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LFCC 2016 Feedback Thread


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Maybe a thread to put general comments?

 

I wanted to firstly say that credit should be given where credit is due with regards Showmasters and their organisation of this event.

Last year was, I think it is fair to say, shambolic in terms of queuing and venue layout and the 'feedback' thread was just page after page of very legitimately unhappy and disgruntled customers. It is obvious Jason/Showmasters saw for themselves the issues from last year and did listen to feedback, which is great.

 

This year though, wow, what a difference. It was like a different event.

 

The massive positives:

  • Firstly, so nice not to have to queue outside in whatever weather. Nice big entry way into the West Hall so plenty could enter at once, plenty of people to scan you in.
  • I didn't make use of them but good that in the holding hall people had the option of food and drinks and toilets if necessary.
  • Being scanned and snaked into the metal barriers helped so much for when the doors opened. I was no-where near the front after arriving at 8:30 but I must have been in by 9:05. VERY impressed.
  • A minor issue for next time, some bolder signage for the diamond pass collection point. I walked straight past it because the writing on the whiteboard did not stand out. I joined the queue then was let out to get my Diamond pass. No issue for me because I was at the edge of a metal barrier if that makes sense, might have been trickier if I was buried in the mass of people. Getting it from the desk took minutes, but I heard people had problems on Friday so not sure how to suggest improvement.
  • The space inside the venue! At last! I honestly can't remember the last LFCC where I did not hate being in the venue. I could easily see the stalls! I could walk around freely without people invading my personal space.
  • I could feel the air-con on the ground floor! (I can't remember that EVER happening either at Earl's Court or Olympia).
  • My partner came with me last year and hated the experience so gave this year a miss and I know other people said the same. But looking at the videos from this year she said she would happily come next year if it's the same as she could walk the halls at leisure whilst I get autos etc. it has to be enjoyable for everyone afterall.
  • It was so much better having all the vendors and guests/photoshoots on their own floors. Combined with the additional space it made navigating the event so much easier and quicker. It was so much easier traveling between floors as well.

Room for improvement:

  • Add a bit more common sense spacing in the autograph area and tweak the location of some guests who generate larger queues. I felt there was simply not enough room between the guests as the back (the row Famke Janssen was on) and the next line of guests (the row Peter Mayhew was on), with queues snaking back and clashing into one another. Same story with Paul McGann's row facing Judge Reinhold's row. It was scrum like when it didn't need to be and just took the edge of all the good organisation seen elsewhere in the venue. It would have been better to stick the Suicide Squad costumes elsewhere and make use of that space for guest queues.
  • More people needed on the Sales Desk, it was simply too slow.
  • PLEASE made use of the talk room on the 3rd floor used last year at Sigourney's talk, it was spacious, comfortable, you had a soft chair, armrests, tiered seating with perfect line of sight for everyone, great lighting, it was perfect.
    The mainstage from yesterday is nothing in comparison. Hard fold-up chairs strapped together so you're clustered up like sardines with people's elbows in your face if someone wants to ask a question. Poor lighting and ended up being quite cold after 45mins. It was great being in the second row of Famke's diamond talk but even that close to the front, same level rows of seating meant someone's melon head was always in the way.
  • Be more flexible with allowing people to make use of a Diamond Pass on a particular day. What I am saying is, not everyone can be there all weekend, we all have lives and saying "come back tomorrow" is sometimes literally the least helpful thing in the world to hear if it is not possible. It just comes across as blasé and somewhat inconsiderate.

The guests:

  • I always think there is a good selection and I will come for one guest or ten, there is always someone that appeals to me and I think even without the almost untoppable Sigourney from last year, 2016 was a very interesting, broad mix with some very rare names.
  • I do think Diamond Passes are a great idea but please do not implement them for everyone half-way decent. I do not think everyone who was Diamond this year needed to be. I think they should be the exception and not the rule otherwise too many fans will be priced out and miss out.
  • I know it can be difficult to manage temperamental people but please try and strike a better balance with allowing the guest to interact but also getting the punters through. I have never seen VTs only get up to 100 odd by early-mid afternoon. A guest can say little but still make a great impression. I always think it is better more people get to meet the guest as opposed to a only a few people having longer interactions. As above not every fan can be there for all three days or even two, to try and try again. And even if you are, sometimes the repetition of trying to meet a guest day after day is stressful and more soul destroying if you don't get to see them in the end.

Overall, I'd say a very good show and very happy to see that so much has improved from last year.

 

 

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If I may add my 2 pennies worth on here...

 

I attended Saturday and upon arriving in the holding area within Gate H shortly after 8:30am, it was about 4/5 full. I was kindly directed in the right direction but I noticed some people walking in the opposite direction to me who ended up quite a few rows behind!

 

Shortly after 9am, everyone was let in, with many making a beeline for upstairs. I think it was around 9:30am when I got my bearings on the first floor where guests were signing although here there are two particular points I wish to raise:

  1. No one for the life of me could tell me where Bonnie Langford was. I asked a blue t-shirt crew member who asked me to ask someone in red as she did not know. I found a red t-shirt guy who didn't know where she was either! I managed to eventually spot Bonnie tucked away by the Power Rangers Guests with no photo up, just her name. I expressed my dismay to her that she wasn't at least sat with or near Sylvester MCoy and Paul McGann, and she was as surprised herself.
  2. The queues backed up against each other meaning there was little room to pass through the middle of them to get to the other side. You may wish to consider for future events that this can be managed better. There was just a sea of people to wade through.

Both Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford I should add are superb guests. Very friendly and happy to chat :smile: I managed to finish seeing them by 10am which was excellent, allowing me to enjoy the rest of the show.

 

The layout was huge and I felt that better planning for the first floor where the gaming areas were and upstairs where the YALC was situated should be considered for future. The areas were a little sparse. If anything the ground floor was a little crowded and on conversations with some of the stalls, some were not happy where they were situated especially as they had paid quite a bit. The connecting corridor area between the two big floors was rather dark and the stalls said that sales were not great as many people were just passing through without stopping. Perhaps consider this area to be vacant where people can sit down/ eat and have better lighted areas (e.g. the first floor) where it is better lighted for stalls to be situated.

 

That's all I have to say really. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the day and year on year I see improvements but there is always room for more.

 

Many Thanks Showmasters.

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To put it simply, the most enjoyable LFCC for the last few years in my opinion.

 

The layout was superb, it was so much cooler this year.

 

The queuing in the hall in the mornings was a relief after years of snaking lines round venues.

 

Saturday things got a bit crowded with all the Game of Thrones guests being in a row but this was obviously picked up on as they had been separated on Sunday making that area a lot clearer.

Plenty of spaces to just sit down and chill out.

 

Photo area A being run by the tall chap who always runs that area was marvelously efficient. He really is a credit to Showmasters and deserves many plaudits.

Each guest I met was polite and friendly, Famke Janssen was fine with me, making eye contact and saying hi at both her table and photo session.

Special mention to Catherine Sutherland from Power Rangers who was really kind and sweet.

Mads Mikkelsen has the coolest accent ever.

My only minus feedback was the crew at photo area D on Saturday who didn't know the names of their guests or what time their shoots were. Despite there being a bit of paper on the wall telling them! One of the crew looked like he was going to have a breakdown at one point. They were trying but unfortunately seemed clueless, some training for them please.

Overall the best LFCC I have been to in a long time. Same again next year please.

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I had a really enjoyable time. Spreading the event over 3 full days seemed to make a huge difference in terms of everything feeling less frantic. I loved how much space there was (unlike another suggestion in this thread please please keep the layout the same for next year -all stalls on ground floor & signings/photos on floor 1). Meant there was so much space & very easy to walk around & see the stalls. All the guests I met were lovely with Mads Mikkelsen & Jeremy Renner a highlight.

 

Only suggestions for next year? If you have diamond guests make sure staff understand that you can't get priority if you're a gold pass holder for autos. No one got that this time & it does devalue the diamond passes. Also if you're going to have paid talks think about where they're going to be. It was silly having them somewhere that was clearly open. I didn't begrudge those standing at the back watching the Jeremy Renner talk but it was daft that they could. That was then rectified for today by say not letting us queue for Mads Mikkelsen's talk lest we hear Dolph's but that was equally silly as it meant instead of forming orderly queues everyone lurked in a scrum. As someone else mentioned have paid talks in the conference room. It's perfect for it & you solve a lot of issues in terms of lighting/sound/people getting freebies.

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So much better than last years LFCC. The layout was a million times better making it really enjoyable. After experiencing last years i didnt know if i could hack the heat and the feeling of being jam packed against everyone again but i must say i am so glad i went. With more space overall it didnt feel like a tin of sardines :)

 

Only 2 complaints really... 1/ the price of the food and drink in there was a joke. £5 for the worst tasting hot dog ive ever had. 2/ I was really dissapointed with Daniel Portman in the GoT talk. I think he was really rude to alot of the people asking questions and after a while he made people not want to ask anything. At first i thought it was his sense of humour but after 30 mins of it i realised he was just being really condescending.

 

Overall... amazing day and already looking forward to next years. Well done x

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Yes it was a little silly not letting us queue for Mads until Doplh's talk had nearly finished in case we heard what he was saying but I do appreciate that it was an attempt to deal with the issues from Saturday - it just didn't work in my opinion.

 

Have a formal queuing area away from the talk area. Thenpeople can start queuing but don't get in the way of the talk going on, everyone can queue to their hearts content and when it's time to go in they can be let in in an orderly fashion.

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I had a great weekend. I was very worried about the heat that was mentioned from last year but everything was spread out and didn't feel hot and claustrophobic as I had feared.

 

I didn't get to the venue til 9.30 on Saturday due to a train delay, but walked straight in. Everything else was great.

 

I only have one criticism and that was due to a member of staff in a red t-shirt. I was about to walk upstairs to go to my photoshoot for Kim Coates and had 45-mins before it started. I had printed my ticket off and had it in my hand (with the barcode etc on) the lady then said to me 'is that for a photoshoot?' tobwhich I replied it was,cshe then told me I had to go to the sales desk to exchange it for a ticket. I told her I thought I just took it to the photo area and they scan it and she said 'no no you have to go and get a ticket'.

 

Being in a red shirt I thought she must know, maybe there's been a change, so off I went queued for 30-mins for them to tell me what I already knew, take it to the photo booth and it will be scanned. It was then a mad rush to get up to the shoot. To say I was annoyed is an understatement!!!!

 

The saving grace was the guy in the blue shirt managing the queue was great, he checked my ticket and slotted me in the front of the queue as I was batch 1.

 

Apart from that I had a blast. Thank you for a great event.

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Agree with pretty much all that's been said already - even on Saturday, it was wonderfully spacious in most areas (the guest area where most of the Diamonds were seated could have been broken up a tiny bit as it was heaving on Saturday, but everywhere else worked incredibly well). No queues in the loos! And yes, there was lovely aircon just about everywhere. BLISS. In the Gold Pass chill-out room, I was actually... chilly. :P

 

Much better signage for photoshoots and floor plans this year (especially the huge schedules showing relative start and end times). One tiny thing: perhaps a little YOU ARE HERE sticker on each floor plan would have helped one orient oneself a little quicker, but it was great seeing so many plans visible.

 

The Gold Passes not being let in early enough was my only major gripe (which has been discussed at length elsewhere, although fortunately I managed to work around the VQT situation thanks to some fab helpful people who gave me their better-numbered ones).

 

The crew I encountered were all great as always and in most situations they were handling the queues in a logical and orderly fashion, which made things so much easier.

 

And of course the guests were brilliant.

 

Stress over VQTs aside, I had an excellent weekend. Thank you!

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I second that post about the crew member running Photo Area A. I can never remember his name but he is superb at every con he volunteers at. A shout out to Justin who was running the Photo Area C yesterday again he is really good as well slotting Golds into the queues.

 

I agree with the point about the food but that is obviously a venue run service and there's nothing Showmasters can do about that.

 

The only 2 things that need looking at is 1) having ALL crew reading from the same book so to speak about queuing for autographs and 2) just adding to the walkways between guests so the queues don't get mashed together. I think the only real way to stop people jamming these areas is to have big poster/signs up at the autograph areas stating the rules about the gold pass and VQ tickets so that everybody whose number hasn't been called up yet goes elsewhere even if its just to wait along the wall til their numbers are called. A bit like the Donald Sumpter queue this morning that worked quite well.

 

P.S I cant believe the amount of people who were complaining about not being able to cuddle Millie today. I was thinking really your all adults and shes a 12 year old girl what did you expect.

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Well done for a great event. I think the real credit goes to.all the voluntary helpers. They do t get paid, have to deal with the shot that happens. All the main problems people had last year have seem to be dealt with. Word will get around that this was a great event. Next year will sell out with many returning.

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P.S I cant believe the amount of people who were complaining about not being able to cuddle Millie today. I was thinking really your all adults and shes a 12 year old girl what did you expect.

 

Really? She's 12. Cuddling her would have been beyond creepy. People!

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This has been one of my favourite showmasters shows ever! I didn't have a great deal to do but was still there all 3 days and had no problems what so ever. The amount of space was incredible, was able to move around easily and without fears of suffocation. Thank you for putting On such a great SM :-)

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My little feedback on this event:

 

Positives:

 

- the glorious amount of space! Was nice walking around without being crushed, elbowed or barged out of the way.

- the stalls. There seemed to be a good mix of stalls there selling all sorts of things. I was particularly taken with the folks selling those storyboards with the classic story all fitted on one page with a nice design on.

- the guests. For the most part all the guests seemed happy, were engaging with their fans and living up to expectations. Certainly all the folks I met for autographs were lovely and chatty, and they were also pretty jolly in the photoshoots too (with one exception, but I'll move that to the negatives). Therefore, a big smiley from me goes to Jeremy Renner, Sean Maher, Jack Gleeson, Joe Naufaru, Famke Janssen, Sylvester McCoy, Jamie Harrison, Hattie Hayridge, Jon Heder, Faye Marsay, Mads Mikkelson, Dominic Monaghan, Elden Henson, Kae Alexander, and Aaron Stanford.

- the crew. All the crew I encountered this year were helpful and friendly and I did not get any aggro off anyone. I must give particular praise to the two guys looking after the queues for Mads Mikkelson and Sean Maher on the Friday - they were a credit to SM. I am also grateful that I was able to swap my Saturday photoshoot with Sylvester McCoy to Sunday, after it fell in the middle of the Jeremy Renner talk. I had no problems and they were happy to make the switch.

- other attendees. Yes, people this year seemed more polite, more friendly and certainly happier. I always attend on my own, so it's nice to chat to people. I think given the space and better organisation, people were just a lot more relaxed. Yay to that!

 

Negatives

 

- the Thursday evening pick-up. I don't know where to begin with this. I know it was organised late, but for it to take two hours to pick up a gold pass and one diamond pass when there wasn't even a big queue was beyond belief. For staff to be working off paper lists to find your name (which didn't look to be in any sort of order) was a bit badly organised, and to then have to queue twice because they couldn't give you both passes together was a nightmare. Even after that, you still had to go to the Diamond Pass booth (or area behind the TV screen) on another day to collect anything that wasn't your dog tag.

 

- the gold pass. I am loathe to complain about this because for the main part of joining any queue and being front of photoshoots it did work well for me - but everything else just didn't seem to quite work. For Friday and Saturday we did not get let in any earlier - they did not do bag search in advance as I am led to believe they did at the main entrance - so it took even longer. As we were also located the furthest point from guests, it also meant high VQs for the Diamond guests. The gold pass room went from being a cordoned off triangle on Friday to a tiny room the rest of the weekend. I went in once on Friday but never again as there were only about 8 seats so not really a place to relax. I think SM need to work on the goldpass room for next year, brief the security folks on the rules of letting people in before the event starts and not in response to everyone complaining that it isn't working, and to actually make it worthwhile again I think goldpasses should be able to join Diamond guest queues after the diamonds

 

- Famke Janssen's Saturday photoshoot. There is not much to say here that hasn't already been said. The poor woman looked like she didn't want to be there, her security were rough and rude, the crew were on edge, the attendees were simultaneously fearful and pixxed off and it turned out not being a very pleasant experience for anyone. If indeed she was ill then she should have cancelled the shoot and just stuck to autographs - people are understanding when they get the truth, but the way this was handled was a complete mess and you can't get back all that negative publicity all over FB and Twitter and everywhere else people were complaining.

 

 

Overall I had a great time though, and I'll be back next year!

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P.S I cant believe the amount of people who were complaining about not being able to cuddle Millie today. I was thinking really your all adults and shes a 12 year old girl what did you expect.

 

Really? She's 12. Cuddling her would have been beyond creepy. People!

 

I know! That's people for you. Despite that though she was a great guest and proved very popular & I wouldn't be surprised if SM gets her back.

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Quite simply the best organisation of any LFCC that I've ever been to. The signing areas got a little congested at times and there was a lot of wasted space around the galleries that could have been put to better use but, other than that, no complaints. I had a great weekend!

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I only went the Friday and got there maybe around 10AM, managed to walk right in which was nice.

 

So much better than last year and I would definitely do the Friday again next year. I only met Keith David who was great, I could appreciate the caliber of some of the guests that signed over the weekend although I wasn't a big enough fan to want to meet them, which is okay considering the amount of people I met last year!

 

Only feedback I could give is place 'you are here' stickers on the maps as I had to ask a couple of people were the exit was, and the stalls didn't seem as varied as last year.

 

Hopefully next year will will have all the space used for this weekend.

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I had a great time, and a definite improvement from last year.

 

The floors were spacious and there was little to no congestion between the dealer tables or on the stairs.

 

I paid most of my autographs with £5 notes, and got appreciated by a couple of crew members, especially the lady who handled the payments for Edge on Saturday morning.

 

Also like to thank the crew member who scanned the barcodes for the Sylvester McCoy/Paul McGann Tardis photoshoot on Saturday, as well as McCoy and McGann themselves, for allowing me to stand next to McGann instead of McCoy as I was cosplaying as the Ninth Doctor that day.

 

 

Only issues were the congestion around the guests area, as well as the green screen area when the Door photoshoots were done Saturday, and the talk area Saturday afternoon as I nearly missed my photoshoot with Sam Coleman.

 

Also, Ian McDiarmid had a No Posed Photos sign, when it was actually No Photos.

I tried taking a photo while I was in the queue until the Millie Bobby Brown crew member politely mouthed "no photos" so I acknowledged this by giving the thumbs up, mouthing "OK" and putting my camera away. I was able to apologise to, and thank, her after I got my autograph. A situation that could have been avoided if a No Photos sign was put up.

Considering McDiarmid's autograph cost more than most of the Diamond Guests, I thought he could have been a Diamond guest as well (which I would have been willing to buy), but I can only assume that this is not the case due to McDiarmid only attending Sunday.

 

This has been one of the best events I've been to and looking forward to next year's event (should circumstances allow).

Well done Showmasters and everyone involved for making a great event.

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Well, my personal opinions.

 

 

All the photoshoot areas on the same floor-- THANK YOU SM. Saved me so much time, stress and energy! I had two photoshoots back-to-back that would have been a nightmare last year. Instead I had two feet to walk. :D Perfect!

 

Crew-- good job. All of you. Particularly to the guys sorting the morning Jack Gleeson shoot. Got the Diamond passes, Gold passes, and first batch through with barely any significant waiting time and made sure the queues were well organised. And no, unnamed crew member, I wasn't trying to sweet-talk my way to the front when said you were doing a good job. :P Even the Mads Mikkelsen photoshoot, which was my longest photo queue, went through smoothly.

 

The guests themselves. Well, I won't lie, I'm a little disappointed that many of my favourite guests had the no posed picture signs up, especially when they'd done selfies previously. Having said that, I understand why the sign is there, and the queues were fairly speedy. So while it's a little bit disappointing, I'll live. Not to mention said guests more than made up for the lack of posed photos with gracious attitudes-- everybody asked me how I was, looked up at me and smiled, made small talk (sometimes brief, sometimes lengthy!), and just generally made me feel as though they were happy to be there. I came away from everybody with a smile on my face!
Shoutout to Daniel Portman, when he found out that I speak French, for asking me to chat him up in French-- in front of my dad. :D If my father hadn't been present, Daniel, I would've done it. You would have fallen fast, I promise. One day, Daniel. One day.

Tobin Bell, in particular, was extremely sweet and chatty! I know that possibly for this reason he wasn't a particularly fast signer but I was pleasantly surprised that he was so talkative. I don't know why but I somehow got the impression that we'd be hurried along, instead he took his time and engaged everybody in conversation. As a massive Saw fan, I felt incredily awestruck and privileged to have had an actual conversation with Tobin!

Michael Emerson was the absolute sweetheart I expected him to be. I do not care that he is a grown adult man, he needs to be wrapped in soft blankets and nurtured and protected from the world. He is a precious bean.

And Mads Mikkelsen. First of all, is he tanned? Am I ghostly white? Is it both? Either way, I am now convinced that he is sculpted from actual gold. There is no other explanation for the phenomenon that is Mads Mikkelsen. Like with Tobin, I was a little worried that I'd be hurried on because of the no posed photos sign, but while I didn't get that much of a talk from Mads, he was all smiles and made the mistake of speaking to me-- I'd intended to say/ask a few things but then he spoke first and my brain went mushy. Also his hands are perfectly warm and soft. I just felt this was an important detail.

 

Guests AND crew-- I don't know if this used to happen at other events, but in any case, it's the first time it's happened to me; crew members taking your name before you get to the guest if you want a personalisation. I found this incredibly efficient, more so because I constantly have to spell my name for people so this certainly made things less awkward! That said, some guests just guessed how to spell my name and did so correctly, for which they were highly praised! :D

 

There was breathing space. So much of it. I was spoiled for air! Last year I felt stressed and mentally drained within fifteen minutes of entering the venue, but everything today went so smoothly! My father met up with me there (he'd never been to a con before so this was a first experience for him) and he kept saying how well laid out and organised everything was. Definitely a massive improvement, I cannot thank you enough SM!

 

I'm extremely tired and my brain is fuzzy, so I'll leave it at that for now. But honestly, well done SM. :) Great lineup, great organisation, everything was fantastic!

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This was the best one I have been to so far. The layout and space was very welcome.

 

My only suggestion would be this: With bigger space and more rooms increases the chances of getting lost. I don't know how many times I couldn't find my way to the photo areas yesterday. Even looking at the floor plan it was really difficult to figure out where you were/which direction to head in. My suggestion would be to post up signage around the walls and doors saying something like "PHOTO A THIS WAY ->" or "<- PHOTO B THIS WAY" along a route so you at least have some idea of where you're headed. The building was so big that I still didn't really figure out how to get where even by the end of the day!

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What can I say....well it was a HUGE improvement on last year. My wife is in a wheelchair so last year despite being enjoyable was also a complete nightmare in terms of getting around the venue. This year though was fantastic all the guests on one floor is definitely the way to go PLEASE stick to that showmasters, and so much more space for the stalls we were able to have a proper look at all the merchandise which was dangerous for my credit card 😄 we brought our own food so the prices of the food available wasn't a concern for us. The venue felt so much cooler as well obviously helped by the increase in space. If I had to be picky the autograph cues clashing was a problem it was difficult at times to figure out where the different guest cues began. But that really was a minor problem, overall thankyou showmasters for a fantastic event.

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While there are a couple of negative things I could say, other people have already mentioned them (goody bag, gold entry on Sat), so instead i'll just post positive things about the event.

The layout was much better, with having all of the guests together on one floor.

Going up and down the floors was much easier because of the stairs.

The crew and volunteers worked as hard as always. They have to deal with thousands of attendees (most of whom are incredibly rude and impolite) yet they do so with great patience.I want to thank everyone for their incredibly hard work in a hectic, crazy, tense environment.

I got a lot more table photos than I was expecting to get...Harold Perrineau, Michael Emerson, Elden Henson, Jack Gleeson etc. I'm particularly happy about Elden and Jack as I considered getting photoshoots with them but didn't in the end, but there was no need anyway as I got photos at the table.

By 12:40pm on Saturday I had met both Jack Gleeson AND Jeremy Renner without a gold pass. I'm sooooo glad I didn't buy diamond passes as it would have been a waste of money as I managed fine without them for the second year in a row.

 

This has nothing to do with the event, but some other things happened on Saturday which made the day even better.

My friend and I went to a theatre stage door and got to meet Jesse Eisenberg, Kunal Nayyar and Alfie Allen. Even though we were told Alfie wasn't going to be coming out at all (and if he did come out he 100% wouldn't sign anything related to Game of Thrones), he came out when the crowd left just for my friend and I (the security guy told us this) and he signed our play pictures and also our Game of Thrones posters (he even included 'Theon' under the autograph).

 

THEN!! I was walking out of a building and Kate Mara (House of Cards, The Martian, Iron Man 2, Fantastic Four, 127 Hours) and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, Fantastic Four) walked right passed me?! I've never met anyone famous by chance before (it's always been at a convention or stage door). We spoke to them both and while Jamie was arranging something with a waiter at a restaurant Kate signed an autograph for us both and posed for a photo. I was so happy! I'd already met so many great people that day, so to bump into them both was amazing.

 

Thanks again, Showmasters!

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My only real gripe is with crew members being allowed to 'jump' the queue. This sort of behaviour leads to people already in the queue getting annoyed to put it politely. Yes, being on crew may have it's benefits when coming to get things signed from guests but no way should they be at the front of the queue. Fair enough they don't need a virtual queue ticket, but no way should they be allowed to just 'bypass' everyone else and be at the front when everyone else has been waiting. They should be at the back of the queue as it's only fair on those who've been waiting in the queue to meet the guest. Other than this gripe overall the layout of keeping all guests mainly in one place was an improvement over last year. I agree that the Suicide squad costume display should've been elsewhere.

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Positives =

 

Queue area to enter the venue was very spacious and well organised never had a problem on entry on any day from Fri - Sat.

 

Layout - very spacious and no longer claustrophobic. Resulting in a better / cooler atmosphere and all round better feeling of the event.

 

Crew brilliant and very helpful as always (If you take away the GOT talk queue mishap). Brilliant in rearranging photo shoot day clashes quickly and very effectively.

 

Stalls - wide selection and had a great time exploring them all which took about 2 full days as I like to take my time and have a chat.

 

Toilets - clean and stocked well.

 

Negatives =

 

I've mentioned most elsewhere and they have been noted.

 

Suggestions =

 

Talk area - not sure if it costs more money to hire it but the theatre that held the Aliens group and Sigourney talk last year on level 2 or 3 was unbelievably perfect!

 

I was very disappointed to see it not return this year.

 

You had nailed the perfect location for talks and I feel like it was a major step backwards this year by not utilising the best facilities available.

 

Taped areas on the floor for the green screen and throne photo shoot would have been very beneficial during busy times.

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My only real gripe is with crew members being allowed to 'jump' the queue. This sort of behaviour leads to people already in the queue getting annoyed to put it politely. Yes, being on crew may have it's benefits when coming to get things signed from guests but no way should they be at the front of the queue. Fair enough they don't need a virtual queue ticket, but no way should they be allowed to just 'bypass' everyone else and be at the front when everyone else has been waiting. They should be at the back of the queue as it's only fair on those who've been waiting in the queue to meet the guest. Other than this gripe overall the layout of keeping all guests mainly in one place was an improvement over last year. I agree that the Suicide squad costume display should've been elsewhere.

 

Can I just say the only reason we do this is because crew members have a job to get back to and are only allowed a (very) limited time away from their posts.

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