A Short Review

[dwarfbabe]

I'm glad so many people apparently enjoyed the show at the weekend.

Unfortunately, however, my experience was rather different.

 

One particular instance, when I was in the queue for a guest, I noticed a couple of people in front of me had cameras in their hands and were taking pictures. The guest in question, chatty and polite, obviously saw the camera and said to the couple, "hey, let's get a quick picture" and started making his way around the table. The crew member for this particular guest promptly jumped up and made a lunge for the camera. With such a frenzy that I initially thought the crew member was having some kind of seizure, she almost screamed "NO PICTURES! WE HAVE PHOTOSHOOTS LATER!" and made sure she put a stop to any picture-taking.

I was planning to purchase 3 photographs from this particular guest, but felt uneasy after witnessing that. So I changed my mind.

 

This was not the exception. Multiple times, I saw crew members interjecting themselves even when the guest was happy to take a picture and had brought up the issue themselves! There was no issue with time - there were no other customers around. Again, the crew mentioning, "we have professional photographs..."

 

I traveled a great many miles through the early hours of the morning to Collectormania 21. As such, I often like to try and have a bit of a chat (if possible) and hopefully get a photo of/with a guest as I am getting an autograph.

 

I fully realise that, often, this is not possible to get a pic at a table. I realise that a guest may be too busy for photos. I realise that a guest may have an aversion to camera flash (or whatever) and choose not to have pictures taken. However, at previous Collectormania and other shows, these situations have been few and far between, and the presence of an official photo-shoot has not impacted on the decision to allow photos at the table.

This past weekend it seemed like it was a virtual impossibility to get a table-picture with the majority of guests. From what I saw of the crew WITHOUT EXCEPTION it was clear that table-photos were being restricted because a guest is doing a photo-shoot session.

 

Myself and a friend were planning on getting up to a dozen guests, and dropping significant 3-figure sums at this show.

The rude and unprofessional conduct of the crew in stopping the taking of pictures and generally treating your customers like dirt, and the blatant trying to 'force' people into buying photoshoots, was bitterly disappointing and ensured that 2 people left the show spending less than 1% of our planned total.

Thanks to the crew the remainder will now no doubt go to one of showmasters' competitors.

 

Sorry that you did not enjoy the event.

 

If you are unhappy with the way a crew member has acted toward you or there is any other issue, it really should be raised at the time with one of the pit bosses in the relevant area. If you do that, it may be possible to reach a resolution. Unfortunately, there is little or nothing that can be done after the event.

Edited May 23, 2014 by dwarfbabe

[Wondermoose]

 

I'm glad so many people apparently enjoyed the show at the weekend.

Unfortunately, however, my experience was rather different.

 

One particular instance, when I was in the queue for a guest, I noticed a couple of people in front of me had cameras in their hands and were taking pictures. The guest in question, chatty and polite, obviously saw the camera and said to the couple, "hey, let's get a quick picture" and started making his way around the table. The crew member for this particular guest promptly jumped up and made a lunge for the camera. With such a frenzy that I initially thought the crew member was having some kind of seizure, she almost screamed "NO PICTURES! WE HAVE PHOTOSHOOTS LATER!" and made sure she put a stop to any picture-taking.

I was planning to purchase 3 photographs from this particular guest, but felt uneasy after witnessing that. So I changed my mind.

 

This was not the exception. Multiple times, I saw crew members interjecting themselves even when the guest was happy to take a picture and had brought up the issue themselves! There was no issue with time - there were no other customers around. Again, the crew mentioning, "we have professional photographs..."

 

I traveled a great many miles through the early hours of the morning to Collectormania 21. As such, I often like to try and have a bit of a chat (if possible) and hopefully get a photo of/with a guest as I am getting an autograph.

 

I fully realise that, often, this is not possible to get a pic at a table. I realise that a guest may be too busy for photos. I realise that a guest may have an aversion to camera flash (or whatever) and choose not to have pictures taken. However, at previous Collectormania and other shows, these situations have been few and far between, and the presence of an official photo-shoot has not impacted on the decision to allow photos at the table.

This past weekend it seemed like it was a virtual impossibility to get a table-picture with the majority of guests. From what I saw of the crew WITHOUT EXCEPTION it was clear that table-photos were being restricted because a guest is doing a photo-shoot session.

 

Myself and a friend were planning on getting up to a dozen guests, and dropping significant 3-figure sums at this show.

The rude and unprofessional conduct of the crew in stopping the taking of pictures and generally treating your customers like dirt, and the blatant trying to 'force' people into buying photoshoots, was bitterly disappointing and ensured that 2 people left the show spending less than 1% of our planned total.

Thanks to the crew the remainder will now no doubt go to one of showmasters' competitors.

 

Sorry that you did not enjoy the event.

 

If you are unhappy with the way a crew member has acted toward you or there is any other issue, it really should be raised at the time with one of the pit bosses in the relevant area. If you do that, it may be possible to reach a resolution. Unfortunately, there is little or nothing that can be done after the event.

 

 

Its sad reading this... Things like this ruins the guests experience aswell. If I would have been the one doing the signing I would have been very annoyed with someone telling me what I can do and what not for my fans. Afterall They are the guests they are there for their fans and things like this might get people to see them differently cause of what the crew does. (This is NOT a generall comment, there are many lovely crew members that have been very nice in situations like this, but Ive had a couple bad experiences aswell)

Edited May 23, 2014 by Wondermoose

[yellowmarlin]

I never witnessed anything of the sort. The only time I saw attendees asked not to take photos, it was clear that it was at the guest's request (Eric Roberts, for example).

[wabit]

i just wanna say David Ramsey was awesome. Very chatty and actually made me feel tall in my photo shoot by going onto his tip toes for it. Not easy as I'm 5ft 6 and he's 6ft 3. Running joke for the rest of the weekend was shouting "Tip toes" every time we walked past or he walked past us, he even got up onto his tip toes as he walked past us!! LEGEND!

Didn't have any issues with any staff members at all this time, although some don't seem to have a sense of humor at all. But as I steward for other events I know it can be a long day so can forgive them! Had to smile at the Information Booth, one young guy who kept shouting Cash or Card, he looked totally confused when I shouted "Tango" after he shouted "Cash"!! But I guess that's an age thing!! :-)

[GoldenGreen]

I'm glad so many people apparently enjoyed the show at the weekend.

Unfortunately, however, my experience was rather different.

 

One particular instance, when I was in the queue for a guest, I noticed a couple of people in front of me had cameras in their hands and were taking pictures. The guest in question, chatty and polite, obviously saw the camera and said to the couple, "hey, let's get a quick picture" and started making his way around the table. The crew member for this particular guest promptly jumped up and made a lunge for the camera. With such a frenzy that I initially thought the crew member was having some kind of seizure, she almost screamed "NO PICTURES! WE HAVE PHOTOSHOOTS LATER!" and made sure she put a stop to any picture-taking.

I was planning to purchase 3 photographs from this particular guest, but felt uneasy after witnessing that. So I changed my mind.

 

This was not the exception. Multiple times, I saw crew members interjecting themselves even when the guest was happy to take a picture and had brought up the issue themselves! There was no issue with time - there were no other customers around. Again, the crew mentioning, "we have professional photographs..."

 

I traveled a great many miles through the early hours of the morning to Collectormania 21. As such, I often like to try and have a bit of a chat (if possible) and hopefully get a photo of/with a guest as I am getting an autograph.

 

I fully realise that, often, this is not possible to get a pic at a table. I realise that a guest may be too busy for photos. I realise that a guest may have an aversion to camera flash (or whatever) and choose not to have pictures taken. However, at previous Collectormania and other shows, these situations have been few and far between, and the presence of an official photo-shoot has not impacted on the decision to allow photos at the table.

This past weekend it seemed like it was a virtual impossibility to get a table-picture with the majority of guests. From what I saw of the crew WITHOUT EXCEPTION it was clear that table-photos were being restricted because a guest is doing a photo-shoot session.

 

Myself and a friend were planning on getting up to a dozen guests, and dropping significant 3-figure sums at this show.

The rude and unprofessional conduct of the crew in stopping the taking of pictures and generally treating your customers like dirt, and the blatant trying to 'force' people into buying photoshoots, was bitterly disappointing and ensured that 2 people left the show spending less than 1% of our planned total.

Thanks to the crew the remainder will now no doubt go to one of showmasters' competitors.

I can honestly say having been there from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. on the Saturday I didn't notice this at all. I could see a number of guests did have no posed photos up and it seemed people were respecting that. The only time I have noticed this was at the LFCC Winter last year, when someone in front of me in the queue for Margot Kidder asked for a picture with here. It was Margot who said to the person, no, you need to buy a photoshoot, and not the crew member. I must admit I was a little disappointed to see so many of the Sports guests were no posed photos , however I had already booked photoshoots with the ones I wanted beforehand, but I may have been tempted to get a couple of autos from the Snooker players perhaps if I had been able to get a photo with them as well.

[Kirbinator]

Well I have attended many Showmasters events over the years including Collectormania, LFCC, WLFCC and CFCC.....I must say Collectormania 21 was an excellent show and this was down to the organisation, making full use of the stadium to spread everything out and the weather.

I attended on Sunday arriving at 10am and although the car park was pretty full we managed to get one of the last spaces. With no entry queue we walked straight in and got on with the job in hand, meeting guests.

We met the lovely Karen Allen who agreed to an over the table photo, Deobia Operai who agreed to a photo and came from around the table, Quentin Pierre who agreed to a photo and came from around the table and the SM staff member took our photo and lastly Eric Roberts who had a sign up saying no photography At All, so I took a sneaky photo of him signing his auto (sorry SM).

I also took the opportunity to have my first ever photo shoot experience with all the 18 Stormtroopers which would have been a logistical nightmare to arrange however all went very smoothly.

All in all a great day was had with great photos, great experience and great memories, thanks to SM.

[Rockstar6662]

We met the lovely Karen Allen who agreed to an over the table photo, Deobia Operai who agreed to a photo and came from around the table, Quentin Pierre who agreed to a photo and came from around the table and the SM staff member took our photo and lastly Eric Roberts who had a sign up saying no photography At All, so I took a sneaky photo of him signing his auto (sorry SM).

 

So why did you think that sign didn't apply to you?

 

I'm sorry but this really annoys me, and it's not just directed at you as I see it at every show. It's people who ignore the organisers/guests requests like that or film the talks at other events when told not to that potentially cause problems for everyone else. What if so many people ignored the signs that the guests decided to walk out? what if the agents decided they didn't want things said in the Q&A sessions uploaded to youtube etc and said it wasn't being stopped properly so no more guests, or they put a complete ban on cameras of any type being brought in? Yes, that's all extreme examples but whether you agree with it or not, know the reasons or not, the signs are there for a reason and should be respected.

[Banished_From_Rohan]

 

I fully realise that, often, this is not possible to get a pic at a table. I realise that a guest may be too busy for photos. I realise that a guest may have an aversion to camera flash (or whatever) and choose not to have pictures taken. However, at previous Collectormania and other shows, these situations have been few and far between, and the presence of an official photo-shoot has not impacted on the decision to allow photos at the table.

This past weekend it seemed like it was a virtual impossibility to get a table-picture with the majority of guests. From what I saw of the crew WITHOUT EXCEPTION it was clear that table-photos were being restricted because a guest is doing a photo-shoot session.

 

 

Sorry to selectively quote, and I hope I'm not taking this out of context in doing so.

 

I have no idea who you were aiming to get of course, but I can state clearly that in the little area I was in with my guest on Saturday at least there were no restrictions on photos with three of the guests, and the fourth was no posed photos. And this was despite all four having photoshoots on the day. The crew in my area, certainly, were not told to flog photoshoots instead of over the table shots and, in fact, I don't ever remember being told this in all the years I've crewed.