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Photoshoot or autographs


chubarker
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I know I may get some flak for this, but I thought it would be a topic that needed to be raised.

 

Had a great time as usual but like many of the gold ticket holders found the decision of whether to do all the photoshoots and then try and get any autographs I could on Saturday a hard one.

 

Spent the morning just going from Photo Shoot A Q to Photo Phoot B Q and back again, which left very little time to get autographs.

 

The knock-on from this was that I spent most of Sunday morning waiting for Qs to reach our group and lunch went out the window completely.

 

I know there were a lot of guest and therefore the photoshoots had to be staggered, but the number of attenees was low (Around 400+).

 

It may have worked better if the photoshoots were split over two days for each group.

 

Looking forward to next year @ the Rad with the 20 guests (Now there's a nightmare to organise)

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Ian I agree with you. I was s38 and I had all my photoshoots and 4 of my autos set for the sat and only 3 autos on the sun. in the end I had to go for the photos over autos. the tresult in this was I got 6 photos and 2 autos on the sat. consequently on sun I got my remaining photo shoot and spent moste of the morning Qing. because paul's line was sooooooo long I got pulled out and told to Q for cliff as he had no one in it at around 11:30 so I did and then got dan's. but then when I finaly went back to get pauls they closed the line. meaning I had to wait till later to hand over my pic and showmasted had to get my pic auto'd for me meaning I never got an in person auto from paul meaning I never saw the auto being done(genuine alert) and showmaster don't do cert of authenticity. I would much frefered to have have had 1/2 and 1/2 on the 2 days even if it was just photos 1 day and autos the next but 11 one day 3 the next was just toooooo much and did NOT work and gold suffered the same.

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20 guests? is this you being hopeful? ;)

wed need like 2000 attendees to get that many guests as they said they will get 1 guest for every 100 tickets sold. plus how would we get everything done in the weekend if we had 20 guests? we bairly managed to get everything in this time.

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20 guests? is this you being hopeful? ;)

wed need like 2000 attendees to get that many guests as they said they will get 1 guest for every 100 tickets sold. plus how would we get everything done in the weekend if we had 20 guests? we bairly managed to get everything in this time.

 

Haha thats interesting to know, 1 guest for every 100 tickets sold, you're right though, i just manage 20 guests a day at a normal con like london, haha!

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20 guests? is this you being hopeful? ;)

 

20th Anniversary of "Stargate : The Movie" next year, hence 20 guests.

 

And those were Jason's hopes\dreams\words (delete as appropriate) not mine.

 

The only dates you could do a 20 guest con like Chevron would be over a bank holiday weekend, making it a four day event, which would mean extra hotel costs..

 

I think 8-10 is more likely, but they need the numbers to do that so don't forget to bring your half a friend.

 

I'm currently working on finding my half.

Edited by Ian Barker
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Was the same amount of time for getting autos given as last year, when there were only 4 guests?

We only just managed to get all 7, and we were in the room as soon as they started letting people in. We never left the room, we went straight from one queue to another.

I heard many people around me saying they still had several autographs left to get, with only 20 minutes to spare.

Perhaps the time slot should be bigger as there are more guests to get through?

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I think unless they extend the weekend, the only way to do it would be to do it the way they do some of the massive american cons - have a photographer for each guest, and just lead the line from one photo booth to the next, and then the same with the autographs, just have them all at one long table and go along the line.

The problem with that set up is that you don't get the same experience, there's a lot less time to chat to the guests, and it feels very impersonal.

Although I would love there to be 10 (or even 20!) guests next year, I really didn't enjoy the rush this year, and I think the more guests there are, the worse it will be.

If only it could be a week long!

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I think unless they extend the weekend, the only way to do it would be to do it the way they do some of the massive american cons - have a photographer for each guest, and just lead the line from one photo booth to the next, and then the same with the autographs, just have them all at one long table and go along the line.

The problem with that set up is that you don't get the same experience, there's a lot less time to chat to the guests, and it feels very impersonal.

Although I would love there to be 10 (or even 20!) guests next year, I really didn't enjoy the rush this year, and I think the more guests there are, the worse it will be.

If only it could be a week long!

 

I hope they never do the autographs along one long table. I could never cope as I get different things signed by each guest. Plus some people have no interest in meeting one or more of the guests, so that could get awkward if everyone was made to go past each guest. I have experienced a version of this method and agree with you that it is very impersonal, it felt like being on a conveyerbelt!

 

While I like the fact that I only have to make myself look 'pretty' on one morning for the photos currently, with this amount of guests (or more) I think that to allow everyone to get their autographs and photos done in a less rushed manner then perhaps the best approach would be to schedule groups for half and half: half of each of the autos and photos one morning, the other halfs the next morning.

 

But then we would probably all be complaining because we would have to be running back and forth between two areas!

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I had the same problem with Silver32. But I was happy that I got all my photos on Saturday and it wouldn't have been no lunch break for me if Paul had been a little bit faster. Maybe it would be a good idea to start the signing on Sunday ealier than 10 am.

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I only just managed to get the last two autos on Sunday (I couldn't get them on Saturday as my group wasn't called) before the queues were closed, and I'd managed to get almost everything on the Saturday, so I should have had plenty of time. I would have preferred for the time slots to be a bit longer and spread out over the two days, or for signings and photoshoots to start at 9am on the Sunday as well.

 

It was the only part of the con that was a bit disappointing, everything else was fantastic and far better organised than other cons I've been too.

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I had a gold 63 and had the same issues as others have already mentioned. I have now attended 5 Chevron events and never have I felt so rushed and there have been bigger events run by Massive Events too.

 

I think that both attendees and organisers alike have learned lessons from this event.

Firstly the room for auto signing was way too small.

Secondly the group I was in was called for both Dave H and Paul at around the same time on the Sunday, both queues were massive and a member of the crew advised us to go to get other autos first.

 

I suffer with a bad back and by the time we finished getting our photos on Saturday there was very little time left to even attempt to get autos so we made the decision to get all our autos on Sunday. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and next year I will be more inclined to bite the bullet, grit my teeth and ignore the pain!

 

As I say, lessons learned and that's what this is all about. Providing feedback and hoping that things are done better next time.

 

My auto with Paul was rushed as I was one of the last through and the poor guy was done. He spelt my name wrong, but hey, these things happen and I just laughed about it!

 

The crew were polite and helpful under pressure, something that I really appreciated.

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This is putting me off of coming to a Chevron event now... I like to get my photo shoots signed and have absolutely no interest in getting a standard 8x10 signed instead... What would happen to me if my group were called to a signing and I hadn't had my photo op' yet... is that it... I don't get an autograph? Or would I be able to queue later in the day? though looking at the schedule - it looks like having gone for a silver pass I would be int he same boat as everyone else getting photos on sat and signed on Sunday...

 

Would I have to skip a photo op' with someone who I wasn't that into in order to guarantee that I had the ones I really wanted? :crying:

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Zahariel: You can join an autograph queue at any point after your group is called, so even if your group was called early on Saturday morning you could join the queue sometime on the Sunday morning :). Similarly with the photo shoots.

 

What happened at this event is that all the higher groups were called for their photos on the Saturday, and the various guests sessions were in quick succession, so that most of the people in those groups understandably decided to ignore most/all of their autographs until the Sunday, even if their autograph group had been called on the Saturday, and just do all their photos on the Saturday. This meant that the queues for the autographs on the Sunday were rather large and so some people struggled to get through all the queues and get their autographs done before the end of the autograph session on Sunday, purely because of the volume of people doing the exact same thing.

 

This sounds rather confusing, but basically it is theoretically very hard to 'miss' getting an autograph or a photo done, and only happens on rare occasions. The crew also do their best to make sure that this does not happen. Usually there is plenty of opportunity to get a photo session photo signed. So if you did attend a Chevron event you could wait until after you have had your photo shoot and then join the relevant autograph queue at any point after your group had been called. You also shouldn't have to choose between missing having a photo with one guest in order to have one with another.

 

Hope that helps :)

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What happened at this event is that all the higher groups were called for their photos on the Saturday, and the various guests sessions were in quick succession, so that most of the people in those groups understandably decided to ignore most/all of their autographs until the Sunday, even if their autograph group had been called on the Saturday, and just do all their photos on the Saturday. This meant that the queues for the autographs on the Sunday were rather large and so some people struggled to get through all the queues and get their autographs done before the end of the autograph session on Sunday, purely because of the volume of people doing the exact same thing.

 

This seems to be the root of the issue. When I saw the schedule it seemed the obvious thing to do for many would be to get photos on Saturday and then try for autos on Sunday but with the reduced signing time it did look tricky and clearly many had the same thought. There just didn't seem to be enough time to get any autos between the photoshoots given that you'd have to spend time queuing and the calling of groups on the auto queues always seems to slip. I suppose you could have left some photos until sunday. DOn't know if that would have helped.

 

Last one I went to one of my autos should have been called on the saturday but it was part way through sunday before it was. I think it would be much better to split photos over both days, thus allowing time to get some autos on Saturday too. That's how it's been at the ones I've previously been to and those were pretty stress free.

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Me & hubby were in the same boat with all our photo shoots on Saturday, it wasn't a problem we had planned to do them on Saturday and then do signings Sunday, HOWEVER... it was really stuffy waiting where the photo shoots were and as we had 15-30 minutes between some of our shoots we went outside for some fresh air and returned when our shoots should have been called only to discover ALL of the Saturday groups had been called and the queue was closed - this happened twice.

 

I didn't see the point of having a schedule if it wasn't being followed...

 

We got everything in the end, so no harm done other than very unhelpful stress that could have been avoided had the schedule been followed properly. Everything else was spot on!

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I think they need to do 1/2 and 1/2 on each day. that's how it usually is get 1/2 your autos and 1/2 your photos on the say and the same on the sun. trying to get 7 photos and 4 autos on 1 day is ion impossible. I was just going from 1 photo queue to another almost all sat then sun i was queueing for autos. then to be pulled out of lines because they are too long and put into others that are short only to find when you go back to the originally line it was then closed well that really got my goat. others told me they kept being pulled out of lines too. they really need to rethink the schedule next year if they are to have this many guests again or more. yes maby have it over a 4 day weekend in the summer?(pleas not over Easter weekend I cant get there over Easter weekend).

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I felt so sorry for the crew on Sunday, they were doing a fantastic job, but some of the people queuing were really quite rude to them.

 

I was in the same boat as everyone else, as a Gold ticket holder I did the photo shoots on Saturday assuming that the queues would be okay on Sunday.

 

Interestingly, the photo queues were a good example of how to, and more importantly how not to move large numbers effectively. The queue being look after by Ian ran really well because he was making sure that Gold A was first, followed by B then C and so on. This meant that you knew where to queue and your queue was able to move quicker because it was in order. ON the other side this didn't happen and the Gold A were queuing with the Gold G, and the Silvers and it was a mess. No-one knew where to wait, how long the queue was of even if they in the right queue.

 

If you miss when you number is called you can join at the back, but if you are there at the right time you should have a queue for your group, this way the Gold A - C batch are done and out of the way, so that when Gold D - F start going through they are already moving into the next queue. For this to work you would need more space to queue so that you had room to stack people, and to make sure the right people were in the right line (I am referring to the Gold E ticket holders in the first group - you know who you are :smile: .

It would be great to have more guests, and remember sometimes it doesn't matter how efficient the process it, the reason the queues for David H and Paul were so long is that they were happy to meet the attendees and have a bit of a natter. Good for us, bad for the scheduling.

 

Overall, it was still a fantastic weekend, and hasn't put me off buying my ticket for next year. I also am looking for half a person to bring along. Think I'll go for the legs that way, when my feet get tired I can borrow theirs!!

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I think that having the photo shoot rooms so close together was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because you didn't have far to go, a curse because it just meant that the corridor was a sea of bodies and figuring out where to stand was made more difficult!

 

As for the photo shoots all happening on the same day... In the past I've appreciated that because I like to get my photo signed by the guest but because the photos weren't ready until the evening it meant photos on Saturday and autos on Sunday. This is no longer an issue so dividing up the photo shoots seems like it might be the best plan. Either way I am attending 8.1 thanks to my best friend buying tickets so it will be interesting to see what lessons have been learned and how these issues are resolved.

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To be honest it was a real struggle this time. Difficult getting all the signatures, and any extra autos above the 2 extra max allocated. I think you should issue different coloured tickets in future for any further extras above the 2 additional autos. All that being said, it was still a great weekend, the Crew coped well, and if it wasn't for you guys at Showmasters we'd never get to meet these brilliant guests in the first place...so long may the Chevron's continue!!! Special thanks to Alison for her time, fortitude and patience! Booked already for Chevron 8.1 :-)

Edited by KirkEnterprise
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