket for the Being Human photo op.

 

The "snake" moved very slowly until one of the crew noted that there was one queue for credit cards and the rest were for cash. I had cash with me but thought that I could pay by credit card leaving options open for later. The credit card queue did not move quickly at all and eventually it was announced that the Being Human photo op had sold out. If I had known this was likely after an hour or so of queuing I might have paid for this by cash - if I could have got to the front of one of those queues !

 

Anyway, still being confident of being able to pay by credit card for autographs I remained in the queue. I had also enquired of the front desk where the talk tickets could be obtained and was told that this would be dealt with within the same queue I had joined. As my wife and I were keen to hear the Being Human / Resonance talk, this was reassuring. However, thanks to one person in the queue with me, it became clear this advice had been incorrect and fortunately my wife was able to leave the queue and get these tickets in time.

 

Eventually we got to the front of the queue for credit card payment after standing for over an hour and a half only to be told that the queue was only for photo shoot tickets. At no point had anyone suggested this with the only comment being credit card or cash queues. After complaining about this we were able to buy our vouchers for autographs after a delay in someone finding the list of those attending and the prices attaching to them.

 

We were both delighted to be able to meet Russell, Lenora and Aiden in person but I am very disappointed that the main reason for our 120 mile trip did not come to pass. Better advice from the front desk right at the start would have helped as would better direction into the ticket desk queues which did not seem to be happening at all for the first twenty minutes or so of our wait.

 

I know that there were others who missed out on Being Human - and indeed the first talk of the day - because of the time spent waiting in the slow "snake" of a queue. I would be interested in other views of this part of the organisation on the day.

 

Murray

[talie]

TBF A lot of people missed out on the BH shoots as they were really early! and some people queued up from like TWO AM for lfcc....it's a shame that happened and all but at least you got to meet them.

[DavidB]

It's very unfortunate that things were not made clear to you, and I do apologise. I hope this won't put you off attending future events.

 

Obviously that day was VERY busy, and perhaps some things got lost in translation, but sadly there was always going to be a large number of people missing out on the Being Human photo shoot, and no guarantee that you would've been able to get one even if things had been a little clearer. So I guess it'll always have to be a 'maybe if..' situation.

 

I'm glad that you managed to meet them anyway, and hopefully the missing out on the group shot didn't ruin things too much. We do provide information on here before an event if you're unsure if where to queue for certain things etc. This usually helps people, but obviously crew should be relaying correct information too.

[enrohm1963]

It's very unfortunate that things were not made clear to you, and I do apologise. I hope this won't put you off attending future events.

 

Obviously that day was VERY busy, and perhaps some things got lost in translation, but sadly there was always going to be a large number of people missing out on the Being Human photo shoot, and no guarantee that you would've been able to get one even if things had been a little clearer. So I guess it'll always have to be a 'maybe if..' situation.

 

I'm glad that you managed to meet them anyway, and hopefully the missing out on the group shot didn't ruin things too much. We do provide information on here before an event if you're unsure if where to queue for certain things etc. This usually helps people, but obviously crew should be relaying correct information too.

 

 

Thanks for your comments. Yes meeting them did help and I used the cash saved on the missed photo op to fund a quick visit to William Shatner as well. I am aware that there is a lot of information on the website but it does change in the run up to the event and for the full week before we were in a remote location in South Wales with little access to the internet. We eventually used Chepstow Library to check times etc on the Friday but that was not ideal.

[XLcatloveress]

... but obviously crew should be relaying correct information too.

 

LOL When I got to the back of the hall first thing in the morning and asked a crew member (who was handing out VTs for .. either Kristanna Loken or Katee Sackhoff, can't remember now) where the VTs for William Shatner were being distributed, he didn't know, would have sent me in the completely wrong direction and I was only saved by a nice attendee who had just gotten a VT for Shatner and directed me in the right direction. As it was, I got VT #77 for the Saturday autograph session, so it wasn't bad, but I was surprised to see that anyone crewing wouldn't be able to answer such a question. At least they all were friendly :)

[Banished_From_Rohan]

To be fair to the crew member he may not have actually seen where Shatner was. We get allocated our general area, we go there and get given our jobs. Depending on what we get we then have to stay put. If you'd asked me at the start of the day where certain things were I wouldn't have been able to tell you either because I hadn't been near those areas.

[talie]

To be fair to the crew member he may not have actually seen where Shatner was. We get allocated our general area, we go there and get given our jobs. Depending on what we get we then have to stay put. If you'd asked me at the start of the day where certain things were I wouldn't have been able to tell you either because I hadn't been near those areas.

pretty much this lol....LFCC is huge and you get people asking you all sorts

[bondy25]

To be fair to the crew member he may not have actually seen where Shatner was. We get allocated our general area, we go there and get given our jobs. Depending on what we get we then have to stay put. If you'd asked me at the start of the day where certain things were I wouldn't have been able to tell you either because I hadn't been near those areas.

pretty much this lol....LFCC is huge and you get people asking you all sorts

 

Well I know that when the doors opened for the gold pass entries.. alot of us ran for the being human shoot.. People will be disappointed but it happens!!!

 

at events like this not all the crew will know what going on as they have their own duties to deal with and with my own experience of organising events.. it best not to overload the crew with information which is not relevant to their job for the day!!

[DavidB]

Having crewed a lot of events, I do know that we're never told every last detail about the event. It's just impossible to know all of it.

 

The best thing we can do, and what most will do, is direct an attendee to a Pit Boss or the organisers booth if we are unsure. Someone should always be able to help.

[thepurplehoodedwarrior]

Maybe with the exta evening crew next year showmasters could have a tour and a good training session before the "actual" event as there is even more going on next year and would help solve this issue.

Plus people need to realise crew are volunteers and are doing it purely to benefit the event itself so therfore so literally do what they are told to do.

[Chantellios]

another thing with crewing is that we could be told some things one day but they could change the next. Will Shatner was in one place on Saturday so i knew where to tell people (it was fairly close to me) and then on Sunday, Mike Tyson was in that very spot.

[XLcatloveress]

Man, I wasn't dissing any crew members. I was just sayin' that the guy I asked didn't know. I wasn't making a big deal out of it, just mentioning it along the way. I figured that perhaps for the big headliner guests, the crew members should know, not moaning about the one who didn't know - it was more meant as a suggestion for how SM handles their poor crew volunteers who I bet are being swarmed with questions like that on a constant basis.

[dwarfbabe]

Maybe with the exta evening crew next year showmasters could have a tour and a good training session before the "actual" event as there is even more going on next year and would help solve this issue.

Plus people need to realise crew are volunteers and are doing it purely to benefit the event itself so therfore so literally do what they are told to do.

 

In theory, that sounds like a reasonable idea. However, with the number of crew they have and the different shifts they can and do work, it would be a logistical nightmare to sort out. A lot of the crew wouldn't be able to get there before the event started and so it could only be done at the start of each shift. And for those who are doing the morning or all day shifts it would mean an even earlier start than we have now and that's early enough.

 

This year, the event programmes did have a diagram at the back to show where the various guests were sitting and where everything else was happening so that should have helped.

[thepurplehoodedwarrior]

Man, I wasn't dissing any crew members. I was just sayin' that the guy I asked didn't know. I wasn't making a big deal out of it, just mentioning it along the way. I figured that perhaps for the big headliner guests, the crew members should know, not moaning about the one who didn't know - it was more meant as a suggestion for how SM handles their poor crew volunteers who I bet are being swarmed with questions like that on a constant basis.

 

I never took is as "dissing" crew members. After all we're all on here because we enjoy the shows and are the best one's (being the customers) to give feedback and constructive critacism to make the events better.

 

Maybe with the exta evening crew next year showmasters could have a tour and a good training session before the "actual" event as there is even more going on next year and would help solve this issue.

Plus people need to realise crew are volunteers and are doing it purely to benefit the event itself so therfore so literally do what they are told to do.

 

In theory, that sounds like a reasonable idea. However, with the number of crew they have and the different shifts they can and do work, it would be a logistical nightmare to sort out. A lot of the crew wouldn't be able to get there before the event started and so it could only be done at the start of each shift. And for those who are doing the morning or all day shifts it would mean an even earlier start than we have now and that's early enough.

 

This year, the event programmes did have a diagram at the back to show where the various guests were sitting and where everything else was happening so that should have helped.

 

Yeah true but this sort of things comes up every year so the more suggestions put out the more likely a solution or something can be found.

[dwarfbabe]

I think the little map in the back of the programme may have been new. I certainly don't remember seeing it in one before.

 

Maybe a larger version of the layout near the organisers desk could be an option. Pretty much everyone goes by there at some time.

Edited August 6, 2010 by dwarfbabe