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Glasgow is not what it should be!


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Okay...here we go..,,I love Showmasters,,,,,I just spent a moths wage at London for them but Glasgow is a dead con to me and i live in Glasgow!!!!

 

Look.....I have gone every year since 2008 and it's got worse each year as an event...but each year I go...not now....the guests are awful...people say its a convention for dealers...I say Bull.

 

Its the only event for Scotland and it is rancid...smaller each year....I for one will journey to London again but Glasgow no.

I used to say support this event but its too niche....it's time to man up or chuck it....the guest list at the mo is interesting but small...I will stick with London...I know some will disagree but in their hearts agree....just one big guest could turn the tide and introduce more fans.....please do it.....

 

 

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Kind of agree with you. Do wish that Showmasters would have made CMG a little bigger each year, take baby steps towards it potentially becoming as big as EMS/LFCC one day, but instead it's more or less been the same size and similar quality of guests each year. I know that in the past an event was pulled and never brought back as they took too big of a risk with it (bringing in several big popular guests at once and they made a big loss) but to me at least that experience has made them unwilling to take any risks with CMG.

 

CMG is fun, good for dealers, good for cosplayers etc but it has the potential to evolve and grow to become something more.

Edited by Tanith
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We have a thread like this started every year.

 

Glasgow is always going to be a smaller event than London or Milton Keynes because they are much bigger venues.

 

We are never going to get guests like William Shatner, Gillian Anderson or John Barrowman because the venue isn't big enough to be able to cope with the volume of people it would bring in.

 

There are other venues that may be suitable and would be bigger and these have all been looked at but Braehead has been deemed to be the best at this time.

 

Tanith is right in that Showmasters don't want to take any risks with Glasgow. If/when the time is right they may well expand the show but they're not going to do it until that time.

 

All previous threads on this same subject have been locked fairly quickly because they tend to go round in circles and I suspect this one will be locked too.

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Total disagree 100% (with first two posts) sure Glasgow is a smaller event and that's down to it's location, but GCM has a big heart and is loads of fun really if we want this to be more of an event we the fans have to make that effort. Really each and everyone on the GCM forum has a duty not only to to go to the event but to encourage everyone they know to do the same.

 

I first heard about the event in 2010, though I missed it that year and I was gutted, i heard it was a good fun event from some friends. so I told everyone I knew about 2011, and i really enjoyed every aspect of the event and fully recomended it to all. This year looks even more promising with a really good line up, sure loads of Dr. Who guests but we have an exclusive guest this year, Sarah Douglas who is best known for playing Ursa in Superman 2. Plus we have Callum Blue best known from Smallville as Zod (CM obviously going for a bit of a Superman theme).

 

 

With Virginia Hey and Barbara Coles I think we already have a good line-up and there's sure to be more as the other bigger events wined down.

 

I for one am really looking forward to this year and I think SM are making a real effort to make this year a really great year for Glasgow.

Edited by Brian Cairns
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While the Olympia Grand Hall has usable space of 18000 sq/m, the Arena has 1800 sq/m usable floor space.

 

The event simply cannot grow unless it is moved to a bigger sized hall to accomodate a larger or better quality lineup. It is static at the moment. It'd be great if a chance was taken on trying to grow it, because there's a lot of people who don't attend the event who even live locally because of the lineup...but they happily travel to CM/LFCC etc.

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It's easy to say "take a risk" or "take a chance" when it's someone else's money on the line though. It's all very well saying Showmasters should invest in a bigger venue and bigger guests, but it is a lot of money to risk and clearly they feel at in this financial climate their money is better used on expanding already proven popular events like LFCC. If they can clearly see that the Glasgow event is outgrowing it's current venue and that there really is enough interest there to expand, I'm sure they will look at doing that in the future.

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I think size-wise, Braehead Arena is fine.

Guests... Meh, I'd like to see bigger guests but I know that the guests themselves would often prefer to do a London event, because the perception for them is that they can sell more autographs and make more cash by doing the bigger London-centric events. So that aspect of the show is really a vicious circle that is likely to only be broken by a guest being booked whilst still fairly low-profile, then having a hit film or show after the fact.

 

I've said for years, the guests are the gravy - Good guests are clearly an excellent thing to have, but even at LFCC and the like, guests can cancel.

I go to cons for the atmosphere, the people, and the experience, and if I can get a few minutes with one of my heroes, then so much the better.

The convention organisers ( Or "Signing event organisers", if Showmasters are still classing Collectormania as such instead of as a con ) , IMHO, should focus a LITTLE bit more on stuff that they DO have a bit more control over.

Costume contests/Cosplay masquerades are growing year by year.

Auctions are a good idea - Especially if a cut of the proceeds goes to charity.

Quizzes/games could work well too - Anything that gives the crowd something to do and remember other than the dealer's room... Because in this day and age, with Play.com and the like having memorabilia at your fingertips 24/7, and also the fact that a lot of the Glasgow dealers have stalls at various comic marts as well as shops in or near Glasgow anyway, unless prices are dropped for the con days ( Which they often ARE ) then there's got to be some extra incentive to show up... Never mind show up two days on the trot.

 

 

And look! I didn't even mention the idea of a party on the Saturday nigh-...

 

Bugger.

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Completely agree with you, I'd love to go every year and I've only bee once, purely because the guests aren't interesting enough! The reason it isn't as popular as other cons is purely because of this. Surely getting some more recent and appropriate guests for what's on telly in the last so many years (as opposed to donkeys years ago like previous guests) would attract more people?

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I agree too. The thing that bugs me isn't that the guests are minor (there have been great guests over the years), it's the fact that they are always repeat guests. Nina, Caitlin and David Gooderson were all at the London show last year, where I met them. Callum was at Milton Keynes. I love the fact that Sarah hasn't been announced for another show, but I have a horrible feeling it will only be a matter of time and she will end up being at the Entertainment Media Show. It doesn't need to be big name guests (although those would be great), it just needs to be guests unique enough to tempt us. When these people get announce for a show in London, and I really want to meet them, I make the effort to go see them. When they are subsequently announced for Glasgow it just ends up being one more reason not to go. And like the original poster, I live just outside Glasgow. Over the years since C: Glasgow started, I have attended only some of the shows, and even those were just to see one person, or get one photo shoot, or hear one talk.

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To me guests don't make a show though they can add to it.

 

 

You guys are coming off very unappreciative of what we have in Glasgow rather than the things it doesn't, rather than complain why not make your own bigger and better event you all seem to think it's real easy!

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Because constructive criticism allows the organisers to see what could be improved in future shows. I have been to every Showmasters signing in England since 2004. I know what they are capable of and hearing what Glasgow fans think helps them develop the show.

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I crew at the Glasgow events and yes there's a very different vibe and atmosphere but I enjoy it, it's a different pace and I think it's a nice one, to say the guests are awful is very unfair as the guest list imo is very good! Please bare in mind that guests and their agents read this forum and being called awful and to see negative comments about them can play a factor in someone pulling out

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Also bare in mind that the Glasgow event is nearly two months away! LFCC pulled a lot of it's biggest guests in the last four weeks, patience is a virtue and as you have the luxury of living so close if you decide you want to go closer to the time then you can. :D

 

Also glasgow is awesome for a party lol ;) so maybe that's why I love it so much haha

Edited by Talie
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I crew at the Glasgow events and yes there's a very different vibe and atmosphere but I enjoy it, it's a different pace and I think it's a nice one, to say the guests are awful is very unfair as the guest list imo is very good! Please bare in mind that guests and their agents read this forum and being called awful and to see negative comments about them can play a factor in someone pulling out

Definitely. There is a big difference between offering suggestions by way of constructive criticism and just criticising for the sake of it.
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All great points, and most of what's been said is exactly how i feel particularly bout the guests being anything but poor so far. That said, GCM could be two guys selling Marvel tat and I would still go and enjoy it cos its that x factor of finding collectables, back issues, posters etc that makes it for me n the young uns I take.

seeing 'that Guy from that thing' is the icing on the cake but for some, a great time is had regardless..

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Please bare in mind that guests and their agents read this forum and being called awful and to see negative comments about them can play a factor in someone pulling out

 

And this is the reason why I am going to close this now. Talie, jael and dwarfbabe have already covered the most important parts.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Showmasters Admin

Yep we have this every year and every year I will say the same. We have around 6000 people attend, each year it's gone up a little, maybe 200 to 300 fans more each year.

 

When we started these events we thought, we know what we are doing, we will book some US guests and give the event a good kick start. We could not have been more wrong, there are a few of you (the ones that start up these threads every year) that want big guests, but most of the public that attend are only interested in meeting them and hearing them talk. There just is not that many of you that are happy to buy their autographs.

 

It's been this way from the start. Yes there are lots of you that want big guests, but very few that are willing to buy their autograph, and that's what makes getting big guests work. We have to pay for international flights and large fees, previously we have not been able to cover these, so we book guests that will cover themselves. Guests that want to pop up to Glasgow, which many are happy to do and they get to see some of the lovely country.

 

Every year we will have this thread about how hard done by everyone is up there, when the thing we would love more than anything is to have the interest from the local fans to buy the big guests autographs. Because if that happens it will help us grow the event much faster than we can at the moment. Big guests give us good press, but they have to cover themselves .

 

So if this is what you all want, please do what's been needed from the start and get the word out to more fans. This will help autograph sales and that will bring in the big guests.

 

If you want to help, email us for flyers and we can send you some to put out and that also will help get the word out .

 

See you there,

 

Jason

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