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More talks added to the online shop


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Things change, it's natural, I was at the first LFCC too and I've been doing these events for nearly 10 years. When I started there were no photoshoots, then they started doing photoshoots and there was a huge outcry from people saying why should they pay for a photo with a guest then for years they'd had free photos over the desk. But now photoshoots are one of the busiest and most requested parts of the events. And things will have gotten more expensive over the years. This event has had to move to a different venue to normal, I'm going to assume there are cost implications to that, and guest fees will have gotten more expensive over the years too, and yet entrance fees to the event have stayed the same and for the most part autographs have stayed pretty much the same too. I have no issue with them charging for a number of the more popular talks, especially those that will have multiple guests taking part, since time when a talk is taking place is time when those guests are not signing autographs and are therefore not generating income. If you have a talk with 3 to 5 guests taking place, that's a huge chunk of income that's being lost if the talk is free. It makes business sense therefore to charge for some of the talks.

 

Very well said. Perhaps the announcement could have been made a few weeks earlier, but I have no problem paying for talks.

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I'm going to put a contrary point of view; apologies if it offends anybody.

Let us just assume that costs have gone up since last year - with the inflation we've been having for the last couple of years that's entirely plausible.

Unfortunately the idea of "putting up the entry price by a pound" just won't work. Sure it would increase revenue, but given the number of people who would want £4 or £9 change, you'd need to equip the front door with what £4,000 of pound coins, at least. That's about 40 kilos of pound coins, and is a significant weight and volume to deal with, and also a security risk. Additionally at the end of the day you're likely to end up with quite a bit of it back. Not only is it a logistical nightmare, counting out all the change is also likely to slow down the entry queues.

So there's the argument for making more talks "paid for".

As has been pointed out taking people out of signing (or photoshooting) time is a loss of revenue to SM. And for all I know, if you want somebody to do something a little more proactive than smile at the camera and squiggle the name, it may cost more. Maybe it's just me, but if you wanted me to do some sort of preparation and give a talk, I'd probably want a bit more cash than for just sitting there signing. But maybe that's just me. In either case, even if it's just a loss of signing/shooting time and revenue, I think we can all agree that a talk represents some sort of cost to SM. Now if you view it as having previously been funded by "door money", that means everybody was paying for it. Which raises the question of if it is fair that 10,000 people should pay for a talk for a few hundred people to attend? If I attend and don't fancy any of say 20 free talks, is it fair that I should be subsidising so many talks for other people?

Now I appreciate that there may be some guests who will probably attract fewer people than other guests, and sufficiently fewer that they would probably have clocked up an hour of sitting around doing nothing whilst on signing duty. In such case there's no real revenue loss to SM in taking them out of signing and into a talk. And heck they might be so glad to do it they'll charge little or nothing for the privilege. So yes, those can still be free. But after that you have to make all the rest of the guests cover themselves in terms of costs, because the only other option is to put a fiver on the entry ticket. And it doesn't seem unreasonable that if some people are going to "benefi"t from a talk, then they should pay for it.

Of course, the pricing of all these talks and the timing of their introduction is another matter. And it might have been nice if there was some advance warning and explanation; a bit of "managing customer expectations" never goes amiss. Just dropping a minor bombshell unannounced never goes down well.

I guess the big hope would be that in a couple of years there will be a quick (current chip and pin is too slow) and secure way of paying electronically which SM can use that will be widespread amongst the public, such as one sees on certain smartphones. If you could be sure that maybe two-thirds of the people could (and would) pay with a quick swipe of the phone, then putting the door price up a pound or two wouldn't be such a pound coin nightmare. (Of course, it also relies on the machines to accept such payments being available to people like SM at a not unreasonable cost).

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". Sure it would increase revenue, but given the number of people who would want £4 or £9 change, you'd need to equip the front door with what £4,000 of pound coins,"

 

You do realise early entry and standard entry currently cost £12 and £6 right????

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". Sure it would increase revenue, but given the number of people who would want £4 or £9 change, you'd need to equip the front door with what £4,000 of pound coins,"

 

You do realise early entry and standard entry currently cost £12 and £6 right????

 

Exactly, that was a complete non-argument. Putting up the entry price a bit would generate many thousands in extra revenue, possibly more than the talks will generate. I'd expect people would be more accepting of a small increase in entry price if it meant most talks remained free rather than the huge and sudden charge now being asked.

 

However, there could be many reasons we are unaware of why this has been introduced but it has shocked a lot of people at this late stage when budgets are being stretched with many great guest announcements and possibly still more to come.

 

I hope to get to as many talks as I can and will be very interested to see what attendances are like, especially given the low numbers at many of the free ones last year and the low numbers being reported for some of the CMMK paid talks (though I understand charging for these what with it being a free event etc).

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Yes, it is the natural progression of things to get more expensive, it has to happen to cover costs. I just feel that there has been a HUGE jump in the number of paid talks, How many were there last year? 2? 3? This year there are 24...

I have no problem with paying for the odd talk, I've done this before and will do it again, but when it gets to the stage that for me to see all the talks I would like to over the weekend costing £95 when in previous years maybe only 2 would have been paid and would cost me £30 or something.

 

Based on CM;MK are unprepared to part with this type of money for talks. I just think that they are going to suffer, not to mention it looks bad for the guests if only 50-100 people out of 20000-30000 pay to come to them. Imagine being the guest on stage looking out at basically no-one, it can't be that uplifting. If I'm honest, I felt a little awkward at Christopher Lambert's talk last year and at a number of the talks at CM;MK (Brandon Routh & the 5 Doctors talks especially).

 

Having said all that, I've bought a gold ticket, I wasn't going to but with £95 on talks and £24 for entry that's £119 already, plus I have the option of going to talks on the Saturday and Sunday or for the same guest twice. Gold tickets have never been worth so much!

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Well first of all I love seeing that there are many many talks this year, and (I might be wrong) last year I cant imagin it was this many talks putting the money aside.

 

And if that was the case then is there more free talks this year or last year in total nr, not percent?

 

I see alot of dissapointed people in this thread, Im not one of them Im thrilled of the number of talks.

 

BUT I really hope you will get a timetable out Asap, cause this is gonna cause alot of clashes for people Im afraid, the logistics of this is ... a depanding puzzle.

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For those asking 'what's changed since last year?' about things becoming more expensive, I present to you: The Olympics. Otherwise known as 'an excuse for every airline and hotel operating into, in or around London to hike up their prices all summer'. There's probably someone in the showmasters office cursing the very existence of the games.

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I get that people are disappointed that these talks aren't free, but I'm getting depressed about the amount of moaning that's going on. I was so excited about the recent guest announcements and the talks but you guys are really harshing my squee :(

 

i totally get you!!

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Well first of all I love seeing that there are many many talks this year, and (I might be wrong) last year I cant imagin it was this many talks putting the money aside.

 

And if that was the case then is there more free talks this year or last year in total nr, not percent?

 

Still got my schedule from last year. There were 21 talks (11 on Saturday and 10 on Sunday), 2 of which were paid for if I recall - Karen Gillan on Saturday which was packed out and Christopher Lambert on Sunday which was disappointingly empty but well worth going to.

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If I'm honest, I felt a little awkward at Christopher Lambert's talk last year and at a number of the talks at CM;MK (Brandon Routh & the 5 Doctors talks especially).

I completely agree with this having been to Brandon's talk at CM:MK. There can't have been more than 15 people at that talk, and I can't imagine he'd get a similar reception back in the States. However, I get that talks were charged for at that event because of room hire. I'm not so sure as to why there is a charge at LFCC

I'm not disappointed, just a little confused as to why this is happening and why its happening so close to the event.

I think Showmasters needs to answer peoples questions to diffuse the anger in this topic, the frustration is only going to continue otherwise. Yes, some are willing to pay/Have gold passes etc., but for the overwhelming majority I think Showmasters should step in at this point to answer peoples questions and explain why they chose this option instead of adding a £1 to the entry fee etc

Edited by BreakingBad123
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For those asking 'what's changed since last year?' about things becoming more expensive, I present to you: The Olympics. Otherwise known as 'an excuse for every airline and hotel operating into, in or around London to hike up their prices all summer'. There's probably someone in the showmasters office cursing the very existence of the games.

 

I hadn't even considered the "Olympics factor" but yes, that will have added to the costs for Showmasters too, the hotel rooms for the guests, their flights to the UK, and all the logistics of holding an event of this size will have increased due to the blooming Olympics :(

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I get that people are disappointed that these talks aren't free, but I'm getting depressed about the amount of moaning that's going on. I was so excited about the recent guest announcements and the talks but you guys are really harshing my squee :(

 

I agree, as Ive said before, Jason you have a hard job putting all this together. Keep up the good work. You rock!

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I get that people are disappointed that these talks aren't free, but I'm getting depressed about the amount of moaning that's going on. I was so excited about the recent guest announcements and the talks but you guys are really harshing my squee :(

 

I agree, as Ive said before, Jason you have a hard job putting all this together. Keep up the good work. You rock!

 

!!!! :thumbup:

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really dissapointed in this, i'm spending over 200 pounds just getting there with tickets and everything and now your charging for talks?

 

last year even the back to the future talk was free and it was brilliant... sorry i dont feel like paying 15 pounds for a talk when im already spending so much on getting there etc

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Sorry to be blunt, but if you "don't feel like paying" then don't, no-one's being forced to pay anything or even come to the event at all, it's a choice, you choose whether you think it's worth it or not or whether you can afford it or not. There are few people that can afford to do everything they want in life, we can't expect the world to cater to our personal budgets. I've missed out on coming to LFCC in the past or missed out on specific guests because I couldn't afford to meet them, that's life.

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Sorry to be blunt, but if you "don't feel like paying" then don't, no-one's being forced to pay anything or even come to the event at all, it's a choice, you choose whether you think it's worth it or not or whether you can afford it or not. There are few people that can afford to do everything they want in life, we can't expect the world to cater to our personal budgets. I've missed out on coming to LFCC in the past or missed out on specific guests because I couldn't afford to meet them, that's life.

 

say.. can you read my mind or something? youre literally saying what im thinking the whole time haha

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". Sure it would increase revenue, but given the number of people who would want £4 or £9 change, you'd need to equip the front door with what £4,000 of pound coins,"

 

You do realise early entry and standard entry currently cost £12 and £6 right????

I'll get my coat.

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