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MOST IMPORTANT: We want you to have so much fun at the event it is unbelievable! In order to make that happen we have a few things that we would like to explain which will ensure the weekend is the best it can be! Please take the time to read through this sheet! :-)

 

Respecting the Guests: Please remember that the guests are people too. There are to be no requests for posed photos or autographs outside of the photo and autograph sessions!

 

At the parties, please don't crowd the guests! Crowding the guests is honestly the quickest way to get them to leave. That doesn't mean you have to avoid them or not talk to them, just be aware of how many people there are around them already, up to 10 is OK, when it gets to 20 or 30, that’s WAY to many. You need to respect their space. If you feel a group of attendees is hogging a guest please talk to a crew member. The parties are not a place for photos with the guests. They are there to chill and have fun with you.

 

Vouchers: Your registration pack will contain vouchers for your autographs (these autograph vouchers maybe on the back of your convention guide book). Your pack will also contain your photo shoot vouchers if you are a Silver or Gold pass holder or have ordered them in advance online. If you think any of your vouchers are missing please let us know immediately. You will be asked for them when you come to claim your autographs or photo shoots. If you forget to bring these vouchers or lose them, you will not be able to claim your autographs or photo shoots. These vouchers are YOUR responsibility, please treat them as if they are CASH. You WILL NOT be able to claim your photo shoots and autographs without these vouchers.

 

Schedules: You will see schedules up on the walls and in your reg packs. To make it as easy for everyone as possible they include an estimate of when your groups will be called for each guests autograph and photo shoot. Please be aware this is ONLY AN ESTIMATE and you maybe called before or after this time depending on how quickly or slowly a specific guests queue is going.

 

Badges: We don't want to have things spoilt by gate crashers so please make sure you have them on and visible at all times. Especially at the parties.

 

Groups: Everyone is in a group based on their ticket number. You are simply split into groups of 30. Your group number will be on your con badge next to your ticket number. Please take note of your group number as when we're calling people over the weekend for autographs and photo shoots we will be calling you by group number. If you find you and a friend are in different groups, then please just let us know and if possible we will sort it out so you can both go in the same group.

 

Child tickets: The child ticket numbers are not important. They do everything based on their parent/guardians ticket number and group.

 

Entering the main hall for talks: We load the hall once each day at the start of the main hall session i.e. Fri @ 7pm, Sat @ 2pm and Sun @ 2pm, NOT for each talk. This is only an estimate of times, please see the show schedule for the specific times that the main hall events will start.

 

Any disabled people and their carers will go in to the hall first. Then we will fill the hall in ticket number order by calling people in groups of 10. Gold passes have a dedicated area at the front and come in first. Then Silver will enter and have a dedicated area behind the gold section, then Standard will enter.

 

If you have a Guest Encounter that starts at the same time as the first talk, please enter the talk hall FIRST and claim your seat for the rest of the day by leaving something on the chair to show that it is taken.

 

There is to be NO HOLDING OF SEATS for someone else. If you see someone obviously holding a seat please let the crew know. It MAYBE legitimate and the person has gone to a Guest Encounter. But if it is not legitimate then BOTH attendees (including the holder) will be moved to the back.

 

People with lower numbers holding seats for friend(s) will stop and is not fair. If you wish to sit with a friend with a higher ticket number please see below...

 

You do NOT have to enter as soon as you are called. If you have a friend with a higher ticket number you can wait for their number to be called and then go in together. You can stay back, but they can not jump forward.

 

Please be aware that with this system it does mean there is no need to arrive hours before the talks start. Getting to the main hall 20 minutes before is quite early enough. Around 15 minutes before the first talk/main hall event we will start letting people in, so as long as you are here when we call your number you will be in the same row as you would have been if you'd sat outside since the beginning of time!

 

Seating in the main hall: There is to be no moving seats! Once you have taken your seat in the main hall, that will be your seat for the rest of the afternoon. You can come and go as you please, but do leave something on the chair to show that it is taken. Please help your fellow attendees by helping us police this. If someone gets up and someone new comes and sits next to you, please do explain that the seat is taken, and that moving seats is not allowed.

 

Opening ceremony: The organisers will appear on stage and explain what’s happening over the weekend and welcome you to the event. The guests will come on stage for just a few minutes to say a quick hello.

 

Gold Pass drinks reception: For gold pass holders only. There will be 10 tables set out, there will be approx 15 people per table. Once you have gotten your drink please go to a table. Every other table will then have a guest brought to that table. The guest will be at that table for 5 minutes. The guest should have time to speak to everyone in your group. If you find you’re being missed, please do talk to a crew member. Your current guest will then move on to the next table, and you will get a new guest in 5 minutes. Please stay at your table as you will then get to meet each guest as they come around to your table.

 

Talk questions: We have an MC that asks the guests questions and runs the talks. If you want to ask a question at one of the guest talks and have not already submitted your question online then you can fill in a question slip from your reg pack. You can ask for extra slips if you need them. The box to put them in and the extra slips will be at the reg desk.

 

Photos in talks: For the comfort of our guests we only allow flash photography for the first few minutes of the talks. Only non-flash photography will be allowed after these first few minutes.

 

Recording of talks: No filming or sound recordings of the talks are allowed. If you see someone doing so please alert the nearest crew member. Although it may not appear to be hurting anyone, having this uncontrolled material out there and sometimes loaded on to the web can jeopardise these events being allowed to continue. So please do not do it and do report anyone you see doing it. Thank you.

 

Photo shoots and Autographs: You are called for each guest separately in your groups. When your group is actually called the crew will call out your group number. Also the big sheets at the end of the autograph queues, outside the main hall and outside the photo shoots will be updated to let you know your group has been called.

 

Don’t worry, with both photo shoots and autographs you can never miss your turn. Once your group has been called for a guest you can join that guest’s queue any time after that, even wait until Sunday if necessary. But please don't miss the end of the session on Sunday!

 

We've done our best to sort out the schedule so you don't get called to be in two places at once, but ultimately it is impossible to get it 100% right due to different guests going at different speeds. So if you do find yourself being called for both an autograph and a photo shoot at the same time, go to the photo shoot first. If you find yourself being called for 2 photo shoots at the same time, please let the crew in the photo shoots know. They can then make sure the photographer and guest in your second shoot know you are still to come through.

 

Multiple people in a photo shoot: If you want two or more of you in a single shot you must let the photo session crew know in advance. You will likely be asked to wait until the end of the shoot. Please be aware that it is ONE PERSON ONE TICKET. So if you want two of you in a shot you will need TWO tickets. You will receive two photos though.

 

Extra autographs: When your group is called to come down an autograph queue for the first time there is a limit of your one free autograph and two extra autographs. If you require more than 3 autographs from a single guest or buy an extra one autograph after having been down that guests queue, you must wait until the queue is open (i.e. all the groups have been called), before joining the queue a second time to get these extras.

 

Guest Encounters: These are a 45 minute chat (with coffee/tea/biscuits) with 12 attendees and one guest and can be won in one of two ways:

 

If you have a Guest Encounter that starts at the same time as the first talk, please enter the talk hall FIRST and claim your seat for the rest of the day by leaving something on the chair to show that it is taken.

 

1: Raffle tickets: 2 places in each Guest Encounter will be raffled off. Tickets can be bought at the reg desk. The winners will be announced at the same time as the auction winners. There is no limit to the number of tickets you can buy or the number of Encounters or places you can win.

 

2: Auction sheets: 10 places in each Guest Encounter will the auctioned. This will work by bidding sheets being put up on the wall at the event. One sheet for each guest encounter. There is no limit to the number of Encounters you can win. If you have a winning bid on 2 sheets you will win both.

 

Attendees bid by putting their badge number and their bid on the sheet. At a specific time, which will be stated on the sheet (say 1pm), the sheets come down and the highest 10 bids win. But everyone pays the value of the 10th winning bid. All bids are visible to people bidding later. You can come back and up your bid if you want. But if you want to up your bid you have to add a new one to the bottom of the list, DO NOT change or cross out your previous bid. That way we know the order that the bids were placed.

 

So let's say 11 people bid with some people changing their bids, the sheet could look like this…

 

NUMBER - BID

G10----£200

G19----£5 – IGNORED AS REBID BELOW

ST301-£10

G59----£10

S1------£7 – IGNORED AS REBID BELOW

G19----£7 – IGNORED AS REBID BELOW

G19----£10

ST23---£17

ST162-£9 – IGNORED AS REBID BELOW

S75----£31

ST197-£8 – IGNORED AS REBID BELOW

S96----£27

S97----£35

ST162-£20

ST197-£20

S1-----£20

 

So once sorted into bid order (And ignoring previous bids from the same person) they look like this...

 

£200, £35, £31, £27, £20, £20, £20, £17, £10, £10, £10.

 

As the 10th highest bid is £10, all 8 people with a bid higher than £10 win, but only pay £10. Even the person that bid £200. As you will see 3 people have bid £10. But there are only 2 places left. So the first 2 people to bid £10 win. In this case ST301 and G59. This is the reason for re-adding your bid at the bottom and not just changing it. If G19 had just changed their bid on line 5 to £10 it would have appeared they were the first person to have bid £10 (i.e. before both ST301 and G59), where as in fact they were the last person to bid £10.

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  • 7 months later...

 

Talk questions: We have an MC that asks the guests questions and runs the talks. If you want to ask a question at one of the guest talks and have not already submitted your question online then you can fill in a question slip from your reg pack. You can ask for extra slips if you need them. The box to put them in and the extra slips will be at the reg desk.

 

 

Where is this online?

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  • Moderators

 

Talk questions: We have an MC that asks the guests questions and runs the talks. If you want to ask a question at one of the guest talks and have not already submitted your question online then you can fill in a question slip from your reg pack. You can ask for extra slips if you need them. The box to put them in and the extra slips will be at the reg desk.

 

 

Where is this online?

here

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  • 1 month later...
  • Showmasters Admin

are the autographs likely to be in the mornings? they have been in the past. its so i know for booking my train tickets on sunday

Yes it's very very likely. It's how we pretty much always do it. Autos and photos in the morning and talks in the afternoon.

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I have a few questions! I bought a silver ticket, so if I understood correctly I will get one individual photo with each of the guests attending + one photo with all the guests at once? Did I get it right? So if I want for example a second picture with me and Amber, should I buy it online right now? And how about the 10x8 pictures we buy to get them signed, are they extra? Do I buy them there? Thank you so much, I was having doubts. I read what it gave me access to but I'm just trying to make sure as english is not my native language. Also, I read it gave me access to the dealers room, but I don't know what it is! In other words, could I please be told what I will be allowed to do there? :whistling:

Edited by frenchwhedonist
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I have a few questions! I bought a silver ticket, so if I understood correctly I will get one individual photo with each of the guests attending + one photo with all the guests at once? Did I get it right? So if I want for example a second picture with me and Amber, should I buy it online right now? And how about the 10x8 pictures we buy to get them signed, are they extra? Do I buy them there? Thank you so much, I was having doubts. I read what it gave me access to but I'm just trying to make sure as english is not my native language. Also, I read it gave me access to the dealers room, but I don't know what it is! In other words, could I please be told what I will be allowed to do there? :whistling:

 

1. The photo of all the guests will not have you in it. They may offer this at the con, but it will be extra. It was £40 last year and well worth it.

 

2. If you want a second photo with Amber, you will have to pay for it. It's probably not available in advance, but you can pay for it at the registration desk. It should be £15, probably.

 

3. There will be a free 10x8 of each of the guests in your registration pack. If you don't like them, you have the option of buying different ones in the dealers' room. Which brings me on to...

 

4. The dealers' room will have stalls selling photos (signed and unsigned), comics, action figures, etc. Always worth a browse, but set yourself a strict budget.

 

I hope that helps.

Edited by yellowmarlin
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yellowmarlin types faster than me. :whistling:

 

Just to add, for this event you can buy the photo session tickets in advance online. But it really doesn't matter if you do that or not. Access to the photo session goes by entry ticket, if you have a second photo you can have it taken along with the first one.

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Okay thank you very much! And about the extra photo with Amber, I just went to the Online Shop and you can already buy individual shoots with the guests so that's why I was wondering if I should buy it online now or buy it once I'm there!

 

Oh, shows what I know, doesn't it? :D

 

It's been a while since they've done that, so I never bothered looking. Also, I'm happy with just the one photo with each, so I had no reason to. Sorry for the duff information. :whistling:

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anyone know what time convention registration is this year? it's usually 2pm, but i'm guessing it will be later since the hotel won't let us check in until 3pm.

 

If you check the official Facebook-page of HalloWhedon 3, it does say that the event starts at 14:00h. So I would think it's (still) at 2 pm.

 

Also: not al people are staying at the Radisson, so they might not have that 'problem' (if that's what you can call it). I'm going a day early myself, so I'll be there any way.

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A few more questions from a newbie.

1) How do you buy extra autographs and any idea how much these will be?

 

2) The guide recommends putting something on your seat to show it's taken. What kind of things do people use for that? Personally I'm not too keen on the idea of having to leave anything lying around when I'm not there.

 

3) Do you have the same seat all weekend then once you've got one or is it different on each day?

 

4) How are the groups called for the autograph sessions etc? If you're wandering round the dealers etc is there an announcement of some kind or do you just go to the relevant area at the approximate time shown on the schedule?

 

Sorry, never been to one of these before, only used to events like CM, LFCC etc and I'm sure it all sounds more complicated than it really is but I do like to have some idea of what to expect.

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anyone know what time convention registration is this year? it's usually 2pm, but i'm guessing it will be later since the hotel won't let us check in until 3pm.
Friday registration is 2pm-7pm as per the website. Saturday 8am onwards. Edited by 1of2
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A few more questions from a newbie.

1) How do you buy extra autographs and any idea how much these will be?

 

2) The guide recommends putting something on your seat to show it's taken. What kind of things do people use for that? Personally I'm not too keen on the idea of having to leave anything lying around when I'm not there.

 

3) Do you have the same seat all weekend then once you've got one or is it different on each day?

 

4) How are the groups called for the autograph sessions etc? If you're wandering round the dealers etc is there an announcement of some kind or do you just go to the relevant area at the approximate time shown on the schedule?

 

Sorry, never been to one of these before, only used to events like CM, LFCC etc and I'm sure it all sounds more complicated than it really is but I do like to have some idea of what to expect.

1) There will be a sales desk next to (or near) the registration desk. Normally they are £10, sometimes £15, and on a very rare occasion I have seen £20.

 

2) I usually leave a coat (or something similar) and I also mention to the person/s sitting next to me.

 

3) You keep the same seat for just that day. You are free to choose a different seat for the other day if you wish.

 

4) Announcements are normally given out by the crew. If you wish to check yourself, then there are also boards at the end of each guest's queue with the groups ticked off as they are called. Sheets and/or further boards can be found in various places outside the signing hall. A similar system is in place for the photo shoots.

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A few more questions from a newbie.

1) How do you buy extra autographs and any idea how much these will be?

 

2) The guide recommends putting something on your seat to show it's taken. What kind of things do people use for that? Personally I'm not too keen on the idea of having to leave anything lying around when I'm not there.

 

3) Do you have the same seat all weekend then once you've got one or is it different on each day?

 

4) How are the groups called for the autograph sessions etc? If you're wandering round the dealers etc is there an announcement of some kind or do you just go to the relevant area at the approximate time shown on the schedule?

 

Sorry, never been to one of these before, only used to events like CM, LFCC etc and I'm sure it all sounds more complicated than it really is but I do like to have some idea of what to expect.

1) There will be a sales desk next to (or near) the registration desk. Normally they are £10, sometimes £15, and on a very rare occasion I have seen £20.

 

2) I usually leave a coat (or something similar) and I also mention to the person/s sitting next to me.

 

3) You keep the same seat for just that day. You are free to choose a different seat for the other day if you wish.

 

4) Announcements are normally given out by the crew. If you wish to check yourself, then there are also boards at the end of each guest's queue with the groups ticked off as they are called. Sheets and/or further boards can be found in various places outside the signing hall. A similar system is in place for the photo shoots.

Thanks 1of2. I just get a bit nervous and worry too much when something is new and I don't know what to expect. Had a brief chat with you at EMS so at least one person I'll know to speak to. Will buy you a drink at least.

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What is the drinks reception like? Normally I go silver but thought I'd go gold this time as the guests are so good.

 

I went to HalloWhedon 1 and that pretty much meant that the guests and Goldcards go into a room. The cardholders are devided into groups and per group you can chat for a while with the guest. There are people there to make sure that every one gets a chance to ask your question. I'm not sure if this changed, but that's what I remember. I, of course, was way to shy and blown away to be close to them to actually ask something.

Ow, and of course there are drinks :D.

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Glad to see the organisation for the meet and greet has changed in line with other cons to have seated tables in groups so everyone should get a chance to speak to the guest if they want to, this should work better this time.

Edited by buffy2k
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As far as I am aware it is not seated.

 

From another ME event earlier this year.

The ones you've been to have likely been smaller ones (less than 80 gold pass holders) were we've not been as strict, and just allowed the guests to wonder as they please (with a GA).

 

At the larger events like Twilight we are a lot more strict. We have the 12 tables and each guest is brought to each table. So as long as you stay at your table, you WILL receive ALL of the guests.

 

There are 2 issues with it being seated:

 

1: There is a huge issue with space if we sit everyone. We would need at least double if not triple the space to sit everyone instead of standing.

 

2: ME want it to be a drinks reception and not seated meet and great. It's always been the idea that it's informal and not really really ridged, which if everyone is seated it turns from being an informal drinks reception into a "pass the guest" party. With having 12 tables and bringing each guest to each table it's already got slightly more ridged but that's really as far as we want it to go.

 

People may disagree but ME don't want it to get too ridged.

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In your how it works section on the front page it does state it would be 10 tables and the guests would be bought round thats how i picked it up as having changed?.

 

I've been to the last 2 HW gold pass receptions, although i go to other organisers events who have seated meet & greets. The last 2 HW receptions were chaos tbh we had big groups backing the 5 guests into a corner of a small room & only those at the front could hear anything,or got to ask a question it was not good at all.

I was sure i read this was changing now we're at the Rad which has more space & that it would be seated and more organised. As we have only 4 guests this time surely this means the same thing is going to happen & you'll have 4 groups of 20+ crowding a guest again.?

 

Can someone please clarify as i know i am confused by the different info.

Edited by buffy2k
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