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

[TerraHawk]

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!!

 

 

They might always seem to be there, but to be honest there's not as many as there used to be.

 

I can tell you until the 11th hour, being a seasoned Doctor Who collecting fan there wasn't anyone Who wise I absolutely needed to go for at the 2012 LFCC. In fact I think I spent £20 on the Sat, on people I'd met before. And I missed the EMS completely only having Matt who I'd met elsewhere.

 

 

Whereas if you do get whole new customers, there's a lot of old faces that would be new to them!

 

 

And do you mean Star Wars rather than Trek? Trek's never had that much of a presence until this year. 3-4 per show maybe.

 

Besides theres plenty of franchise crossovers. Sylvester McCoy will be busier at his next show, it wont be due to Who. Just hope his price doesn't go up.

 

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.

 

Indeed. You could get a big star like Andrew Garfield or Carey Mulligan, they'd still end up getting a lot of Doctor Who fans in their queues. What do you mean they've done other things?

[chrismk]

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?

 

No, I would say that he's not a headline guest. The number of people coming because he was there is likely to have been way less than say those coming for Shatner, or Tennant or Stewart.

 

I don't know how many photo shoot tickets he sold, but I'd be surprised if it was >1000.

 

Also, the auto price is another indicator.

[sammy-jones]

this would be my thrid Visit to a showmarsters event,

I'm just hoping they would have some great guest this year as last year was fantastic :)

[GoldenGreen]

I think a couple of big headline guests are essential to make a show, these could be big in the sense of a main actor from Dr Who or Star Trek for example, or like an Elijah Wood from a current popular film series.

 

Can you have too many ? Well, unless the events are going to become like the UK version of the Oscars, I don't think so, a couple of big guests each day really pull the punters in and then must have a knock on impact on how much the other guests and the stall holders make as well.

[TeamJasper08]

This is a hard question! Sometimes more is good, but I can understand then people cannot afford them. Maybe lowering the price? Even if its by £5 thats then £5 they could put towards another guest and the more you lower the more autographs they can get. I know it might be hard to lower the price because getting the guests can be hard. And as you can see im not sure where I stand lol

[atsumistress]

I think its brilliant to have 'big guests'. I have very specific interests so usually when I go to these types of events, there is only one person I want to meet anyway; thus it doesnt pose a problem for me.

 

However problem with announcing big names at the last minute personally is that I need to save up, make arrangements, book trains and time off work etc etc. If none of the guests hold any interest to me I won't go, so to then announce a big name at the last minute means that I can end up seriously missing out.

 

(Just throwing this in here - if you guys get Norman Reedus I won't have any problems with paying extra lol)

[travelingforhayden]

Definitely MORE THE MERRIER...I completely understand people might have money troubles, I certainly don't grow it lol...but I know that by having more spaces for big guests - less stunt doubles, etc. - will bring in a bigger crowd, which enables you again, year after year to please more bigger crowds. Also, there are a lot of different fandoms and by doing this you are pleasing more than just your cliche 'Dr Who' or 'Star Trek' fans but also all the other TV/Film fanatics. Bringing in bigger guests from other big shows past + present, i.e. Buffy, Charmed etc. right through to current things like, I don't know, Big Bang theory etc. you'll also being drawing in even people who haven't been to any convention before.

 

Last year was my first convention, and it was Hayden Panettiere who drew me in. Went all the way from a small town near Edinburgh. I got a flight and bus'd it back. The point to that sidenote is that there will be lots of people like me who if their favorite 'big' guest attends, they'd do anything/go anywhere to meet them.

 

 

PS, i'd do the same year after year if you invited Hayden back I love her hahaha

 

BRING HAYDEN PANETTIERE BACK FOR LFCC 13/COLLECTORMANIA 19 lol

 

 

Would also like to say I agree with above comments about releasing big guests last minute, it may be suspenseful for some people, but the majority of people have to make travel and accommodation arrangements. Which they aren't going to spend hundreds - for example - on a weekend in London for dire guests...for them then to be disappointed the week before the event when their favorite star is announced..just putting that out there guys haha

Edited January 13, 2013 by Michael Wardlaw

[mrsmikaelson]

If you could get Jim Parsons and/or anyone else from TBBT then I think that would be amazing not to mention the queues would probably be huge!!!!

 

How many pleases would it take for someone to try and contact this cast (if it's not already been done lol)????

[DavidB]

As they've been mentioned before, I'm sure they've at least been on the radar to look into.

[norse_sage]

I think around 5 is a good number of headline guests.

Not too many more, but certainly not a lot less. Furthermore, unless it is a themed event, these headliners should ideally be different from each other in terms of what they are known for.

 

Reason is simple; just as with any other guest, different attendees will give them different importance according to their individual preferences. Have one or two headliners, and a large chunk of potential attendees will be overjoyed en order gold passes en masse - whereas another large group of attendees won't raise an eyelid, and rather be annoyed that you couldn't get any one better (read: more to their liking) as far as headliners go. Get another headliner or two, and this group will headliner that appeals to them as well.

 

Sure, there will always be some who are torn between five headliners they want to see - but I think these are a minority.

Many more will happier with five or thereabouts headliners.

 

Needs of the many...

[yellowmarlin]

I don't think you can have too many headliners. Only a very small percentage of people will want to meet all of them, so limiting the number of headliners necessarily means limiting the choice available to the majority of attendees. And if someone can't afford to meet all of the guests they want to, then at least it's their choice who they miss out on and not someone else's.

[GoldenGreen]

I think what shows clearly through the thread is that what are often classed as big guests , don't always have a wider appeal, yes they are big within their fandom, for example if you were to get a Dr Who or a Bond, but they don't necessarily have the pulling power to a wider audience.

 

Who do people class as being the biggest guest that has been at an event ? When I think about it, I always think about someone like Burt Reynolds who went to the LFCC. Certainly in the 1970's Burt was about as big as they come as a Hollywood A Lister.

[Zerobubble]

I agree, more the better. I would prefer to know ahead of time rather than just two weeks before so can plan and save etc.

[Jenna Downs]

Brian Krause and other Charmed guests :) They always bring in the crowds :)

[DavidB]

Brian certainly wouldn't be considered a headliner. Would be nice to get the full set of girls though.

[Jenna Downs]

Brian certainly wouldn't be considered a headliner. Would be nice to get the full set of girls though.

 

Maybe not so much as an individual, but along side any of the Charmed girls he is always a big hit. Charmed fans don't just want to see the girls, they want to see Brian (Leo) too :)

[travelingforhayden]

I'm definitely up for the Charmed girls too, haha. They've still got it lol.

[Vodkatini]

I have only just started to come to the cons, so I have some catching up to do. The more big names the better for me please. I do agree that it is the big names that have the pulling power.

 

Knowing David Tennant and Anthony Head were at LOT1 was what made me buy a ticket.

 

Money is also an issue for people, so as much notice as possible is always appreciated.

Edited January 16, 2013 by Vodkatini