Hallowhedon 2 feedback thread

[vampiric_kitten]

For me the highlight was the quiz, as I was lucky enough to be invited on stage to be on Stephanie and Alan's team - and I even got to sit in his chair! They were both huge fun to be with [although they didn't know much about Joss's other programmes] and it was a truly amazing experience that I'll never forget (and we won!).

you only won cos the girl the other team got was crap lol

[dragonsanddaffodils]

I am really sorry, but I have to disagree here

 

I am not trying to be argumentative, but when you are talking of 500 passes and therefore the value of those simple items, they are not something you can just pop on the pavement while you load the van to make sure they are not forgotten. What on earth would happen if some enterprising soul just picked them up and wandered off.

 

ME have an INCREDIBLE number of items to take to the cons and the packing list must therefore be huge!!!

 

BUT! We are all human, I have had all of the items ready for a wedding cake delivery on a specific table, but the stand was too big to sit on the table and therefore went on a stool next to it, and somehow got forgotten, resulting in a drive back to collect them. Probably similar to what happened here.

 

 

Hardly a "lack of being on the ball as usual" - that was way too harsh a comment for what was obviously a simple case of not picking up one box

 

Plus, as you said, Mark apologised, so that should be the end of it.

 

Ally and I worked out little bottoms off on reg desk to try to make sure that attendees could freely go into the dealers rooms etc while we waited on the passes. You dont usually get handwritten pass numbers and signatures on your reg packs, so that obviously took more time, but we didnt want to stop anyone registering while we waited for the passes. That would have spoilt peoples weekend if they couldnt even wander round as normal before opening ceremony.

 

Accidents happen

Edited November 1, 2010 by Rhianydd

[Elfriniel]

My first ever Massive Events con, and here is my thoughts.

a) Badges and lanyards: mildly annoying, but nothing to get upset about.

hotel: appalling. I don't mind the tiny rooms but the attitude of the staff was disgusting. Going to another con there next month and dreading it. The bar ran out of everything and closed at midnight, no one was in the least bit helpful. Variety of drinks was poor, and it was only on the last night they admitted they had becks blue in another bar but were too lazy to go get it.

c) Organisation:amazing, a tight schedule keeping me going all the time, but never too much and never boring.

d) Autographs:surprisingly short queuing times.

e) Guests:Amazing!!!! Stephanie and Robin are my new heroes, they are the craziest funniest people I have ever met.

f) Talks/Quiz: Great, interesting questions, funny answers, and Alan Tudyk was so sweet to bring things for everyone, and the quiz was brilliant (as I was on Alpha and we won)

g) Guest Encounters: Best idea ever. For just £10 I got an amazing 45 minutes with Stephanie, and it wasn't an interview, it was like a chat with a friend.

h) Parties: Amazing. The DJ kept everyone happy, the bungee running was great (spider not so much so, I only lasted 4 seconds, but I was wearing tights). The photographer was an amazing idea and I now have some really great pictures of myself in fancy dress, much better than blurred ones off a mobile phone (although I have those too).

i) The people: Wow!!!! I met some really great people and they made it for me. The celebs were great but tbh it was a relief when we could kick back and relax after they had gone for the night. Sat up till 4am being loud and annoying because we didn't want it to end. (if you were one of those people get in touch as I don't have all the names, did you make it to breakfast?)

 

All in all an amazing event. The only downside is the hotel, but as it wont be there next year, I will really look forward to it. Thank you to all the organisers and other geeks who made this such an amazing experience for me.

[adriangill]

- a ban on 'imaginary' questions like 'If we you invisible, what would you do?', or 'If you were reincarnated, what would you like to come back as?'. Guests never know what to say to these and I'm sure most people would prefer to hear more about what it was like working on the programmes we love, with the people we love and other aspects of their real lives [both professional and personal].

I have to admit those generic questions always make me cringe. I have only seen them work really well on one occasion. Hub 4 with the party trick question. One of the funniest set of replies I have ever seen to any question. Although I think that question just suited those guests at that time.

 

It's not a easy thing to resolve. It is up to 'us' to come up with good quality questions (and a lot are very good!). I would assumes the questions that you are referring to get used because we have not submitted enough. It may be helpful if ME could inform us prior to the first set of talks that more questions are needed so we can make more of an effort to think of some.

 

I admit that I struggle to think of good questions. I submitted 6 very ordinary questions, 4 of which were asked, 1 may have been (it was for Tony and I was at a GE for his main talk so don't know), and 1 was not asked. I don't know why. It wasn't the most interesting of questions but I would have hoped it was better than invisible/reincarnated/etc type. Of course that is just down to personal opinion though

 

It may be useful for us if we could have a bit of feeback from ME. In general how many questions are submitted (are we doing enough), how many are rejected (and why - what type of questions are ME looking for). Generally 'we' do need to find a way of improving the question quality and the quantity for all the events not just this one.

[Blackviolett]

I agree with what youre saying Rhiann and apologise. I wasnt aware that it was a box that had been forgotten, merely that they had not bothered to get lanyards for everyone which was a bit of a pain as it meant carrying it around in the bottom of my handbag and having to route about for it all the time. I didnt mind at all having to wait for my pass to arrive after the opening ceremony.

 

Ive been to a few ME events now and the lack of organisation always seems to come up with people I speak to and is something I always feel. It is in no way aimed at the stewards who do their best and most of them are courteous, helpful and efficient. I just sometimes feel things are a little askew in some areas and I know Im not the only one but people often wont speak up.

[adriangill]

ps Props to Alan Tudyk for bringing all that cool stuff to give to the people who asked the questions. It was a lovely thing to do and very generous of him. What a nice man!!

Indeed. I have never seen a guest hand out stuff like that before. Especially stuff like the NASA pass - he should have kept them himself!

 

His jokey 'put down' of Jewel made me laugh - "Let's give out some of the stuff that you brought Jewel" or words to that effect

[etmuse]

*blinks* Everyone I speak to always seems to comment on how GOOD the organisation is - yes, there are things that don't quite go to plan, but that can happen no matter how well you've organised things. (And at events like this when you get to add in the human-factor of guests and attendees... you're never going to be able to predict every possible issue.)

 

Adding my props to Alan for his gift-giving - loved him arguing with Jewel too over where the best place to sign was...

Edited November 1, 2010 by etmuse

[Blackviolett]

ps Props to Alan Tudyk for bringing all that cool stuff to give to the people who asked the questions. It was a lovely thing to do and very generous of him. What a nice man!!

Indeed. I have never seen a guest hand out stuff like that before. Especially stuff like the NASA pass - he should have kept them himself!

 

His jokey 'put down' of Jewel made me laugh - "Let's give out some of the stuff that you brought Jewel" or words to that effect

 

That was one of things that made the weekend very special. Ive not seen ANY guest at any event Ive been to provide 'goodies' like that, Alan was an excellent guest and entertainer and that was a very kind thing to do to make the attendees day. I also loved his quip to Jewel. lol.

 

*blinks* Everyone I speak to always seems to comment on how GOOD the organisation is - yes, there are things that don't quite go to plan, but that can happen no matter how well you've organised things. (And at events like this when you get to add in the human-factor of guests and attendees... you're never going to be able to predict every possible issue.)

 

 

Thats very true and I have said on another post that the things Ive 'moaned' about didnt spoil my weekend, I had a thoroughly good time and will do more SM events, just not Hallowhedon (for my own reasons) and its a shame more people dont say the bad points as we were invited to give feedback yet anything slightly/remotely negative is always shot down in a bad way and often its not meant in a nasty way just to help things improve at other events. :)

[Purple_Vamp]

ps Props to Alan Tudyk for bringing all that cool stuff to give to the people who asked the questions. It was a lovely thing to do and very generous of him. What a nice man!!

Indeed. I have never seen a guest hand out stuff like that before. Especially stuff like the NASA pass - he should have kept them himself!

 

His jokey 'put down' of Jewel made me laugh - "Let's give out some of the stuff that you brought Jewel" or words to that effect

 

That was one of things that made the weekend very special. Ive not seen ANY guest at any event Ive been to provide 'goodies' like that, Alan was an excellent guest and entertainer and that was a very kind thing to do to make the attendees day. I also loved his quip to Jewel. lol.

 

Alan was a true gem all weekend. I especially loved the way he was making everyone laugh in the photo shoot on Saturday. Working on the bag collection area, I had to keep stopping to turn around and see what he was doing.

 

I thought it was lovely how he gave out the little gifts every time someone asked him a question.

[DavidB]

Thats very true and I have said on another post that the things Ive 'moaned' about didnt spoil my weekend, I had a thoroughly good time and will do more SM events, just not Hallowhedon (for my own reasons) and its a shame more people dont say the bad points as we were invited to give feedback yet anything slightly/remotely negative is always shot down in a bad way and often its not meant in a nasty way just to help things improve at other events. :)

No one is shot down. It's simply a case of people are free to leave negative feedback if they so wish, but others are free to disagree/discuss too. It's a public forum after all.

 

And Mark made a mistake. He knows that, and he's not in the habit of doing it regularly. I'm sure he's aware that it wouldn't be a good idea to do it again!

[Orangepeel]

I think the Friday night party could have been better to be honest.

Little upset the guests never seem to come in the hall for the party clearly not anyone's fault altho i got to see Tony at the bar so

 

I think were it was held was really bad it felt like a Town Hall or something.

But i felt the staff did their best and we helpful

 

And i got to meet Tony so i was happy

[dragonsanddaffodils]

That was amazing the way Alan gave gifts, he was so much fun in the photoshoots too, I have never laughed so much while crewing as when I worked the photo room on Saturday, great fun

 

And Tony was really friendly in the bar too. Didnt see anyone on the Friday, but on Saturday, I know he was trying to get to see everyone and everything and possibly the reason he didnt get to spend much time in the party room was that he didnt want to ignore anyone who spoke to him on his way into the party room.

 

We were taking in him there and it literally took half an hour to get from the bar to the party room cos he was talking to everyone What a great guy!

 

Please dont feel picked on Blackviolett, I apologise if you feel I did that, that certainly wasnt my intention.

 

I dont know what happened with the lanyards though, perhaps when the passes were picked up the second time, the lanyards werent, who knows ME have often provided lanyards in some form or other in the past.

 

I know I felt bad for making people come back to the desk for a second time to collect them, but there were such lovely attendees at the con that weekend, that it was nice to get to meet so many nice people

[Blackviolett]

Naah Im used to feeling picked on here lol, its only because I say what I think. I love a good old discussion and on here people do tend to have their own very set opinions which is great. I think I met you at Bitten and you were lovely so I certainly dont take things to heart :)

[dragonsanddaffodils]

Naah Im used to feeling picked on here lol, its only because I say what I think. I love a good old discussion and on here people do tend to have their own very set opinions which is great. I think I met you at Bitten and you were lovely so I certainly dont take things to heart :)

 

 

Ooh, did you? That was a fab weekend too Its funny, looking back through my photos on my phone, I can now judge time of year by which set of con photos I look at lol

 

Opinions are good Better than not saying anything and simmering in silence

[Orangepeel]

That was my only concern really that the guests didn't come in the room. But i understand it was hard and they were good fun!

 

Plus i found you personally very helpful with all my questions so that was nice. Plus my husband was impressed one of the crew members seemed to remember him everytime we went back to the con lol i think he thinks he is like famous now, haha!

 

But i found lining up easier then i thought and we didn't have to wait too long beside's Tony but as i went to see him i didn't mind that too much

[5phere]

all taken in to consideration the con was great!

- the commentry is a BRILLIANT idea. keep that one if you can!

 

on the negative..

the meet and greet for the gold pass holders was abysmal, (sorry). but i would never have bought a gold ticket if id known and unless it changes wont buy one next year. This was my first massive events event so i was a bit gutted at that.

 

you had 30 people around a guest which is not only uselss for us (as most people cant heae) but probably a bit more uncomfortable for them. and leads that horrible fandom swarm... baaaaad!

 

way to do it is to have round tables with 10 or so people on and the guest move from table to table. yes you get less time but its quality time, less stressful and more personal - thats what i paid for.

 

please please please rectify this. Paying gold was not worth it in this instance imo

and i know many people i spoke to felt exactly the same

[Elfriniel]

I think the Friday night party could have been better to be honest.

Little upset the guests never seem to come in the hall for the party clearly not anyone's fault altho i got to see Tony at the bar so

 

I think were it was held was really bad it felt like a Town Hall or something.

But i felt the staff did their best and we helpful

 

And i got to meet Tony so i was happy

 

 

I thought Friday night was awesome, bungee running and cheesy convention songs, it can't get better. Plus the theme was perfect, because it didn't take too much getting ready (just as well as we were running late)

 

The guests did come to the hall Saturday night (I am not sure about Friday as they left before we got there) but they were around for quite a while Saturday. I found it a little bit irritating that they were being guided around by staff constantly, and followed by huge groups of people. Think they might have relaxed a little if they had been left to their own devices.

[DavidB]

I found it a little bit irritating that they were being guided around by staff constantly, and followed by huge groups of people. Think they might have relaxed a little if they had been left to their own devices.

Safety of the guests is paramount, and I think it's a great idea to have them attend but feel a little more in control by having the staff with them.

[Elfriniel]

I found it a little bit irritating that they were being guided around by staff constantly, and followed by huge groups of people. Think they might have relaxed a little if they had been left to their own devices.

Safety of the guests is paramount, and I think it's a great idea to have them attend but feel a little more in control by having the staff with them.

 

 

Oh I totally agree on the safety part, but security were standing back a little, it was the event staff and fans that seemed to crowd the most.

[Too Tall]

on the negative..

the meet and greet for the gold pass holders was abysmal, (sorry). but i would never have bought a gold ticket if id known and unless it changes wont buy one next year. This was my first massive events event so i was a bit gutted at that.

 

you had 30 people around a guest which is not only uselss for us (as most people cant heae) but probably a bit more uncomfortable for them. and leads that horrible fandom swarm... baaaaad!

 

way to do it is to have round tables with 10 or so people on and the guest move from table to table. yes you get less time but its quality time, less stressful and more personal - thats what i paid for.

 

please please please rectify this. Paying gold was not worth it in this instance imo

and i know many people i spoke to felt exactly the same

Sorry about this. As regulars on here and to our shows will know this is one of my pet projects and I've been changing it over and over again to get it to work. We now have good system. As long as we have the room.

 

At all of our other shows how you described it is how we do it, we have around 10 tables and much smaller groups.

 

On the day it was thrown at us that the room we had it in was the only one available to us and so we had to go with it. For that I can only apolagise. We did look at putting more tables in there but if we'd put 10 tables in there we wouldn't have gone all of you in there too. I hated it as much as you did, due to my day job I couldn't be at the event until just after the gold drinks reception started, and I cringed when I saw the room. I really really really am sorry. We ended up in there last year and it was discussed that we needed a bigger room this year.

 

It's just one thing in a long list of issues we had with the venue and is one of the reasons for moving to the Rad for next year. We will have a bigger room and so we will have the 10 tables. Again sorry it didn't go right this time.

[Too Tall]

I found it a little bit irritating that they were being guided around by staff constantly, and followed by huge groups of people. Think they might have relaxed a little if they had been left to their own devices.

Safety of the guests is paramount, and I think it's a great idea to have them attend but feel a little more in control by having the staff with them.

 

 

Oh I totally agree on the safety part, but security were standing back a little, it was the event staff and fans that seemed to crowd the most.

The security guys are there just for that, the physical security of the guests.

 

The crew being there is to help the guests feel emotionally secure. The guests know the crew are there to handle any uncomfortable situations for them.

 

I was there too and at no point did any crew member stop an attendee talking to the guests. But they were there to help the guest if they were being swamped or someone was monopolising their time. If attendees are polite and fair and so come up and see the guest, ask a couple of questions and go, the fact that the crew are there will never effect them. The crew will only get involved if someone (or a group) starts being unfair and starts to swamp or try and monopolize the guests time.

 

It can be very uncomfortable for the guests if someone starts to monopolize them and they don't want to annoy or embarrass anyone. So if the crew see it happening they will step in and politely remove the guest from that situation.

 

The crew were there to help it be fair to everyone, not stop anyone. I hope that makes sense.

 

Stuart.

Edited November 1, 2010 by Too Tall

[5phere]

thanks for letting me know that. if something went wrong at the hotel then i can see its beyond your control. and a horrible pain in the ass for you also. (and im kinda relieved that is wasnt actually "organized" that way.

 

as you say - hopefully the radisson wont pose such problems!

 

but before i buy gold again id probably like some sort of guarantee, that if something like that happens again there might be some other way to deal with it. like doing it in two sessions - or something. either paying//asking the guests to stay a bit longer or giving us half the time (as its be better quality) in each session!

 

anyway i can sympathise that at the time you just had to run with it.

the whole rest of the con was fantastic so welldone on that!!

 

 

 

Sorry about this. As regulars on here and to our shows will know this is one of my pet projects and I've been changing it over and over again to get it to work. We now have good system. As long as we have the room.

 

At all of our other shows how you described it is how we do it, we have around 10 tables and much smaller groups.

 

On the day it was thrown at us that the room we had it in was the only one available to us and so we had to go with it. For that I can only apolagise. We did look at putting more tables in there but if we'd put 10 tables in there we wouldn't have gone all of you in there too. I hated it as much as you did, due to my day job I couldn't be at the event until just after the gold drinks reception started, and I cringed when I saw the room. I really really really am sorry. We ended up in there last year and it was discussed that we needed a bigger room this year.

 

It's just one thing in a long list of issues we had with the venue and is one of the reasons for moving to the Rad for next year. We will have a bigger room and so we will have the 10 tables. Again sorry it didn't go right this time.

 

thanks for letting me know that. if something went wrong at the hotel then i can see its beyond your control. and a horrible pain in the ass for you also. (and im kinda relieved that is wasnt actually "organized" that way.

 

as you say - hopefully the radisson wont pose such problems!

 

but before i buy gold again id probably like some sort of guarantee, that if something like that happens again there might be some other way to deal with it. like doing it in two sessions - or something. either paying//asking the guests to stay a bit longer or giving us half the time (as its be better quality) in each session!

 

anyway i can sympathise that at the time you just had to run with it.

the whole rest of the con was fantastic so welldone on that!!

Edited November 1, 2010 by Rhianydd

[dragonsanddaffodils]

Sorry for editing your post 5phere, the [ quote ] was missing so popped it back in

[Buffy Lover]

I have no complaints whatsoever, this weekend was amazing. All the guests were really friendly, the crew were helpful, the parties were enjoyable (We even managed to stay to the end of the party on Saturday, something we didn't even consider last year ) and everything was well organised and made for a very interesting, memorable weekend. I really enjoyed the live commentary and the quiz - That's about all I have to say, I have no complaints, at all, like I said - Oh, except the fact it had to end...

[5phere]

Sorry for editing your post 5phere, the [ quote ] was missing so popped it back in

 

thanks :) i wondered what id missed