Thoughts about show after our debrief & how to move forward

[GinfromGA]

My biggest criticsm however is about keeping us informed during the event. You need some kind of announcement tannoy system or matrix signs or something like that.

There was a tannoy system, but it was completely unintelligible.....I heard maybe 2 out of every 5 words when it came on....

[BeatrixKiddo88]

But then that's tanoy systems in the country for you I've never heard one work properly...ever?

[DavidB]

But then that's tanoy systems in the country for you I've never heard one work properly...ever?

Correct. Train stations. Trains. Anywhere. All a load of s**t.

[Salemzorro]

Salemzorro, I'm with you. These events are all about choice. People in this thread have said it'll make people come a day earlier, making hotel costs ect more than normal.

 

Um...only if you CHOOSE to come a day early. I chose to only do Friday and Saturday of this con. And even then I arrived at 11:30 (with an early bird ticket) and left at 4:30. Because I chose to, and had done everything I needed to.

 

No one made me come 2 days not 1, and no oen made me leave early lol You do these cons based on your want to do them and your personal budget. Nothing else.

Glad to hear it! I totally agree with all of your post!

[NuRF]

As long as you can show it when needed. Plus, as an example, if someone brought a weekend ticket, and 'Celeb A photo and auto' - that could be incorporated on the lanyard. When you queue up they then hole punch that bit of the lanyard to show you've redeemed it. That negates having to carry around extra tickets. As people are preordering, you'd know how many of each lanyard to print up.

And as for those people who hand over their lanyard to someone else when they leave, is that really a problem? SM have still taken my money for the day...it's just someone else taking up my space. But that could easily be discouraged.

[farmer]

People really think it'll be cheaper to fly to America and get autos etc?

 

In the past 10+ years of doing these, US events have never charged MORE than they are right now, and we've always been lucky with our prices in comparison.

 

The mail in service for one of Stan Lee's next appearances is 10 pounds cheaper.

 

I guess if they operate like Showmasters, and charge a handling fee it may actually be 15-20 pounds, and none of the problems featured this weekend.

 

If you delete this post, please admend yours - as its clearly misleading.

Edited July 15, 2014 by farmer

[BeatrixKiddo88]

Even if LFCC goes to 3 days and I cant make all of them for one reason or another (time off, money), that isnt SM's fault and I wouldnt shout at them for it. I'd see which days I wanted to go for certain guests/activities and work it out.

 

NuRF: Yeah the Star Trek London lanyards had stuff you were entitled to included on them, and they got cut with those train ticket inspector's things.

Edited July 15, 2014 by BeatrixKiddo88

[conventionbabe22]

this is my first lfcc i originally planned to attend the whole weekend but hotel prices and everything all together i couldnt afford so sadly i only attended sunday i heard about how crazy it was saturday and i literally panicked i got to earls court on sunday just before 8 and was stressing about not getting in on time for my summer glau photo op but the staff were very efficient and as soon as it turned 9 the early birds were let in and i made my photo op my only bit of advice is when i went to que for my photo ops nd find out the numbers that had been called i sometimes cudnt get to a staff member nd had to walk through a big crowd to get to them i think the shud be a notice board so everyone can see what numbers are being called for photo ops as sometimes staff werent around or didnt shout out the numbers loud enough for people to hear also i was number 3 for my summer glau photo nd i was near the end of the que so i felt like it didnt really matter that i was one of the first numbers i still was in a massive que this isnt me being negative btw its just me trying to help overall it was an amazing experience and thank you so much for all your hard work you rock hopefully see you all next year :) xoxo

[BeatrixKiddo88]

 

People really think it'll be cheaper to fly to America and get autos etc?

 

In the past 10+ years of doing these, US events have never charged MORE than they are right now, and we've always been lucky with our prices in comparison.

 

The mail in service for one of Stan Lee's next appearances is 10 pounds cheaper.

 

I guess if they operate like Showmasters, and charge a handling fee it may actually be 15-20 pounds, and none of the problems featured this weekend.

 

If you delete this post, please admend yours - as its clearly misleading.

 

As I said, his flights from his location to the con will be way less than a trans-atlantic one to LFCC. Which the organisers have to pay.

[Rockstar6662]

Wait, I think people are assuming ALL prices will go up, when Jason only said that they MAY implement a system where the biggest guests (usually 3/4 people) will have an EXTRA ticket option. Basically a mini gold pass for one guest (that includes what you want from them).

 

It wouldnt replace the normal/average prices for those guests, just as the gold pass doesnt. It would just be a 'hey, you REALLY want that guests and all their options? here's a package for you'.

 

And how many of these special packages will there be for each guest? 200? 300? Some guests don't sign much more than that each day anyway, add in the normal gold passes and your normal entry person wanting a VT is being priced out of standing a chance to get the big guests.

 

I'm not saying don't do it, just have concerns about how it will work in practice and the knock on effect to your average punter.

 

This weekend it was pretty much like that for Stan. Don't have a gold pass then you don't stand much, if any chance of meeting him.

[farmer]

 

 

People really think it'll be cheaper to fly to America and get autos etc?

 

In the past 10+ years of doing these, US events have never charged MORE than they are right now, and we've always been lucky with our prices in comparison.

 

The mail in service for one of Stan Lee's next appearances is 10 pounds cheaper.

 

I guess if they operate like Showmasters, and charge a handling fee it may actually be 15-20 pounds, and none of the problems featured this weekend.

 

If you delete this post, please admend yours - as its clearly misleading.

 

As I said, his flights from his location to the con will be way less than a trans-atlantic one to LFCC. Which the organisers have to pay.

 

 

If the only option to get an autograph in the future is to buy a £200-300 VIP ticket, as there is no garenttee if 10,000 general entry ticket holders are fighing for the remaining 200-300 autograph slots.

 

My point is that the option of attending elsewhere without all these hassles suddenly seems more appealing.

[cropsy2008]

So Sm solution is to invent even more expensive "packages" and the majority think its a good idea. Crazy. If saturday is capped then entry and each auto and photo will go up. If celebs can only do 300 to 600 autos a day then these guarenteed packages will have you over a barrell price wise and of course they will behind screens so you don't see them for free either. Can see my account being banned soon enough.

[cropsy2008]

So Sm solution is to invent even more expensive "packages" and the majority think its a good idea. Crazy. If saturday is capped then entry and each auto and photo will go up. If celebs can only do 300 to 600 autos a day then these guarenteed packages will have you over a barrell price wise and of course they will behind screens so you don't see them for free either. Thee price of thee biggest guest will be doubled in 2 years mark my words, its happened in America already Can see my account being banned soon enough.

[BeatrixKiddo88]

But as with any event, not everyone wants to get the big guests. I didnt get Stan, Carrie or Ian this weekend, all through choice.

 

And I doubt it'll be that many, I think 200 would be (and should be, take note SM) the top limit for those exclusive ones. And in previous years big guests have done 800+ VQs plus passes plus talks plus double shoots.

[cropsy2008]

So Sm solution is to invent even more expensive "packages" and the majority think its a good idea. Crazy. If saturday is capped then entry and each auto and photo will go up. If celebs can only do 300 to 600 autos a day then these guarenteed packages will have you over a barrell price wise and of course they will behind screens so you don't see them for free either. the price of the bigger celebs will now rise. supply and demand Can see my account being banned soon enough.

[Nodensphere]

Agree with a lot of posters on here. I'm very wary of how the onus is on disguising new and more elaborate cash-ins as a sort of 'exclusive' access option even though there are plenty of these tiers already in place - gold passes et al. This'd inevitably lead to more disappointed con-goers missing out on the stars they've come to see with a real chestnut of a stick SM can beat us with when that happens i.e. 'well you should have bought the Super Duper Mega Pass, you get what you deserve if you're paying at the door (but whatever you do, don't stop queueing (££) please...).

 

I said in the original 'what a joke' thread how I suspected Jason is pushing us closer to doing full weekends out of the big conventions for more £££s and the big post seems to prove that theory. I pretended I read an apology from you to all of us eager fiction and drama aficionados so I could stomach all the self indulgent pats on the back. To not apologise AT LEAST about that pop at as all is really low and will only antagonise us further, leading to more anger, thread deletions etc etc.

[jael001]

As BeatrixKiddo88 said, not everyone wants all the mega guests, I had no interest in Stan or Carrie or Jenna or Ian or John Hurt, but if Natalie Dormer or Pedro Pascal hadn't cancelled they would have been my huge guests and I'd have welcomed a ticket that guaranteed me to meet them. To be honest I'm happy to have just a normal Gold ticket as that usually does the job but I'm not concerned that a few VIP tickets will stop the majority of people meeting the guests they want, as the people with those tickets would clearly want to meet them regardless of whether they had that ticket or not, so they're not taking a spot away from someone else.

Edited July 15, 2014 by jael001

[speedy2056]

How to move forward? You're the leader, Showmasters, you should know.

[GinfromGA]

 

A couple of interesting ideas but why are you just talking to your heads of crew about the problems?? The people you should be talking to are us! Value our opinion as well don't just send us all off to bed while the adults talk.

To be fair, Jason and everyone will be reading about everything on here, but there's PLENTY to be learnt from those involved in the event and what went wrong. Makes complete sense.

 

They probably will read it, but will they actually ACT on it? After the debacle in Newcastle, we were assured that 'nothing like that would happen again.' Yet here we are, with people in the wrong queues because nobody seemed to know which was which (we had 2 standard-entry guys behind us in the early-bird Stan Lee line Saturday) - there only seemed to be 2 queues: early-bird Stan Lee and pay on the door; massive queues outside a venue for hours on end with no access to toilets; few crew members/volunteers keeping those in the queue informed of what's going on (not just the ones towards the front); reaching capacity early in the day because they didn't anticipate the sheer number of people who would be attending; people unable to get into the venue because the early-birders weren't leaving (for fear they wouldn't be allowed back inside, as at Newcastle).

 

The attendees were the ones in the thick of it; the pit crews may have only experienced a small portion of it, as they were stationed in certain areas. My partner and I were among the lucky ones - we managed, over the Saturday and the Sunday, to get every autograph and photoshoot we wanted / had paid for. Yet we could see so many things that were going wrong, and could easily have been prevented. Prior to the event, numerous posters were on the forum, asking how things would be run, and 'What if this happens?' sorts of questions. SM took a while to respond to some of those, almost as if it hadn't even occurred to them. They've been doing this for years - shouldn't they now be able to anticipate our questions/concerns and be planning ahead for most contingencies rather than waiting until after it's over to say, 'Oops, some things went wrong, but we're taking steps to make sure they don't happen again.'

[Vhiper]

I've said it in other topics before, but l'd like to say it again: I had a great time and am very happy our trip all the way from Holland for our first LFCC ever was more then worth it. We got to do everything we wanted and more and it was worth every pound. Yes, not everything was flawless thus yes, things can be improved a lot (tighter procedures for getting in, better sound system at the super stage, etc), but I flew home happy and definatly looking forward to fly over again for the next LFCC.

 

Thanks for all the effort, especially towards the volunteers who sacrificed their time to try and make it a great event for everyone, since they don't make any money out of their work and probably also missed a lot of the LFCC themselves by the huge crowd.

 

Can't wait to be back, hope for those who had a less enjoyable time it will be better next time too.

[MrsEllacott]

Salemzorro, I'm with you. These events are all about choice. People in this thread have said it'll make people come a day earlier, making hotel costs ect more than normal.

 

Um...only if you CHOOSE to come a day early. I chose to only do Friday and Saturday of this con. And even then I arrived at 11:30 (with an early bird ticket) and left at 4:30. Because I chose to, and had done everything I needed to.

 

No one made me come 2 days not 1, and no oen made me leave early lol You do these cons based on your want to do them and your personal budget. Nothing else.

 

I have to agree with this. I chose to do two days this year as I knew I would need more time for the photos and autos I wanted! I spent all year saving so I could afford it and spread out paying for the tickets I wanted. I spent more time and more money this year but that was my choice, no one else's and quite honestly I didn't mind so much, because I had a fantastic time!

 

Whoever suggested the survey, think that might be a good idea. A lot of ideas on here and think some are getting lost among the many posts!

[Murph]

As I said earlier Murph, I assume the exclusive tickets will be limited to a number. So yes, you could pay £50/75/100 for a guest pass and get them for sure, or risk it (a little) and pay the normal over-the-table prices.

 

And we cant always blame SM. I'm sure a lot of agents/managers or even guests up their appearence fees now and again and so SM have to compensate. If the price of gold goes up, so do the prices at the jewelery store.

 

And as always, these events and how much you spend/get are YOUR choice. You dont NEED anything SM offers. It's just nice stuff to have and do. So you afford what you can. Like everything else in life that isnt essential.

It's not anything to do with inflation though. Gold passes went up this year, I paid it no probs. As you say, can't expect something to stay the same price forever. My point is, it shouldn't end up being a con for the rich who can afford this pass and that pass and get ALL the priority. Should be limiting the amount of priority passes again, NOT increasing them. This weekend proved too many passes creates too many problems.

 

A gold pass as it is, is fine to do everything you need, keep it nice and simple. Just don't let every Tom, Dick and Harry have one.

[Geekchic]

'exclusive ticket packages' - sounds like another great money spinner to me! Who cares about the EE network or a dusty Batmobile that no one had time or space to see. There weren't enough staff, they didn't all do a good job, the AC wasn't good enough, there were too many people in there, no crowd control and poor instruction/communication. No one has beef with Stan by the way, I'm afraid you didn't do as good a job as you say you did! You do need a bigger boat but you also need far more staff who ALL know what they're doing - enthusiasm alone isn't enough!

[Janson]

Rather than having a new package encompassing an autograph and photo with "A list guest", couldn't there just be autograph tickets for sale online in the same way that there are photo shoot tickets now but which could be used on any day, like the vouchers we can purchase already only guest specific. It would cut down on the amount of cash people have to carry about as well as the queues for people paying for vouchers. I'm not saying do away with virtual queue tickets but maybe this could run alongside them.

 

I also think they should perhaps do away with the after show events as this may be one of the reasons why there was still such a high volume of people at the event late into the afternoon who might have gone home otherwise.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Janson

[cherrydarling]

I think that the package option gives people more choice. For example, this year is the first year that I have felt I needed a gold pass. I did not buy one because I'm not interested in the free autographs that come with them and I do not mind queueing as long as queues are organised. A gold pass had never appealed to me. However, I did miss out on getting some of the autographs I wanted and I think with the guest list getting more A-list I would rather have the option of buying a package that guarantees an autograph and photo. I think it takes any stress out of the day. I think that these packages would suit people who want one or two big guests but do not need the whole gold pass package. This is how it works with the big US cons. Jeri Ryan pre-bought auto vouchers seemed to work well the other year with gold passes still having priority and VQ numbers still being used. The three types of tickets were allowed access to the queue. A big part of this is the signing queues running efficiently and consistently. As long as this happens I don't think these special packages would cause a problem.