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Post event thoughts of weekend from Showmasters


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Funny saying the Diamond passes worked well when clearly there were people with them who missed out on Robert Englunds autograph as he wasn't signing on Sunday due to someone somewhere not allowing for how long the makeup thing would take. Surely something that should have been known and factored in waaay in advance.

 

Also it would have been nice if the diamond passes for Sigourneys autograph had been split between saturday and sunday like they were supposed to have been. I complained to the pit boss about this as no-one was checking the numbers on the passes as I knew it was going to limit the number of normal VTs they would get through but was told that they were just letting anyone join and didn't care about the supposed day split. Same with photo sessions, no accounting for batch 1 or 2.

 

This meant my friend nearly missed out on getting the autograph despite having been queuing since before 6:30 and having a decent VT number as there was little time left once all diamonds had gone through although thankfully she did get it.

 

Honestly, if you're going to say you have a system in place to split things over two days please stick to it. There was no reason to change anything other than they couldn't be bothered and were just letting any pass number in. That was the general gist of what I was told. Not fare on those ordinary ticket holders who had VTs. Some would have stood a much better chance if only those diamonds that were supposed to get the auto on Saturday had been allowed to do so.

 

This is one of the big problems I have. We're told in advance that this and that will happen but on the day it often seems to go out the window and I don't think it's fair. Sure it didn't affect me much but if only half the Diamond passes had been allowed into the autograph queue on Saturday that would be a lot more VTs that would have stood a chance.

 

Same with VTs. I had none of mine for other guests taken off me. Every year we're told this won't happen again but it does, even when I had the numbers checked in the queue. Maybe that's one of the reasons a lot of people missed out, people were coming away and giving the uncollected ticket to a friend so low numbers were in constant circulation.

 

And please, please, please have barriers or tape cordoning off photo and auto queues, I'm sick and tired of people pushing past as if it's a thoroughfare or working their way to the front just to take a photo of the guest at the table and would actually indicate where the queue is and and separate it from the people just milling around.

 

All basic stuff and really needed with the number of people there.

 

And maybe I missed it but I saw no sign of any food, drink or toilet facilities when queuing up on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Maybe I just missed that but there was certainly nothing obvious when walking up from the station to join the queue.

Edited by Rockstar6662
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Thanks for your feedback Jason and for your explanation. This year was the first year that i went for the Gold Pass. My feedback is as follows:

 

Gold Pass Room: There was water available which was brilliant, but perhaps this shouldhave been chilled as drnking luke warm water is not the best. A couple of chill boxes would sort thisout for next time. Chairs and tables were great for taking time out to relax, but the chill out room needs to be open constantly and not closed during talks or other events. Best to have this moved to another area.

 

Gold Pass VQ's: The one thing that makes the Gold Pass valuable is the ability NOT to require a VQ. You have already sold your Diamond Passes for these guests, why then do Gold Passes who have already paid for the privalidge of not having to queue for other guests, have to queue for these? This makes the Gold Pass considerable less valuable as not everyone with a Gold Pass wants to to purchase a large supple of photoshoots. I thrououghly recommend that Gold Pass should NOT require ANY VQ tickets for any guest in future.

 

Photoshoots split over too many levels: It was IMPOSSIBLE to get from the Ground Floor from one photoshoot to the the third floor in 15mins on Saturday. You couldnt do it due to the sheer number of people on the floor and the stairs. Please, put ALL of the photoshoots one the same floor for your next con. Many attendees purchase multiple photoshoots and to move up and down various floors is not viable, especially when negotiating through crowds.

 

Autograph Personalisations: This is a MASSIVE point for me as you are offering the chance to meet the guest, but in the case of most of your Diamond Guests and a number of other guests, you are only able to get a standard autograph. The prices you are charging means that attendees can purchase these cheaper from vendors (even inside your building). You may say that its so that a guest can see as many people as possible, but does adding a simple "To "Name" really make that much of difference in time. Five seconds! For fans like myself who are only interested in personalised autographs, this event was a disappointing to say the least as there were a number of guests i wanted to purchase autographs but weren't personalising.

 

Queue Jumping: This is something that needs fixed ASAP. For fans who spend hours queueing up before the doors open, only to have someone jump right ot the front of the queue is infuriating to say the least. Please have the barriers tightened up for ALL queues so that this will eliminate this bad practice.

 

Too Many People/Lack of Breathing Room: Once again on the Saturday, there were simply too many people! You were unable to move with any sort of ease, there were blockages and the heat was once again horrendous. Why weren't windows opened to aid in ventiliation? You state that the events are getting bigger and bigger (which is great in terms of guests), but with too many large crowds, the experieince diminicshes incredibly. Please address this as this is becoming not only a factor for enjoyment but more inportantly a helath and safety issue.

 

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.

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Thanks for a wonderful weekend Jason and the Showmasters Crew ! I really hope that you can book in some more Breaking Bad guests next summer , the ultimate is Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul , would buy diamond pass ASAP then :) and I really hope for a Married...With Children Reunion in 2017 when they celebrate 30 years !:) But please , bring Bryan Cranston to your wonderful event , would be a dream come true !:)

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And maybe I missed it but I saw no sign of any food, drink or toilet facilities when queuing up on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Maybe I just missed that but there was certainly nothing obvious when walking up from the station to join the queue.

I got there about 9am on Sunday and there was a guy going up and down the queue with a cool pack on his back selling water and Pepsi, I saw no food but there were definitely drinks being sold to the entry queue.

 

 

Ok, that's fair enough then. Must admit I didn't get there until 10 on Sunday but was there from about 10:30 on Friday and 6:30 on Saturday. Maybe I was just too distracted talking to my friend to notice.

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Gold Pass VQ's: The one thing that makes the Gold Pass valuable is the ability NOT to require a VQ. You have already sold your Diamond Passes for these guests, why then do Gold Passes who have already paid for the privalidge of not having to queue for other guests, have to queue for these? This makes the Gold Pass considerable less valuable as not everyone with a Gold Pass wants to to purchase a large supple of photoshoots. I thrououghly recommend that Gold Pass should NOT require ANY VQ tickets for any guest in future.

You know before you buy a GP that you don't get priority for DP guests, so can't really complain about it. Do you honestly think it's fair you go before a fan who has already paid for their autograph upfront?

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Autograph Personalisations: This is a MASSIVE point for me as you are offering the chance to meet the guest, but in the case of most of your Diamond Guests and a number of other guests, you are only able to get a standard autograph. The prices you are charging means that attendees can purchase these cheaper from vendors (even inside your building). You may say that its so that a guest can see as many people as possible, but does adding a simple "To "Name" really make that much of difference in time. Five seconds! For fans like myself who are only interested in personalised autographs, this event was a disappointing to say the least as there were a number of guests i wanted to purchase autographs but weren't personalising.

 

 

Yes, 5 seconds does make a huge difference. For a busy guest with a constant queue, an extra 5 seconds each could halve the number of people who could get an autograph.

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Gold Pass VQ's: The one thing that makes the Gold Pass valuable is the ability NOT to require a VQ. You have already sold your Diamond Passes for these guests, why then do Gold Passes who have already paid for the privalidge of not having to queue for other guests, have to queue for these? This makes the Gold Pass considerable less valuable as not everyone with a Gold Pass wants to to purchase a large supple of photoshoots. I thrououghly recommend that Gold Pass should NOT require ANY VQ tickets for any guest in future.

You know before you buy a GP that you don't get priority for DP guests, so can't really complain about it. Do you honestly think it's fair you go before a fan who has already paid for their autograph upfront?

What's the point of making GP get VQ tickets for DP guests when they get in earlier and will get lower VQ tickets anyway

And yes it is fair it's the reason you pay £225 (upfront) aswell I might add

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The pushing into line by staff strangley never effecred me like others obviously were. That us probably because I go to so many gigs I am used to being smashed around. Still I saw it and was not impressed.

 

The raised voices were my problem, some people cannot go any quicker for many reasons, so being ordered loudly at multiple times will not speed some of us up, even if it is repeated louder the second time.

 

If Mr J Fox was at a time limit and rushed it is not us the paying punters fault, that many tickets should not have been sold in the first place then.

 

I love these events, they are hard work for most (in a fun way) and we all want a nice day. So hopefully we can all smile and be nice :-D next year may well be perfect. So bring on 2016. What wonders it may bring!

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Autograph Personalisations: This is a MASSIVE point for me as you are offering the chance to meet the guest, but in the case of most of your Diamond Guests and a number of other guests, you are only able to get a standard autograph. The prices you are charging means that attendees can purchase these cheaper from vendors (even inside your building). You may say that its so that a guest can see as many people as possible, but does adding a simple "To "Name" really make that much of difference in time. Five seconds! For fans like myself who are only interested in personalised autographs, this event was a disappointing to say the least as there were a number of guests i wanted to purchase autographs but weren't personalising.

 

Yes, 5 seconds does make a huge difference. For a busy guest with a constant queue, an extra 5 seconds each could halve the number of people who could get an autograph.

Richard Dean Anderson wasnt personalising but super nice as he was ,he spent a lot of time talking to everyone. It wouldnt have made any difference if he had personalised.

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I had a great weekend and i have to say that each and every guest was awesome.

 

Some remarks:

 

-the friday queu for gold and yalc ticketholders was a mess,it was one line when it supposed to be two seperate ones.

-the wristbands were distributed much too late on friday.

-when we entered on friday they didnt have vq tickets ready for christopher lloyd ,how is that possible?

-it was't very clear to me that level 3 was closed on friday.

-going from one level to the next was a nightmare but you improved it during the weekend,thanks

-the "comic" part of lfcc felt a bit neglected.

-the sunday only star wars guests,in the separate room on level 3 ?,no signs pointing to them ,i bet a lot of people didnt even see them.

-some crew members still don't know how the gold pass works.

-nobody knew where to get our goldpass goodies

- the empire strikes back celebration?

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Whoa, GO SM, Thursday will be a Preview Day and then Three days of Pure Madness. I like it.... This year was very stressful and lots of missed guests because of the Layout, Lets hope next year will be better layout.

 

Again as above, there was lots of Confusion at the Photo shoots Diamond was called at every photo shoot? The Diamond Pass is only for one guest.. This caused massive problems. Also Prop photos, I never had any chance to see these as the Diamond / Gold were the only ones allowed to go because of the crowds...

 

Cant wait for next years show, How do you beat this years Big Guests?

 

:smile:

This is absolute rubbish I went to of the prop shoots they were all dead I had a 10 min conversation with the photographer before anybody else even turned up! At one of them

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Whoa, GO SM, Thursday will be a Preview Day and then Three days of Pure Madness. I like it.... This year was very stressful and lots of missed guests because of the Layout, Lets hope next year will be better layout.

 

Again as above, there was lots of Confusion at the Photo shoots Diamond was called at every photo shoot? The Diamond Pass is only for one guest.. This caused massive problems. Also Prop photos, I never had any chance to see these as the Diamond / Gold were the only ones allowed to go because of the crowds...

 

Cant wait for next years show, How do you beat this years Big Guests?

 

:smile:

This is absolute rubbish I went to of the prop shoots they were all dead I had a 10 min conversation with the photographer before anybody else even turned up! At one of them

I agree about the props. At one point it was so dead at the DeLorean shoot that I thought it was closed. I went to the hogworts one the next day and that was the same.

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Hi Jason,

thank you very much for this post! I personally had a stressful, but also a great time at this years LFCC! The main reason why it was so stressful was that the photo shootarrow-10x10.png areas and autograph areas are so far away from each other. It was really hard to go from the autograph area on floor 1 to photo shoot D and 10 minutes later to photo shoot E. I attended in the past some big events in the US and it worked perfectly to sit all the guests (except the diamond guests) in one big roomarrow-10x10.png or one side of the hall to sign autographs and to put all the photo areas in a different (but not that far away) area of the venue. There can be a big space in the middle of the photo shoot area with 20 lines or so where people can start to queue for all the different photo shoots that go on at that time or the photo shoots after.

It really was a pain running between photo shoot areas, if they were that far away and on different floors like this year!

Is that something you look into and consider to change?

 

I also think that the Diamond passes worked brilliant and I really hope you keep doing them at future events! This might be not the right place for guest requests, but any cast of the MARVEL movies or Agents of SHIELD would be amazing!!!

 

Thank you!

Dom

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I've read a lot of feedback from here and other posts, and from what my friends were saying during the weekend, so along with my own... here's my essay haha:

 

First of all I'm very upset that people with invisible disabilities (i.e. not in a chair, holding a stick etc.) may have been disbelieved by crew when they went to get their blue badges to help them access queues etc., crew should be taught that not all disabilities are visually apparent, and that doesn't make the person any less in need of the blue badge. I've seen from feedback a great lack of respect from both crew and customers to people with disabilities and it should be addressed.

 

Second, I am happy to say no crew member touched me as far as I'm aware, and I'm shocked that any would thing it was ok to do so. You cannot touch people you don't know for no good reason, end of. We are not void of the ability to understand hand movements or vocal instructions, to be physically touched and shoved to a place can be very distressing. You could invoke a panic attack, or cause someone to fall and hurt themselves. Please, do NOT touch people. The fact this has happened within popular photoshoots (MJF in particular) makes me think they were oversold. Shoving people through to fit them into a time slot is not acceptable, and just ruins the experience for the customer who is paying a lot of money to be there.

 

Third, checking photos for issues seems to be solely on the customer. While you say the photographer and the crew member receiving the print outs do that, I don't think they do. I got my pic with the clock prop the Friday when it was super quiet, and I knew I had blinked so told the photographer, who showed me his screen saying he couldn't really tell but if I am, just come back around and he'll do it again. The screen showed that a mere fraction of it showed the image, so if the other cameras were the same, the photographer would not know to alert us before we move off to get our pic. When I first started going to cons (my first professional picture shoot was in 2007), the photographer would pause, check and let us know if it was ok to move on. I realise that takes time, but I really miss that as the photographer was able to catch that the guest in my picture wasn't smiling properly, and saved me finding out too late (as these were when they were sent off for development). I know instant processing of the pic means the photographer doesn't need to check any more, but as seen earlier with the man and his son's picture, it seems asking for a re-shoot for a picture that is obviously needing re-shooting is a tall order. So what are we to do when there is an obvious issue and the crew refuses us the ability to amend it?

 

On a similar note, the photographer for David Bradley was real keen on close ups... all my other pics are also landscape but aren't collarbone up as mine is with his. I wouldn't say it's a very flattering picture of me as my arm is chopped off at the side! Not sure if it was a space issue in David's area, but I hope I'm not the only one who wouldn't have minded a bit of a less close shot!

 

Fourth, I'm gonna say it - overcrowding. Of course not to the level of last year's, but still a lot this year's Saturday. I'm going to say you didn't sell over capacity, but I think it was more due to the fact the more popular things were lumped together on the same floors. Dealers, autos and photo areas all in the same floor, all being the places that would get most traffic. I agree with many who request that one floor be dedicated to each, so that queues wont bleed into dealers areas etc. and walking past areas wouldn't take forever due to congestion. I managed to get to level 3 just once, to sit down, and that took ages as the queues for the lifts were forever and I had no idea how to get up via stairs (and found out that if I had tried it would've taken longer). This poses a safety risk, and my friends and I did say while we were on level 3 that it would probably be the end of us if there was an emergency and an evacuation was required, since it took so long for anyone to get off the level.

 

Fifth, gold passes... seemed to be oversold? I could be wrong but it seemed damn near impossible to get any of the 'bigger' guests with just a VQ ticket as it seemed an endless list of GP people getting through into the queue and VQ ticket numbers barely rising beyond a certain double digit point. I was lucky I didn't want many autos, but I think if this was another year I'd be rather miffed.

 

I was a MJF diamond pass holder (#16 woo!) and got everything I was entitled to with no difficulty, possibly due to my low number. Hoping everyone else who had his diamond pass got everything ok. The BttF reunion talk was the only thing I found fraught out of the whole of his things, and that was due to poor organisation of the diamond pass customers, who were not told what to do until we got into the super stage and were struggling to get to where we were instructed. My numbers were called up first but having to fight my way through a crowd of other higher numbers meant I didn't get a seat as close as my number entitled me to (in fairness I wasn't too fussed as I just needed to sit down at that point, due to my health, but still I imagine other low numbers would be more upset with this). But yes, otherwise had a great diamond pass experience, and would happily buy another one again.

 

My other problems were my own really (I was exhausted, but that's as I got little sleep and I have CFS so it wore me down pretty quickly). I would LOVE a relaxing zone, as when I wasn't off doing scheduled things I needed to sit down, and having a designated area where you know you wont be tripping someone over or blocking a fire exit would be nice!

 

The guys who regularly organise the photo areas were fantastic, while Photo Area A was congested, the crew member I had for Gambon and MJF on the Saturday was brilliant at setting up the queue, and the guys in C and D on the Sunday were also hyper organised, which was very appreciated.

 

I have been attending SM events for nine years now and do treat them as my holidays (lord knows why, more stressful than day to day life haha) and always love looking back on them, but the past 2 years have been more stress than fun at the time of the event, which is due mainly to overcrowding. Knowing your venue's capacity is key - as is not selling it out to capacity.

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What's the point of making GP get VQ tickets for DP guests when they get in earlier and will get lower VQ tickets anyway

And yes it is fair it's the reason you pay £225 (upfront) aswell I might add

They can prevent VQ's no matter how low from joining the queue if they like, and just let the DP's get their guaranteed autograph. You're not paying £225 for the right to join a DP guests queue though, as it's specified upfront you can't do this. So that argument is invalid.

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I had the gratest weekend ever I had everything I needed done by 16:00 Satuday so much so that I didn't even turn up Sunday, only negative i have is why I thank you jason for the diamond passes and guests I had 2 the extras with them were apauling. I recommend putting some effort in to these or just don't bother with the extras like prints next time.

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ps

One thing i forgot to say we will have a App that will update you all and inform you over the days of any changes that happen , this was to be ready for this event but we could not get it to the standard we need ready in time but this will be ready for 2016 LFCC
Jason
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I just hope more space does not mean more tickets sold as it will be the same predicament next year.

Probably will. More space = more capacity which is fine if everyone is spread out and filling the capacity of the different spaces but remember that the majority of people will be wanting to be in the same area i.e. the autograph areas and those were incredibly crowded while other areas had some space and much easier to get around.

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I know its not Showmasters fault but I hope the venue has functioning air conditioning next year! After the sweatpit of Earls Court last year I was hoping for a slightly cooler event.

 

Perhaps an arrangement can be made that venue staff must run a thorough check to show this is working and they present it to Showmasters leading up to the event.

 

 

the air con was working 100% all day every day the thing is in the UK the air con is not that good as there is only about two weeks a year they need it so its never that amazing , there are a lot of you at the event we were light clothing and that seems to work , i myself had to get around a lot and walked over 48 miles over the 4 days but heat was not the issue for me so thinking about what you are going to wear is important unless you are in costume then its a labor of love :-)

 

jason

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I know its not Showmasters fault but I hope the venue has functioning air conditioning next year! After the sweatpit of Earls Court last year I was hoping for a slightly cooler event.

 

Perhaps an arrangement can be made that venue staff must run a thorough check to show this is working and they present it to Showmasters leading up to the event.

 

the air con was working 100% all day every day the thing is in the UK the air con is not that good as there is only about two weeks a year they need it so its never that amazing , there are a lot of you at the event we were light clothing and that seems to work , i myself had to get around a lot and walked over 48 miles over the 4 days but heat was not the issue for me so thinking about what you are going to wear is important unless you are in costume then its a labor of love :-)

 

jason

Agreed I didn't find it that hot and you could tell it was on all those people and one hot day outside no air conditioning could have kept everyone happy

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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

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Good event.

 

I do think that the gold pass room should have been up on the 3rd floor as that floor had better air con. The diamond pass guests should also be only for diamond pass holders (i was only a gold pass holder).

 

Keep up the good work showmasters

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