Queues

[mflowers]

I was number 781 in Hayden autograph but after 10 mins they said to go as it was open queuing

 

Although she was nice she was too busy telling her gaurd man about her back hurting than Talking to me

[TommyT]

This sort of thing would never would happen if we didn't have to pay to get in and to be honest I still don't know why we have to pay to get in ? Don't you think we pay enough once inside ?

Well, you could probably get rid of the entrance fee (which no doubt goes towards the not inconsiderable cost of hiring a huge venue in Central London) and dispers it over auto and talk and photoshoot costs. The downsides of that are

* the people who support the show the most by buying lots of stuff would end up paying even more of the costs

* you're likely to attract even more people (since it's effectively free to get in) with no guarantee of extra income

* with no differential pricing, there's no benefit in turning up to come at 11am, so anybody who's saving a few quid at the moment by going for standard admission has no reason to wait until 11 and may as well come earlier if they can - meaning you get more people trying to get in earlier

* with no need to stop and show or buy entrance tickets you would have absolutely huge crush at the doors, far worse than now. Open the doors with thousands outside who have the idea that there should be no obstructions or delays and it just becomes an almighty heave as people jostle to get in first.

 

None of that excuses poor queue management outside, but I think ditching the entrance fee would be bad news and potentially dangerous

[Clarkey]

So where is Jason an apology is required here

I'm sorry but posts like this are just dumb. You do realise the event only recently ended for the day and i believe it went beyond the 6pm finish? You think his first action after the day finishes is to read all the threads on the forum to apologise for anything that went wrong.

 

I'm sure that he and staff will be reviewing all these threads and taking onboard all the complaints and suggestions after this weekend event has finished and maybe apologies will come then. Some things have been taken onboard already for preparation tomorrow, although it won't be as manic.

 

But please don't expect such apologies like an hour after the event finished.

[MrsEllacott]

So where is Jason an apology is required here

I'm sorry but posts like this are just dumb. You do realise the event only recently ended for the day and i believe it went beyond the 6pm finish? You think his first action after the day finishes is to read all the threads on the forum to apologise for anything that went wrong.

 

I'm sure that he and staff will be reviewing all these threads and taking onboard all the complaints and suggestions after this weekend event has finished and maybe apologies will come then. Some things have been taken onboard already for preparation tomorrow, although it won't be as manic.

 

But please don't expect such apologies like an hour after the event finished.

 

I also think that a lot of issues from today were caused by the fact of guests cancelling, new photo ops and talks being added which led rescheduling of some other photos and talk which then caused a lot confusion for attendees and crew!

[Flibble]

I think that at Earls Court there is a lot more room for people to queue and the queues are normally well separated there.

[Clarkey]

I also think that a lot of issues from today were caused by the fact of guests cancelling, new photo ops and talks being added which led rescheduling of some other photos and talk which then caused a lot confusion for attendees and crew!

Those are unfortunate circumstances, but no-one can really be blamed for that. And certainly Jason shouldn't be expected to apologise for guests cancelling and changes being made at last minute.

[MrsEllacott]

I also think that a lot of issues from today were caused by the fact of guests cancelling, new photo ops and talks being added which led rescheduling of some other photos and talk which then caused a lot confusion for attendees and crew!

Those are unfortunate circumstances, but no-one can really be blamed for that. And certainly Jason shouldn't be expected to apologise for guests cancelling and changes being made at last minute.

 

I agree! I think it had a knock effect though! So I think people need to take this in to consideration!

[sdad]

But relying on volunteers to do a day's work and then proclaiming to the world that you are short of them with a few days to go really shows what is wrong with the whole public side of things. I should be ashamed, not apologetic if I did not get the basics right after so many years' experience, especially considering the massive turnover of cash.

[paulo]

Not been to this event before i decided to pop up and get my tickets on Friday evening ....wow,im so lucky i did.

 

I only had the one guest i was interested in meeting so i thought it would be prety easy, didnt bank on the amount of time id have to invest queing up!!

 

Arrived at Olympia about 5pm on Friday and joined the non ticket holders line , wanted to buy an EB ticket and a photo shoot ticket for today , well once the doors opened at 6 it took about 15 mins to get the EB ticket done , which was sold to me at the same time i paid £5??!! to get in just to buy the photoshoot ticket ,where i joined one of 4 queues that took me over two hours to get one ticket , paid in cash!!

 

This morning i arrived at the venue at 7.30 and it all seemed pretty sensible and a quick headcount put me 90ish in line,cool i thought, although there was only one member of staff in evidence i knew where to go as there were "show veterans " around me to help and had the benefit of Friday night too , if i just arrived that morning blind , i wouldnt have had a clue as signege was really bad!

 

After about 10 mins we were asked to move round and form the "snake" and then a bit later ,bunch up, ,it was obvious as the morning wore on and more train loads of people arrived there was some confusion,.also that when we were finally let in , those paying for EB tickets on the door were getting in as quickly as us pre paid , which seemed a bit odd.

 

Once in i moved smartly to Haydens station and got my VT ...#39,not bad i thought and when she arrived got my items signed , personalised and had a few words with her too,though no pics which was dissappointing as the other guests around her were only to keen to have their pics with the punters.No probs , i have my photo op upcoming!

 

Come the photo op , the staff on hand were helpful but due to time and numbers involved i felt that we were just rushed through and in about 10 secs it was done , the whole process was a bit of a let down

So i was all done by 12.30......................except i was still there at 4.00 waiting for my photoshoot pic,which i still didnt find and had to complete the form ....and pay another £2 for the priviledge

 

I appreciate i could have got my tickets in advance and saved some of the hassle but surely in this digital age when you can get your train tickets for a million different destinations from a machine , the same thing can be done for shoot,talk and autograph tickets , rather than a super slow manual system?? Yes it would cost money to install but you only have to pay once and likewise the photoshoot prints, the camera is tethered by wifi to a pc so surely its possible to print instantly at a mouse click , not wait 4 hours!!

 

Anyway , Hayden was lovely , got my stuff signed so mostly happy with the day ,reading some accounts on here thank god i didnt have a shopping list to get round .......maybe next time??!!

Edited July 7, 2012 by paulo

[trickydickyy]

It would be interesting to hear from show masters on this and make some sort of apology / acknowledgement from the tall one about this. Be interesting for a comment..,... Tall one I await to hear from you...?

[Banished_From_Rohan]

 

Having moaned about all that, kudos to the crew managing the Mitch Pileggi photo shoot. They did a great job and brilliantly managed things!

 

Why thank you very much - we did our best :) Can I also say with relation to Adam Baldwin that the crew on B photoshoot were told that Adam was moving to D because of the large number with Holly that still had to go through, so that as far as we knew was the place to send you. What happened once you got there I'm afraid I've no idea.

[adriangill]

For the benefit of people asking - replies to issues etc are normally not made by Showmasters until a few days after the event has finished.

[Cube1701]

What happened once you got there I'm afraid I've no idea.

 

 

 

The Adam Baldwin photoshoot (he was my second choice as transport made me miss Jewel Staite's) was a complete and utter shambles. Everyone got there at 3:25 (after working out which area it is as different signs/staff said different things). We were stood waiting and had to figure out what was going on amongst ourselves (the staff didn't explain anything) - the Brian Krause photoshoot overran by a massive amount.

 

We were finally put into a queue to start going in at around 4:25 - we were standing around wondering what was going on for an entire hour.

 

The most annoying thing: throughout this hour, Photo Area C (right next to D) was completely empty.

 

After collecting photos was a complete mess last year (this time I just have to hope it arrives in the post after giving in my details and paying £2) I'm never doing another LFCC photo shoot. It's way too much hassle and stress. I'll get a few autographs instead.

 

---

 

Still, once we finally got to Adam Baldwin he was very friendly.

Edited July 7, 2012 by Cube1701

[jakeblue]

In truth I think myself and those around me were put ahead of others that had been there longer. I got there and proceeded to try to find the end of the queue, I was then sent back down to the train station end and there was confusion as to who was early bird and who wasn't so we filtered in where we thought the end of early bird was, at this point there were still people heading in the wrong direction.

 

Once in the queue I followed the snake and then behind us everyone just headed for the door. Apologises if I did end up in front of anyone, I just went where I was told.

 

Inside everything was great except the Mitch pigelli queue, I got a vt and had number 378, as the board said 1-125 I went off to do other things. I went back about an hour later and the queue was closed for a talk or photo shoot which again I understand, when I again returned later the numbers were still 1-125 which it stayed as until again it was closed and I gave up.

 

My only other gripe was Gary Frank didn't seem to ever be at his table as everytime I went to see him the sign stating what time he would be back was changed.

 

I got to see everyone else I wanted to though so all in all I'm a happy bunny.

[sirjim]

I cannot comment on the Queues as I arrived at about 9.50am with my Early Bird walked straight through the doors without anyone checking my ticket although I was waving it around trying to find someone to show it to (maybe someone did see me waving it and I didn't notice them - I don't know for sure), and dashed to the photo shoot queue for Gillian.

 

I am lucky that I live reasonably close so am always able to stay on till the end to get what I can so have never bothered to arrive before opening. I find getting there around 10am seems to be the best option for me as there are huge queues every year and i just cannot face that, with all the OTHER queues to come during the day...

 

I think to be fair it is blatantly obvious from the posts here that there was not enough personnel/barriers controlling the queue and that is the ONLY answer for an event this big! In one form or another, this is the method used by Disney/Universal/Alton Towers and so on and so on, and I would hazard a guess that they have an idea about what they are doing

 

And boy my impression today - is this event massive now!!!! Earls Court used to feel big when full but Olympia felt like the next level up from even that!

 

I am sure they will look at the queuing when the dust settles. I am not saying that a response at some point in the future isn't appropriate in this case, but they needed to prep for tomorrow and that seems kind of obvious to me.

 

Had a wonderful time though and Gillian, Mitch and Adam were all awesome!

 

Had no problem with any crew members, they were all fine with me other than they seemed to be rather poorly informed at times but clearly that is not their fault. I think it was a symptom of the overwhelming size of the event.

 

One final point - I totally agree the Mitch photoshoot was maybe the most "clockwork" shoot I have ever been in, so something tells me they need to be promoted asap!!!

 

And I mean that quite seriously, people that run things this well should be running Photo Shoot A or something and this might free up longstanding staff/volunteers to focus on other areas???

[TommyT]

This sort of thing would never would happen if we didn't have to pay to get in and to be honest I still don't know why we have to pay to get in ? Don't you think we pay enough once inside ?

Well, you could probably get rid of the entrance fee (which no doubt goes towards the not inconsiderable cost of hiring a huge venue in Central London) and dispers it over auto and talk and photoshoot costs. The downsides of that are

* the people who support the show the most by buying lots of stuff would end up paying even more of the costs

* you're likely to attract even more people (since it's effectively free to get in) with no guarantee of extra income

* with no differential pricing, there's no benefit in turning up to come at 11am, so anybody who's saving a few quid at the moment by going for standard admission has no reason to wait until 11 and may as well come earlier if they can - meaning you get more people trying to get in earlier

* with no need to stop and show or buy entrance tickets you would have absolutely huge crush at the doors, far worse than now. Open the doors with thousands outside who have the idea that there should be no obstructions or delays and it just becomes an almighty heave as people jostle to get in first.

 

None of that excuses poor queue management outside, but I think ditching the entrance fee would be bad news and potentially dangerous

So why dont we get that at the MK football stadium ? Thats a FREE event !

MK was originally free since it was in a shopping centre so you couldn't charge admission; the free admission at the current venue is partly a legacy of that and also I would imagine the football satdium is relatively cheapo to hire out and they're pleased for the knock-on business.

* A number of people have been put off by previous experiences with the weather, so won't go to MK

* Arguably the guest list at MK is not quite as spectacular

* Being stuck in the middle of almost nowhere it's not so easy to get to which curbs attendance. There are literally millions of people living in London who can get to Olympia simply by tube or London bus - and since many of them will probably have a travelcard for work or school etc, their travel to Olympia will be free or only a few quid. A free event at Olympia is therefore very cheap or free for millions of people to get to. The number of people who can get to Stadium MK for less than say 3 quid is probably measurable in thousands.

* Being stuck in the middle of almost nowhere also spreads out the arrival of people. People arrive in dribs and drabs by car or 50 or so people at a time on a bus every half hour. By contrast a 7-car underground train can theoretically dump well over 1,000 people at the Olympia venue door.

[superwondergirl]

hi

i was in the early bird queue, we snaked along the building and then back and forth, waiting our turn. We were at the door about to go in when the entire crowd turned and surged forward. I protected a lady from being pushed into the door frame , got a giant bruise down my right side and hit my ear hard enough to bleed. Others were being pushed by the surge. If a lady -small man -a child -or someone in a wheel chair had been there they would have been really hurt in the crush.

TOTAL RESPECT to the showmasters girl who tried and got it under control. Well done,

To showmasters . some kind of rope system would have helped

to visitors, -- wait your turn, don't be sheep and follow the idiots,respect each other, be careful, please

[Cyberman]

So where is Jason an apology is required here

I'm sorry but posts like this are just dumb. You do realise the event only recently ended for the day and i believe it went beyond the 6pm finish? You think his first action after the day finishes is to read all the threads on the forum to apologise for anything that went wrong.

 

I'm sure that he and staff will be reviewing all these threads and taking onboard all the complaints and suggestions after this weekend event has finished and maybe apologies will come then. Some things have been taken onboard already for preparation tomorrow, although it won't be as manic.

 

But please don't expect such apologies like an hour after the event finished.

 

Ok point taken, smarty pants,but lets hope this does not happen at EC for next years show must be better organised.

[srb]

I got to Olympia at about 10.30 as I was with my two sons and so was just going to get standard 11.00 entry tickets as wanted top be able to spend more money inside £15 instead of £36 or £30 as it now looks like you do a family early bird entry aswell although i did not know that in advance.

When I got there there were 3 gueues going people still buying early bird tickets, standard pay ion the door and standard pre paid. The queues where quite seperate althought poorly signed and there were seversal crew members around making sure people where in the right queue.

 

It seems to me that for the early entry there could be 5 queues, gold pass, early pre paid, early pay on door, and then 11.00 pre paid and 11.00 pay on door. These queues are not going to just sort themselves out so there need to be clear signage to let people know where to go but also appr 8.00 the need to be crew helping assisting. In my opinion a weay to help this is to have the 11.00 queues somewhere other than near the entrance. This would free some area. These queues could then be moved when the earky bird tickets had gone in. The only thing i would say is when moving the queue this should be done from the front not the back.

 

I do find it strange that people are comparing the queue organisation here to queue management at theme parks like Disney/Alton towers etc as they are not comparable. These are fixed queues systems they can invest thousand of pound on them and in alot of places are part of a pre-show, They do not need to be moved and wil be there for the life of the ride/attraction. This is a temporary event going on for 2-3 days. Showmasters arent going to invest in putting that infrastructure in to something they only use once or twice a year. I doubt even that olympia would as IMO out of 365 days they only have events for about 100 or so and most of those would not have that problem.

 

I do find it strange that shownasters did not plan for the queues and I think they do need some barriers of some kind but I don not think they need to buy them it would be surely be better to hire them for the event. Why not hire the metal barriers that they use for premieres etc as the will ususally be placed and collected after the event and you do not have to do it yourself . I wonder if Olympia has some barriers that SM could have used/hired but did not.

 

I do not think that this necearily means an increase in pricing as a happy customer is more likely to spend than an unhappy one and due to comments already left on this forum they are in danger of losing some existing customers due to this problem.

[chrismk]

The queue organisation was dreadful! My family and I waited for 5 hours to meet Hayden Panettiere due to the virtual queuing system, and when we got to the table, we were given literally 5 seconds to see her, during which she apologised for not being able to actually speak to us...and that was it! We didn't even get to say hello or thank you before being ushered on. Really disappointing!

 

What has that got to do with queue organisation? That is ENTIRELY down to her being popular.

[chrismk]

 

 

 

God if its like this Tomorrow I am NEVER going to another Showmasters event that looks like free for all that should never have happened.

This sort of thing would never would happen if we didn't have to pay to get in and to be honest I still don't know why we have to pay to get in ? Don't you think we pay enough once inside ?

 

Having said all that I have a feeling this post will disappear as if by Magic

 

To the best of my knowledge, Collectormania is the ONLY event of this type which is free to enter. I don't know the figures, but I would imagine the entry fee (and probably a fair chunk of the dealers fees) pay for the rental of the location (the cost of the guest likely covers the cost of the guests).

 

Its not like its a hidden cost that is prung on you, so I don't understand the criticism.

[chrismk]

So where is Jason an apology is required here

 

Hmmm... lets see, you posted it at around 8.30pm of the main day of the event. Common sense says that given as they didn't leave until gone 8, I'd guess he's probably having some food and will not be on the forum until Monday or Tuesday.

[chrismk]

I think that at Earls Court there is a lot more room for people to queue and the queues are normally well separated there.

 

I'm pretty sure Olympia is bigger than Earls Court (it certainly felt that way), so this comment doesn't make sense!

[claire316]

[C.Parkers-Girl]

I was on the queue managemerent on Saturday and Im sorry if we failed on the pre-paid side. It was hard work to organise so many people into a queue with no barriers (something I mentioned to Jason, roped barriers would have been so much better). We just managed to get everyone organised into a snake format and everyone in the right queue then a tube pulls in, 300 people pile off and just go where they like, its very hard to direct that many people when they barge towards you in one big wave. There was just 2 of us working with 1000's of people and we did our best to get everyone in a quickly as possible, we did eventually have to split everyone into 2 big queues and let people in in blocks of around 50. This saved on congestion inside the enterence and kept the flow.

 

Im sure Jason and the team will address the queue management issues and everything will be sorted by EMS in October and Im sorry if we failed with the pre-paid queue on Saturday

 

Edited to fix a spelling error

Edited July 8, 2012 by C.Parkers-Girl