Event Feedback

[CosmicAvatar]

 

[cut for length]

 

Thanks again SM - I've only done LFCC and Collectormania with you before, so EMS was new. I didn't do any talks this time as I usually just accompany my friend who had to severely cut her con time down to only an hour due to her knee.

Hello, you, if you return to this thread. I didn't recognize your username, but I thought your writing style sounded familiar before I even got to the point where I recognized your experience, yet alone mentioned me! Thanks again for carrying my things. *bigsquish*

[dannyvegas]

I attended the event on Saturday and although it was a smaller event i still enjoyed it as much as London Comic Con this year. I was disappointed to find that Temeura Morrison (Once Were Warriors, Star Wars) had cancelled (again) as i have been waiting a few years to meet him and i was looking forward to getting a photo with him.

On the plus side i still had John Hurt, Edward Furlong and one of my sporting heroes Roberto Duran to meet.

Roberto was a real pleasure and i really commend showtime for sticking with the boxing guests (i know they are not as popular as film/television guests).

There was certainly a more relaxed atmosphere to the event and i didnt mind the change in venue at all. The dealers were varied and set out with plenty of space. I arrived at around 10am and was surprised to receive ticket number 453 for John Hurt (it was gonna be a long day). I was very happy that he was doing personal signatures and he seemed genuinely happy to meet his fans. Edward Furlong was polite but seemed bored...probably jet lag!

The photo collection area was much better than at LFCC this year. It was a good idea to have the sign up high so that we could see when our particular shoot was available in order to avoid a bun fight around the tables. A welcome improvement.

My only criticism would be with the guest line up. Of course this is a personal issue but it did seem more like a 'Dr Who' Convention with a scattering of other guests thrown in. Obviously the Dr Who guests are popular and are mostly British (and so easier to arrange), but i would love to see more international guests from the Sci fi and Horror genre. I am surprised that we rarely see any guests from the likes of Lost, True Blood or The Walking Dead for example. Id also love to see some more action stars at these events (after meeting Carl Weathers and Michael Biehn at last year's Collectormania and Chris Lambert at LFCC). How about Van Damme? Segal? Norris? Lungdren? (I wish). Id also love to see more horror related stars and perhaps one or two Directors on the list. Its a shame you did not have John Landis (Director of An American Werewolf in London, Blues Brothers) lined up as i know he is in town signing his new book on Movie Monsters.

 

All in all i think Showtime do a great job and im very happy to see that you have added another event to the calender in March! Cannot wait to see the line up come together.

[therussells]

We did both days and always get early bird tickets and try to get there well in advance of opening time if we know there's big guests that we really want to see. Saturday queuing was a farce and is well documented but we got there for 7.00am on Sunday to make sure that we got good David T tickets (160's so very happy). Thanks to the three people we chatted to in the queue on Sunday morning - it made the two hours fly by and was great fun.

 

DT - awesome. What can I say

Joe - always fantastic. 4th time of meeting and just gets better

Dame Diana - what a legend and so lovely.

Evanna - delightful

Maisie - a true star in the making. What a sweetie

Arthur - very lively and did posed photo's at the desk first thing Saturday morning

Shirley - very nice and so tiny

Frances - wonderful actress and really happy to meet her. Very chatty

 

Yes it was hot and the food was expensive and few places to sit but such is Earls Court - and it was hotter outside!!

 

The only thing that always annoys me is the people who turn up a 8.55 to 'join' their friends in the queue, have the cheek to say 'we're not queue jumping' - and then just hang around and stroll in with their mates when the doors open - grr

 

Thanks SM for getting Mr Tennant and Dame Diana - really good to have new 'rare' guests

Edited October 3, 2011 by puddlejumpers

[UZI SUICIDE]

 

 

 

A question I have wanted to ask. Does anyone really need a signature so large it takes up an entire screen on my 24 inch monitor (see below)? And does anyone care who you have met? Is there a way to display forums without this spam at the bottom of all the posts?

Edited October 3, 2011 by DavidB

[DavidB]

My Controls (top right hand corner of the board) then Board Settings.

[UZI SUICIDE]

 

 

"The heat. OMG. It was so bad that my brand new Samsung Galaxy SII broke: yup, due to either the heat or condensation caused by shifting temperatures the screen got corrupted. Thankfully it was still under warranty so O2 sent out a replacement, but really, EMS could have ended up costing me another £500!! That definitely needs looking into."

 

 

 

What?

 

Record temperatures and you want to blame showmasters for coming to your house and shoving you in a van with your phone, then dragging you down to their little showbiz-a-palooza? As if it is their fault.

Hot day, is hot. We have the same phone which did not break, maybe that is thanks to showmasters? Cheers Too Tall, youve saved the day.

 

My Controls (top right hand corner of the board) then Board Settings.

 

 

Awesome, thanks very much.

[djnana]

What is the point of buying earlybird tickets if they do not guarentee you getting in before other people who just turn up on the day?

It allows you to spread your expenditure so that some of it is iun advance of the event, it means you have to cart a little less cash around with you, and it allows you to join a queue that should theoretically move faster because nobody in your queue has to fifddle around with money of get change etc.

How would your idea that people who have pre-paid get in first work? Suppose I only find out on Thursday that I can come to the show. Too late to buy an advance ticket, I decide to get there at 7am and start queueing. Does this mean I'm not allowed in before you, whatever time you turn up? Do I have to wait outside until all the pre-paid entry tickets have gone in? Because if that's the case, you only need one person with a pre-paid ticket not to turn up, and I'm stood around all day waiting to be let in. Or do I just have to wait until the couple of thousand prepaid folks who turned up at 8:50am, just before the doors opened, go in before I can buy a ticket and go in?

 

 

The food and drink there was outrageously priced. £4.50 for a pasty and £2.20 for a normal sized bottle of coke is an absoulute disgrace. We brought our own food and drink today and would do so in the future. It was an unpleasant surprise on the Saturday though.

From experience I would say that the food and drink prices at every major conference and exhibition venue (as well as every major sports venue and most major entertainmnet venues) range from rather exorbitant to outrageously expensive. I'm afraid it rather goes with territory; venues milking (semi-)captive audiences is all part of their (the venues') business models. Usually nothing an event organiser can do about it.

No - all you have to do is have the one queue to make it fairer (obviously different for Gold Passes - pretty simple really.

Edited October 3, 2011 by djnana

[DavidB]

No - all you have to do is have the one queue to make it fairer (obviously different for Gold Passes - pretty simple really.

Probably being a bit thick here but I don't understand your idea?

[cathylane]

loved Armin..he was fab..as was my little chat with paul mcgann (he liked my hair!!) got my photo and signature from DT (eventually.it was my birthday on sunday) although cried all the way back to Wales and still quite upset today, the poor 2 female crew members behind the photo table who collapsed, due to heat and being surrounded by 1,000 rude people because the photos had been messed up..i so neede to get out of the way but couldn't because even though visably there were 2 crew members on the floor i was still being sandwiched against the table!! can some one plz give me some conformation that that 2 ladies in question are ok just to put my mind at ease..thanks xx

[special child]

the crew were all helpful and lovely, which was great; as were all the guests I met. Also a special thanks to the crew and guest (not naming who) for putting up with my incredibly rude companion. (if you know about this incident, i'd rather you didn't say anything. already almost cried yesterday about it! :/)

 

Oh you poor thing! If you worry this much about someone else, you must be sweet. I'm sure you balanced out any rudeness by your companion.

 

Ah, I'm worried I didn't. I tried to get my companion to move on and they didn't take the hint. I was mortified, but I'll hopefully get over it. Other than that my saturday was amazing.

[timelord81r]

No - all you have to do is have the one queue to make it fairer (obviously different for Gold Passes - pretty simple really.

Probably being a bit thick here but I don't understand your idea?

 

 

well one queue would be first come first in line, then at entrance there would need to be more crew perhaps but at the entrance pay on the day split to pay and pre paid hand ticket and enter

.

 

the issue is you could pre pay, get there early and be 1000 back in line, but someone could pay on the day (which is usually fewer ppl) turn up hours after you and get in sooner cos of the shorter queue.

 

alot of the time it doesnt have any bad effects and doesnt matter, but sometimes it does, I was in line for CML pre paid and ppl who came an hour or 2 later on pay on the day got in before me.

[madmonster*]

loved Armin..he was fab..as was my little chat with paul mcgann (he liked my hair!!) got my photo and signature from DT (eventually.it was my birthday on sunday) although cried all the way back to Wales and still quite upset today, the poor 2 female crew members behind the photo table who collapsed, due to heat and being surrounded by 1,000 rude people because the photos had been messed up..i so neede to get out of the way but couldn't because even though visably there were 2 crew members on the floor i was still being sandwiched against the table!! can some one plz give me some conformation that that 2 ladies in question are ok just to put my mind at ease..thanks xx

 

I'm sure both the girls won't mind me saying that they are both fine now. As you will have seen we took them down to the medical room where they were both checked out and after some air they were fine.

[adriangill]

The stand out ones were...Can not recall any names but hopefully you will reccognise yourselves.. Girl in photo shoot area with Dame Diana...always lively and fun...young chap collecting photo A area tickets, calm and a smile for us attendees. Chatty chap with goatee collecting bags at photo area A.

I misread the last one. Replace 'goatee' with 'goat'

[scatmanjon]

One thing I was wondering, if you get a personal item signed are you still allowed to take one of the prints the celebs have? I got my Dr Who book signed from Kate O Mara and also took one of the pictures too, I'm not sure she was too pleased with that as she looked a bit startled and began talking to her assistant, did I commit a faux paus????

 

Hey Your right, if you get your own item signed you are more than welcome to take a photo too so long as you dont try and get it signed

The free 10"x8" provided by Showmasters are designed primaarily for people who do not have anything to get signed. If a lot of people, who have their own items to be signed, take them as well then there is a good chance that they will run out, which is not fair for the people who are relying on them. Just something to be aware of.

 

Another thing to be aware of is that guests quite often bring their own images, which may have been the case with Kate O'Mara. Kate may have been chatting to the assistant to clarify things if a similar situation arose again later on in the day. Don't worry about it.

 

 

In fairness I did politely ask her attendant if I could take one before I did so. Her attendant said it was fine, but I noticed as I did Kate looked a bit puzzled and leaned in to talk to her. I was worrying then in case I'd offended her and as she was sitting next to Paul McGann whether she'd say anything to me when I was in that queue. Thankfully there was no other issue but I felt bad in case I'd upset her or stepped on ettiquete or something.

[adam.anouer]

One thing I was wondering, if you get a personal item signed are you still allowed to take one of the prints the celebs have? I got my Dr Who book signed from Kate O Mara and also took one of the pictures too, I'm not sure she was too pleased with that as she looked a bit startled and began talking to her assistant, did I commit a faux paus????

 

Hey Your right, if you get your own item signed you are more than welcome to take a photo too so long as you dont try and get it signed

The free 10"x8" provided by Showmasters are designed primaarily for people who do not have anything to get signed. If a lot of people, who have their own items to be signed, take them as well then there is a good chance that they will run out, which is not fair for the people who are relying on them. Just something to be aware of.

 

Another thing to be aware of is that guests quite often bring their own images, which may have been the case with Kate O'Mara. Kate may have been chatting to the assistant to clarify things if a similar situation arose again later on in the day. Don't worry about it.

 

That was a very polite thing to do. When I was ticketing for Eve Myles at the end of the day the Queue died down so I let some of her fans talk to her. Then when they asked me to refrain them from doing so I apologised to her and to her credit she was really sweet and even blew me a kiss at the end.

 

I think alot of people are self concious about seeing a guest in person and making request but for the most part they are pretty great.

 

In fairness I did politely ask her attendant if I could take one before I did so. Her attendant said it was fine, but I noticed as I did Kate looked a bit puzzled and leaned in to talk to her. I was worrying then in case I'd offended her and as she was sitting next to Paul McGann whether she'd say anything to me when I was in that queue. Thankfully there was no other issue but I felt bad in case I'd upset her or stepped on ettiquete or something.

[Avengers7]

Biggest complait was with the fiasco at the Paul McGann shoot and the girls in front of me at the Evanna queue who just talked to her for ages and no one moved them on.

[adam.anouer]

Biggest complait was with the fiasco at the Paul McGann shoot and the girls in front of me at the Evanna queue who just talked to her for ages and no one moved them on.

 

Day 1 or 2?

[Bad Dog]

They are both ok thanks,

 

Mara

 

 

 

loved Armin..he was fab..as was my little chat with paul mcgann (he liked my hair!!) got my photo and signature from DT (eventually.it was my birthday on sunday) although cried all the way back to Wales and still quite upset today, the poor 2 female crew members behind the photo table who collapsed, due to heat and being surrounded by 1,000 rude people because the photos had been messed up..i so neede to get out of the way but couldn't because even though visably there were 2 crew members on the floor i was still being sandwiched against the table!! can some one plz give me some conformation that that 2 ladies in question are ok just to put my mind at ease..thanks xx

[ootagotasolo]

Hi showmasters,

 

Some feedback from the weekend:

 

The photo shoot collection fiasco seems to have been dealt with and worked better than at LFCC. Some good guests, but not the best line up SM have had in recent years, but to be fair the cancellations didn't help and im not a doctor who fan so its one of those things. Was great to have a LOTR guest at last and more Game of Thrones guests in the future too. I don't like Earls Court 1 as a venue, it does look tacky, which i can deal with but my biggest problem was the light. All my pictures with guests at the table look really bad cos the light in some parts of the signing areas was really poor. I see quite a few people complained about the heat but to be fair i didn't think it was too bad, i think if it had been more crowded then it could have been a nightmare. The show seemed to be crewed really well again, good job guys.

In all as a SM veteran of 8 years this was one of the poorest events for a while, not all SM fault, but i really like the direction SM are going with these events and they are getting better organized with bigger guests, just please don't use EC1 again. Bluewater is a fantastic choice for a con for next year, let's hope there are some big guests for that one.

 

Thanks SM

[cookies41]

Going to agree with a lot of the other feedback on this thread. The event was really well run, I attended both days (although was only there for about 2 hours on the saturday as I was attending another event (less said the better) and just want to put a few comments down

 

1. The CREW - absolutely amazing! Everyone I spoke to was polite, friendly and helpful. I had chats with quite a few of them and even though they were quite tired and stressed -especially towards the end of the day they still looked like they were having fun.

 

2. The Venue layout was good - athough I agree the esculator and lifts were a bit ridiculous (one point esculator was going up then it was going down then back up again) But the layout for the hall was good allowed people to move more freely.

 

3. Talks - didnt see as many as I wanted to due to other clashes but I did sit through all the Harry Potter talk on Sunday and gotta say it did have really bad feedback - I know Evanna's voice is a little quiet but it was hard to hear her so think that is something that could be improved on.

 

4. The Guests - all the guests I met were lovely, friendly and chatty - special mentions to Arthur Darvil who happily put the quote I wanted on the autograph, Armin Shimmerman who was honestly so chatty, friendly and answered my questions honestly about his exerience on Buffy and his episode of Charmed and Eve Myles who still remains one of my favourite guests -EVER! Had already met her at a previous Hub but couldnt resist meeting her again. Ended up babbling quite a bit and slightly professed my love for her and she gave me a hug and blew me a kiss as I walked away - most lovely woman ever!

 

5 Photo Collection - SOOO much better handled having 2 areas and a poster on each area saying what had come back and in what area was such a great idea!! Made everything easier. Also whoever came up with the gloves idea and not touching photos is a genius -brilliant idea! Yes it was madness at the end with the DT photoshoot having duplicates and it coming back late but I think that was less the crews fault more developing issues and silly people who were constantly told to move away from the area and come back but yet still stood there! Also hoping the lady crew member who passed out is feeling better - the last I saw she was sitting up so hoping she's feeling much better now

 

6. Finally the grand prize of the weekend Mr David Tennant! When he was announced I could've died! I was umming and arring at the start of the day even though I had VT #65 but after many people said he was lovely I couldnt resist. I'm also going to echo the sentiment that whoever decided that people could take photos of him up to a point is also a genius -allowed people to take away a memento even if they couldnt get a photo with him! David was lovely, poite and said thank you, looking up and smiling which is all I need for someone who is incredibly busy. One thing I would mention though is to just make sure tha when the crew pass items over to him that they wait for the person in front to finish - I almost missed my 30 seconds with him because the crew had passed it over too quickly and he had already signed it without it getting to me being in front of him. Thankfully the lady did say 'this is for this person' which i was grateful for.

Couple other notes on DT - think moving him around the hall was very well managed - Too Tall leading the charge along with security and a couple other crew members meant that he was secure enough. Overall it was a tigh run operation! Even right at the end when him and Georgia left in the car they were led out by crew and security and the path on the steps was cleared Was shocked that he had gone open queue by just before 5 - meant I got to go through again with a friend and take a couple of pictures of her with him.

One other quick thing I would mention though is those 'fans' and members of the public that try and take it too far. At the end of his morning session there was a lot of people milling around obviously waiting for him to come through, even though people were telling them to move. When he did come through I witnessed 2 young giggly girls running after him taking pictures but then also several other older peope running after him also - not meaning to sound rude but please Grow Up! The man is only human and that does need to be happening.

 

Sorry for my rambling. To sum I had a brilliant and surreal weekend!

[Haskett]

Something i have to say i noticed about people who were there is i didn't realise conventions were so popular amongst the metal community, i saw so many people in band t-shirts (Iron Maiden, metallica, alice cooper, motorhead ect) and i liked that as it didn't make me feel out of place walking around in my maiden t-shirt haha, that was a plus point of EMS for me :-p

[Spirit Juggler]

I thought the event was rather quiet to be honest. I was expecting it to be rammed as LFCC was but on the saturday it really wasn't. Figured that it was because people were holding off for the Sunday and David Tennant but then Sunday didn't seem much busier either. I wonder if perhaps the event was a little too Who and put some people off attending as there really weren't as many big guests that weren't Who as with previous shows. If you're a Dr Who fan then this was a fantastic event. If you're not... it probably wasn't worth much more than about an hour of your time.

[DavidB]

If you're a Dr Who fan then this was a fantastic event. If you're not... it probably wasn't worth much more than about an hour of your time.

Really?

 

There were many non-Who guests, a whole selection of dealers, video games, talks etc.

 

Perhaps it wasn't worth it to you, but there was plenty on offer for people that weren't into Who.

[thefreckles]

Not too sure about the few complaints about the pay on the day queue getting in quicker than the pre-paid queue. Unless the pay on the day bods had started queuing very early, I think the majority of us got in after the pre-paid bods. I was mid-way along the pay on the day queue on Saturday and way before I even up to the doors (let alone inside the building), the pre-paid queue had disappeared. I was only going for one guest so didn't want to pre-book a ticket in case they cancelled (luckily they didn't). I'm not going to get into the fact that both parties pay the same amount for a ticket! Of course, once in I got tempted by other guests, as I knew I would :)

 

One other negative I forgot to mention - myself for totally forgetting Masie Williams was going to be there on the Sunday (despite having tweeted about it myself). Am so annoyed!

[Farqhuarbeedlebum]

If you're a Dr Who fan then this was a fantastic event. If you're not... it probably wasn't worth much more than about an hour of your time.

Really?

There were many non-Who guests, a whole selection of dealers, video games, talks etc.

Perhaps it wasn't worth it to you, but there was plenty on offer for people that weren't into Who.

While I enjoyed the event quite a lot (met David T, Arthur D, Shirley H, Ian M) I still felt it was a very Dr. Who /Harry Potter -centric convention as have the last few. Yes, there are still a lot of other guests from other shows and movies and yes I understand that Dr. Who is popular at the moment and pulls in the crowds but I kinda felt sorry for some of the american guests who were very quiet and must of been wondering what all the fuss was about. Some of the other guests that were there would have been massive draws 2 years ago.