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Although the guests were absolutely lovely, the organisation was bad. The VT lines were not as short as they usually are and it made it difficult to get around. Did not meet all I had planned to meet, which is a shame as many were Saturday only...

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Newbie here and I had a brilliant time. My husband did not though and left early with one of my sons!

 

Do have a couple of moans though. Firstly I did not get in the row I was meant to be in for my talk as it was full up! But it didn't matter as I had to take my boys in with me and it allowed me to sit a bit further back with them (Thanks to the crew for allowing me to do this).

 

Secondly, not impressed with Brian Krause's photoshoot being rescheduled twice. How it made sense to put during Holly's talk was beyond me, but you obviously came to your senses and moved it till later and invited Brian to join Holly's talk! Very happy fan as a result!

 

Finally, thank you for having Extra Help passes, it really helped me get around to everyone I wanted to without too many problems for my son! But it seemed some staff did not understand the pass. I had to explain a couple of times about it! But the crew did well to help me and my son!

 

Overall, I plan to come again next year! I had a brilliant time. All 11guests I met were really lovely!

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I've been to every big event for the last few years, if you look at my postings on the forum they have never been anything but completely flattering but this was a shambles. I feared the worst when the forum was appealing for volunteers just a few days ago. This event cannot be run by well meaning but completly overwhelmed volunteers, in turnover terms the money spent by showmasters on guests and us on photos and autographs etc runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds if not millions and yet the entrance information on queues etc is a piece of A4 paper stuck to the wall. Gillian Anderson was one of the best guests ever to appear at a UK convention in terms of rareity etc but if I thought every Showmasters event would be like today I would never ever go again, and I spend a lot of money at them !!!.

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I've been to every big event for the last few years, if you look at my postings on the forum they have never been anything but completely flattering but this was a shambles. I feared the worst when the forum was appealing for volunteers just a few days ago. This event cannot be run by well meaning but completly overwhelmed volunteers, in turnover terms the money spent by showmasters on guests and us on photos and autographs etc runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds if not millions and yet the entrance information on queues etc is a piece of A4 paper stuck to the wall. Gillian Anderson was one of the best guests ever to appear at a UK convention in terms of rareity etc but if I thought every Showmasters event would be like today I would never ever go again, and I spend a lot of money at them !!!.

 

I spoke to someone outside and he said Gillian was the reasons for the rise in people coming! He had never seen it that busy ever!

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Just two things, The Gold Pass Chill out area, could have done with some chairs, were they supposed to lay on the tables in the room. Also a few more bins please!

 

Apart from that 6 photo shoots & 6 talks down, roll on 9 photo shoots tomorrow!!!

Edited by Helliquin
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I spoke to someone outside and he said Gillian was the reasons for the rise in people coming! He had never seen it that busy ever!

 

How many times have I heard that over the past 8 years?! There's still no reason things should be shambolic,presales of Saturday Early Birds should have been a hint that there were going to be a lot of people all turning up at roughly the same time!

Edited by sazzra
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I spoke to someone outside and he said Gillian was the reasons for the rise in people coming! He had never seen it that busy ever!

 

How many times have I heard that over the past 8 years?! There's still no reason things should be shambolic,presales of Saturday Early Birds should have been a hint that there were going to be a lot of people all turning up at roughly the same time!

 

I had no issues with queuing but I went in via the Gold Pass Holders Entrance, just as they were letting people in!

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Guests wonderful, making an old lady feel very young on her birthday (thank you Ben Browder, Jewel Staite and the flirty and rather sexy Charles Dance :wub: ....far too crowded with too many guests nowadays imho....if you're going to increase your capacity for extra crowds to see these extra guests then you need to factor in the extra work, time and organisation needed.....Entry queues and photo ops being probably the worst today...

 

One thing that saved my sanity whilst waiting for photo ops....the Massage Angels....best thing I've ever seen at a Con like this.....and my back, neck and shoulders agree with me... :wub: :wub: :wub:

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Guests were awesome, and the queuing indoors seemed as good as ever. At least for me anyway.

 

But yeah, the things I hated were the usuals: The Queuing outside was a bit annoying (seemed a lot more people went inside before they should have, not including the Goldies), and I'm also sick of getting smashed into every few seconds by people not looking where they're walking. Still, with an event this size it can't really be helped.

 

Overall though, it was great.

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Today way good. Very busy though. I did find that the organisation was not up to the same standard as usual which was a shame.

 

On arrival I could not for thelife of me find the Gold Pass Queue and wandered up and down aimlessly 3 or 4 times before I found it. I also thought gold passes were let in first? A good few early Bird people got it before me and the other 50+ gold passes in front.

Collecting the pass was a nightmare too, be the time I'd got in we had to queue for ages to get the pass, all the while early birds and pay on the day were already in and meeting guests. This is something that needs to be looked at. There should be a crew member handing out passes along the line before 9am.

 

On a positive I thought the layout was good, a nice big venue! It did get very crowded in the signing area, but that can't really be helped, there was just loads of people!

 

The Iron Throne photos were AWESOME!!! A MUST for any fan, I'm actually planning on getting another 1 or 2 tomorrow lol.

 

Photoshoots were good, mine all ran (mostly) on time. It was a little difficult at times especially with the GoT guests, surely it would have made sence to have all those shoots consecutively in one area? Instead me and a few others found ourselves trying to navigate from one side of the hall to another and back again. And through those crowds it wasn't easy!

 

Talk wise, stage A was cool, nice a big! I think the speakers could do with being a bit louder too. The talks were great! There were sound issues at the start of the GoT talk so it was delayed. I can understand that. However the talk was then cut a bit short, so it was under 30min closer to 20-25min. Which was a real shame.

The Dredd panel was cool, except for the camera man who STOOD right in front of us, so i couldn't even see 2 of the guys (I still don't know what they even look like) I was not impressed by this. (I'll post a picture in a couple of days) If it's being filmed anyway why not project it onto the screens? That way the people in the back can see too :)

Talk area B needs a mic for the audience, I couldn't hear any of the questions being asked.

The Firefly talk was AMAZING!!! Jewel and Adam are a hoot together! Cannot wait for tomorrow!!!

Also, how many gold passes were they? It seemed a lot more than 150!

 

Those are my main thoughts on today. All in all I had a great day, I did everything I'd planned.

The crew were stretched but they did their best!

 

Looking forward to tomorrow, it's going to be a good day. If anyone reading this hasn't been yet and is worried about the 'negative' comments, don't. You'll still have a great time!!!!

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Only got to speak to Hayden Panettiere for 5 seconds after waiting for 5 hours (we might as well have bought it from a vender) and shambolic queuing systems outside were just some of the low points of the day. The talks were running late and when my family and I arrived to watch the Cosplay masquerade, we were faced with a crew member desperately trying to fill time by making people stand up and tell jokes, despite the fact that they were overunning already. We left and ended up just sitting there for about an hour, doing nothing.

 

Better points included the guests- all were lovely and the level of cosplay was amazing! I liked the amount of vendors that were there, especially with more manga based stalls, and I bought myself a Captain America shield! <3 I like Olympia as a venue- much better than Earl's Court and the balcony was an excellent idea!

 

However, based on today, my family and I have decided not to attend tomorrow after all. It was just very stressful and less enjoyable than all of the others we have attended.

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Disliked Hayden's talk - if I am paying for an activity, I a) expect to be able to hear both the questions and the answers, and B) expect that only those who have paid can watch the talk, not every Tom, Dick and Harry that walks past. Same thing goes for any other paid talks in this spot.

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I did see staff telling people to move on from Hayden's talk. But it did surprise me that a paid for talk had no walls. What did Showmasters think that people wouldn't stand around trying to get a free listen at the talk? Again, bad organisation and planning.

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Disliked Hayden's talk - if I am paying for an activity, I a) expect to be able to hear both the questions and the answers, and B) expect that only those who have paid can watch the talk, not every Tom, Dick and Harry that walks past. Same thing goes for any other paid talks in this spot.

 

Agreed, mentioned elsewhere but it was embarrassing the way Hayden had to organise a queue and microphone for her own talk, she looked pissed off. But I thought she did a great job and repeated most of the questions back which I thought was a nice touch!

 

Showmasters,you simply can't do a talk there with no mic for audience

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I also hated that Adam Baldwins photoshoot was an hour late :(

 

Very bad organisation this year :(

 

I also hated they were calling 1-300 rather in fifties, it made it seem so jam packed and I saw people push in right at the front.

Edited by Glowingwings
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This was our first con, and we had a lovely time, after the terrible start that was the earlybird entrance scrum.

 

I'd go again, probably, but I'd want to know beforehand that they had enough staff to manage the numbers.

 

Highlights: Chris Judge, who was so lovely to everyone after hours of signings and photos, and Sean Schemmel, who was so gracious at the signing table and such fun in his talk. And all the lovely cosplayers who let my kid have his photo with them: the Dredds, a Borg, a Creeper and Zekrom.

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I missed a photo shoot cause my leaflet was the wrong time.

I missed the talk i wanted to go to because the adam baldwin photoshoot was moved last min then was an hour late in starting.

And the lighting in area d was pants way too bright and left you washed out more alikend to a photo from a street vender not the normal high standard of shoot you receive at LFCC.

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I also hated that Adam Baldwins photoshoot was an hour late :(

 

Very bad organisation this year :(

 

I also hated they were calling 1-300 rather in fifties, it made it seem so jam packed and I saw people push in right at the front.

 

It is possible they were on a gold pass or had an extra help pass.

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Could be :)

 

But somebody next to me was yelling at her friend who had pushed in and asked her and she said she was, cheekily.

 

I was one of those being let in before those already in queue (had extra help pass) so I hope did not upset anyone. Those I spoke to had no issue, so if upset anyone, I am sorry!

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