Queues

[sadfan99]

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 barries (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

I have to say, as a regular at these events for some years now, I think here was a 'panic' by the Olympia staff causing this rather than the Showmasters crew (who are mainly volunteers so seriously peeps, cut them some slack)

[Banished_From_Rohan]

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???

 

Promotion? I'm quite happy as a normal crew member thanks :) In all seriousness I have run a few of these queues now during the past 2 or 3 years, both in A and B - does that make me longstanding? All you really need is a pitboss who's happy to let you get on with it and run it your way, a bit of common sense, an equal amount of tolerance, a sense of humour and a rather loud voice. And even then you still get things wrong. Yesterday's inexperienced crew will become tomorrows experienced crew - we've all had to start at the beginning and learn "on the job". But once more thank you for the kind words, and I'm glad we helped make your day a success.

Edited July 8, 2012 by Banished_From_Rohan

[ericsdonor]

I'm always amazed that given the amount of events Showmasters put on, that they haven't invested in some Tensa-barriers yet (post office/disney stylee queing posts) I mean you really only have to buy them once and they would help so so much, some of the queues I was in this weekend would have benefited from them rather than black and yellow tape on the floor that no one could see immediately and to be frank could have been left there from a prior event!!!

[marky13]

The queues when I was there Saturday were insane, Totally. Yet my main problem was with some ignoramous who got his bag stuck on my top and told me to get out of his way. When I asked him to act a little polite he flipped out. Brainless Moron.

I have also learnt that it pays to book online pre-event.

Otherwise I had a pretty great time.

[elpachio]

I completely agree with this. My wife and I were queued and were going up and down the snaked lines to enter, politely, as you do............and twice of course we walked towards the entrance and then snaked off back..........yet, as we got closer, we turned around to discover everyone piling into the door and abandoning the queuing theme!!! Not surprising considering not one member of crew was stood by the door policing the crowd.

As we finally got to the entrance a crew member had appeared and she said, "I don't know how this happened!"

Well I DO...............nobody stood by the door to stop this happening, and all it takes is for one or two rude people to push in and then it's a free-for-all. An utter shambles.

Why not have some kind of barriers, or at least a member of crew on the door stopping rude people from just skipping the queue?!

[rosie727]

the queues were crazy on sat, but i thought sun the problem was sorted

[Cube1701]

Just before 11AM, there was absolutely no queue for those with tickets.

 

Just the hour-and-twenty-minutes one for the Adam Baldwin photoshoot.

[Jumpyghostface]

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,

Argh! That sounds pretty horrid on your side, especially when you can see people getting so confused and upset! Thanks for the apology, and I'm sorry you had a difficult time, too.

[showmasters]

the queuing operations have been out of our hands for all the london events as the venue make us use a security company to control these aspect of the event , we have dropped two other componeys now and this last weekend was just treble , on saturday morning they did not run it how we had asks and messed it up royally on the morning when all they had to do was let the public in.

 

on sunday i talked with the hall manager and it was agreed that Showmasters would run the line and let the public in on the sunday morning , barriers where put in place and the lines came in fine and controlled and safe , this is something i think we will be lound to take over from now on.

 

i hope this helps to she that let learnt and took over and fixed it on the sunday

 

jason

[elpachio]

Thanks Jason, that's good, especially as the next event is at Olympia too.

I know you can't account for a few very rude people, but I think it could have been managed so much better. So am glad you restored order on the Sunday.

[Cube1701]

What about the internal queues? Like leaving everyone waiting for the Adam Baldwin photoshoot stand around for an entire hour before telling them what was going on?

[timc400]

Organisation was terrible.

Queued for two hours(for the 11am pay on the door),got tickets and was not even asked for them when i went up the stairs!

[Jemzamia]

Yes the queue on Saturday was a mess but I think this was more the venue staff's fault. My friends and I arrived at 8:30 and we went up and down the entire queue twice trying to find the end of the Pre-paid queue. The venue staff had ordered the queues side by side instead of having it snake around the opposite corner like on Friday night. Then the megaphone happened and everyone started to move and we were a confused huddle for 15 mins. Then some SM crew arrived and moved us all to where we queued on Friday night.

 

I really do think this situation was a one-off. The next day they put up barriers in the Pre-paid queue area to reinforce the snaking. Plus next year we are back at Earls Court where we know the usual deal on queuing and there is much more space to queue

 

I didn't have any issues myself with photoshoot queues, but if there really was a problem with the snaking in those queues then I hope SM but up more barriers as sadly people don't want to take notice of taped outlines on the floor

[JessCansBe1337]

Not much I can say that hasn't been said already, really. Indeed barriers or some way of organising the queue is needed. Early bird queue was moving fast and smoothly on Saturday until we got near the front and the other half of the 'snake' seemed to turn round and all try to get in at once, some even getting in before those of us who were in front when it was moving fast. As it happened so close to the doors, for the queue to stop suddenly and to get held up again was very frustrating.