TommyT Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 As I Gold ticket holder I was appalled at the Gold Room, worse then a train station toilet. Also having to queue for autos and photos as not acceptable. I believe you've always had to queue for autos with a gold pass; it just means you can join the queue at any time, as if you had VQ #1 for that guest; it didn't give you priority queueing for autographs. See 1.2 about what is included in a gold pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mflowers Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 I think the exclusive "package" for guests would work (on A list guests etc.) Like JAMES FRANCO ) I think it would have to be good priced perhaps up to £20 higher as it would give you a certain chance to meet them. I understand the concerns on the issue but i do think it would be more beneficial as people would be able to decide if they want to take a risk or not for less money or have no risk and more money cost etc.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockstar6662 Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 (edited) As I Gold ticket holder I was appalled at the Gold Room, worse then a train station toilet. Also having to queue for autos and photos as not acceptable. I believe you've always had to queue for autos with a gold pass; it just means you can join the queue at any time, as if you had VQ #1 for that guest; it didn't give you priority queueing for autographs. See 1.2 about what is included in a gold pass. Correct. Gold pass doesn't mean no queuing just means you're at the front for photoshoots but still have to join the back of any autograph queue. You don't jump to the front. This has never been the case. I find it incredibly helpful although the cost is getting such that I think very carefully about it. But with so many different passes sold this time it wasn't without stress still. Edited July 20, 2014 by Rockstar6662 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martincan Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Maps for all!! Last time I went to a SM event there was a floor plan in the programme I was given. That was far more useful than a few pages about GoT or Dr Who!! It may well have taken some pressure off the information desk as well. I saw the plan on the wall but couldn't get close enough to read it!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissangel4616 Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 (edited) I had a blast and managed 41 autographs and 12 photo ops........great guest line up.......great crew......hope people read the explanation above and understand that no one can control how many people turn up on the day. Buy tickets in advance....that helps.....big ticket packages are a great idea. I tried to help people over the weekend as a seasoned con-goer but to be honest a lot of the pay on the day turn up at 1pm sorts were quite rude to me and others...so I have mixed feelings about people who come and spend less than £30 expecting everything and treating the crew or attendees with disrespect. I don't think people realise how well run these events are compared to most out there. roll on LFCC 2015! hi Phil, greetings from Switzerland (I met you and Markus in March - if you remember) and saw you friday evening at LFCC. My experience this time: it was more relaxed than in 2012 even it was bigger this time. The only time I was a bit dissapointed (Im sure the the crew did their bests!) was friday evening. I have tried to get some autograph tickets and two more photo shoots ticket (Carrie Fisher!) but queuing time was more than 1 hour and "my" line was the slowest. I was a bit upset but well for the most... everything went well and the Crew did their best and was always very friendly. Hm... i thought I would freaking out with photo clashes because having 6 photo Area. The only clashes I had was friday evening with Casper Van Dien and Billy Dee Williams but it did works well. Williams started a couple minutes later than scheduled. For me the most worked very well. Sure some guest-lines had been long so had to check them a couple times until i got it. The only thing: why the hell wasn't a cash maschine in the near? (or I haven't seen it?) Edited July 21, 2014 by Swissangel4616 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geekchic Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Increasing costs as a way of crowd control is both lazy and unethical. It would be a shot in the foot and the final nail for some. Do people not keep up with current affairs? This way of thinking is outmoded and is failing across the globe. SM don't want to increase cost, the fans don't want increased cost so hey, how about not increasing the costs? Of course people pay only what they can afford, not sure that is the issue here. Bigger boat, more people, same price but still more profit, everyone is happy. Jeez, it's not rocket science! Sorry but your solution will not create less demand at the autograph lines - epic fail I'm not talking about the autograph line, I'm talking about crowd control. The VQ system still works in my opinion. People who use phrases like 'Epic fail' and think it's clever make my blood boil, is this your idea of us fan sticking together is it? how is it any different to ....Jeez, its not rocket science! are you calling us/me and possibly showmasters stupid? where is the respect there? Wow, compared to what you said about others in this forum (that was deleted sharpish by the moderators) I'm not sure you have a leg to stand on. I saw a simple issue being complicated, hence the rocket science comment. Totally unoffensive especially compared to what you said. Anyway, I'm out, I've had quite enough of this thread and quite enough of you I'm afraid. The last word is all yours! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elainec Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Again, I've only skimmed through certain sections, so this may be a repeat of lots of other posts, but would add: 1) Look at the most popular guests from previous events (not just LFCC) and look at how many autos have been completed - eg people like Stan, Gillian A, David T, Karl U, etc and then look at a realistic number which you can pre sell. You should not just sell 000's of tickets "just because" - the guest should have a good experience too and that will often mean at least making eye contact and shaking hands with people, as well as plenty of breaks. Hopefully then, the guest wouldn't need to cancel things due to being tired, but it might be forced upon them by travel plans, etc which are unavoidable. Then on the day, hand out another sensible number of VT's - 1 per person - with the caveat that all pre-purchased tickets will have a priority. Pre-sold tickets, whilst it's great that a gold pass allows a person to enter a queue at any time of the day and they are guaranteed to get in, if a person with a VT has queued for hours and looks as though they will get through, only to be told "sorry mate but a gold pass person has just come into the queue and we're closing it after them" - I would be royally p****d off. This needs rethinking for major guests. 2) Restict the number of auto items per person where the guest is an A lister, eg reduce it to 2 items - perhaps 1 personalised (if wanted) and 1 not. This should be the same for ALL ticket holders/dealers. If you want more, you get a second VT and go through again. This would allow more people to meet the guest(s) and money is still being made - possibly more. 3) Have a better flow of information - having the wipe boards on the walls of the photo booths makes them pretty much impossible to see. Have different types of runners - people who move between the areas updating the pit bosses AND the people working there, plus people who can be miked up and just float around the event (not literally) with the latest details - eg roaming information posts. The staff, when asked questions, can then point to these people and say "go ask them" so that they can keep handing out tickets. Having an app is a great idea, but not everyone has a smart phone and/or can get a signal and of course if you are in talks or photo sessions you don't always have the time to check. Good idea though. 4) Have more staff/stewards and ask them not to bark at people - I know they need to be heard when asking people to move on, but they then need to tone it down when dealing with attendees in that area. Make them more visible and not standing just at the end of the barriered area so that if you want a VT you don't have to go hunting for them. Have a cut off point for where the queue will be stopped and have them there. Have another steward controlling the busier queues to keep people moving and stop queue jumpers. Where photos are allowed, they can also move people along for the same reason. Definitely need more stewards outside to control the queues and again stop queue jumpers - the difficulty is when friends are coming from all over and the fact that one person may get there early, but then other people meet up with them. 5) Stop people from sitting on the floor - it's dangerous, period! Some sort of area should be available, whether that's a talk area which isn't being used, or something else, there needs to be something. 6) Not sure about more expensive tickets for bigger guests - yes that would put severe restictions on things for some people, or it would mean that "hey we sold 500 tickets - let's get some more money and sell another 100" and this then means that those people who have bought the higher priced tickets could increase, thereby decreasing the experience for them because more people are buying the tickets. Having the gold passes get access a day earlier may not work because that assumes they can do that and/or travel on multiple days or stay over if all of the guests they want haven't arrived. 7) Only allow EB pre purchased to enter early - if necessary stagger it so that gold passes get in at 9.00am, then EB at 10am and then standard entry - as pointed out this would make the gold passes something better because they would have the opportunity to snag a load of autos early. Obviously some planning is required for photo sessions so as not to exclude standard entry tickets. Something like this would make the queuing outside easier to manage and the number of pre paid tickets could again be restricted to say 2000 per day - just plucking figures out of the air here. 8) DON'T cram people in for the photo sessions - most of the time you do not know the person in front or behind you and having someone breathing down your neck or feeling the heat off another persons body is gross. Quite simply the queues just need to have a better flow to them, they can be fast without the need to have everyone standing on each other's toes. Also, the photographer should allow the attendee the time to at least turn to face the camera and smile before they are whisked away. A lot of people get very nervous meeting the guests and they want to remember it - obviously if someone is having a chat then they need to be politely encouraged to get a move on. We are people - not cattle! There are a lot of simple things that can be done that will not cost anything, or won't cost a lot. Rather than over implicating things and making a load of false promises that either don't work - because they aren't executed properly or were just not practical in the first place - perhaps Jason and SM should take things back to the drawing board and ask themselves "if I were attending an event, how would I like to be treated and what would I like to see/do?" Elaine 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissangel4616 Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 (edited) The only thing which could be done better: hang out the celebrites name of the current photo shooting and who would be next of that Photo Area. It would be then easier for the crew-member and for those which want have a pic. Specially then when something changed. I almost missed one photo shooting because it was about 30 minutes earlier than scheduled and I didn't realized it earlier. I run in as the last one. But anyway... for the most everything was well done. Edited July 21, 2014 by Swissangel4616 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyDeTemps Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 The only thing which could be done better: hang out the celebrites name of the current photo shooting and who would be next. It would be then easier for the crew-member and for those which want have a pic. I almost missed one photo shooting because it was about 30 minutes earlier than scheduled and I didn't realized it earlier. I run in as the last one. But anyway... for the most everything was well done. That's really good idea..especially when things can change on the fly without notice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissangel4616 Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 The only thing which could be done better: hang out the celebrites name of the current photo shooting and who would be next. It would be then easier for the crew-member and for those which want have a pic. I almost missed one photo shooting because it was about 30 minutes earlier than scheduled and I didn't realized it earlier. I run in as the last one. But anyway... for the most everything was well done. That's really good idea..especially when things can change on the fly without notice. Yeah, I found it a bit difficult. Some people was queuing for the wrong celebrity. And crew members have been asked a lot time: who's now in the photo shooting or next? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyDeTemps Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 The only thing which could be done better: hang out the celebrites name of the current photo shooting and who would be next. It would be then easier for the crew-member and for those which want have a pic. I almost missed one photo shooting because it was about 30 minutes earlier than scheduled and I didn't realized it earlier. I run in as the last one. But anyway... for the most everything was well done. That's really good idea..especially when things can change on the fly without notice. Yeah, I found it a bit difficult. Some people was queuing for the wrong celebrity. And crew members have been asked a lot time: who's now in the photo shooting or next? I nearly joined a queue I didn't need to join because of it...fortunately decided to ask the crew member first before we joined the queue. And got rushed through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissangel4616 Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 I also I think it would be helpful for those people who are hard hearing (like myself only a little but foreign speaking which makes again more difficult) and / or deaf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsEllacott Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 I've already mentioned that I am not a fan of the idea of Exclusive tickets, but I have a question aside from my opinion; If this exclusive ticket inclided entrance, ticket to meet guest (guaranteed auto) & photo shoot...what happens if the 'big' guest you wanted cancels, theee is no one else you want instead (or all other packages are sold out), then you would get a refund - yes thats great but you could then be left without an entrance ticket the day before the event? Natalie Dormer cancelled a day or 2 before LFACC this year, we understand that happens, but of I had one of these exclusive packages for Natalie D, would I then have bern left without an entry ticket as too late to buy one!! I would have thought a partial refund so you still had the entry ticket. Similar to what they do with those people who have ordered multiple tickets, but only need one ticket refunded, even it means us waiting for them to do it manually so we are not refunded the wrong amount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_g Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 The only thing which could be done better: hang out the celebrites name of the current photo shooting and who would be next of that Photo Area. It would be then easier for the crew-member and for those which want have a pic. Specially then when something changed. I almost missed one photo shooting because it was about 30 minutes earlier than scheduled and I didn't realized it earlier. I run in as the last one. But anyway... for the most everything was well done. That is a great suggestion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinzz Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 here's something we've been wondering since LFCC14 isn't there an easier, more up-to-date, productive way to handle the VQ system (if you need it at all, for some guests)- than to have someone at the beginning of the queue handing out the rip-off paper VQs and updating the numbers on a board with a marker? Not only do people need to cut the queue to get a VQ, updates (as we've noticed over the weekend) are often not on the board as the numbers go up and with people scribbling through wrong numbers and writing the correct numbers next to it really small (as we've seen at the Anthony Head VQ board), it doesn't make a very clear and professional impression Why are the people handing out the VQ's at the beginning of the queue? This could be a separate table with all the VQ's being dealt with by a couple of staff members? Why are there numbers handed out which clearly can't be dealt with in a single day? Obviously, VQ number 3500 will have a difficult time meeting the guests, so why not limit those numbers and if people don't use their VQ's (like happened with Juliet Landau, which was a very annoying situation, staying below VQ200 up until..was it 3 PM on Saturday?)), open up the queue for people with higher numbers and/or no VQs If people choose not to show up for their called number, that's their own choice... the other people waiting in line shouldn't have to wait because "numbers upto 250 hardly showed up" (that was the explenation we were given) - if they don't show up, they should just get to the back of the line (like everyone else who was waiting tiredlessly for them to move up the numbers) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertderidder Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 I think the reason those VQ numbers stayed low for so long was all the different types of Gold passes sold. Those people queued up, but didn't need a VQ ticket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinzz Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 they literally told us that the VQ numbers up to 250 hardly showed up, which was why the numbers stayed so low... if people with a VQ ticket don't show up for a considderable amount of time, people who actually want to Q up shouldn't be left waiting ALL afternoon for them 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jael001 Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 If all the VQs are given out at the same place then many people would just take one from each regardless if they actually wanted to get them or not, and they'd have low numbers for everyone. At least this way you have to make the effort to get all the ones you may want and are more likely to use them. Saying that, I got several on Saturday as I wasn't sure if I would have the time or the inclination to get them all, and chose not to in the end for many of them so my numbers were never used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockstar6662 Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 they literally told us that the VQ numbers up to 250 hardly showed up, which was why the numbers stayed so low... if people with a VQ ticket don't show up for a considderable amount of time, people who actually want to Q up shouldn't be left waiting ALL afternoon for them Surely if people aren't turning up then the queue must go down, so why not increase the VT numbers to get more people in rather than just leave it on the lower number all day and hope more will turn up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinzz Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 we can only go by what they told us :) we were in the 300s and weren't allowed in the queue as the number of the board hadn't reached that high yet until very late the afternoon - the logistics behind it, aren't ours to master Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuato_Lives Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 If all the VTs were handed out in one place there would be one massively long queue for it at the start of the day and throughout, bit of a silly idea if you ask me. Especially if you wanted a VT for Michael Madsen and then end up being stuck in a queue of over 600 people getting VTs for Carrie Fisher and John Hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinzz Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 it might be a silly idea..;but so is putting people mid-queue with VT's, to us :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuato_Lives Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 it might be a silly idea..;but so is putting people mid-queue with VT's, to us :) That's not a problem with the VT system, that's a problem with the crew member not doing their job right and letting the queue overflow. The cut off point for the queue should be where the whiteboard is, at least it has been at previous shows. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dent_1 Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 As I Gold ticket holder I was appalled at the Gold Room, worse then a train station toilet. Also having to queue for autos and photos as not acceptable. It has seriously damaged my faith in the Pass and will have to seriously think about whether to purchase it again. Too many passes sold, exclusivity disappeared. Did the lost child get found? In 6 years of going to these shows I have never made use of a gold pass and I have never missed a guest I wanted. I don't understand the gold passes at all... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark_the_Wookiee Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 As I Gold ticket holder I was appalled at the Gold Room, worse then a train station toilet. Also having to queue for autos and photos as not acceptable. It has seriously damaged my faith in the Pass and will have to seriously think about whether to purchase it again. Too many passes sold, exclusivity disappeared. Did the lost child get found? In 6 years of going to these shows I have never made use of a gold pass and I have never missed a guest I wanted. I don't understand the gold passes at all... It's not all about "not missing guests". I've gotten several gold passes in the past just because i don't like to queue for a long time. It meant i could just walk up around 8:50 and get in first, and i didn't have to wait to see guests. It's a convenience...well, it used to be anyway...with the amount they sold this year, all that benefit kinda dissappeared Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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