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i had a great time and loved how smoothly everything seemed to run this time. The only down side i had this time was the amount of friends that were missing that i'd made at the past cons, nothing to do with showmasters but yeah, just wasn't the same without some of those guys.

 

I also figured with the recording, i know chances are SM won't do the dvd again but have they ever though about choosing small highlights to post in a video on youtube? they could even use it as a way of advertising. People might stumble across a video on there and think it looks like fun and make the choice to come to another. And if SM posted the videos themselves they would have complete control over what parts were shown and it would make it less likely for people to do that sneaky recording it themselves thing.

 

also maybe some variety in the music across the 3 nights might be a good idea. I've been to 3 ETs now and all 9 parties seemed to have the exact same playlist with just a few new releases added in, but not that many....

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This was my first convention and I really loved it.

 

It was great to see how the guests interact with the attendees during the parties but also during the autograps and photosessions.

And seeing Michael's passion on stage made my crush on him even bigger and bigger!

I think the crew was fantastic, although on a few occassions they could have sound less bossy or could have been better at helping my friend out instead of laughing at her.

 

As mentioned several times before, picking up the photos was really annoying. I almost gave up and couldn't care! But happy that in the end I found my pictures, if people are just polite and if you ask politely if you can walk through or ask a person if they can hand you your pictures you can come a long way. You won't go anywhere with me if you start pushing me away or elbowing me. That would never work.

 

I loved the parties, but the music on Friday and Saturday was the same with a few minor changes (I can't compare it with Sunday as I had to leave). Also maybe a suggestion to never ever play Bad Romance again please? The dance routine is doing my head in!

I loved the themes in the evenings and even better that the guests where really into it.

 

Overall my experience was amazing and I really enjoyed it and had a fabulous time and even managed to get 3 newbies to come along to the next one, ET6!

 

Oh and during the auction, if you do decide to throw things into the audience can you make sure that everyone is aware of the fact that if they come down that the object might cause harm or try to throw it more at the back where the standards are sitting?

Or when giving away the wristbands to make sure that the crew member doesn't suddenly feel a rush of absolute power and walks around like they own the place.

The auction also made me giggle and I have never seen it before and was truly gobsmacked! But next time I will maybe put my hand up in the air instead of gaping at the objects and missing out!

 

:-)

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I agree with what people are saying about the photos, it's only common sense, you join the line at one end and walk straight along the table to the top end.

 

It's not ME fault that people do this but maybe a crew member directing people would help stop this happening again. I am def going to leave the photo collection until a quiet time though ;)

 

You don't join in the middle and walk up then down or push in etc.... as lots of people do.

 

Tbh we didn't have a problem this time with the photos, it was quiet when we went in but last Oct it was ridiculous. People just need to use a little bit of common sense and everyone will get to see their photos after all they aren't going anywhere, they will still be there waiting for you to collect them.

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I think it's time I throw in my opinions of the weekend, now before you say I sound like I'm moaning I'm not I had a really great time caught up with some wonderful people so yes!

 

Positives:

 

Michael Welch throughout the weekend what a lovely chap, was very entertaining,kept the talks interesting and was easily guest of the weekend

 

Daniel Cudmore another awesome dude, the only guest I've ever met that is taller than me!

 

TEAM MUDDY SHOE!!!!!!!

 

Catching up with wonderful people such as Dan, DB, Rhi & Kev etc.

 

Negatives:

 

Gay questions - Now I have nothing wrong with gay people before people start having ago at me but some of the "fanfic" questions or hypathetic questions were not needed especially about a pet rock I mean REALLY is that a question that 649 people really want to hear, erm no. Also inside jokes that you and guest had at a previous con arn't going to mean damn thing to anybody else lol.

 

Justin's comments during the last panel about "Type casting" you could feel the awkward silence in the room and if you were there you know why, even Michael trying to move the talk on but it didn't work, so I for one wasn't uber pleased with Justin.

 

 

Ok that's my vent over and done with, all in all bar the few minor things I enjoyed myself and can't wait for ET6!!

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I must admit I don't really like the "you did this here .. you said this there .." kinda questions. Give the guests a chance to be unique and create their own memories, rather than repeating the same old at every convention. That's how I feel anyway.

 

But yes, the "you said this to me when we were at this place one time" ones are certainly worse.

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even though I crewed this con and didn't attend, I'd like to reply!

 

Friday night party - really liked the idea of the Petting Zoo - something different! also the bouncy castle, haven't done that before! :thumbup:

 

Saturday night party - wasn't at Hub so the games section was new to me, again totally awesome! :wub: monkeys :smile: and how cool was it to munch popcorn and eat candyfloss!!!! :D

 

photo distribution - was doing this on Saturday and it was a little hectic! we tried to match up people's photos as much as possible (so they were all together) but sometimes people change their clothes (just to make it a challenge for the crew I'm sure :lol::poki: ) or amoungst the 100s of photos we can't spot people. I think it might help to have a barrier to encourage people to use a one-way system but I don't know that that would be completely flawless cause people may enter the room and see that an area of the Q is empty and decide to check there for their photos first :unsure: I don't think that calling people into the room in groups would help either particuarly as people tend to check for their photos at different times and it might mean that people would find themselves waiting the entire break between talks to get called to enter and therefore spend the entire break in a Q :blink: but I'm really liking that so many people are trying to suggest solutions and adding reasons why rather than just saying something didn't work B)

 

filming of talks - I was in the talks Sunday afternoon and had to ask some one to stop filming - would like to say thanks to the attendees sat behind this person for being vigilant B) we don't allow filming as it can affect the atmosphere and how relaxed a guest is if they are worrying about what they are saying will be on youtube etc, it can kinda impact on freedom of speech sorta thing!

 

talk Qs - there are + and - for having roaming mics and static mics. People don't like to have to scramble down the row of seats to get to the mic and have to Q up and also, as Harry said, run the risk their Q will get asked before they get to the front - this has actually happened to me before!!! it is a good idea that the mic should be passed to the next person but sometimes the guests need clarification on the Q and then the mic is gone. at other cons (and maybe ME/SM ones I can't mem :D) we have tried to have mic runners on either side of the hall but then you find the guests are searching the audience for the person asking the Q!

 

suggestion - some one mentioned they'd like to see other things on screen but that SM/ME couldn't show the movies due to copyright - how about music videos? I've been to other cons where the stewards there have made music vidoes specifically for the guests in attendence with clips from the show and it's acted as kind of a warm up/ice breaker and can also give the audience fuel for thought with regards to what questions to ask if they see clips. SM/ME could also potentionally develop this into a competition maybe? I guess copyright might be an issue again but youtube does it so..! ;)

 

surfy sah xx

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i had a great time and loved how smoothly everything seemed to run this time. The only down side i had this time was the amount of friends that were missing that i'd made at the past cons, nothing to do with showmasters but yeah, just wasn't the same without some of those guys.

 

I also figured with the recording, i know chances are SM won't do the dvd again but have they ever though about choosing small highlights to post in a video on youtube? they could even use it as a way of advertising. People might stumble across a video on there and think it looks like fun and make the choice to come to another. And if SM posted the videos themselves they would have complete control over what parts were shown and it would make it less likely for people to do that sneaky recording it themselves thing.

 

also maybe some variety in the music across the 3 nights might be a good idea. I've been to 3 ETs now and all 9 parties seemed to have the exact same playlist with just a few new releases added in, but not that many....

 

I really really love the Youtube channel idea, such a good opportunity to advertise!

Edited by Holly
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photo distribution - was doing this on Saturday and it was a little hectic! we tried to match up people's photos as much as possible (so they were all together)

 

I'd just like to say that someone, possibly yourself, successfully grouped my girlfriend's photos (Daniel with Alex and Michael with Jodelle) and it made my life so much easier, so thank you very much for doing this. It was very helpful and much appreciated.

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As usual I totally enjoyed myself so overall I am pretty happy with this con, SM do put on great cons. As for the thought of mixed cons, I'm all for it really if they have the same theme, like say Twilght, vampire diareis etc..not mixed with say other non vampire stuff..I like the same theme. Also good if there can be a good "headliner guest" for each of these mixes alongside other guests. That is not always easy to do.

 

As for the wine reception..I have a hard time to hear what the guests say sometimes but I gotta say this last one worked well inspite of the traffic issues that happened so Michael and Alex were late arrivals. We were promised that the guests there would come around the table twice and well at our table they did :-). No complaints! :-D.

 

Then the room where the talks happens, this may be a hotel issue rather than a SM issue, it was freakin FREEZING in there!

Also I notice on just about every talks I have been to at these events, the guests likes to SEE who ask the questions, all usually complain about the VERY bright spotlights that are smack right in their faces, isn't there way to do the stage lighting so the guests aren't blinded when they go onstage yet so that the audience is able to take pics during the beginning? I am just asking but this is something I have noticed at all the ET cons..the guests comments about this every time they go onstage.

 

As for the parties, too much techno stuff for me but that's musical preferences and requests so..but PLEASE KILL THE DRY ICE. It serves absolutely no purpose, it is used way too much and TOO much every time it is used...a lil tiny bit to cause effect I could live with but there were ppl there who had to leave the room when it was used due to allergies, personallly I would be happy if this was removed completely. I hate it.

 

As for questions to the guests, it seems to work ok for what I can tell...but I agree with what has been mentioned before, some of these questions seems a bit... odd with the lack of a better word..I don't get some of these *shrugs*

 

As for the petting zoo, ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS. But I have one concern, not how it was done but this was too close to the very loud music, some of these creatures do have good hearing or can feel the vibrations, this may scare these poor animals and maybe best to not have doors opened to the hall where the disco was but a seperate room next to party room or somehow shield them more from the loud noises/vibrations?

 

Then the party themes, I got no complaints at all...some are more fun than others and I enjoyed the PJ party...that the other guests at the hotel seemed to be snotty about it is THEIR friggin problem and not ours or SM's problem. If they cannot handle that ppl walking around in the lobby or the bar with PJ's they may need to look at themselves and wonder why they bother so much with what others are doing, I'd understand it if ppl were scantily clad and were indecent but some PJs for ONE night? Gimme a freakin break! No respect for snobby ppl here.

 

ONE good thing with the parties, less doors opened so gate crashers had a harder time to sneak into our parties. GOOD! Keep that up.

 

The guests: Loved them, love the hilarity they bring to the con. Love that they actually seemed to ENJOY this and not just being there cos it was a contract they signed.

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if you have a quick scour through the Petting Zoo topic, your concerns regarding the animals have all been answered :lol:

 

but just to say that it is mentioned in that topic that the music level was checked and was at a safe level of 0.9 decibals :(

 

surfy sah xx

 

I read that thread after I posted my reply here LOL, so yes those concerns were replied and I am sure the handlers would object if the music was TOO loud..still I couldn't help it being concerned. Just the animal lover in me..

Edited by Marystat
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Pro's

 

Petting Zoo really inventive!!!!!!! a+++++ to whoever came up with that idea!

Prom Party - always good loved the games and popcorn etc.

Party Themes- No Complaints (missed pj party so cant really say anything about that)

Food Court - Much better choice & tuck shop brilliant addition.

 

Con's

Talks - The questions were really bad - qudos for the chap that stood in for the normal guy he did well for standing in at the last minute. But the questions were just the same for every panel and more often then not the same answers from guests (of which I know cannot be controlled). Some questions from the audience were totally inappropriate and you still got people shouting inappropriate things to the guests aswell. If im completely honest with everyone the talks at the this particular ET were just the same old same old, partly down to the questions that were asked etc. I'm not expecting mass exclusives etc because that would be an unrelistic expectation but when it came to the the talks on sun afternoon I stayed for one and decided to leave. I was leaving Sunday anyway so wasnt so much put out but if the talks were somewhat more organised I would of stayed till the closing ceremony.

 

Music - Can you restric how many times u play Supermassive Blackhole pls!

Dealers Room - Any chance of some new dealers or more dealers for variety???? The room was so big they were placed in so the room just looked so out of place.

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I didn't go to ET5, but a complaint I have heard from others is that the photoshoot photographs should be emailed out as JPEG's incase the photo is lost or people do not have scanners. Also I know I would want to get my photos blown up and put on display XD

Although this is not completely out of the question, and I know ME are looking at prehaps selling the jpegs.

 

I have to remind people that the copyright (and therefore the jpegs) of any photo taken by a professional photographer remains their property. And if you go by the letter of the law you should be paying the ME photographers royalties if you reproduce them in anyway, including scanning. It's no different to copying a DVD or CD, people do it all of the time, but it is illegal.

 

Anyone that's had a professional photographer at their wedding can tell you this. You can pay £600+ just for them to be there, then maybe another £400+ to have a number of the photos printed. But the photographer ALWAYS keeps the copyright and therefore if your family members want a copy of that lovely picture of you in your wedding gown they HAVE to get it from the photographer and something like an 8x10 will cost you £25. Some photographers do sell the copyright to the photos but that can get into the £4000+ area.

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Ooo yes more dealers please! Even if it's not Twilight related, Harry Potter/Supernatural/True Blood, stuff like that! :)

 

I actually asked one of the regular tshirt dealers for some variety. I want a VD tshirt!

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ARGH spent half an hour writing and I lost it.

 

Ok will try and rememeber what I said.

 

Amazing guests, I bought Gold cause of my lust for Daniel and would do it again without hesitation if he was announced again. Love how grounded and relaxed all the guests where though Michael is up there with JCB for sheer entertainment value.

Bill was obviously loving his first con and I am pleased we got the chance to see him as he is, no matter how graounded they are I did see a small change in Dan from the first time we met.

 

I love the amount of attendees, I think it was just the right amount for the guests and for us. I wont be at ET6 for personal reasons and though I would love to meet Kellan I just get the feeling the atmosphere wont be the same as there will be too many attendees. Though if you want to change the dates of the October cons permanently I would probably go. Cant miss my sons birthday for my obsession.

 

Right where in my opinion things could be improved:

 

The gold drinks reception was a big let down for me, the guests where rushed through certain attendees had their attention for the whole 2 minutes they where at the table, mostly as they where next to them or where more extrovert than others. Some of the guests never even came to our table and others got to see them at theirs twice. Wasnt enough spaces round them either. Maybe it could be split into two groups either concurrent or consectutively to each other. I know I would wait that little bit longer to have a little more time with them.

 

The guest talks, well some of the gold and silver priority seating you couldnt even see the stage!! I appreciate you need so many chairs but when you pay the extra money to guarantee a good view and all you can see is the screen or the back of the stage then I feel this is another let down for the priority seating.

 

Its also embarrassing when the fanfiction questions, personal experiences and the you did this and that at other events comes into it. Remember as the guests they are employed to be there and will become monotonous to anyone to have the same things over and over again. I am not sure about this but I think we may have had a shortage of questions, some attendees are too shy to get up and speak on a mic and I did notice this time that the questions for guests table had attendees sat on it waiting for photo shoots. Maybe it would be better to add a question slip onto the schedule and/or have a questions for the guests address on each event page for us to add to it when we think of one? The slip could then be placed in a letter box at registration desk.

 

Also feel the guest encounter bidding sheet should be at the registration desk or manned as its be known for other attendees to cross higher bids out than there own, unfair to those who have bidded and cant come back every five minutes to check theirs is still there.

 

I love the Hilton and I respect as we all do the no con guests that are there BUT I did hear a few of them not too impressed with us all.

Maybe we could have a 'chillax' room with a bar, could be incorporated into the restuarant where we can go to stop us milling round, Sunday is always the worst as if you are going you have to check out before midday and you hang around the corridors waiting for things to begin. Also for those of us who arent staying at the hotel they are very limited to where they can go. Love the idea of the video montage being shown so maybe that could happen in this room?

 

Shame that some attendees get the opportunity to get their own photos witht he guests when others either get told no by the crew or are following the con rules. Appreciate this is at the discretion of the guests but I think there is room for improvement on this too. Going through a few ideas in my head at the moment so when I get one I think might work I will of course share it.

 

Also think maybe the Hilton could give us our own lobby area and possibly group is up to one side of the hotel to stop us disturbing the guests who think we shouldnt be there.

 

Lastly (I think ;0/) could it be possible to move the Sunday party time. I have heard these are always the best but for those of us with commitments sometimes means we have to miss out. I know a 8.30 start hinders me from staying as I have checked out have nowhere to go for 2 plus hours am exhausted and still have a 2 hour journey home to make. Would mean more people would get more out of their tickets.

 

 

Obviously just my opinion but there you go.

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I can't agree with anyone being made to stay in a particular part of the hotel. Everyone has a right to be around there, anywhere in the hotel, if they are a part of the event. I certainly wouldn't want to be made to feel like I could only go in half of the hotel or whatever. It gets claustrophobic enough as it is sometimes being in the same building all weekend.

 

Plus that almost makes it feel like everyone's being punished.

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Sorry you misinterpret what I am saying, you shouldnt be made to not go in those areas but if there was a certain part of the hotel made available to us then we wouldnt be sat on floors in corridors or in the bar area all the time, especially on the Sunday.

 

I very rarely posy on this forum now but I have a right to give feedback to and offer suggestions so thats what I have done

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I know what Nicola means. On Sundays we check out of out rooms by 12. Once the closing ceremony is over we have nowhere to go, if you aren't staying another night, you end up loitering in corridors or clogging up the main bar area waiting the 2 plus hours for the party to start. In this case, it would be good to have an area where we can hang out without feeling like we are in the way. Yes, we are entitled to be in the hotel, but it would be as much for our comfort as anything.

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I didn't go to ET5, but a complaint I have heard from others is that the photoshoot photographs should be emailed out as JPEG's incase the photo is lost or people do not have scanners. Also I know I would want to get my photos blown up and put on display XD

Although this is not completely out of the question, and I know ME are looking at prehaps selling the jpegs.

 

I have to remind people that the copyright (and therefore the jpegs) of any photo taken by a professional photographer remains their property. And if you go by the letter of the law you should be paying the ME photographers royalties if you reproduce them in anyway, including scanning. It's no different to copying a DVD or CD, people do it all of the time, but it is illegal.

 

Anyone that's had a professional photographer at their wedding can tell you this. You can pay £600+ just for them to be there, then maybe another £400+ to have a number of the photos printed. But the photographer ALWAYS keeps the copyright and therefore if your family members want a copy of that lovely picture of you in your wedding gown they HAVE to get it from the photographer and something like an 8x10 will cost you £25. Some photographers do sell the copyright to the photos but that can get into the £4000+ area.

 

 

I did get the copyright of my wedding photo's for £150! damn good photo's and i had over 670 photo's of the day and now have them all on cd!!! I think people saw the photo's Giles took and assumed they were free and took them - i saw nothing near them that said you had to buy/order them so people who were at the first con might have just seen pics of them and then got them - i only found out at ET4 from someone who had done ET3!!! Just an idea for giles to maybe keep all the pics with him and you take the receipt to him to get them or a manned stall!

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