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LFCC 2016 Feedback Thread


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This was my second LFCC and despite having a great time meeting guests last year, the layout and over-crowding really made me think twice about returning.

 

That said, I am absolutely AMAZED by the improvements of this years event. It is so refreshing to see a company actually listen to their customers and visibly make those changes to completely alter the experience.

 

Getting into the event was a breeze - great improvement there.

 

The layout was AMAZING this year. Having the photo areas near to each other really helped with my clashes and allowed me to remain calm. All the guests on the same floor and all the stalls on another was perfect - lets keep it that way please!

 

The staff this year were wonderful and very helpful. Special shoutout to the guy running the queue on Photo Area A who helped me out with my Jeremy shoot which in turn meant that my Saturday was stress-free when it could have very easily been the opposite.

 

Was nice to see lots of guests taking photos at the tables wherever possible too.

 

Great to FEEL the air con working this year too and having lots of space to stand/sit and cool off or take a breather.

 

My one constructive observation that i'd like to make is perhaps some of the bigger guests should be more spread out...having the likes of Famke, Jack, Michelle, Adam etc. all along the one wall meant that this was the one area that turned into a bottleneck and because lots of people were there, it was difficult to try and meet people like Jeremy Bulloch and Dave Prowse as you couldn't even get to them.

 

All in all, I absolutely loved LFCC this year and will now be making it an annual event that I do every year moving forward. Thank you Showmasters for listening to your customers and actually trying to fix the issues they had last year. I really am so impressed. Looking forward to next year already!!

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Just wanted to say a big thank you to Showmasters team. They always take on any feedback from fans and every year LFCC gets better because of this. I loved the all day Friday opening and think it worked really well. Queues to enter venue were in really quickly and crew/security were well organised. The extra space worked really well and there was lots to look at (particularly enjoyed Dumb and Dumber and Batmobile vehicles and Suicide Squad costume display - these extra special touches really added something) There was a great selection of stalls and you were able to walk around easily at a comfortable temperature. I liked the diamond passes - had them for Famke and Jeremy and felt they worked well. The photos were again of an excellent standard and the photo area queues were dealt with efficiency and fairly. I got most autographs on Friday and that allowed for a brief chat with guests - Jamie Kennedy, Sean Maher, Jon Heder, Judge Reinhold and Julian Sands - all were amazingly kind and chatty, making some great memories of the day. Being able to meet the stars of your fave films / tv shows is a wonderful thing and you can tell that Showmasters appreciate this. Saturday was also much easier than other years. I'm already looking forward to next year!

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I don't have much to add to the above. Without a doubt the best SM event I've been at and I am so pleased I got the chance to meet Dolph Lundgren, Rutger Hauer, Keith David, Julian Sands, Rex Smith, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, Kjell Nilsson, Mads Mikkelsen, Tobin Bell and Carl Weathers. I had bought a diamond pass for Dolph. I don't think I needed it in hindsight but at least I never had to worry about meeting him and I don't regret buying it. Well done Showmasters from a very happy customer. Looking forward to the Glasgow show later this month!

Edited by BasG
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Special thanks to the guy who ran photo area B (beard and glasses) on friday he made sure i didn't miss my kae photo while i ran to get michael done. He was a credit to showmasters

 

 

You're welcome, thank you :)

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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.

 

The crew members are moved to the front so that they can get back to their post asap. There aren't enough or extra crew to cover breaks etc so this is the easiest way of doing it. That's the only benefit. The crew have to pay for photos and autographs just like anyone else does. (note to self - read other peoples replies first!)

 

 

On other points - about the talk areas:

 

The original plan was to have the talks fully enclosed. venue health and safety didn't like that idea. The air conditioning is set and run by the venue. finally as for people watching paid talks for free - we did try to move them (and yes I did shout rather too loudly at one point and realised Jeremy had heard it on stage - so apologies for that!). To be honest - where I was stood in the roped off area at the back you couldn't hear what was being said anyway.

The 3rd floor stage is excellent but only holds 300 and that's where most of the congestion was last year so not practical to use it (plus it would have cost a lot more to hire the 3rd floor)

finally regarding the sound - it is very difficult to get a great all round sound in such an open venue - paticulary with multiple guests on stage all talking at different volumes or holding the mics at different heights - saying that I think the sound this year was great in comparison to other years.

Edited by dazzlerjames
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  • The blond Scottish gentleman hosting the Rutger Hauer talk was dreadful - only 2 questions were allowed from the floor because of his incessant wittering, and as for asking Rutger to quote 'that line' at the end....well a good host would have checked that was ok before the talk started.

I have to agree with this. The end of the talk was embarrassing to watch. I'm always relieved when I attend a talk and see it's hosted by someone else and the other gentleman who was hosting was very good.

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Like everyone is saying this years LFCC was a massive improvement and difference to last year, much much better and I had a fabulous time.

 

And compared to last year, I got to meet everyone I wanted to meet included there autographs, I am so chuffed with myself!!

 

It was very funny how everybody guest-wise was reacting to my costume as I was primarily dressed all in black as an Executioner (hence the axe also)-Donald Sumpter in the photoshoot lol!

 

Now next year, I gonna put this here anyway, its to do with guests/themes, but as you know Star Wars is Jasons baby and celebrates 40 years, and Harry Potter is hitting the 20 year mark. Being 2 of very Popular Franchises I think next years show should be a Big Harry Potter/Star Wars Crossover Theme. How many of you would back this?

 

Also some of you may have noticed its been 4 years since Tom Baker and Peter Davison did a Con with you guys and I think they should be the first guests announced for the show along with Colin Baker/Sylvester if pos.

 

But other than that, a really Grrreat Show, Showmasters!!

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I had a great experience at this year's LFCC! I had a weekend pass and got everything I wanted to do, done. I attended LFCC two years ago (at Earl's Court) and it was a sweaty and rather uncomfortable experience. This year I had prepared with a portable fan, lots of water and light clothing. I ended up having to put on a sweater during the talks! :D Thank you for the working air con! I'd rather be cold than warm (because, yeah, there's only so much you can take off before you get arrested ;) ). The layout was awesome and there was lots of space to move around and look at all the stalls. I liked that all the guests were on the same level. The photo shoot areas were easy to find and the crew were very nice and helpful.

 

Jeremy Renner, Laurie Holden, Sean Maher, Dominic Monaghan, Michael Emmerson and Julian Sands were all amazing and very nice. Thank you, SM, for getting them! I would happily meet them all again :)

 

A couple of tips for improvment for next year:

* Block off the whole area where the talks are being held, not just with tape but with walls (or move the main stage to a different place completely)

* Space out the really popular guests a bit better (there were bottle-necks here and there)

* Lighting the main stage. I don't know what was going on but the lights in there were terrible and you couldn't see the guests properly if they leaned a certain way on stage.

* Sound at the main stage. I'm a little hard of hearing and I had trouble hearing what the guests were saying despite being sat near a speaker!

 

Overall though, a really good experience!

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Bonapp

As another suggestion i think the organizers should put some metallic barriers to canalize the people, it'd be more convenient for your staff to control who can access to the queue and who can't.

 

 

I agree with this and have been saying it for a couple of years now. It would make it far easier for EVERYONE of there was a barrier to queues.

 

Edited by stargate geek emily
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Yeah, unless they've got a valid reason for not using them I think Tensa barriers at the least are required. People are happy to queue but rightly get upset when people jump or when, for example, the talk queues end up in a potentially dangerous jumble and rush. Get people to line up beforehand behind proper barriers and you control the movement and flow of people.

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Again, with the Gold pass my only other issue is the prop shoot. The voucher in given out says £5 prop shoot. So I was under the impression it could be used for any prop shoot. I was a bit taken back when I fancied doing the Delorean shoot, only to be told by the guy running it that the voucher wasn't valid. Going forwards, either the £5 voucher is valid on ALL £5 prop shoots or it is made clearer what it's not valid for. Saves embarrassment and time wasting standing in a queue for something my voucher doesn't cover. Otherwise I felt that overall this year's experience was better than last. Not too crowded like last year. Overall Showmasters events would be my priority over other similar events. Even that one at the Docklands.

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My one constructive observation that i'd like to make is perhaps some of the bigger guests should be more spread out...having the likes of Famke, Jack, Michelle, Adam etc. all along the one wall meant that this was the one area that turned into a bottleneck and because lots of people were there, it was difficult to try and meet people like Jeremy Bulloch and Dave Prowse as you couldn't even get to them.

 

I agree maby the bigger guests should be mixed up with the smaller guests rather than all the bigger guests being all in 1 area. if they were mixed up there wouldnt be so much crowding.

Edited by stargate geek emily
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Best LFCC I've been over the past 4 years.

 

After the nightmare of the past 2 years, we expected the worst and got pleasantly surprised.

 

The venue was very well spaced out and it was wasn't boiling.

 

There wasn't a crush at the stalls area, so we could actually look at the stalls without someone constantly bumping into you.

 

The only negative I have to say was the entrance queue.

Whilst in the entrance queue before the show opened. A crew member came through the queue/crowd and started scanning peoples tickets, but she didn't go to everyone, so some people could of easily got in without anyone checking their tickets. She walked past us without scanning ours, it was only when we told her we hadn't had ours scanned that she came back to us to scan them.

 

Other then that it was a 10/10 con. I got all my 5 autographs by 10:30am.

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I think my only slight negative (and it is very slight) is that you had to go to the main entrance to get your hand stamped for re-entry (or at least that was the case on Sunday). Would have been far more convenient to have this available at all the exits.

 

But apart from that nit-pick this has probably been one of my favourite events of the year so far. On Saturday I came with a friend for her first time and she really enjoyed herself and would love to come back again. Jeremy Renner is one of her heroes so she was so pleased to be able to get a photo with him. She even had to sit down for a little while after coming out of the photo area XD On Sunday I was with another friend who only decided to come last minute after not enjoying herself at all last year. But she told me she was really glad that she did decide to give LFCC another chance because it was a great day. Brilliant show!

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Again, with the Gold pass my only other issue is the prop shoot. The voucher in given out says £5 prop shoot. So I was under the impression it could be used for any prop shoot. I was a bit taken back when I fancied doing the Delorean shoot, only to be told by the guy running it that the voucher wasn't valid. Going forwards, either the £5 voucher is valid on ALL £5 prop shoots or it is made clearer what it's not valid for. Saves embarrassment and time wasting standing in a queue for something my voucher doesn't cover. Otherwise I felt that overall this year's experience was better than last. Not too crowded like last year. Overall Showmasters events would be my priority over other similar events. Even that one at the Docklands.

 

The voucher was valid but only for Showmasters prop shoots. The Delorian and the Dredd bike were run by outside companies / people and as such wouldn't have been compensated by Showmasters for those vouchers. Maybe SM should have been more specific, though having had the Delorian shoot at Brighton it's not up to snuff as I was only given a small photo standard camera size photo and not the 6x9s that Showmasters use.

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  • The blond Scottish gentleman hosting the Rutger Hauer talk was dreadful - only 2 questions were allowed from the floor because of his incessant wittering, and as for asking Rutger to quote 'that line' at the end....well a good host would have checked that was ok before the talk started.

I have to agree with this. The end of the talk was embarrassing to watch. I'm always relieved when I attend a talk and see it's hosted by someone else and the other gentleman who was hosting was very good.

 

This was the same issue when he was interviewing Carl Weathers, there was hardly any time for questions..

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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.

 

Actually, my partner and a few friends crew for Showmasters and there is a very good reason they get to jump the queue.. Because they are working... All Day. They obviously get breaks for lunch and the bathroom etc but they have to also use those times to get the autographs/photos they have planned/booked in. If the area they are working on becomes quiet for a few minutes their Pit Boss will say "Ok, since it's quiet go try and get your autographs and come straight back." This is why they can't queue up and wait like everyone else and personally I think it's perfectly reasonable. They need to get it done and get back to work helping attendees. :-)

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This event was MUCH better organised than last years.

There were only 1 or two things that needed improvement.

 

(1) Gold Pass. The vouchers should be able to be used towards any photoshoot/auto you want. The Goodie Bag had stuff in it that was obviously left over from old film premieres. The entry was not priority for the first two days but improved on the third. The chillout zone was poor.

However, it did greatly reduce my queueing time for photos.

 

(2) Staff need to be trained in the Basics.

By this I mean the Diamond guest, Gold Pass rules.

At Ian McDiarmid's line the guy sitting with him was instructing staff in line to give Diamonds priority, and make Gold pass people take virtual queue numbers. I told him this was wrong as Ian wasn't a diamond guest but he didn't want to hear. The lad in the Red shirt at photo D kept calling out "Platinum first, then batch 1" (Until another staff member had to correct him). Most VQ auto lines I got into, I had to explain that my Gold pass allowed me to join the queue. Some protested and even asked other staff who just shrugged. For me, that's just the basics that should be hammered home. All staff were excellent when I came to manners and willingness to help. They are a credit to Showmasters. Chantelle at the sales desk was swamped all day but was unbelievably helpful to myself and anyone I seen look for help. Otherwise, great show! Improving leaps and bounds each year.

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Absolutely loved the event and only have one little bit of advice..

Talks in the comic zone stage need to be publicized better. I went to a few and loved them but they where generally not very well attended, my partner and I went to covering comics talk which had only 4 other people in.

The talks where easily my favourite thing about the weekend and feel like more people would have loved them too if they known about them a bit easier.

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  • The blond Scottish gentleman hosting the Rutger Hauer talk was dreadful - only 2 questions were allowed from the floor because of his incessant wittering, and as for asking Rutger to quote 'that line' at the end....well a good host would have checked that was ok before the talk started.
I have to agree with this. The end of the talk was embarrassing to watch. I'm always relieved when I attend a talk and see it's hosted by someone else and the other gentleman who was hosting was very good.

This was the same issue when he was interviewing Carl Weathers, there was hardly any time for questions..

Yes very poor presenter I'm afraid to say. Poor Rutger squirming when asked to read those famous lines. I imagine it's a bit like approaching Richard Wilson and asking him to say "I don't believe it!"

 

Also Rutger absolutely loves Blade Runner and composed those lines himself. He still feels their power so to ask him to flippantly recite them in the Olympia was just bad show.

 

The audience were largely booing the presenter and shouting out "don't do it Rutger!" - way to go to get the audience on your side!

 

Rutger was great all round and should be asked back to meet those fans who missed out...

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  • The blond Scottish gentleman hosting the Rutger Hauer talk was dreadful - only 2 questions were allowed from the floor because of his incessant wittering, and as for asking Rutger to quote 'that line' at the end....well a good host would have checked that was ok before the talk started.

I have to agree with this. The end of the talk was embarrassing to watch. I'm always relieved when I attend a talk and see it's hosted by someone else and the other gentleman who was hosting was very good.

 

This was the same issue when he was interviewing Carl Weathers, there was hardly any time for questions..

 

 

Funny that, I tend to think that the audience questions are often very poor and my preference is an interviewer who has done their homework. I love the free talks at the smaller shows but this was the first time I attended a paid talk at a London event. Since the Dolph Lundgren talk was included in the diamond pass I went to his talk. Not sure if I would have paid the £20 otherwise. When the host announced that most of it would be audience Q&A my heart sank but thankfully this was an audience with a bit of knowledge and most of the questions were actually very good, the only exception perhaps the Scottish lady who asked Dolph what actor he would "like to be the crap out of" :WINCE:

Edited by BasG
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Funny that, I tend to think that the audience questions are often very poor and my preference is an interviewer who has done their homework. I love the free talks at the smaller shows but this was the first time I attended a paid talk at a London event. Since the Dolph Lundgren talk was included in the diamond pass I went to his talk. Not sure if I would have paid the £20 otherwise. When the host announced that most of it would be audience Q&A my heart sank but thankfully this was an audience with a bit of knowledge and most of the questions were actually very good, the only exception perhaps the Scottish lady who asked Dolph what actor he would "like to be the crap out of" :WINCE:

 

 

Agreed. I saw the MC in the Mads talk and the 3 Dr's one and thought he was ok at those ones. As long as he strikes a balance between his talking and audience Q's I don't have an issue. Over the years I've been doing shows I have certainly heard some painful questions.

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I would like to see larger signs and placed higher along so people can see? I for one am not tall, nor is my partner and I cannot imagine how hard it must be for disabled people and those in wheel chairs mixed up in the confused melee I found myself in. Maybe those in wheelchairs should be allowed in first.

 

Also a large digital VT or regular audio announcements should be made, or a live app that lets you know the number and gives reminders of whats currently in progress.

 

I found finding guests an absolute nightmare and the queues hard to decipher, just as I did with what ticket number it was on without forcing my way through a crowd every half an hour.

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I'll repost this here and in the other feedback thread. I hope no one minds too much reading my gushing positive comments twice :)

In general this year was a way better experience than the last! I agree with most of the specifics mentioned above - better layout, better check-in process, great crowd management. The bigger space made it look like there weren't that many people as 2015, and I imagine renting more Olympia halls was more expensive, so I really hope with all my heart that the financial side turned out good for Showmasters, because the extra effort definitely paid off for us!

Specific people I want to give props to:
- Stuart at Photo Area A. Year after year, it never ceases to amaze me the authority, wit and expertise with which he puts order in the chaos that the busiest photoshoots can turn into. My hat (well, my Mario cap) is off to you, sir.

- Sara at Photo Area C on Sunday, aka the Girl in the Hat. She was faced with a couple difficult situations: some people had tickets for Rutger Hauer for Saturday and couldn't get in because Mr Hauer insisted on chatting with everyone, so they had to be squeezed in the Sunday shoots; and some of us were worried to miss a shoot because the times for Elden Henson and Harold Perrineau were so close together. In both cases, she quickly thought of the best solution, made room for us in the queue, reassured us that she would make sure that we would get our pictures done, and made some jokes to take the edge off. Couldn't ask for more.

- My friend was so excited to meet Rutger Hauer that right after the picture, she started sobbing uncontrollably. I hadn't ever seen her that upset, I wanted to hug her but I was afraid to ruin the picture that she had in her hand, and honestly I froze a little - and one of the girls in charge of the queue immediately stepped in and hugged her. You were a great help - thank you thank you!!

- On Saturday I was in my SuperMario costume. I got a great laugh out of the girl that said she couldn't look at anything but my moustache, and the guy that scanned my ticked and noticed in my reservation info that my real name is Mario, and thought that was hilarious. It all added to a very fun con experience, so thank you guys for the great sense of humour! :)

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