General Suggestions for ET5?

[Tracy Jane]

Saving a whole row for loads of friends isn't fair.....however my friend and I did save seats for each other both afternoons - once because I was supposed to meet up with her in the queues and I got there late so she'd already gone in. And the other because she was stuck in the photo queue for Charlie and I went in....but we both turned up within seconds of each other anyway.

 

Don't want to seem like the big bossy police, because I'm not and I'm just making an observation, but even one seat for your friend is breaking the rules. And even if only a few seconds. We had that problem on the front row and it's incredibly unfair. If the rule is no reserving seats, then that's the rule and it's lucky no-one else wanted to sit there!

 

Oh...and photo retrieval was ridiculous!! I got pushed around and my hair pulled so much (okay - I have too much of it!) that I got fed up and left the room...went back after the auction and some kind crew lady had found all my pics and put them together for me. Maybe it could be roped off or something (like at a theme park when queueing for ride) so that everyone has to go around clock wise and no one shoves in and just moves along the tables....or have a seperate table/s for each bunch of guest photos?!

 

I didn't see photo distribution, as I was manning the main hall all afternoon, but that sounds awful! Please, whenever you have a problem like this, speak to the crew. It really is a health and safety issue if people are pulling hair and things, so they would find a way to redo it somehow, whether that be a queue, or asking people to come back later. We all want everyone to be safe and to have fun, but to do that, Too Tall, Mara and everyone need to know of any problems so they can assign crew to sort it out!

[CharmedOne]

Saving a whole row for loads of friends isn't fair.....however my friend and I did save seats for each other both afternoons - once because I was supposed to meet up with her in the queues and I got there late so she'd already gone in. And the other because she was stuck in the photo queue for Charlie and I went in....but we both turned up within seconds of each other anyway.

 

Don't want to seem like the big bossy police, because I'm not and I'm just making an observation, but even one seat for your friend is breaking the rules. And even if only a few seconds. We had that problem on the front row and it's incredibly unfair. If the rule is no reserving seats, then that's the rule and it's lucky no-one else wanted to sit there!

 

Seeing as there were still plenty of other seats beside us and in front of us (and throughout the whole talks) and people were still entering the hall...I don't think anyone was bothered. It's not like I was telling people to go away because I was saving the seat - I'd barely got my bum in the seat before my friend came in behind me anyways - she'd seen me go through the door and chased in after me.

[danger_skies]

There's good to be had from both I think and I know the neck pass makes a better keepsake so I was wondering if perhaps having both wasn't an option?

 

I agree that some combination of the two would work better, as long as it's not adding too much expense.

[MissPattinson007]

 

Thinking about it now, maybe seperate rooms wouldnt be so fair for parties as i didnt like it when i went as a standard ticket holder before myself.

Just cant think of a suggestion to help us "shy" people be able to mingle and speak to the guests to, instead of being pushed out the way and onto the floor.

[gillianre]

Good morning all - back to reality so back to posting!

 

Seats - numbered isn't good - the idea would be unworkable and unfair, BUT... and this isn't a moan there needs to be better inforcing of the standard, silver, gold seats - I went gold and luckily got the front row for one of the talks but having gold 6 should kinda mean that I did, but not to sound mean there was a standard ticket person on the front row due to a sight problem and I know i'm going to get a backlash for this but, it wasn't fair! I paid an awful lot of money to be able to sit as near to the front as possible.

 

Maybe we could have the lines better organised - people with tickets in the hundreds at the front at the queue when they know they would be the last in - very strange??!!??

 

Edit - the floor questions, really did not work - we need to get our behinds in gear and put a question in the box, I will be doing my list this week ready for ET5!

Edited October 26, 2010 by gillianre

[ghostlydreamer]

I agree the queuing system needs looking at. I am heavily pregnant and nearly fainted several times during he weekend. The worst was sunday afternoon when people were queuing for talks on one side and photos on the other, it was bedlam and seemed no one knew where they were supposed to be. could barely move, was very claustrophobic and I ended up missing my photo with charlie - there was no way I could of possibly waited in that queue any longer without putting myself and my baby at risk.

 

Its always worth talking to a member of the Crew regarding the queues. I had my little baby with me and when she started getting distressed whilst waiting for my Charlie shoot I talked to the crew since I didnt want a photo of her bawling her eyes out. Obviously being heavily pregnant was an even better reason for you to talk to them x

 

I too was majorly upset how the guests were crowded. The biggest thing that annoyed me was when me and 2 of my friends were dancing on the Friday Chaske came onto the dance floor and he came and joined our little circle and danced with us. It was so great and we were all having a laugh until some girl physically pushed us all away from him and started grinding herself on him O_O needless to say he very quickly left, spoiling our moment . Though I couldnt stop telling him thankyou for dancing with us for the rest of the weekend lol

 

Lastly I also agree that seating shouldnt be numbered. I was Silver and all of my friends were either Gold or Standard. So I hung at the back to sit with my standard friends. When the left before the last talk I was sitting all alone, I was a sad Panda all alone *sniff* lol. If seating had been numbered I would have been alone for the whole event except for the partys. It was bad enough I couldnt queue with any of my friends

Edited October 26, 2010 by Ghost

[LucretiaCullen]

I agree the queuing system needs looking at. I am heavily pregnant and nearly fainted several times during he weekend. The worst was sunday afternoon when people were queuing for talks on one side and photos on the other, it was bedlam and seemed no one knew where they were supposed to be. could barely move, was very claustrophobic and I ended up missing my photo with charlie - there was no way I could of possibly waited in that queue any longer without putting myself and my baby at risk.

 

Its always worth talking to a member of the Crew regarding the queues. I had my little baby with me and when she started getting distressed whilst waiting for my Charlie shoot I talked to the crew since I didnt want a photo of her bawling her eyes out. Obviously being heavily pregnant was an even better reason for you to talk to them x

 

I too was majorly upset how the guests were crowded. The biggest thing that annoyed me was when me and 2 of my friends were dancing on the Friday Chaske came onto the dance floor and he came and joined our little circle and danced with us. It was so great and we were all having a laugh until some girl physically pushed us all away from him and started grinding herself on him O_O needless to say he very quickly left, spoiling our moment . Though I couldnt stop telling him thankyou for dancing with us for the rest of the weekend lol

 

I did go and talk to the crew, and a lovely woman who gave me my money back. I was actually having a panic attack by that point to be fair, it was just far too crowded and my poor son was really upset - screaming! Baby or not I did not want to ask to push in front etc as I didnt feel it fair on the other attendees , plus I am sure some of them would of had a comment to make

 

Cant fault the crew, the lovely woman sorted me out and I got my money back straight away - and when she saw me later remembered to ask how me and my son were etc, but I do still believe that the queue system majorly needs looking at. Queuing for pictures on one side and talks on the other side of the same hallway just didn't seem to work

 

x

[ghostlydreamer]

People always have a comment for something so I can understand that. There were people complaining about the disabled guests skipping the Queue . I skipped once, only for Charlie's shoot simply because the queue was VERY long and I had promised Charlie the day before and in the lift I would get Kiara in for a photo with him. Kiara was about to start bawling her little eyes out because she was so tired. Charlie never did get that smile from her though lol.

[LucretiaCullen]

People always have a comment for something so I can understand that. There were people complaining about the disabled guests skipping the Queue . I skipped once, only for Charlie's shoot simply because the queue was VERY long and I had promised Charlie the day before and in the lift I would get Kiara in for a photo with him. Kiara was about to start bawling her little eyes out because she was so tired. Charlie never did get that smile from her though lol.

 

Aww.. I had originally intended to get Xander in some pictures, yours were lovely :) I just found it too hectic and stressful though so him and my partner waited outside whilst I went in. It was Charlie's queue that I left and asked for my money back. That queue was just insane! lol.

[ghostlydreamer]

Thank you :) Kiara managed to totally charm the guests, especially Leah! (She wouldnt let go of her thumb and tried dragging her out of the room with us xD) It was very stressful, my husband didnt have a ticket so couldnt queue with me or help me he stayed hovering in our room until I rang him begging to help me get her to the next photo shoot lol.

 

Charlie's Queue was insane and thats the only reason I enquired about it. If I hadnt have told Charlie I was taking Kiara to the shoot I wouldnt have minded so much! I waited for all my other photos with her in my arms but they were all running on time and fit into her schedule. Some of the crew have their own kids so they can understand that you fit your life around their routine not the other way round.

[xkleex]

Good morning all - back to reality so back to posting!

 

Seats - numbered isn't good - the idea would be unworkable and unfair, BUT... and this isn't a moan there needs to be better inforcing of the standard, silver, gold seats - I went gold and luckily got the front row for one of the talks but having gold 6 should kinda mean that I did, but not to sound mean there was a standard ticket person on the front row due to a sight problem and I know i'm going to get a backlash for this but, it wasn't fair! I paid an awful lot of money to be able to sit as near to the front as possible.

 

Maybe we could have the lines better organised - people with tickets in the hundreds at the front at the queue when they know they would be the last in - very strange??!!??

 

Edit - the floor questions, really did not work - we need to get our behinds in gear and put a question in the box, I will be doing my list this week ready for ET5!

 

 

I completely agree with you on that one, that i have to say was the only negative i found the whole weekend, i paid £225 for the privaledge to sit down the front area, and on the sunday couldnt as there was a standard there and ended up sitting behind a very tall woman n cudnt actually see anything in the end.

 

I spoke to those girsl over the weekend and they were both really lovely, but from what i recall the girl with a sight issue had a gold, but her friend sitting with her was standard. I did think this was very unfair

 

i do understand it was an exeptional circumstance, but really arrangements shud have been sorted before the con, and shudnt have meant any golds lost out

[SugarSpunSister]

2 suggestions for the next one or ET6, have said them in other posts but as this is the suggestion thread:

 

1) Alice and Bella slumber party - it's nice to dress up 1 night but would be really cool to dress down for a change and be in the ultimate comfort wear of PJ's!

 

2) A Meadow Room like at ET1 where newbies and people on their own can make friend's with each other. As seen in another post those going it alone felt a little intimidated by the sheer number of people there.

 

:)

[Rachelsilver1985]

pj party would be freekin awesome count me in

[Lisa090982]

My only real down of the weekend yet again was the really small tables in the Friday party - room was better lit than last time at least and tables more spread out which was awesome - but its just annoying that everyone huddles round the tiny tables and this can end up 2/3 deep and conversation can get lost somewhat......

[kegan5]

Wristbands - personally aside from those who have realistic issues of why they can't wear wristbands then I don't see why they were such a problem, it stopped the majority of people sneaking into Gold receptions etc which to be quite honest, I'd prefer to just pay the £70/£80 for standard and then get everything Gold gets... but I don't and would never and so if wearing wristbands was the best way to stop that then I like it :). Also love the idea of photos on passes too though, that would tick all boxes but possibly not the financial one xx

 

General - not sure if it was just me that felt this, but because there was such a huge increase in the number of attendees this one felt really impersonal in comparison to the others, which is part of what I find appealing with ME's shows. It was near to impossible to keep group of friends together in the parties just from the shear volume of people in there.

 

With things like photoshoots and autographs I know people are moved along at a steady pace, but this time it really did feel like sheep following sheep, I'm all for efficiency but when I've paid the money I pay for these events I'd like at least a 2 minute chat at the autotable :)

 

Gold Reception - The best gold reception was the one at Proms, I know it's a different event, but that was in my opinion the best one. The gold receptions at ET now are like a battle to get to the front and if your quiet and shy then you don't stand much chance. If I had my way I would the number of gold passes available less, and go back to seated tables for the reception. I've been to a few other events where you switch seats over one so everyone gets a chance to sit near a guest etc it does work :).

 

Talks - I thought they were really funny this year, the only downside were a few attention seekers shouting out when the guests were talking... it's funny sometimes but not every third word, so perhaps a gag for those people in their packs next time?

 

 

Right aside from those thoughts and suggestions, no complaints looking forward to ET5 xx

[Too Tall]

It was bad enough I couldnt queue with any of my friends

In future please come and see me. I can move you into your friends group.

 

This is for anyone. If you have a number of friends in a different group, please do come and see me and if possible I will move you.

 

Good morning all - back to reality so back to posting!

 

Seats - numbered isn't good - the idea would be unworkable and unfair, BUT... and this isn't a moan there needs to be better inforcing of the standard, silver, gold seats - I went gold and luckily got the front row for one of the talks but having gold 6 should kinda mean that I did, but not to sound mean there was a standard ticket person on the front row due to a sight problem and I know i'm going to get a backlash for this but, it wasn't fair! I paid an awful lot of money to be able to sit as near to the front as possible.

 

Maybe we could have the lines better organised - people with tickets in the hundreds at the front at the queue when they know they would be the last in - very strange??!!??

 

Edit - the floor questions, really did not work - we need to get our behinds in gear and put a question in the box, I will be doing my list this week ready for ET5!

 

 

I completely agree with you on that one, that i have to say was the only negative i found the whole weekend, i paid £225 for the privaledge to sit down the front area, and on the sunday couldnt as there was a standard there and ended up sitting behind a very tall woman n cudnt actually see anything in the end.

 

I spoke to those girsl over the weekend and they were both really lovely, but from what i recall the girl with a sight issue had a gold, but her friend sitting with her was standard. I did think this was very unfair

 

i do understand it was an exeptional circumstance, but really arrangements shud have been sorted before the con, and shudnt have meant any golds lost out

It was in fact the sight impaired lady that had the standard, the helper had Gold (if it had been the other way around I would not have allowed it. This was discussed with me and approved by me.

 

If in future anyone does see something like this and thinks it's incorrect, please do talk to a crew member. They will get hold of me and if necessary I will deal with it. I understand you pay for Gold and it's very unusual for me to allow someone with a standard to go into the Gold area (in this case it being a single person I didn't see it being a huge problem). I honestly wasn't aware they had sat in the front row, for that I apologise.

 

Any decision I make will always been done so with a certain amount of thought. I have no issue at all with someone asking me (polity ) why something is the way it is

Edited October 26, 2010 by Too Tall

[xkleex]

It was bad enough I couldnt queue with any of my friends

In future please come and see me. I can move you into your friends group.

 

This is for anyone. If you have a number of friends in a different group, please do come and see me and if possible I will move you.

 

Good morning all - back to reality so back to posting!

 

Seats - numbered isn't good - the idea would be unworkable and unfair, BUT... and this isn't a moan there needs to be better inforcing of the standard, silver, gold seats - I went gold and luckily got the front row for one of the talks but having gold 6 should kinda mean that I did, but not to sound mean there was a standard ticket person on the front row due to a sight problem and I know i'm going to get a backlash for this but, it wasn't fair! I paid an awful lot of money to be able to sit as near to the front as possible.

 

Maybe we could have the lines better organised - people with tickets in the hundreds at the front at the queue when they know they would be the last in - very strange??!!??

 

Edit - the floor questions, really did not work - we need to get our behinds in gear and put a question in the box, I will be doing my list this week ready for ET5!

 

 

I completely agree with you on that one, that i have to say was the only negative i found the whole weekend, i paid £225 for the privaledge to sit down the front area, and on the sunday couldnt as there was a standard there and ended up sitting behind a very tall woman n cudnt actually see anything in the end.

 

I spoke to those girsl over the weekend and they were both really lovely, but from what i recall the girl with a sight issue had a gold, but her friend sitting with her was standard. I did think this was very unfair

 

i do understand it was an exeptional circumstance, but really arrangements shud have been sorted before the con, and shudnt have meant any golds lost out

It was in fact the sight impaired lady that had the standard, the helper had Gold (if it had been the other way around I would not have allowed it. This was discussed with me and approved by me.

 

If in future anyone does see something like this and thinks it's incorrect, please do talk to a crew member. They will get hold of me and if necessary I will deal with it. I understand you pay for Gold and it's very unusual for me to allow someone with a standard to go into the Gold area (in this case it being a single person I didn't see it being a huge problem). I honestly wasn't aware they had sat in the front row, for that I apologise.

 

Any decision I make will always been done so with a certain amount of thought. I have no issue at all with someone asking me (polity ) why something is the way it is

 

Thanks for clearing that up too tall, a few people did actually speak to a crew member and did say it was unfair that a standard was up in the front row right next to re VIPs!

 

No issues with the lady being moved up due to her sight but that particular seat did seem unfair.

[Too Tall]

Thanks for clearing that up too tall, a few people did actually speak to a crew member and did say it was unfair that a standard was up in the front row right next to re VIPs!

 

No issues with the lady being moved up due to her sight but that particular seat did seem unfair.

That's a fair comment and I'll make sure it does happen again.

[Tracy Jane]

Too late now, I guess, but I should have followed that one up. I spoke to her on the Friday night and sent her to Too Tall because she had medical issues that prevented her seeing/hearing what was happening, but on Sunday, when I queried it (the dreaded wristband check!) she told me Too Tall had okayed a front row seat. Having remembered speaking to her at the opening ceremony, I just went with it. So sorry.

 

ETA: Don't know if I was the crew member you spoke to, though. I think only one person mentioned it to me and I explained TT had moved her up.

Edited October 26, 2010 by Tracy Jane

[Too Tall]

Below I've tried to answer some of the points made in this thread.

 

Photo queue and talk queue clashing:

 

As anyone that has come to one of our events before knows we usually have an hours lunch break in the schedule. And so photo shoots are not usually on right up until the start of the talks. This only happened because of the last minute addition of Charlie and that he was not with us until Saturday afternoon, which meant having to have 2 shoots on Sunday. The only time to fit this in was at Lunch time. Because of this we got the clashing of the 2 queues. For this I apologise but it’s not something that is likely to happen again.

 

Queuing for talk hall:

 

We will not be going to numbered seats. I believe the system we have is a good one, just that at an event with 1000 people it showed it's cracks. That's cool, it's one of the reasons I like the big shows, it shows us where our systems aren't 100% and we can look to improve them.

 

I shall have a long think about this.

 

There were separate queues for Gold, Silver and Standard and I did have crew there to let attendees know this. But in the madness of all those people it appears some people still weren’t aware of this. Again, something for me to think about.

 

More on one day than the other:

 

Usually before I finalise the schedule I go through it and make sure that Gold and Silver who have most (if not all) of their photos on Saturday have more autographs on Sunday. And with standard who have most (if not all) of their photos on Sunday I try and make sure those groups have more autographs on Saturday.

 

With the last minute addition of Charlie I was literally changing the schedule at the last minute to fit him in from Saturday afternoon onwards. I will confess that after having made sure everyone got to see everyone I did not go back through and double check people still had more autos on their less photos day. Sorry for that, but again, hopefully not something that will happen again.

 

Photo dist:

 

Yes there were issues with the photo distribution over the week, I’m sorry to anyone that got hurt or upset by it. We are looking at this and there will be a new system in place for ET5.

 

Seats in drinks reception:

 

I’ll discuss this again with the office. There are two issues with it.

 

1: It makes it a lot more formal, we want our drinks reception to be like a drinks party were people can mingle. The 100% mingle system didn’t work at events like ET so we implemented the table system, I’m not sure completely formalising it by making it a full sit down affair is what we want.

 

2: It will take up a lot more space, so it’s dependent on the hotel having a big enough room available on Friday night. And it can’t be the party room as that will be being set up for the party.

 

Newbies:

 

There’s been a number of people asking about newbies introduction etc. It’s something I shall again discuss with the office and see what we can do to help.

[ghostlydreamer]

This is for anyone. If you have a number of friends in a different group, please do come and see me and if possible I will move you.

 

The reason I didnt come to see you Too Tall was because I was group G and My friends were in Group A and Group T, Obviously I couldnt move up to group A because they are gold, I could only move down to group T which would have made everything so rushed for me since all of their photos were on the last day.

 

The only reason I brought it up here was because even though I was the only silver amongst my friends, if seating was numbered in the talks then I would have been stuck by myself being unable to have the option of going in with group T (like I did for all the talks)

[xkleex]

Thanks for clearing that up too tall, a few people did actually speak to a crew member and did say it was unfair that a standard was up in the front row right next to re VIPs!

 

No issues with the lady being moved up due to her sight but that particular seat did seem unfair.

That's a fair comment and I'll make sure it does happen again.

 

 

 

Thank you :) that really was my only issue, other then that I can't fault a thing :)

[BeckiUK]

I know this is random... but could there possibly be more ECLIPSE themed auction pieces at ET5? There was ALOT of new moon stuff... . which was all amazing, but with Eclipse having been and gone it would be fab to have more posters and stuff from that film :)

[Holly]

Yeah the photo collection thing was a bit mad on Sunday, maybe during the 15minute breaks between talks a batch of people could be called to go collect theirs? Say Standard group blah to Standard group blah. But yeah apart from that I never experienced any problems, was a great weekend

[fanggirl]

 

If you have a number of friends in a different group, please do come and see me and if possible I will move you.

 

 

Thanks so much for moving me in to Steph's group so neither of us had to be on our own :)

You're a star!!!