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Sorry you have lost me what has this got to do with the original post I replied to ?

The original post said gold shouldn't go before people with tickets ? I said they should

And isn't that what happened DP first then gold then standard, if they start putting VQ numbers up then DPs have finished or no more are in the que at that time.

you can't hold the que all day waiting for all DPs to turn up for autos

I believe you have lost yourself, I'm just replying to what you've said.

 

You said it was pointless GP's getting VQ's, I was explaining why it's not.

 

No it isn't. DP's go first and then anyone with a low enough VQ (will be a mixture of GP's and standard). And I never said no VQ's all day, I said they can have no VQ's while the queues are still busy with DP's. If 150 DP's turn up at the start, it would be crazy to let any GP's join that queue as they can any other.

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I agree with the comment made earlier by GMan. I would've liked Sigourney, Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyds autographs but really have no interest at all in the photo shoots and other bonuses in the diamond package. I'd gladly have paid a decent amount for this, but paying £400 or whatever it was for the complete MJF experience was just out of the question.

Edited by jaythree
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is there any feasibility (esp if using 40% more space next year) to hold all guests (autos, shoots, talks) in one hall/interconnecting halls and have all the stalls/cosplay/advertisement stuff/gaming ect in another hall. so not mixing it, this would seriously help with spacing for queues on autos and shoots and getting to shoots easier. for example using earls court as an example, EC1 stalls ect and EC2 guests (both halls connected) similar could be done at OLY perhaps. (i know at a cost, but LFCC is massive now)

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Speaking of being man handled at one shoot I was thrown to the ground and beaten repeatedly with limited edition rolled up prints of MJF. While down there the red shirts surrounded me and spat on me until I broke and confessed it was me that told the Libyans where Doc Brown was located in BTTF part 1. Being guided forward or "pushed" is just part of the deal of a photo shoot, they have to keep things moving and nothing major. I get the feeling there is a lot of drama queens here. Surprised nobody has brought up common assault yet with possible legal action. It's not Guantanamo so get off your high horse. And if you don't like it, if the standards are so totally unacceptable DON'T COME BACK it's that easy. When Showmasters get it wrong fair enough but all I'm seeing is petty moaning and people making some pretty massive mountains out of very unimpressive mole hills.

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Marilou, the lady in the wheelchair that began to panic was my mother. She really wanted the posters cause she was excited to get them and a really lovely woman handed her three - one for her, one for me and one for my sister. I've been wanting to thank her on the forum. I don't suppose it was you? Or someone you knew?

 

No, it was not me. I couldn't reach them and really struggled to get one. But I felt really bad seeing her panicking and it was impossible for me to move. Glad to read you girls got your posters and manage to go out of there! :smile:

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Sorry you have lost me what has this got to do with the original post I replied to ?

The original post said gold shouldn't go before people with tickets ? I said they should

And isn't that what happened DP first then gold then standard, if they start putting VQ numbers up then DPs have finished or no more are in the que at that time.

you can't hold the que all day waiting for all DPs to turn up for autos

I believe you have lost yourself, I'm just replying to what you've said.

You said it was pointless GP's getting VQ's, I was explaining why it's not.

No it isn't. DP's go first and then anyone with a low enough VQ (will be a mixture of GP's and standard). And I never said no VQ's all day, I said they can have no VQ's while the queues are still busy with DP's. If 150 DP's turn up at the start, it would be crazy to let any GP's join that queue as they can any other.

Yes but what I also said was golds get in early so would automatically have low VQ numbers for DP guests

And I'm sorry but the original post was about photos shoots and golds going in before people with tickets

Your right this doesn't apply for autos as golds just join the back of the que that's there along with VQ tickets

But for photo shoots its golds then batches

for diamond guests photos its DPs golds then batches

 

Your first post suggested golds shouldn't get priority over people who have paid for photo shoots

When it clearly does

Edited by Gravitus
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Speaking of being man handled at one shoot I was thrown to the ground and beaten repeatedly with limited edition rolled up prints of MJF. While down there the red shirts surrounded me and spat on me until I broke and confessed it was me that told the Libyans where Doc Brown was located in BTTF part 1. Being guided forward or "pushed" is just part of the deal of a photo shoot, they have to keep things moving and nothing major. I get the feeling there is a lot of drama queens here. Surprised nobody has brought up common assault yet with possible legal action. It's not Guantanamo so get off your high horse. And if you don't like it, if the standards are so totally unacceptable DON'T COME BACK it's that easy. When Showmasters get it wrong fair enough but all I'm seeing is petty moaning and people making some pretty massive mountains out of very unimpressive mole hills.

So true

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Empire Strikes Back: This was something that you stated was going to be a big part of LFCC, yet there was nothing except for a few lesser well known guests. You had built this up to be something really exciting yet there were no new Top Cast Members (Dave Prowse, Kenny Baker and Jeremy Bullock attend most of your events and therefore cant be regarded as someting "special" for this particular one), no props shoots, nothing. This was also a disappointment.

Yeah this is my only gripe really , when I first saw the announcement about the esb anniversary I was very happy but was a bit gutted when no big names or prop shots got announced ! Having already got dave kenny and Jeremy's autographs last year I didn't need there's this time , having said that the guests I meet from Star Wars (bar 1 person) were all really nice and friendly 👍
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Speaking of being man handled at one shoot I was thrown to the ground and beaten repeatedly with limited edition rolled up prints of MJF. While down there the red shirts surrounded me and spat on me until I broke and confessed it was me that told the Libyans where Doc Brown was located in BTTF part 1. Being guided forward or "pushed" is just part of the deal of a photo shoot, they have to keep things moving and nothing major. I get the feeling there is a lot of drama queens here. Surprised nobody has brought up common assault yet with possible legal action. It's not Guantanamo so get off your high horse. And if you don't like it, if the standards are so totally unacceptable DON'T COME BACK it's that easy. When Showmasters get it wrong fair enough but all I'm seeing is petty moaning and people making some pretty massive mountains out of very unimpressive mole hills.

Finally!!!!!!!!!! Well said!!!

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have more than one entrance into the building

 

improved floor layouts/maps for the show

 

have photo shots in one area

 

group the quests together i.e Star Wars guests all in the same area not split over different floors and zones

 

improve the ventilation on level 1

 

still think the volunteer staff need more training to deal with fans questions, perhaps have a customer service desk/zone on each level

 

stairwells need to be managed by staff

 

food and drink areas on level 3

 

have the table staff ask for the money before or after the meeting with the guest not rudely interrupt you durring discussion with the guest, this happend half a dozen times when talking with guests

 

have banners from the ceilings letting you know what area your in

 

communication is the key, having live updates on what is going on at what time and with who

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Interesting feedback from Jason. A few comments:

 

Signage was terrible. This is something that can easily be fixed.

 

Diamond passes. If SM insists on selling so many, at least do seperate auto and photo sessions for Diamond Pass holders so that standard ticket holders have a chance to get ahead in the queue. Or make a clear schedule of when the various ticket types and batches go in.

 

Layout. The layout needs to change significantly. As many others said, put photo shoots on one floor for starters.

 

Overcrowding. I think Jason downplays how overcrowded level 1 was, particularly Saturday. Hopefully 40% extra space will help solve this.

 

Crew. The blue shirt crew needs to be trained a lot better with regards to floor plans and such.

 

I think it's positive that SM are looking at our comments at least and will hopefully address all the issues for next summer.

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Jason,

 

As you've made no mention of this. What will be the deal with the number of Diamond Passes and Gold Passes sold in the coming events? A lot of attendees, me included, get the feeling that there are too many of those around. In the past if you had a VQ ticket of say 500, you'd still have a pretty good chance to get an autograph in the afternoon. This year with a number over 100 (and in RDA's line even under 100) getting an autograph was actually difficult. And you mentioned earlier that this year only 40% of the Gold Passes were sold that you had available. So if more Gold Passes are sold next year, you might as well throw out the VQ system altogether. In fact even a Gold Pass wouldn't guarantee an autograph anymore...

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I also think communication needs to improve a lot. For example, it was posted on Facebook Sat morning that you had to queue outside the building for the MJF talk. I didn't see this until afterwards, and thus the info was only available from a couple of crew members outside the super stage who must have repeated the info hundreds of times. Why not post big signs with the info, and post it in all your online and social media channels?

 

For the BTTF talk, no info regarding where to queue was posted anywhere, and I got a seat near the back despite being batch 1 (and I joined the queue about 40 mins before it was scheduled to begin)

 

Info at photo shoots was down to one small board that was rarely updated. The small space outside each photo shoot area didn't allow much room for queues, and we had to stand physically near the crew member to hear any info about what batch number were currently allowed to queue. Why not have a large screen which is regularly updated with this info? Or at least give the poor crew a megaphone so we can hear their instructions.

 

As mentioned earlier, for many of the morning photo shoots there was only enough time for diamond pass holders, gold passes and "old" tickets. This info would have been good to have beforehand so those of us with etickets don't have to queue for no reason.

 

In summary, I really hope there will be much more space for photo shoots, and better communication overall. Relatively easy things to fix.

 

Thanks for the great lineup of guests this year. I hope Christopher Lloyd will be back :)

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Please please please address the issue with pit bosses physically manhandling people into photoshoots, no attendee should ever have to have someones hands placed on them unless they're doing wrong. The MJF shoot on Sunday was one of the worst I've encountered in 13 years of attending events.

Thank you

i am sorry i was there no one was manhadling anyone all they did was have there had behind you and moved it to tall you when it was your time to move forward , the shoot was a long distance from the photographer and it was hard to her the photographer say next like in other shoots , i know it might have seemed odd but it was just a way to let the person know you are good to move forward , hundreds of people went through this shoot i was there over seeing it and directing people just out from he shoot and i only saw happy people that did not feel in any way violated , i do think you are over reacting on this on one is there to upset or push or do something wrong with anyone , we just wanted it to go right for everyone and that has to included MJF who had an amassing time and loved being apart of the event even though he found it very hard work and took a lot out of him , but he would not have changed it for the world as he did really enjoy meeting so many people that had so much love and energy , and he told that to me himself.

 

Jason

You cannot tell people they're over-reacting about how being touched/shoved/treated by crew members, you can't dictate their experience. You've been doing this for years, as you keep saying, so you must be aware that touching people can lead to adverse problems, such as panic attacks, falling over etc. please address this problem professionally. No one questioned whether MJF was happy with the event, that's an unnecessary addition to your reply.

 

Alice i think you seem to be looking for a argument ? i am not i a, telling you the truth and thats all , for the shoots where the photographer is a long way from the person going next a tap on the shoulder or a light touch on the back is not unusual also can i point out that EVERY person will have seen this happen to the person infant of them so EVERYONE will know what to expect.

 

How else are we to be affective and efficient in letting you know you are ready to go, these please are noisy and if the camera is set up a bit a way the photographer cannot shout all day or make it work properly , there is a big difference between a list tap or light contact then a shove and no one shuved anyone i was there.

 

now lets not make this into something it was not that is a wast of everyones time , i am on here talking to you all so you get the answers you need and so you understand a little more about what and why things happened and what we plan to do in the future , we do this because we care and we care that you get what you want , constructive criticism is great intel is also great arguing and trying to make something into something is was not is not helpful or good for anyone so lets move on.

 

Jason

I work for another convention company and my usual job there is to stand and get people in to the photo shoot in a timely manner. I also put my hand on people's back or shoulder guide them in. Yes people are correct when they a saying they didn't move because the other person was still there. When it goes as fast as what this needs to and we generally get 400 people through in under an hour. People need that extra shove. Trust me if they didn't the other person would stand talking and putting the other person in gets the other one to move on. Sorry but it's how it is and I do these conventions five times a year. I have never had one person complain because I has 'touch' then

 

Also only one thing for me is in the photos the photographer didn't look at any photo they took. Mine wasn't how I though it would be but I left as it was busy. Fortunately my brother is a paint shop pro genius. At the conventions I work for the photographer looks at every photo and if its wrong they delete it and take another straight away. Don't exactly know how that works with printing straight away though.

Edited by lesleynile
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So here's my post con resumee...

Waiting queues

The outside waiting queue on saturday and sunday this year were very smooth. I'm attending LFCC now for i think 7 years and this year the queueing was the smoothest of all years. I think that was due to the mounted guard rails which were automatically forming the correct lines. Not like the free and creative lining up in the former years at ecec.


In the former years at EC2 our party of 7-9 people always queued up around 6.45am - 7am first at the gate and then at the front door and then sending out one of us to the near Starbucks to get breakfast for all. Due to the unrestricted access to the queue there was never a Problem to get back to your spot in it. Also for our Smoking addicts never a Problem to leave for a small cigarette break.

With the guard railing this year once you entered the queue you had no Chance to get back to your spot if you would leave the queue for getting breakfast. Buying breakfast Prior to queueing also not possible since the cafee del mundo and Costa at the hilton were'nt open to the time we queue up. Also no cigarette break for our smokers.

 

I'm a little bit confused about

 

"This year we arranged for food and water and toilets to be available to people in the queue before the doors opened, something that was needed and we felt the queuing and entrance this time was much better than last year's event."

 

Can anybody tell me where that was ? Neither on saturday nor on sunday i've seen somebody selling water or food. Also did not recognize any sign showing a "This way to the toilet". Besides this is very very very good idea jason. Hope we have this next year as well.

 

 

Entry Tickets vs. Wristbands

 

To Exchange the paper day & etix daytickets to a weekend entry wristband, if you have tickets for all days, was a very very good idea. So no stamping needed for a reentry and watching out not to accidently rubbing / washing it of.

Hope that will come back next year as well.

 

 

The Venue

 

The A/C was lousy. At latest at 11am it was so boiling hot that even the very skinny person that i am was sweating by every step i made. So from time to time i had to evacuate my self to the 2nd or 3rd floor to get some rest and cool down.

As more as both days went on it was more and more impossible to do that / to get there as so much people were at the venue. At a max i needed 15min from the extra build up stairs to the point were i reached the 3rd floor.

 

Jason i hope with the extra space of the West Hall next year you can arrange / place things better.

 

Placing Photoshoot Areas on all 3 Floors was very unsatisfactory. You had to hurry and rush through the crowd from booth to booth. I myself had shoots where i had to get from ground to 3rd and then to 1st and ending with one on ground and only with a couple of minutes between them. Due to the mass of People i had always to fight my way through the crowd not to get late at the shoot.

 

Therefor i suggest...

 

Put all the Dealers on groundfloor. So you can look at stalls with ease.

Put the photoshoots on the gallerie of 1st and there were the dealer were on the 1st floor.

The Signing area could be placed behind the photoshoots on the 1st (same place where their were this year) and also on 3rd (same place where their were this year)

YALC could be placed on 2nd again. Due to that much space was left over on 2nd a dedicated relaxing area could be placed their as well.

 

 

 

Overall

 

Besides the fact that their were so many / to many people i had a blast as every year since i'm coming to lfcc. Got all my Shoots done. Marbelous Quality of the photos. Did some nice Shopping.

So i hardly can't wait for next year

 

Keep up the awesome work Jason

 

 

Greetz

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I must echo the fact that the crew training needs improvements.

 

Some were minor annoyances that could [should] be an easy fix, for example - more than one crew member told me, and many others too on Friday, that there was no access to the upper floors (above L1) apart from one set of lifts. Getting in one of them revealed it was planned as a 'down' lift to the ground floor. I had to ride the lift a couple of times, before finally getting further past L1.

 

Others were bordering on bringing Showmasters into disrepute.

Myself and other friends witnessed one crew member in particular trying their level best to start a monumental argument - in the middle of when a guest was dealing with an attendee!
The guest agreed to photographs being taken, and was holding up signed 10x8's and other items so attendees could take their pictures; the crew member started almost shouting, right in the middle of the interaction as the guest was picking up the items, [essentially] "I say who takes pictures! you go through me first!" At one point I thought the crew member was eyeing up a lunge for the attendees camera, standing up and gesticulating wildly about how "I'm in charge, should do what I want."

 

I know others on here who possibly mentioned a formal complaint related to one crew member. Dunno if it was related to this or not.

 

The point is - SM have taken years to develop their reputation.

If they don't pay attention, one crew member can demolish that in a matter of minutes.

 

IMO their needs to be a dramatic overhaul to the recruiting process. And a clear chain of command and/or set of procedures, so that any issues related to crew members can be dealt with swiftly to everyone's satisfaction.

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I would like to start by saying that by the looks of all the reports we heard about the Saturday, I am actually quite glad now we were only there on the Sunday :smile:.

 

 

Cutting the number of people down by filtering out the real fans, from the I just fancy a day out kinda people. Having weekend passes only maybe?? No single day passes? Say £80 for a whole weekend pass, with no single ticket days, maybe the people who are not "real" fans might think, nah, I'm not gonna pay that to go for all 3 days or on the flip side, won't pay it if they're only thinking of doing 1 or 2 days. Just an idea. May make more space for us dedicated folks.

 

I'm sorry I take your comments as rather rude & insulting to be honest. :no: First you say you were only there for the one day and then call people who did the same not "real" fans. Can you explain how you can say you are dedicated folks considering you only went for one day? What about people who have jobs/children/commitments? How would they manage to go all weekend? I myself worked at the local student union from 7pm to midnight on the friday then was back working for the Next sale at 3:30am til midday. (I work for a crowd management/door security firm) So no way would I have been able to go for all 3 days, that's why I went Sunday.

 

Not everyone can afford to book into a hotel for 3 days, some people might decide at the last minute to go to the con when a particular guest is announced and only want to go the day they are there. For me and my g/f to visit the con cost us £35 train fare and £32.50 for tickets. We also spent about £100 for our cosplay outfits. For someone who only works part time that is a big chunk of my salary. It was our first con and I was into the cosplay, my g/f is into the artwork for the comics etc. We might not be 'dedicated folks' as you call us, but our money is as good as yours.

Edited by tania_twinkle
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For GOLDPASS :

I think to need VQ all the guest, so GOLDPASS can join the back of any queue.

Some of no VQ Tickets guest have a very very long line to make, even with a goldpass.

The 15min entry before the regurlar is perfect to take VQ tickets from Diamond guest.

 

I suggested this before the event. It was regarded by Jason as a, and I quote, "Silly idea", thus forget it, won't happen. Actually I think SM will rather focus on expanding diamond passes, making gold passes worth less and less...You're probably be looking at the beginning of the end of gold passes. Going forward it'll probably be more likely people will be buying regular entry and diamond pass(es) for guests they want to meet, instead of a gold pass and decide on the day who to meet.

 

I do love when people think they know what we are thinking and are going to do next. when they do not

 

Gold passes are a very useful thing it gives the autograph collector that collects many subjects the chance to go around faster and gather up a lot of autographs in a short time , this really works and still dose for the high end collector so we will be keeping these tickets as they still work very well.

 

Dimond passes came into there 100% last weekend and even the nay sayers saw how affective they are also , if you are coming along way away for one guest then this will guarantee you will get to see this guest so these also work very very well , these fans all make these big guests posable and they would not be here if it was not for these fans buying these tickets so these tickets will be staying also.

 

A few other things to clare up that people say we will do that we will not do are as follows

 

We will not stop over the table photos , we like this and we try to get this to happen every time we can and push back a lot to keep this an option for you the fans.

 

We will still have guests prices starting from £10 i think this is still a great deal and something i want to keep in play at our events for as long as inflation alows us to do so.

 

Hope that helps answer a few points raised

 

Jason

As a gold pass holder over the past two years and a autograph collector my experience this year was that Gold passes are useful only for popular guests, who have VQ lines. Those guests are now being mostly diamond pass guests, which gold passes need vq tickets for. For the smaller guests most queues are open. Thus the gold pass is not that useful for auto's anymore.

 

My point is not that you will stop offering the gold pass, but people will stop buying your gold pass because they don't need one for smaller guests and it doesn't help for big guests, because those will be diamond. So regular entry with diamond oasses for bigger guests will be more economical then buying a gold pass.

 

It didn't surprise you regular entry got sold out before gold passes this year? Obvious sign popularity of the gold pass is going down because it's becoming less useful.

 

Just giving my two cents in helping making your event better...

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For GOLDPASS :

I think to need VQ all the guest, so GOLDPASS can join the back of any queue.

Some of no VQ Tickets guest have a very very long line to make, even with a goldpass.

The 15min entry before the regurlar is perfect to take VQ tickets from Diamond guest.

 

I suggested this before the event. It was regarded by Jason as a, and I quote, "Silly idea", thus forget it, won't happen. Actually I think SM will rather focus on expanding diamond passes, making gold passes worth less and less...You're probably be looking at the beginning of the end of gold passes. Going forward it'll probably be more likely people will be buying regular entry and diamond pass(es) for guests they want to meet, instead of a gold pass and decide on the day who to meet.

 

I do love when people think they know what we are thinking and are going to do next. when they do not

 

Gold passes are a very useful thing it gives the autograph collector that collects many subjects the chance to go around faster and gather up a lot of autographs in a short time , this really works and still dose for the high end collector so we will be keeping these tickets as they still work very well.

 

Dimond passes came into there 100% last weekend and even the nay sayers saw how affective they are also , if you are coming along way away for one guest then this will guarantee you will get to see this guest so these also work very very well , these fans all make these big guests posable and they would not be here if it was not for these fans buying these tickets so these tickets will be staying also.

 

A few other things to clare up that people say we will do that we will not do are as follows

 

We will not stop over the table photos , we like this and we try to get this to happen every time we can and push back a lot to keep this an option for you the fans.

 

We will still have guests prices starting from £10 i think this is still a great deal and something i want to keep in play at our events for as long as inflation alows us to do so.

 

Hope that helps answer a few points raised

 

Jason

Hi Jason,

 

It was my first CON (i mean big one), and goldpass was very usefull.

But i can speak just for my case :

 

I have 2 diamond pass (Lloyd and MJ fox because it was my dream guests of all time), so I got priority for these 2 guests all the week end (even for the photoshoot), honnestly, it´s that who save me !

 

Please don't forget that All people can't afford diamond pass, so a Goldpass could be very interresting if you want a lot of autograph.

 

 

 

And honnestly too, Goldpass help me very well too :

- with the 10 min entrance before the regurlar entry

- With the "call first" for the photoshoot

 

But like a lot of goldpass holder says (i met a few in the con of course), they seems a bit dissapointing because some (big) guest queue for autograph have NOT VQ tickets (especially friday and saturday morning). So i can understant if they think "why i sould buy a goldpass if i have no priority on thise lines"

 

Some goldpass holder have just interest in autograph, and no photoshoot.

 

 

 

I think you don't have to change a lot, just improve this small point when guests have NO VQ tickets.

 

 

 

Like i said before, it was a wonderfull week end ! I hope to come back !

 

Thanks again, I met my dream guest and others !!!

 

 

Thanks Jason, thanks showmasters, thanks all the crew !

 

 

LFCC rocks !!! :-)

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Empire Strikes Back: This was something that you stated was going to be a big part of LFCC, yet there was nothing except for a few lesser well known guests. You had built this up to be something really exciting yet there were no new Top Cast Members (Dave Prowse, Kenny Baker and Jeremy Bullock attend most of your events and therefore cant be regarded as someting "special" for this particular one), no props shoots, nothing. This was also a disappointment.

 

Agree with this 100%! What happened to the announced TESB anniversary celebration? Too many times these sorts of announcements are made with no substance whatsoever. In future it would be more professional to only announce things once they're set in stone rather than announcing that an announcement will be made and then announcing that it can't happen due to xyz so no announcement will be made. Too many announcements!!

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I did notice in a few shoots (not many) some Diamond passes being allowed into the gold pass queue when they weren't actually Diamond guests.

I'm sure the name 'Diamond' confuses people and gives false sense of privelige when none exists apart from the guest in question.
As such, I'd Personally drop the name completely and just call it "Sigourney Pass/Pack/Badge" or whatever.

If you can't put the photozones in one hall, then make sure to spread them between 2 halls directly connected.
It was crazy having F up on 3rd floor. Took over 6-7 minutes getting from B/C/D to F and that's trying to politely 'barge' through crowds.

Having the Grand next year with another 40% space is great, but why not say how much more tickets are being planned to be sold compared to this year?
10,20,30,40%?
30% more tickets would still mean the event was congested.
I'd rather you increase visitors by a limit like 10-15% and just increase ticket price 15%. I'd pay more for entry if the event was less crowded.
Always remember more space to move = infinitely more happier experience for attendees.
You want to leave with predominantly good memories of meeting guests, not a memory of how cramped, hot and crowded it was...and missing stuff like photos because of the distance to travel through crowds.

There's some mention about crew gently nudging people. Crew should do 'hover hands' with people and it gives them the hint, but yes, even I
had a gentle hand on the back a few times. Doesn't bother me, but for many I understand it will and you should really keep hands off attendees.

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You guys did a fantastic job and I think we all appreciate the comments and the acknowledgement of the little improvements needed.

 

If I could make one begging plea it would be to not expand the number of tickets in line with the extra space booked for next year. With the extra space, and similar attendance levels, the event would be much more bearable from a temperature and crowds perspective and everyone, attendees, guests and crew, will enjoy the con much more. :smile:

 

Thanks, Jason. See you all next year!!!! :clap::clap::clap:

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I would like to start by saying that by the looks of all the reports we heard about the Saturday, I am actually quite glad now we were only there on the Sunday :smile:.

 

We had a fantastic day and me and my husband only encountered a couple of things that really should have been planned about better which were..........

 

The fact that everyone who had a "normal" pass for the Back to the Future talk ended up having to go outside could have been easily for seen right from the very start! Showmasters new how many tickets had been sold and how busy it would get. It only takes a bit of forward planning to work out how to organise it best and let everyone know before the event happens.

 

The other thing was some of the autographs queues stopped doing the virtual queue tickets and went to open queuing. I understand this may work in principle, how ever when you have a virtual queue ticket of 87 (which I had for Bill Paxton) and you go away thinking, excellent, I'll come back later, say after lunch and I should be able to walk straight up. To come back and see a massive queue cause it had gone to open queue was very frustrating!!! Either do one or the other, otherwise you are gonna annoy people.

 

Now onto things that I feel may work better in the future......

 

Cutting the number of people down by filtering out the real fans, from the I just fancy a day out kinda people. Having weekend passes only maybe?? No single day passes? Say £80 for a whole weekend pass, with no single ticket days, maybe the people who are not "real" fans might think, nah, I'm not gonna pay that to go for all 3 days or on the flip side, won't pay it if they're only thinking of doing 1 or 2 days. Just an idea. May make more space for us dedicated folks.

 

Also, I do feel the diamond and gold passes need to be ltd more. I understand that people who have these should get a quicker/better service as that's what they pay for (bit like economy vs first class flying). However it does seem to have impacted on the people who have standard tickets getting into photo ops and auto's, cause there are just so many diamonds and golds to get through. Making them less would give everyone a chance.

 

I do also think all the photo's/auto's should be being held in the same space. That way people would know exactly where they have to go. This does not necessarily need to impact the traders either, which having the extra hall will hopefully improve next year. Perhaps Tensa barriers could be introduced, which would make queuing more organised and controlled.

 

These points are not designed to criticize, I only make them, as I along with everyone else would like to see Comic Con get bigger and better with more guests and other such stuff and I believe that input from the fans is a great thing as we are the ones who see most of what goes on and we are also the ones who make it what it is supposed to be..... FUN :smile::smile:

 

Thank you Showmasters for the post and as always we look forward to next year :dance:

 

3 days this time :thumbup:

I agree with the BTTF talk queues, however cutting the day passes to just weekend only to filter out the "I just fancy a day out" people wouldn't be fair, plus as you said, you only went Sunday, so that would mean going forward if you could only make the day, you wouldn't be able to go.
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Jason, catching your after event thoughts is always an interesting read & shines a light on stuff a lot of con goers wouldn't even think about.

It also shows that Showmasters continues to listen, keeps improving & works hard to produce the best events for fans. Not everyone will be happy, some justified some less so, but I personally had a great time.

Keep it going, onwards & upwards.

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