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HEAD LINE GUESTS CAN YOU HAVE TO MANY ? your input ?


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I think that if there's an opportunity to book a big guest than take it. As some have said, not everyones idea of a big guest will be the same and as a result some will go for it, some will not. I agree that if you are in a position to confirm someone than the make the announcement as early as possible to allow people to save up. Using Collectormania & LFCC as examples, fans have 5/7 months to save money to afford them. I would imagine that with some guests it might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to book them, you need to take the opportunity and allow the customer to make the decision on if they want them or not. Personally speaking I welcome a large group of big guests.

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As some of the others have said I'm all in favour of bigger guests - the notice of them attending can be a problem for those with money constraints and also if they are really popular then getting an auto/photo with the guest can sometimes be a problem (as has been found in the past). I know SM always do their best to get everyone what they want at each event. The other thing I personally have found is with the more popular guests and the queuing can be a problem for those with mobility problems as the space allocated can be limited.

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The more big names the better as far as I'm concerned. This years LFCC was my first Con abroad and Gillian Anderson and Nicholas Lea were the main reasons I decided to go to London. I think some big guests are once in a lifetime opportunites to meet and will bring more people to the Cons (also from other countries :smile: ).

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Interesting question!

 

My personal thought it that because all guests are a matter of taste and opinion (one persons headline guest, is another person's 'who'?) that you're better off getting the biggest guests and not limiting them. Sure, there will be some people who love ALL the guests and want autos/pictures with all of them and they won't be able to, they will have to choose. As long as the pricing of the guest is right and they are busy for most of the day, it should work out for you. The other big advantage of having several headline guests, is that it gets more people to the event and the more people, the more you can offer, meaning every attendee gets a better experience (ok, so there will be some queuing, show me a big event where there isn't!!)

 

I know some of the dealers would rather the guest list is more limited, because they feel that people spend all their money on guests and nothing on dealers. That said, more people through the door can only be a good thing for them!

 

Have to say congratulations on the guests you got in 2012, it truly was a great year for headline guests and you got a bunch of people who I thought would never be available!

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If you have bigger guests become available I am of the opinion that the customers should know asap. After all we all on have a certain amount of money to spend and announcing the guests sooner may give people a few more weeks / months to save for it. I think this is essential if you want to get bigger and more pricier guests in.

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Interesting question!

 

My personal thought it that because all guests are a matter of taste and opinion (one persons headline guest, is another person's 'who'?) that you're better off getting the biggest guests and not limiting them. Sure, there will be some people who love ALL the guests and want autos/pictures with all of them and they won't be able to, they will have to choose. As long as the pricing of the guest is right and they are busy for most of the day, it should work out for you. The other big advantage of having several headline guests, is that it gets more people to the event and the more people, the more you can offer, meaning every attendee gets a better experience (ok, so there will be some queuing, show me a big event where there isn't!!)

 

I know some of the dealers would rather the guest list is more limited, because they feel that people spend all their money on guests and nothing on dealers. That said, more people through the door can only be a good thing for them!

 

Have to say congratulations on the guests you got in 2012, it truly was a great year for headline guests and you got a bunch of people who I thought would never be available!

 

I agree 100% with this, I'm 18 so the ET guests and some of the big star trek guests aren't that much of an interest to me, yet to the slightly older generation who attend they would class them as a big guest want! I personally think that Amanda Tapping and Michael Shanks are going to be my biggest guests of next year because I'm a huge stagate fan, where as someone who isn't a fan of any of their work wouldn't be as interested!

 

To someone, a guest who has a minor role in Game of Thrones would be classed as a big guest, actually i'd be happy with that too so :L

 

Yeah get every guest you possible can, you can't please everyone but then again, you can't really displease anyone either :)

Edited by SquirtchyErchie
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More guests, more of the high profile guests. People will pay the extra (well I would anyway if someone like Andrew Lincoln or Matthew Fox were guests). I think people choose to moan because the announcements are last-minute, but we all understand that the bigger guests HAVE to be announced last minute. In an ideal world, I would say get as many guests as possible months before the event, but obviously this can't always be possible.

Also there are never, ever too many headline guests. The more, the merrier...

Edited by BreakingBad123
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Well it is a case of catch 22 if you dont get the names in then the punters wont come if you announce some BIGGIES then punters will come but wont have the cash to pay for the autos. Also i see a lot of the dealers saying how punters turn up to these cons but dont spend money with them. I know you cant please everybody all the time but surely there must be a way of doing it where EVERYBODY wins. As i said before surely more money would be made if the autos were cheaper thus pleasing the punters and the dealers as more money would be free to go around. The dealers are kept happy, the punters are happy with the autos prices and the organisers are happy with the turn out and the guests are happy with how much they made too. I know it sounds crazy but from a business point of view it makes sense?

With a few guests year i could have bought their autos from a dealer and paid less as well so in effect i was PAYING for the privilage of JUST MEETING THEM!!!

Come on guys we start going down that road and the bubble burst big time. It really winds me up when i read posts like "yes ill pay whatever to meet guest A B C" well if you got a money tree in your garden thats all very well and good BUT to us mere mortals who are on a LIMITED BUDGET then we just have to make do with what we can get and afford to get. Dont get me wrong i have a list of who i would LOVE to meet and get autos from but if we start paying £35 plus for just ONE auto then sorry ill just have to go without. Lets keep the pricing sensible so everybody can enjoy these shows not just the mega rich who dont bat an eyelid of paying £45 plus for just one autograph, as collectors like me usually get two or more of the same guest esp the rarer ones.But that may come to an end and i just get ONE of each guest and be very grateful i get that i guess.......

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I dont think so.

 

Sometimes guests are announced that leaves some people thinking "Who are they?" for example Carl Urban was announced early this year and I had no idea who he was although people were happy that he attended and then Jake Momoa was mentioned quite a few times and had to end up imdbing him.

 

If you want to meet the Guests then you will and findsome way to budget for it if not then theres always the option of losing out.

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I dont think so.

 

Sometimes guests are announced that leaves some people thinking "Who are they?" for example Carl Urban was announced early this year and I had no idea who he was although people were happy that he attended and then Jake Momoa was mentioned quite a few times and had to end up imdbing him.

 

If you want to meet the Guests then you will and findsome way to budget for it if not then theres always the option of losing out.

 

Actually Tonyjedi is right. It is great to have as many big guests as possible but money is getting hard to come by. You have obviously got a money tree at the bottom of the garden.

I wanted to meet lots of guests in previous years and couldn't find the money so your last sentence is a bit ridiculous.

Edited by reddragon
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I dont think so.

 

Sometimes guests are announced that leaves some people thinking "Who are they?" for example Carl Urban was announced early this year and I had no idea who he was although people were happy that he attended and then Jake Momoa was mentioned quite a few times and had to end up imdbing him.

 

If you want to meet the Guests then you will and findsome way to budget for it if not then theres always the option of losing out.

 

Actually Tonyjedi is right. It is great to have as many big guests as possible but money is getting hard to come by. You have obviously got a money tree at the bottom of the garden.

I wanted to meet lots of guests in previous years and couldn't find the money so your last sentence is a bit ridiculous.

 

I guess sarcasm doesn't work well over the internet.

 

Don't think for one minute that I have a money tree or indeed a disposable income, I dont have much money to get guests left right and centre although when in February of this year that Gillian Anderson was announced I had to weigh everything up.

 

* A big X-Files Fan.

* Not much money.

 

Thus, I had to juggle just what I "thought" I could afford knowing full well what a rare Guest this was, as back then the very idea of Gillian touching anything X-Files was plain right ridiculous and after many months- yes believe me, it was months and I have Friends on either here or on Twitter that can attest to this, I was seriously thinking "Do I get one Gillian auto or two or three" etc yes the budgeting for it was strenuous but it was something I wanted, and then of course throw in Mitch Pileggi, Nicholas Lea and Adam Baldwin plus other non X-Files guests but were part of my other Fandoms, Ke Huy Quan for example on Indy, Zach Galligan and I ended up spending a shed load of money at LFCC.

 

If Jason et al can get big guests then thats fine. i.e. Mike Tyson, Karen Gillan and of course Gillian. But it does leave people wondering "Do I want to meet this person?" and more importantly "Can I afford to meet this person."

 

Mike Tyson and Karen Gillan have come back- so far Gillian hasnt and I'm not sure if Karen was cheaper second time around at Collector.

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I'd say get them while you can HOWEVER I do think it'd be nice to see guests from some different shows rather than all the Dr Who and Star Trek ones that always seem to be there, I understand that there will always be people who want to meet them but for those who don't watch those shows there doesn't seem to be a lot of guests to pull other fans in!

 

There are so many other shows out there that I think get forgotten after a while and no organisers seem to get guests for them at all now so if you could tap into that then I think you'd get a whole lot more new customers!!

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I'd say get them while you can HOWEVER I do think it'd be nice to see guests from some different shows rather than all the Dr Who and Star Trek ones that always seem to be there, I understand that there will always be people who want to meet them but for those who don't watch those shows there doesn't seem to be a lot of guests to pull other fans in!

 

There are so many other shows out there that I think get forgotten after a while and no organisers seem to get guests for them at all now so if you could tap into that then I think you'd get a whole lot more new customers!!

Those guests guarantee attendees come, and supplement other different guests. They are the backbone of these events.

 

There has to be calculated risks with other guests as there is no knowing whether they'll be popular or not. Not all movies and tv shows translate to event success, so its not a case of being forgotten as such.

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tough question??? because who do WE call BIG guests? We all know that the SO called BIG guests simply won't come calling? because they don't need the money to come to these type of events and I don't mean or intend any disrespect to anyone at all because a BIG guest to myself may be a Minor to someone else?

Ken Kirzinger for example MASSIVE guest for myself HUGE, yet Kens a stuntman before Actor!! hope I am making sense here people.....another HUGE person for myself was Tom Morga another stuntman yet hes played Myers,Chainsaw massacre and Voorhees....hope I'm making sense again with this call aswell...

so my question would be:

What do you mean by BIG NAMES?

 

once again I would like to reiterate that I mean NO disrespect to ANYONE at all with this reply....We all have different ideas of BIG NAMES.

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Sort of contradicting what I said on my pervious poster now, I still think you can never have enough big guests, as stated before, the bigger guests/first time signers attract the bigger audience and customer! However I could say yes you can have too many guests if I don't think i could afford to see everyone I wanted!

 

For example, game of thrones guests, I collect 8x10s and am starting a poster to get signed, if (and we know it will never happen) you got Sean Bean I'd be looking at getting between 8-12 autographs because of hs role in Lord of the Rings too, at the minimum of £40 each thats £400 just on one guest! £100 more than what i spent last year at LFCC on 15! So I would still need money to see all the other guests which draw my attention!

 

No matter what I think you shouldn't turn down a guest if you know people will want to meet them!

 

It all depends on what people class as a big guest too, last LFCC i would have classes Christ Judge, Ben Browder, Freema Agyeman, John Simm, Karl Urban and Bernard Cribbins as big guests but to some, they wouldn't know who they were!

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We fans can only say "bring them all in and then I will decide"! Although some of us moan about "too many guests, I am going to sell my kidney etc.", we always like to have a wider choice. Showmasters are the only people who own statistics from previous events and know what is the best of both worlds. I want as many big names as possible but I understand that having too many big guests include the risk of a financial loss. The only thing I ask, in case of super events with super names, is a better management of queues because in recent times there were a few problems.

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tough question??? because who do WE call BIG guests? We all know that the SO called BIG guests simply won't come calling? because they don't need the money to come to these type of events and I don't mean or intend any disrespect to anyone at all because a BIG guest to myself may be a Minor to someone else?

Ken Kirzinger for example MASSIVE guest for myself HUGE, yet Kens a stuntman before Actor!! hope I am making sense here people.....another HUGE person for myself was Tom Morga another stuntman yet hes played Myers,Chainsaw massacre and Voorhees....hope I'm making sense again with this call aswell...

so my question would be:

What do you mean by BIG NAMES?

 

once again I would like to reiterate that I mean NO disrespect to ANYONE at all with this reply....We all have different ideas of BIG NAMES.

 

I would suggest that a big name is someone who is going to draw big crowds, who is going to signs thousands of autographs over the weekend and will near sell out of photo shoot tickets. Big names are irrelevant to individual taste, because even if a handful of forum users don't like/know them, they will still draw big queues.

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tough question??? because who do WE call BIG guests? We all know that the SO called BIG guests simply won't come calling? because they don't need the money to come to these type of events and I don't mean or intend any disrespect to anyone at all because a BIG guest to myself may be a Minor to someone else?

Ken Kirzinger for example MASSIVE guest for myself HUGE, yet Kens a stuntman before Actor!! hope I am making sense here people.....another HUGE person for myself was Tom Morga another stuntman yet hes played Myers,Chainsaw massacre and Voorhees....hope I'm making sense again with this call aswell...

so my question would be:

What do you mean by BIG NAMES?

 

once again I would like to reiterate that I mean NO disrespect to ANYONE at all with this reply....We all have different ideas of BIG NAMES.

 

I would suggest that a big name is someone who is going to draw big crowds, who is going to signs thousands of autographs over the weekend and will near sell out of photo shoot tickets. Big names are irrelevant to individual taste, because even if a handful of forum users don't like/know them, they will still draw big queues.

 

 

would you say Danny Dyer was a BIG Name?

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tough question??? because who do WE call BIG guests? We all know that the SO called BIG guests simply won't come calling? because they don't need the money to come to these type of events and I don't mean or intend any disrespect to anyone at all because a BIG guest to myself may be a Minor to someone else?

Ken Kirzinger for example MASSIVE guest for myself HUGE, yet Kens a stuntman before Actor!! hope I am making sense here people.....another HUGE person for myself was Tom Morga another stuntman yet hes played Myers,Chainsaw massacre and Voorhees....hope I'm making sense again with this call aswell...

so my question would be:

What do you mean by BIG NAMES?

 

once again I would like to reiterate that I mean NO disrespect to ANYONE at all with this reply....We all have different ideas of BIG NAMES.

 

I would suggest that a big name is someone who is going to draw big crowds, who is going to signs thousands of autographs over the weekend and will near sell out of photo shoot tickets. Big names are irrelevant to individual taste, because even if a handful of forum users don't like/know them, they will still draw big queues.

 

 

would you say Danny Dyer was a BIG Name?

I would say he is a big guest

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