Lets help SM: Positives and Negatives

[mflowers]

I thought this could be a very useful way of helping SM see all positives and negatives that people felt.

 

Instead of arguing with each other and lets face it going off-topic at points, please post all your positives and negatives just once. I will copy and Past below all posted by users with a number count to show how many people have said each. Please lets keep this on topic as im sure everyone would like SM to be able to see all things about their event to move forward. I will post mine and please post yours below so i can add them to the first post

 

Positives

 

Variety of Guests (4)

Price of Autographs (1)

High Quality Guests (5)

Gold Pass Entry time (1)

Crew in Clashes (1)

Stalls (3)

Crew at photo shoot A *and on Sunday* (2)

Crew at photo shoot E on Saturday (1)

Crew on VQ autographs (2)

YALC (2)

Waterstones at YALC (1)

Photo shoot queuing (1)

Prop Photo Shoots (3)

Gold Room (1)

Extra Stan Lee Signing (3)

Comic Zone (1)

Stan Lee Talk (1)

Sunday improvements (1)

Friday Night Preview (2)

Crew (4)

SM Twitter (3)

Too Tall FAQ Post (2)

Price Value (1)

Auction Items (1)

Retro Gaming Area (1)

Amount of Stalls (1)

Cos players (1)

Entry Time for Early Bird early queuing (1)

Photo Shoot Variety (1)

Photo Shoot Locations (1)

Photo Shoots (In General) (1)

Location of areas for each activity in LFCC (1)

 

Negatives

Overcrowding (6)

Posters at sales desk weren't updated when a guest had sold out (1)

Misuse of Space (1)

Entry into Venue (1)

YALC squashed at the back (1)

YALC queues blending into regular queues (1)

Queue Jumpers (2)

Having to go out and in between Venues (1)

Queues in general (1)

Lack of Updates on the website or Social Media (1)

Queue management for autographs (1)

Photo shoot queuing (1)

Trailer Fest (2)

Comic Awards (1)

Changing of Firedoors (1)

Book Signings (1)

Heat *addressed by Jason* (2)

Under staffing (1)

Female toilet access

Crew (3)

Crew Member visibility *Sunday* (1)

Lack of information for queue (1)

Sound Quality of Talks (1)

Giveaway Confusion (1)

Lack of queue barriers (1)

Crew lack of knowledge on certain aspects/ miss communication (3)

Lack of organisation/signage (3)

Programmes/ Giveaway (Where were they? selling locations) (3)

Aisles (1)

Access to Stalls (1)

Seating (1)

Bins (2)

GOT Screening Surprise guest (1)

Ticket Selling Locations (1)

Layout (Claustrophobic layout) (1)

Gmail and Hotmail registration unavailability on forums (2)

Gold Pass Room (1)

Bigger Signage for important parts of the show eg.) Organisers booth VQ tickets etc.) (2)

Crew Attitude (1)

Possibility of not getting back in due to high numbers of people inside (1)

 

Please Post yours and i will add them to the list

Edited July 15, 2014 by mflowers

[PartTimeRogue]

Good:

High quality guests (esp STAN LEE!)

Extra Stan Lee signing on Friday

Crew (Friday only)

David on Twitter

TooTall's highly informative FAQ post on here

Bad:

Crew (Saturday) - in particular them not knowing what's going on

No announcements for whole queue - only front of queue

Lack of clear organisation/signage for queues (Saturday)

Programmes (no idea where these were being sold, could have been sold on the door as we went in or outside venue upon showing ticket/stamped hand)

Too many people

Thin aisles

Lack of seating space

Lack of bins

No "surprise guest" at GoT screening/commentary = misselling, and then lack of updates on who guests were

Gmail/Hotmail emails not eligible for registration on here

[mflowers]

Post #2 added

Edited July 15, 2014 by mflowers

[ajm1701]

I can only speak for friday, i had a very good day in general, but i found the photo ops ticket area vastly understaffed. I wanted 3 photo ops, the queue didn't seem to move at all and i had to leave it for the two sessions i'd prebooked. There was no way i was going to get to the front of the queue in time for 3 sessions i wanted to book. After i'd done the prebooked ones i walked passed the Helen Slater one i wanted to join, and it seemed very quiet.

 

Perhaps some of photo areas could sell the tickets for that guest to relieve some of the numbers of people queueing in the main ticket area.

[ritchyb1983]

My Positives and negatives for a first time gold pass holder but a regular LFCC attender:

Positives

Crowd control Sunday - Didn't seem as packed out.

Crew outside Saturday

Various genres of guests

Queuing System for Photo Shoots - Gold jump to the front, then numbers called

Top notch guests (Some I thought id never see - Terry Farrell, Stan Lee and Carrie Fisher to name a few)

Gold Room - Nice to get away wasn't hot or crowded

Extra Stan Lee Signing on the Friday
Crew at photo shoot A on Sunday

Crew at photo shoot E on Saturday

Crew's helpfulness in general with clashes.

Gold Pass Entry time on Saturday and Sunday

Crew giving out the VQ tickets for Autographs - very friendly.

Too Tall FAQ Post

Cost of Autographs and Photos

Variations of Photo sets (Doubles, singles, Props etc)

Photo shoot locations (Very close proximity easier to run too)

Negatives

Overcrowding (Saturday)

No crew members seen Sunday
Heat on Saturday - Sunday was better (Was answered in Jason's post)

Lack of information on the Programme and prize give away, no method or plan to the draws of the numbers and no one knew about it.

Crew miscommunication - one says no personalisations, other says yes to personalisations (could be a decider as to whether you get an autograph or not - perhaps this is down to the guest im not sure)

Claustraphobic nature upon leaving and entering the venue, maybe move the organisers booth backwards

Gold Pass room, no seats at all (Luckily I dont have a problem getting down and sitting on the floor) dubious about sitting on the tables.

Bigger Bolder signs for the organisers booth, ticket sales, VQ numbers etc - may not then tie up crew asking where is this and that what number you on.
Hotmail registration unavailability on Forum

Even though there are a few negatives, I still had a great time over the 3 days nothing that would cause me not to come back

[Starbuck17]

Good

• Stan Lee extra signing, this is the only reason I got to meet him so thank you!
• Guest Line up
• YALC
• Stan Lee talk
• Comic zone - had a great chat with David Lloyd on Friday as Brompton hall wasn't crowded. It was great.
• Prop photoshoots
• Stalls
• Friday night preview
• The fact that on Sunday it was clear that a lot of work had gone into improving things

A bit of both

• Crew
• Queue management for Auto's

Bad

• Queue management both inside and outside
• chaining of firedoors
• Book signings - many people didn't get to meet any of the authors despite queueing
• Comic Awards
• Trailer Fest
• Lack of signage
• Lack of bins
• Misuse of space
• Overcrowded
• Feeling like I couldn't leave the venue to get fresh air, or some luch (I cannot afford the food in EC, not SMs fault I know) because they wouldn't let me back in again. Not sure if that was truth or rumor but I wasn't going to test it.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Starbuck17

[Jumpyghostface]

Positives:

 

* Really great guests

* Great stalls

* Lovely crew

* David on Twitter beforehand

* The retro gaming area - even nicer than the modern games stations, because people didn't hog them

* YALC - this was really fantastic, and a total delight, more please

* Waterstones stall available at YALC so could buy books for signings

* Friday preview included photo ops

* prop shoots

 

Negatives

 

* Saturday a washout due to queues and crush

* Lack of updating of website and/or social media on the day so people did not have accurate info, did not know to risk coming, whether tickets were left, etc etc.

* Crew, although lovely, did not have pretty basic information

* Entry into the venue a shambles - some people queuing for hours, some without tickets walking straight in

* Queue jumping and lack of adherence to what we had been told beforehand was the procedures, eg on auto limits

* Having to go out and then go in again - two venues not connected

* YALC kind of squashed at the back, worry that people going for that would have been put off having to fight through the horrible crush on Saturday to get to it, as they'd have kids with them.

* Some YALC authors had massive queues which then blended into other queues!

* programme raffle felt like a rip off, as never saw proper prizes, and I paid a fiver for what other people got for free.

* poor signage (except the auto signage - more like that, please)

Edited July 15, 2014 by Jumpyghostface

[mflowers]

Posts #4 and 5 added

Will add the rest after dinner :)

Edited July 15, 2014 by mflowers

[AxelV]

I only attended Saturday

 

Positive

Quality quests (all of them)

Prop photo shoots

Stalls

Crew at photo booth A (particularly the older gent in glasses. He was an absolute star - knew what was going on, kept everyone updated, kept everyone smiling in the heat and delays).

Cosplayers (as always)

David on Twitter - most helpful and patient guy ever.

 

Negatives

Overcrowding inside

Queue jumpers inside and out

Lack of queue barriers (these are a god send - seriously)

Posters at sales desk weren't updated when a guest had sold out so only found out when I got to the front after queueing for quite some time.

Heat inside the venue. I don't believe the air con was on all day because at one point, all of a sudden we felt it quite obviously and there was no less people in there.

Female toilet access or lack of

Aisles to stalls were too narrow which meant they were too difficult to get to

Trailerfest

Lack of signage generally - could be bigger, higher up so easier to see, updated more often

Some crew unable to answer basic information eg no one was able to tell me what queue to join to gain entry. Ended up just asking loads of attendees.

Attitudes of some crew. It's understandable that volunteers will get stressed due to the sheer amount of people and constant changes but if you are representing an organisation you need to take it on the chin and deal with it all in a professional manner. No snide comments, no snapping in retaliation, no 'I couldn't care less' attitudes.

Edited July 15, 2014 by AxelV

[RacheyTink]

Positives

 

- Variety of guests

- Number of guests

- Extra Stan Lee signing

- Attendees (despite the madness, everyone I spoke to was friendly)

- Queue management on front doors on Sunday

- Information leading up to event

- Crew & photographer at Photo F on Saturday

- Variety of merchandise stalls

- All the crew I spoke to about my annoyance with my Stan Lee photoshoot. 1 in particular (wish I'd caught her name)

 

Negatives

 

- Sheer volume of people of Saturday

- Sales queues on Friday almost at a standstill

- Lack of communication from crew in Photo A as to why I had to come back the next day for my Stan Lee photoshoot

- Poor signage in & around venue

- Weird layout of photo areas

- Not feeling the air con on Saturday

- Queue management on Saturday

- Lack of movement between the merchandise aisles

[MrsEllacott]

Positives:

Great Variety of Guests

Helpful and Hardworking Crew/Volunteers

Forum and Twitter Posts from SM

Con-Goers (met some fab people over the weekend)

Support for Disabled People (excellent this year)

Clear Timetables for Photos/Talks

Expanded Comic Area (didn't get a chance to look properly but loved the expansion)

Bigger Gaming Zone (one very happy son as a result)

Great Value for Money (Entry, Photos and Autos)

Rough Layout posted before Event (even if I could not remember where one photo shoot was)

 

Negatives:

Organisers Booth too small to deal with so many people for a variety of things first thing Saturday!

Con-Goers stopping in inappropriate areas/blocking important areas (I say this as it happens every year).

Edited July 15, 2014 by MrsEllacott

[Hapfairy]

Positives:

 

- Variety of guests

- High quality guests

- SM Twitter

- Too Tall's FAQ

- Crew

- Variety of stalls

- YALC! The talks, signings and stalls were all great.

- The book zone in general

- VTs (I only got one but it worked out very well as I came back around 4pm and got my autograph within minutes).

 

Negatives:

 

- Overcrowding

- Lack of information for queue

- Sound quality of talks

- Crew lack of knowledge/miss-communication (eg we were told to queue in the wrong place then asked to move)

- Lack of organisation/signage

- GoT surprise guest

- Claustrophobic layout

- Lack of seating

- Women's toilets shut causing massive queue

- Difficult to get food or water

- Photoshoots only lasting a few seconds (guess this inevitable with big guests so not too worried about it.)

 

Edit: forgot to say, thank you for putting this thread together!

Edited July 15, 2014 by Hapfairy

[Cube1701]

Positive

 

- Great guests.

- Photoshoots were (mostly) well organised.

- Staff were friendly.

- Variety of stalls.

- The Twitter account

 

Negative

 

- Overcrowding

- Lack of information given to staff.

- Difficult to know where to queue when getting in.

- No flow of traffic inside (one way system would help)

- Difficult to get food or water.

- Location of Photo Area A (the guy there was great).

- Difficult to hear staff at times (like calling out ticket numbers for photoshoots - again, the guy there was great, he just needed a megaphone or something)

- The "stamp on the way out" system for re-entry.

- Nowhere to step out quickly for some fresh air without having to worry about not getting back in.

[jael001]

Positives:

 

- range and quality of the guests

- quality of the photoshoots I had done

- Iron Throne

- Sunday was a lot better

- rough layout given before the event

- photoshoot times on the walls

- amazing cosplays

- being able to find somewhere to sit (not on the floor) on both Saturday and Sunday

 

Negatives:

 

- overcrowding

- heat

- not enough toilets

- position of photoshoots A and B either side of the talk area which meant people couldn't hear the crew

- position of photoshoot D (people kept standing or walking through the middle of the queuing area)

- position of photoshoot E (nowhere to queue and almost impossible to get to at time due to crowds)

- huge empty area in the middle of the hall that ended up just being a mass of people sitting down meaning getting from one side of the hall to the other was very difficult

- not realising how popular Kate Dickie or Summer Glau were going to be

- lack of room in the aisles in the merch area to be able to shop on Saturday

- amount of people crowding around the main entrance outside

- lack of other exits other than the main doors on Saturday so impossible to get outside

- moving between EC2 and EC1 was so difficult I didnt even attempt it on Sunday

- the way the draw was done for the Sherlock signings

- not being able to find out the time of Sibel's photoshoot til I left on Saturday evening

- queues for the sales desk prohibitive so I didn't even attempt to get extra photoshoots I'd have liked on Saturday and Sunday

- sound in the Super Stage was very poor on Saturday

[Skyggebjerg]

First time LFCC attendee here, flew in from Denmark.

 

Good:

 

• Variety of guests
• Sheer number of guests
• Quite a bit of information on this forum, which made us find the right building and que for what we were doing from the get go.
• Nice mix of stalls, with both fleemarket and highend items.
• Crew in the VQ ticket zone (saturday afternoon in particular)
• Something for everybody.. if you could make it there.

Bad:

• Crowd Control on saturday (inside and out).
• Lack of drinking / dining options (a real foodtruck outside would have made a killing).
• The amount of entitled people at the event.
• Lack of seating
• Lack of information inside the hall (from both a lack of overall maps and crew, that didn't know too much outside their zone).
• Disorganised photoshoots in some cases (particularly hodor).
• GoT Screening "special guest"
• GoT Screening seating, it was like fish in a barrel. I literally couldn't move my arms.
• Programme "Raffel". Nobody on the crew saturday knew where they were, we were directed to the auction, but nothing was there.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Skyggebjerg

[mflowers]

Hi Guys, I didn't expect this quick of a response which is amazing :), I'm going to keep updating when I can so it might take a while but I will make posts when I get more added to the top, don't worry I will add them all ASAP

[Squirtchy]

Who was the special guest at the GOT screaning?

[Skyggebjerg]

Who was the special guest at the GOT screaning?

 

 

There was none, it was a pinata of Joffrey.

[DavidB]

Thank you for the positive Twitter comments. I have spent a lot of time on there the last few weeks especially, so really happy it was of use to some :)

[Wrong Name]

Positives

 

• This Forum (Thanks everyone including the mods and Jason it really helped me to plan my weekend)
• Gold Pass entry time
• Quality of the guests
• The guests general attitudes and friendliness (for most of them!)
• Gold Pass Autograph and Photo queueing
• People around me in the queues (no one was upset that I was next to, Gold Pass or not, you guys were awesome!)
• Cosplayers (You all looked great!)

Negatives

 

• Too many people in EC2
• Too hot in EC2
• Gold Pass area was dirty and had no chairs or water most of the time
• The Sound system on the Super Stage was a joke!
• My bag was too heavy (OK, this one might be my fault!)

[mflowers]

I will try and update this tomorrow morning

 

I will begin from Post #10 tomorrow

Edited July 15, 2014 by mflowers

[DMG]

As a gold pass holder who only attended Sunday:

 

POSITIVES

 

- Quality of guests

- Variety of guests

- Enforcement of gold pass priority in queues

- Free wifi!

- Helpfulness of all crew/volunteers that I spoke to

- TooTall FAQ post/layout

 

NEGATIVES

 

- Sound on super stage

- Gold pass room was v. poor and open to all

[SilvaNemesis]

Positives

 

• Compared to many I was lucky - I got to meet everyone I intended to
  
• Great guests
  
• Got all my photo-shoots done in spite of the odds.
  
• Helpful crewmembers who's assistance was greatly appreciated to help me avoid missing photo-shoots
  
• Overall I'm extremely lucky, I know of other people who didn't even make it into the building.

 

Negatives

 

• Being spoken to in a patronising tone by Juliet Landau's VQ ticket crew member on Friday night, I did not appreciate being spoken to in the way that I was by someone half my age!
  
• Too many photo-shoots
  
• Resultant Photo-shoot clashes
  
• Being turned away from Stan Lee's photo-shoot on Friday night because there were too many people even though I had a Friday ticket - I buy my tickets carefully working them out over the three days, this then impacted on my Saturday photo-shoots and caused me extra hassle I didn't need.
  
• Overcrowded
  
• Just unbearably hot
  
• Messy photo-shoot queues, no organisation and people not knowing who was queuing for which shoot.
  
• Some of the photo-shoot outcomes were terrible. Too bright/out of focus - particularly Slavitza Jovan (which she wasn't happy about as I saw her rip one photo up while waiting for my picture with her), Lita being another, that was too bright and out of focus. It's making me really think about shelling out on these in the future, it's a lot of money for a bad quality image.

 

Overall I have a lot to be grateful for, I fared a lot better than other people so I'm not going to complain and am grateful for what I was able to achieve over the weekend.

Edited July 17, 2014 by SilvaNemesis