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Earl's Court Vs. Olympia


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With LFCC done (and dusted) and everyone having about a week to recompose themselves and gather their thoughts, with its history at Earl's Court and the re-use of the Olympia, what to you were the pros & cons of each location?

 

Understandably, there won't be another event at Earl's Court, we just want to see people's views, which do they prefer & why; are there things from one venue you'd like to transplant into the other

 

Personally, we liked the fact that Earl's Court only had a single, open-plan floor; but the lighting inside was pretty dreadful. Olympia may be bigger in size, but we feel the multiple floors is a bit of a downside & can make the overall FEEL smaller while it's actually not

 

would be interesting to see how the promised 40% extra space for next year willl open the venue or influence the feeling of..Full..ness :D

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The summer LFCC in 2012 was held in Olympia Grand Hall and it was basically just one big hall filled with stuff, like it used to be done in Earl's Court. I liked it best because it had what I liked about Earl's Court and it had good light due to the glass roof, not the horrid yellow one from EC. This year There were more floors used in Olympia, the light stayed good, but the fact that Grand hall couldn't be used did not help. So I like Olympia better, as long as the event is not hold on four floors.

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Keep the capacity as it was this year, but with the 40%extra space and you will have a much better experience than this year or last year at EC.

 

Also, sell less diamond tickets, or at least stop people using them for every guest rather than just the guest their ticket is for

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Olympia is just another tired worn out old building unfit for purpose. It would be nice to be housed in a proper modern convention centre instead of a place from the 1880's which over the decades has had most of its toilets, stairs,air conditioning etc added to it as it stumbled along . Hopelessly out of date just like Earls court and we all know what happened to that. I was told by a member of Olympia that they have been informed its due for redevelopment in 2018 and final plans to the local council will be submitted in 2016 so don't get too comfortable with Olympia.

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Olympia is just another tired worn out old building unfit for purpose. It would be nice to be housed in a proper modern convention centre instead of a place from the 1880's which over the decades has had most of its toilets, stairs,air conditioning etc added to it as it stumbled along . Hopelessly out of date just like Earls court and we all know what happened to that. I was told by a member of Olympia that they have been informed its due for redevelopment in 2018 and final plans to the local council will be submitted in 2016 so don't get too comfortable with Olympia.

It reminded me of the current venue at Milton Keynes, which at least had the excuse.

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I was actually going to start a dedicated topic around this theme myself - I for one think both Earls Court and Olympia are truly awful venues. They are both outdated and were never designed for these sorts of events where potentially rushed movement between levels is apparently essential. Olympia simply does not 'look nice'. The look and feel of a show (of any nature really) is incredibly important for getting people in a positive mood, helping them feel relaxed and giving them a sense of control and calm - this being achieved through clear, sensible layouts, plenty of space and a modern building.

 

I know cost plays a significant part in determining where a show should be held, as does location. I would much rather LFCC be held in the Excel arena - the fact that SM have held other shows there but not LFCC leaves me somewhat puzzled. The place is vast and all on one level to name but a couple of areas it trumps both Olympia and the old Earls Court...

 

I live in hope :)

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I was actually going to start a dedicated topic around this theme myself - I for one think both Earls Court and Olympia are truly awful venues. They are both outdated and were never designed for these sorts of events where potentially rushed movement between levels is apparently essential. Olympia simply does not 'look nice'. The look and feel of a show (of any nature really) is incredibly important for getting people in a positive mood, helping them feel relaxed and giving them a sense of control and calm - this being achieved through clear, sensible layouts, plenty of space and a modern building.

 

I know cost plays a significant part in determining where a show should be held, as does location. I would much rather LFCC be held in the Excel arena - the fact that SM have held other shows there but not LFCC leaves me somewhat puzzled. The place is vast and all on one level to name but a couple of areas it trumps both Olympia and the old Earls Court...

 

I live in hope :)

agree with all the above.Its why Earls court and now Olympia are losing so much trade to other venues, not just in london but up to Birminghams NEC and convention centre and similars ones in Manchester etc. Olympia and EC weren't built for this kind of thing and being old buildings there's not much they can do.I will say its easy enough to get to and its proberbly cheaper to rent but hopefully we'll see a change of venue sometime soon.As much as i loved the guests the whole 2 days were an ordeal and a major test of my patience. Queuing to use the stairs in 2015. :thumbdown:

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Both venues are out of date, with Earls Court now out of the picture and Olympai not up to standard I feel that Showmasters should be looking for a completely new venue. As it stands you might be ablt to have 40% more space next year but as other people have said this will mean more ticket sales so that won't help. The air conditioning is not upto the standard that it needs to be and the toilet facilities are not good enough either, the glass roof might mean it's better for pictures but it also gives you a green house effect in the summer. While the events were on a smaller scale the buildings got away with it but as the showing is growing a new modern venue needs to be found. I understand that people have said the the excel can't be used so maybe it's time to move out of London and find somewhere else to host the show.

 

On a side note I also feel that MK Stadium is also starting to become too small for that show too.

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This is a point many have posted about and ive heard many many people commenting on at the shows, why is it so difficult to put all the photoboots in 1 area?

It would make the whole event so much easier to get around, find what you need and hopefully help in stopping people criss crossing all the time when your stood in a photo line

 

Put everything related on the one floor.

 

Ground: Merchants

1st: Photo Area

2nd: Autographs

3rd: Talks

 

Going up and down between floors for photo shoots that in some cases were 5 minutes apart was brutal

 

 

Exactly, too early to say really but i feel come next yr, that 40% more space from the other hall will be pointless because they will just up the ticket sales and sell more passes so it will end up being rammed in there too so there wont be much difference. we live in hope. would be ideal if they sold the same sort of number of tickets as this yr and keep the NO ON THE DOOR TKTS and have that other hall..so there would be alot more space overall and not more people.

 

I feel like that 40% more space means that Jason will release 40% more tickets so we won't feel the benefit at all

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Keep the capacity as it was this year, but with the 40%extra space and you will have a much better experience than this year or last year at EC.

 

Also, sell less diamond tickets, or at least stop people using them for every guest rather than just the guest their ticket is for

I TOTALY agree. if they keep the same amount of tickets sold this year but add the extra halls and then we will have a good capacity.

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With the extra Friday now being 7 hours this year and potentially 9 next year, added to having a 3 hour preview on the Thursday, and 40% more capacity, there really is no need to sell more than we had each day this year.

 

I'd pay a bit extra for standard entry if it meant a more pleasurable experience (couple this with less diamond and gold ticket availability, so that exclusive really means exclusive)

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Personally I preferred Earl's Court. If both halls had been used plus the auditorium upstairs, I think that would've been fine.

 

The Olympia was a little disorientating at first due to the layout, but I got used to it quickly. There were just too many choke points and issues getting around the venue, which have been discussed at length already.

 

I'm confident that if SM make sensible changes to the layout and provide dedicated seating areas along with using the entire venue, next year will be very awesome indeed.

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thanks for all your input, guys! Very interesting to see what everyone else thinks on the venues & their layouts! :)

we have no idea about UK venues, but are there - in fact - (London area) venues that would be large enough to support the capacity of LFCC crowd?

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