Feedback

[kinipella]

I rarely post on these boards but I feel sharing feedback is a good idea since it can only improve the weekend for next time!

 

I had a wonderful weekend - I've been to a handful of the ET events as a standard/silver and always left on the Sunday evening but this time (mostly because it was "the final one" - I'm super excited there will be another though!) decided to go for a gold ticket and stay until the Monday.

 

I do have a few issues and a few things that I think could be done to make the weekend even more enjoyable (obviously I'm no expert and don't know if they are even possibilities!), but like I said above, overall it was great :)

 

General stuff first:

I felt this time that the ME crew were generally much friendlier and more approachable than usual which is a definite plus. I thought the extra autographs and photos with the guests were a really reasonable price and much more affordable than at other events. Due to the lack of the food hall this time we found it quite difficult to even get a seat in the bar area.. it was absolutely packed during breaks! I've never found the ET food halls particularly appetising but I did miss having somewhere to go and grab a hot meal with friends.

 

Parties:

I thought the themes were a bit weak and the decorations lacking compared to how they usually are. It felt a bit like ME were recycling old props from other parties regardless of whether they fitted in with the theme (the mechanical bull at the pyjama party and the fairground stalls at the prom felt a bit disjointed) - of course I appreciate you can't go and buy/rent new props and decorations for every single party, but I just felt a little bit more effort could have gone into it. I'd be more than happy to help decorate the party hall during the break and I know other attendees would too if it's a matter of not having enough hands! I really used to like it when there were a few different activities at the parties - it can get a bit overwhelming with the music, the heat and the people - I know before you've had casino tables and the little horse racing game, we could've even done some children's party games on the Friday night.. Pass the parcel/musical chairs or something. Also, the Sunday night party was disappointing - the room was absolutely baking,there was no request board, no room decoration and the bar was removed just as I arrived. For me personally, it wasn't worth the extra £86 for the Sunday night hotel room. As for random people coming into the parties, I kept my pass in my bag for all three and not once did I get challenged to show it so it wouldn't surprise me if anyone was walking in and out.

 

The Wine Reception:

The wine reception was a disaster. It was the first time I had ever been but my sister had been to one before. Far too many people in the room, the tables were far too small. There was also a lack of snacks - I made the mistake of leaving the table to get some drinks at the very beginning (before the guests even arrived) and when I returned I couldn't even get back near the table. I ended up standing about three people deep, I couldn't hear anything that was being said and being a bit on the short side, I couldn't see the guests either. None of the other tables looked any better. Some of the other attendees were really rude about letting you near "their" table too, I was told by at least four tables that I couldn't stand there because they were reserving spaces for friends, despite the fact there were less than 10 people at the table. It just didn't really feel very fair and I wish it had been a bit more organised. I don't know if some will feel this is a bit controversial to say, but we had a lady at our table with a small child (toddler) and a few of the guests spent more time playing with and holding the kid than they did speaking to or acknowledging anybody else at the table. I hope that doesn't make me sound jealous and spiteful, but I just feel when we've all paid so much to even be there, it was a little bit discourteous. I'm not saying it's the mum's fault - it's not like she was giving them the baby but couldn't there be an age limit or something? Based on my experience at this event, I don't think I'd ever both going gold again. I think in the future I'll stick to standard and hope for a guest encounter.

 

Autographs and Photos:

The lack of personalisation towards the end of Sunday by Peter was obviously a bit disappointing. I was one of the people who missed my Peter signing on the Saturday so had to do it on Sunday instead, but that was only because the Gold schedule for Saturday was so tightly packed I honestly don't believe it was possible to do everything assigned to my group when I should have. As it was, we spent the entire morning queuing for photos, as soon as we finished one we started queuing for the next. Bless Peter, I honestly don't know how he managed. As others have echoed, what a complete and utter star and I think it really highlights how dedicated he is and how much he appreciates his fans. Other than that I thought the autographs went quite smoothly. The photos were good too - my only problem there was that the backgrounds for the photos were awful! They were so creased! In every single one of my photos it looks like the photo has been creased but it's actually that material background. I've never, ever had that issue at any event before and it feels a bit slap-dash, especially considering photos are one of the main points of the weekend.

 

Auction:

I usually really enjoy the auction, but it was so rushed, even more so than usual. I missed the end of it because I had to go to the wine reception. The BD pt 2 premier tickets were such a wonderful opportunity - I thought it would have been a nice gesture to raffle them off rather than selling them to the highest bidder. I know you need to rake back as much money as possible and the auction is obviously a great way to do that but even if the raffle tickets were £5 or £10 each or something, it would have given every single person a chance at winning them rather than those with the most money. It also used to be nice at ET 1 and ET 2 when a few of the auction items were showcased in a glass cabinet beforehand so you could have a browse and see what was going to be sold.

 

Stage Talks:

Some of the audience questions were really inappropriate and embarrassing to the point of making me cringe. I think I prefer it when all of the questions must be entered beforehand and the best and most diverse ones can then be selected. Even if people want to personally stand up and ask it in the talk, they could leave their name and be called during the talk to personally ask it. It felt like there was a lot of repetition and awkward silences while the poor guy with the microphone was running all over the room trying to locate people with questions. Also the loading of the hall for the talks could have been better - Golds were initially called in groups of 10 (i.e. 0-10, 10-20 etc.) but by the time you'd reached gold 50, they were being called in groups of 30-50. I just felt like what's the motivation for getting the lowest number possible when it makes no difference if you have gold 50 or 100. The group sizes that are called should be the same size throughout the entire hall loading process.

 

Quizzes & Competitions:

At ET 1 we had a fan-fiction competition and a book cover designing competition. For the last few ETs the only competition has been to see who can advertise the next event to the greatest amount of people. That's fine but could we not have a few more competitions for everyone to get involved - in the US they have fancy dress ones, centre piece designing ones, cake designing ones etc. As for the quiz, I'm not really sure what the point of the audience was. Audience participation was practically non-existent and the only people that were rewarded were the ones on the stage (obviously I'm aware you can't give out a gift bag to half of the attendees but a postcard/pin badge/sticker could have been given to each person on that side of the room!). I thought perhaps it might have been better to have lots of teams in a pub-style quiz, with the winning team getting a small prize or even just direct the questions to the audience and you raise your hand if you know the answer, and that person gets a little gift. Just an idea :)

 

Sorry for the essay.. just a few things I needed to get off my chest! Not sure if anyone else agrees/disagrees with any of my points/suggestions but if these things were improved the weekend would be absolutely perfect, for me at least! As it was, it was great anyway.

 

Anyway, thanks SM/ME for a memorable weekend as always. I know it's lots of effort, worry and sleepless nights in the making but I really appreciate it and can't wait for the next one. On a side note, I can understand why so many people are annoyed at the prospect of another event - perhaps it was a bit naive to declare this the final one on the basis that there were fewer attendees at the last couple, especially with lots of repeat guests - but at the end of the day, if you don't want there to be another one, just don't go. If attendance is going to be an issue could we not downsize back to the Park Inn, Northampton rather than getting rid of the events all together? I know that might be a stupid question (I'm not trained in events management.. obviously!) and there's probably a lot more that goes into choosing a location than potential attendance numbers but just an idea :)

 

Roll on ET9!!

 

Jen xx

Edited October 16, 2012 by kinipella

[Peachicato]

 

The office has the list of all gold and silver, and it was ticked off during sunday so they know who is still to receive their pic

 

Thank you i'll await a response :)

[Emelso]

I had an awesome time and honestly thought it was one of the best cons yet!!!

 

Pros!

 

Instant photos - awesome idea and worked so well!

 

Giles - First time I've liked all my pics so thank you!!

 

Guests - Utter perfection as always! As Justin agreed with me it's just like they come to hang out with us rather than be kept separate and 'star-y'

 

To be honest I had a great time with everything and I was one of the lucky ones who got a personalisation from Peter so counting my blessing as I remember from ET3 what it was like to miss out!

 

 

 

Cons:

 

Attendees crowding the guests and being disrespectful at parties - not cool and seem to be more than usual but then some guests were able to hang to so...

 

 

 

 

PS: I wasn't sure how to feel about ET9 as I was super happy but so want the cons to go out with a bang so to me ET ended with ET8 and any more are lovely bonus cons :)

[HohoCullen]

I had an amazing weekend!

 

Only a few things:

-About hanging back and being sent to the back of the queue - No thanks!

I really wanted my photo of me and Peter signed but my signing wasn't until after my photoshoot. My mum was nice enough to let me have her autograph so I could meet him for an autograph on the Saturday, and I'd get the one signed of me and him on the Sunday. I had a manic day on Sunday but I managed to get in there before the personalizations stopped. I know this will have been disappointing for the people that got called but I think they should have limited the amount of extra photos/autos sold either to just 1 per person or just limit the number completely. This would have been better and the autographs will have gone quicker and smoother. You could tell they were more rushed on Sunday as on Saturday Peter was taking the time to talk to people and Sunday he couldn't, he literally had to sign and give it back. I was grateful for the little smile he gave me at the end though :)

Some of you may not like this but if we both get silver my mum gives me her photos, and I aim to do one of each on each day (except if I'm called on Sunday for some, which I was). So I was someone who hung back for only a few photos. So I'm sorry if that annoys you but I cosplay and I like to have photos in different outfits (lame excuse I know). But anyway, I always went to the back of the queue and didn't ask to jump the queue just because I'd been called the day before. I think one time my mum asked for me to be moved to the front but other times I was just happy to wait in the queue with everyone else - it's unfair for people that have been waiting in the queue for ages, then I walk up and jump in!.

 

-Another thing - while I was getting my autograph with Peter on Saturday my mum sat at the side of the room to wait for me. She was then told she'd have to leave the room as she wasn't getting an autograph. We thought this fair enough so my mum went outside (and I added my mum's name to the personalisation so me and Peter had a chat about her hehe, he was so sweet :') ), but then I noticed that loads of people were sitting where she had been, and they were allowed to sit and wait! She wasn't doing any harm just sitting, even if the others that had sat there were waiting to be called. She'd made sure she was out of everyone's way, but she was told to leave and no one else was, and there had been others sitting in far more awkward places and obstructing the path behind the queue.

 

-At the Sunday party, so many people that clearly weren't part of the con were just walking into the party!

 

-I'm glad but annoyed that ET9 is happening - a lot of us had planned things to do instead of a convention and now theres an ET9, I'm really stuck. Ever since I've started going I haven't missed one. I really don't want to miss one but I think I have to as I want to go to America! Only one guest will get me there definitely and I think the likelihood of her being booked is slim :/

 

-People mobbing at the parties...that really bugged me :/ I'm not going to pick the easy group to "blame" for this because I didn't go around counting the ratio of newbies to non-newbies! All I'm going to say is that did some people not listen to Jason in the talk? "If you're cool with them, they'll be cool with you". Being cool with them isn't crowding them and asking for photos, not giving them any chance to chill out and have fun with us. I saw Peter walk away from the massive crowd that formed, yet they still followed. He didn't come over to me on the dancefloor but from everyone I've heard, he came over to the people that weren't crowding, implying that he was preferring to see the ones that respected him and appreciated that mobbing isn't the way to get his attention! Within about five minutes of him entering the party he looked ready to leave :/

 

-I know this has been said, but c'mon guys. Peter tried so hard to get here to meet us all and people complain because he wears sunglasses?!?! Wow. I felt so exchausted yesterday, and I certainly wouldn't have been able to take so many photos and do so many signings feeling like that, and I'm sure Peter would have felt A LOT worse than how I did. If you're going to be so ungrateful for his efforts then keep it to yourself, don't blame Peter for being tired! Blame the world for having timezones!

 

Anyway, most of this wasn't ME's fault, and I for sure had an amazing weekend, the best out of all ETs! I'd love to come to ET9 but I might not be able to, I'll have to see. Peter was definitely my highlight :)

 

xoxo

[my*wife*says]

Fabulous! Loved it all except the Gold Drinks Recep which was cramped overcrowded and too loud to hear what the guests said.

[Emelso]

I also really liked the option of a group photo at a vvv reasonable price compared to other organisers and thought the whole schedule this time was very well done :)

[talie]

Auction:

I usually really enjoy the auction, but it was so rushed, even more so than usual. I missed the end of it because I had to go to the wine reception. The BD pt 2 premier tickets were such a wonderful opportunity - I thought it would have been a nice gesture to raffle them off rather than selling them to the highest bidder. I know you need to rake back as much money as possible and the auction is obviously a great way to do that but even if the raffle tickets were £5 or £10 each or something, it would have given every single person a chance at winning them rather than those with the most money. It also used to be nice at ET 1 and ET 2 when a few of the auction items were showcased in a glass cabinet beforehand so you could have a browse and see what was going to be sold.

 

 

 

Heyah just so you know there will be more than likely a bunch of competitions as per usual to win tickets for the premiere! At the end of the day tickets dont mean someone will meet the trio or any of the cast, walking the red carpet is always nice though! So its worth having a wee google over the next few weeks for competitiions!

[ladyvamp8654]

I had such an awesome weekend. The guests as always were great, especially Daniel - he is just too funny. ET8 was my first time of ever meeting Peter Facinelli and I feel in love with him as soon as I saw him, lol. I have so much respect for what he did for all of us. I'm glad that another ET convention has been announced but I think this one is going to solely depend on the guests that Showmasters/ME get because as much as I have loved meeting all the guests that have been at the ET cons that I've gone too, I would like it if we have guests at ET9 that we haven't met yet.