LFCC 2016 Feedback Thread

[Bonapp]

(1) Gold Pass. The vouchers should be able to be used towards any photoshoot/auto you want.

 

 

I don't agree at all. As i said earlier, some gold passes use their pass to make money by having items signed for "regular" attendees, making other attendees have extra waiting and potentially preventing them to get their auto despite an early entry. Those behavior put down the whole system of VT. I saw that a few years ago for Stan Lee : a friend of mine had VT 45 and couldn't had a signature despite he arrived a 04:00 am. I saw those behaviors again this year. At other conventions, special passes have a limited number of autos (no more than 2 or 3 per guest per day) so that they don't monopolize the queue and prevent other attendees to have a chance to get their autos. It's only asking to be fair.

[Queen_Sindel]

There is a 5 item limit at this show too.

[Murph]

There is a 5 item limit at this show too.

Which was sadly abused by some.

[Jabberwocky50]

There is a 5 item limit at this show too.

While waiting to met Judge Reinhold saw what I assume was a dealer who had three folders of 10(30 in total) official black & white Beverley Hills Cop photo's signed before moving onto John Aston.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Jabberwocky50

[Jabberwocky50]

 

 

• 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..

 

I was at the Amir Arison talk when the interviewer asked for one more question and two of us put our hands up he choose the other person and before he had time to wrap it up, Amir said no we'll hear Lee's question as well. We had a long chat just before the start of the talk and got on famously hence him remembering my name..

[Queen_Sindel]

 

There is a 5 item limit at this show too.

While waiting to met Judge Reinhold saw what I assume was a dealer who had three folders of 10(30 in total) official black & white Beverley Hills Cop photo's signed before moving onto John Aston.

 

 

The Limit is only in place if the VQ system is operating.

[Murph]

 

 

There is a 5 item limit at this show too.

While waiting to met Judge Reinhold saw what I assume was a dealer who had three folders of 10(30 in total) official black & white Beverley Hills Cop photo's signed before moving onto John Aston.

The Limit is only in place if the VQ system is operating.

Judge was VQ Saturday and Sunday.

 

I saw someone get at least 7 from Tobin Bell and someone else get 6 from Michael Emerson. The auto areas were being mostly run by crew without a clue.

[Queen_Sindel]

Sorry, from the Posts here I did get the Impression that he was not. I will put this on the list of things to bring up with the Office.

[Coles84]

I had a fabulous day on the Sunday! Would have loved to have attended the whole weekend but unfortunately was not able to do so. My only criticism is that a lot of us were waiting to meet Tobin Bell and sadly never got the chance to do so, I read here the other day that someone got 11(!!!) items signed by him. I thought it should be a 5 item max rule for guests on VT? I never thought I would get to meet Tobin as I could not get to the venue until 11, but it would be nice to think the 5 item rule was in place giving everyone a fairer chance of meeting the guest they want.

 

Massive praise has to go to the lovely woman running Tobin's autograph line, she was honest, up front and had to put up with a lot of rude people. She did an excellent job I thought.

[Queen_Sindel]

Please see the last couple of Posts above yours - we have really just addressed this question.

[MarioVl]

 

 

 

I was at the Amir Arison talk when the interviewer asked for one more question and two of us put our hands up he choose the other person and before he had time to wrap it up, Amir said no we'll hear Lee's question as well. We had a long chat just before the start of the talk and got on famously hence him remembering my name..

 

 

 

 

Maybe a bit off topic, but I have to mention it - my friend felt the need to tell Amir that she thinks he's so cute, but wasn't sure she'd dare. So I egged her on, she did, and we had the nicest chat with him. He promised to check her artist stall, which he did, and he ended up adding her and chatting with her on Facebook after the con. He's the sweetest guy ever!

[Chaya]

Compared to last year showmasters have improved a lot, thank you!

 

The positives:

• The entry hall - no worries about bad queueing-weather anymore
• Getting the wristband after entering the hall - no waste of time by entering of the event at 9:00
• much space inside the venue
• main stage and fotosessions all on level 1
• the board gaming zone

 

But there are still things to improve for next year.

 

The negatives:

• Diamond Pass Collection: On Thursday I had to wait more than 90 minutes for the collection of my diamond passes. The main reason was to get the big photographies as well on Thursday for not having to carry them on Friday or Saturday. Unfortunately they just gave me the pass, not the goodies. I could have easily collected the pass on Friday then...
• On Saturday morning there were at first no VQ-tickets for Natalie Tena and other GoT actors. As I went back to their tables at about 11 am to join the openQ there wasn't openQ and I got a number of about 400. Hello? Why did I come at 9 am then to get good numbers for all actors and there wasn't VQ-tickets at that time? And no hint there wuld be later. Next time please plan that better in advance.

[Murph]

Another thing that could be improved. Having the guests at their signing tables at 9am, and not just whenever is convenient. At least 1 hour of the day is wasted by some guests not signing until after photoshoots. Not only is this a loss of income to SM, but sometimes the difference between a fan meeting a guest or not.

[kelamina]

I want to share my experience about Saturday. I would have posted sooner but have been waiting since Saturday evening to have my account validated!

 

The good points about this year's LFCC were that due to the layout, I didn't feel as crowded and squashed up against other people like I have at past cons, and also it was defiantly not as hot and stuffy as last year!

 

Right now comes the bad points:

 

I only had tickets for Saturday, which I attended with my sister & her boyfriend. When we arrived we already had our entrance tickets so asked a member of staff which queue we were meant to be in. We were directed to the queue, and shouted at to have our bags open & ready to be checked. I had quite a large backpack with me, and the woman who looked in my bag had the quickest of glances at it, barely even looking inside, and let me through. We then queued to get in, which in all fairness the line was moving pretty quickly. We then found ourselves inside the main area. At no point did any staff check or scan our entrance tickets! We didn't even receive a hand stamp which is unusual. Great security showmasters!!!

 

We went to our first photoshoot, Mads Mikkelsen and the gathering (I say gathering as no one really knew where or how to queue!) was pretty big and our next photoshoot with Laurie Holden was about to start so as we were batch 1 we went straight to that. In & out with no problems. We had a bit of time to kill before our next photo op, and as at the time of buying tickets online I only had enough to buy 2 photo ops plus entrance, I wanted to wait until payday and buy any extra tickets on the day. I've never usually done this before as I always buy online. I found the sales desk and managed to join the one, and also the slowest, queue out of the 4 that had the one lady that didn't seem to have a clue what she was doing! Every time someone in my queue bought a ticket, up the lady got to look at the wall and ask the other staff questions. We ended up queuing for about 45 mins! So anyway, around 15 mins into queuing a man announced that if you were waiting to buy photo op tickets for certain people they had sold out for that day. He read out the list and the two I wanted, Tobin Bell & Rutger Hauer, wasn't read out. I got to the front and bought my tickets, the lady wandered off with them to ask about something, came back and said I was batch 6 at 4:50 for Tobin, and batch 8! and 5:20 for Rutger.

 

My sisters boyfriend then had his photo op with Dolph Lundgren. He was batch 3. We queued up for ages, then they announced that they wouldn't be letting anyone else in, so anyone higher than batch 2 would have to come back at 5:40. The other photoshoot my sisters boyfriend had a ticket for was Famke Janssen. He came out disappointed and said it was a complete let down and felt it was a waste of time and money. He said she was sitting in a chair, with the security shouting at everyone "no touching" he said hello and she barely acknowledged him. All 3 of us then had our photos with Jon Heder and then Tobin Bell, which both went quite quick and smoothly.

 

That brings me to the Rutger Hauer photoshoot. I arrived at the photo area about 10 mins before it was due to start. Already there was a swarm of people gathering around. It wasnt clear where you were meant to wait and I couldn't hear or see the staff member calling out batch numbers. I dont know why they didnt set up lanes on the floor (for example lane 1 for diamond, lane 2 for gold, 3 for batch 1 and so on) like they did at walker stalker con. It was so much easier to work out where you were meant to queue that way. Anyway, as I was batch 8, I waited around at the back, then they made 4 lines for batches 5, 6, 7 & 8. My sisters boyfriend went off for his Dolph photo, had it and came back, and I was still queuing! A staff member walked past and counted 20 people in my queue. A few more people joined the queue just after that. There was a hell of a lot more than 20 people in the queues for the other batches. Then a very rude and abrupt lady came out and said that's it no more photos! People were trying to ask why & what we were supposed to do and she was basically just turning them away and trying to get us to leave. She said "you'll have to come back tomorrow". A large number of people were trying to ask about refunds and she said very bluntly "go and see the sales desk". We rushed to the sales desk and had to queue for ages yet again, so I could get my money back. There was only one person serving and the other members of staff were just sitting around chatting. Another lady did come round and asked if anyone could come back tomorrow, which no one in the queue could which is why we were all queuing for a refund! She then asked who paid online, so a number of people left the queue and she took them aside and explained they'd sort their refunds out a different way. While queuing I heard a couple of different stories as to why the photos were stopped. Someone said it was because Rutger was getting tired and his agent had stopped it, which is fair enough as he's an old man. Another person said it was because they had overrun and they didn't have time to do anymore photos. Which brings me to think why then are showmasters selling 8 batches (10 if you include diamond and gold passes) if they can only manage to get up to batch 4 seen??? They turned away batches 5-8. Remember there was 20 people in my batch at one point. That's £500 that has had to be refunded right there! They shouldnt sell as many batches in future. Not being able to fit batches in during the earlier shoots and telling people to come back later, and then still not being able to fit everyone in is ridiculous! Showmasters defiantly could do with making some improvements.

Edited August 4, 2016 by kelamina

[Queen_Sindel]

 

Compared to last year showmasters have improved a lot, thank you!

 

The positives:

• The entry hall - no worries about bad queueing-weather anymore
• Getting the wristband after entering the hall - no waste of time by entering of the event at 9:00
• much space inside the venue
• main stage and fotosessions all on level 1
• the board gaming zone

 

But there are still things to improve for next year.

 

The negatives:

• Diamond Pass Collection: On Thursday I had to wait more than 90 minutes for the collection of my diamond passes. The main reason was to get the big photographies as well on Thursday for not having to carry them on Friday or Saturday. Unfortunately they just gave me the pass, not the goodies. I could have easily collected the pass on Friday then...
• On Saturday morning there were at first no VQ-tickets for Natalie Tena and other GoT actors. As I went back to their tables at about 11 am to join the openQ there wasn't openQ and I got a number of about 400. Hello? Why did I come at 9 am then to get good numbers for all actors and there wasn't VQ-tickets at that time? And no hint there wuld be later. Next time please plan that better in advance.

 

 

Guests can go on VQ at any time if the line gets too Long. It is just impossible to have VQ tickets out for all guests - if the lines stay low lots of Crew would stand around looking bored.

[Queen_Sindel]

I want to share my experience about Saturday. I would have posted sooner but have been waiting since Saturday evening to have my account validated!

 

The good points about this year's LFCC were that due to the layout, I didn't feel as crowded and squashed up against other people like I have at past cons, and also it was defiantly not as hot and stuffy as last year!

 

Right now comes the bad points:

 

I only had tickets for Saturday, which I attended with my sister & her boyfriend. When we arrived we already had our entrance tickets so asked a member of staff which queue we were meant to be in. We were directed to the queue, and shouted at to have our bags open & ready to be checked. I had quite a large backpack with me, and the woman who looked in my bag had the quickest of glances at it, barely even looking inside, and let me through. We then queued to get in, which in all fairness the line was moving pretty quickly. We then found ourselves inside the main area. At no point did any staff check or scan our entrance tickets! We didn't even receive a hand stamp which is unusual. Great security showmasters!!!

 

We went to our first photoshoot, Mads Mikkelsen and the gathering (I say gathering as no one really knew where or how to queue!) was pretty big and our next photoshoot with Laurie Holden was about to start so as we were batch 1 we went straight to that. In & out with no problems. We had a bit of time to kill before our next photo op, and as at the time of buying tickets online I only had enough to buy 2 photo ops plus entrance, I wanted to wait until payday and buy any extra tickets on the day. I've never usually done this before as I always buy online. I found the sales desk and managed to join the one, and also the slowest, queue out of the 4 that had the one lady that didn't seem to have a clue what she was doing! Every time someone in my queue bought a ticket, up the lady got to look at the wall and ask the other staff questions. We ended up queuing for about 45 mins! So anyway, around 15 mins into queuing a man announced that if you were waiting to buy photo op tickets for certain people they had sold out for that day. He read out the list and the two I wanted, Tobin Bell & Rutger Hauer, wasn't read out. I got to the front and bought my tickets, the lady wandered off with them to ask about something, came back and said I was batch 6 at 4:50 for Tobin, and batch 8! and 5:20 for Rutger.

 

My sisters boyfriend then had his photo op with Dolph Lundgren. He was batch 3. We queued up for ages, then they announced that they wouldn't be letting anyone else in, so anyone higher than batch 2 would have to come back at 5:40. The other photoshoot my sisters boyfriend had a ticket for was Famke Janssen. He came out disappointed and said it was a complete let down and felt it was a waste of time and money. He said she was sitting in a chair, with the security shouting at everyone "no touching" he said hello and she barely acknowledged him. All 3 of us then had our photos with Jon Heder and then Tobin Bell, which both went quite quick and smoothly.

 

That brings me to the Rutger Hauer photoshoot. I arrived at the photo area about 10 mins before it was due to start. Already there was a swarm of people gathering around. It wasnt clear where you were meant to wait and I couldn't hear or see the staff member calling out batch numbers. I dont know why they didnt set up lanes on the floor (for example lane 1 for diamond, lane 2 for gold, 3 for batch 1 and so on) like they did at walker stalker con. It was so much easier to work out where you were meant to queue that way. Anyway, as I was batch 8, I waited around at the back, then they made 4 lines for batches 5, 6, 7 & 8. My sisters boyfriend went off for his Dolph photo, had it and came back, and I was still queuing! A staff member walked past and counted 20 people in my queue. A few more people joined the queue just after that. There was a hell of a lot more than 20 people in the queues for the other batches. Then a very rude and abrupt lady came out and said that's it no more photos! People were trying to ask why & what we were supposed to do and she was basically just turning them away and trying to get us to leave. She said "you'll have to come back tomorrow". A large number of people were trying to ask about refunds and she said very bluntly "go and see the sales desk". We rushed to the sales desk and had to queue for ages yet again, so I could get my money back. There was only one person serving and the other members of staff were just sitting around chatting. Another lady did come round and asked if anyone could come back tomorrow, which no one in the queue could which is why we were all queuing for a refund! She then asked who paid online, so a number of people left the queue and she took them aside and explained they'd sort their refunds out a different way. While queuing I heard a couple of different stories as to why the photos were stopped. Someone said it was because Rutger was getting tired and his agent had stopped it, which is fair enough as he's an old man. Another person said it was because they had overrun and they didn't have time to do anymore photos. Which brings me to think why then are showmasters selling 8 batches (10 if you include diamond and gold passes) if they can only manage to get up to batch 4 seen??? They turned away batches 5-8. Remember there was 20 people in my batch at one point. That's £500 that has had to be refunded right there! They shouldnt sell as many batches in future. Not being able to fit batches in during the earlier shoots and telling people to come back later, and then still not being able to fit everyone in is ridiculous! Showmasters defiantly could do with making some improvements.

 

First my apologies. I am the only one confirming registrations at the Moment, and unfortunately I was in Hospital since last week. My mobile doesn't like the admin Panel, no matter how hard I tried.

 

Rutger's shoot did not overrun, that was not the reason why the shoot was stopped. It was stopped because Rutger was not feeling well and had to leave due to that. Unfortunately that is something completely out of anyone's control.

[fanboy67]

From the past three years this was the best by far!

Mainly positives, which I won't say because so many have said so in the posts previously.

 

I do have a few cons though (pun unintended).

1. Diamond pass pick up - Got to the venue around 7:50 Friday morning wanting to make sure I could pick up my 4 passes (Jeremy, Famke, Jack and Mads) and get in without having to stress out about anything. Got into the giant queue as soon as my bags were searched, and when the crew member came round to scan my ticket, I asked where we picked the diamond passes up and she said she hadn't been told yet and she'll let everyone in the queue know before opening. Okay cool. At 08:55 we get an announcement to pick the diamond passes up from the back of the loading hall, at which point we were all packed into the queue so no way to exit the queue to get to them. I said to my girlfriend to go in as she only had a day ticket and I went to pick up my diamond passes once we were all let in. Waited for about 20 minutes behind a queue of people got everything including all the bonuses except the Jack Gleeson poster pic, which someone had told me to come back later in the day for. Okay cool. Went back at 13:00 and they said they still didn't have them and to come back tomorrow. Went back in the next day and picked it up as I went through the gate. But there was a lot of faffing around and put a bad start, to what turned out to be an excellent day.

 

2. The Scottish presenter (don't know name, sorry) but as echoed previously, he wasn't great.

[Raylenth]

The queuing times are unfortunate but understandable I think when everyone is going to the desk for different and sometimes complicated reasons.

 

Remember as well that the majority of staff are volunteers as well so may have needed to double check things they weren't totally sure about.

[Taggle]

Main issues for me were to do with the main stage. Air conditioning was set a little on the cool side ! The lighting for the stage was not that good either, primarily it seemed to comprise of two LED spots, on either side, plus ambient, so it appeared a bit 'murky' up on there at times.

[Raylenth]

Yeah the stage was a bit dark.

[Sydney]

 

Compared to last year showmasters have improved a lot, thank you!

 

The positives:

• The entry hall - no worries about bad queueing-weather anymore
• Getting the wristband after entering the hall - no waste of time by entering of the event at 9:00
• much space inside the venue
• main stage and fotosessions all on level 1
• the board gaming zone

 

But there are still things to improve for next year.

 

The negatives:

• Diamond Pass Collection: On Thursday I had to wait more than 90 minutes for the collection of my diamond passes. The main reason was to get the big photographies as well on Thursday for not having to carry them on Friday or Saturday. Unfortunately they just gave me the pass, not the goodies. I could have easily collected the pass on Friday then...
• On Saturday morning there were at first no VQ-tickets for Natalie Tena and other GoT actors. As I went back to their tables at about 11 am to join the openQ there wasn't openQ and I got a number of about 400. Hello? Why did I come at 9 am then to get good numbers for all actors and there wasn't VQ-tickets at that time? And no hint there wuld be later. Next time please plan that better in advance.

 

 

Natalia and Kristian were on VQ from very first thing Saturday morning. The other GOT Guests (Daniel, Gemma, Anton and Faye) were put onto VQ as soon as we had the tickets and crew members to operate additional VQs as it became clear from 10 minutes after opening that we did not have the physical space to operate an Open Q for them. Every single one of the GOT guests who was VQ'd after the show opened was on Open Q by 4pm and Kristian and Natalia were there by 5pm. It wasn't ideal, but even the people in the queue for Faye were saying that they did not expect her to have such a big line!

[Marie-Loup]

Overall, I had a great week-end. The guests I met were really nice and I had a lot of fun cosplaying for the first time. I thought the event was better organised than last year (except for the gold pass) and will come back again.

 

+

 

Floorplan : It was so much better than last year. There was a lot of space to walk around and it never felt overcrowded, even on the busy Saturday. It was also much easier to have all the photo shoots on the same floor. I hope it stays this way!

 

Security : The world has sadly changed since last year and it was good to have more security and see that the guests and attendees' safety was taken seriously.

 

Guests/vendors : I thought there was a good line up (comics, actors, stalls) and all the persons I met were lovely.

 

Volunteers/crew : Most volunteers and crew members were helpful and friendly (the volunteer and red shirt at Jamie Kennedy's photoshoot on Sunday morning were especially nice and helpful about the actor not showing up).

 

-

 

Gold Pass : That's my main issue with this year's event. Last year, I saw how the Gold Pass cut queueing time for the entry and the photo ops and ensured a reserved seating area at the talks, so I decided to buy one this year. But except for the easy queuing at photo ops, we didn't get anything.

On Friday and Saturday, we were let in at 9 am (with security being very rude to some people asking about the early entry) and our entry was far away from the autographs zone, so the general admissions had it easier than us. I was lucky that on Friday, everybody ran for Jeremy Renner VQ so I could still get a decent VQ for Mads Mikkelsen, but otherwise my gold pass would have been useless. It was rectified on Sunday.

And there was no reserved seating for Gold Passes at talks. I went to the GOT talk and asked a volunteer where the Gold Pass queue was and he said to me there was none. I said to him that it said on the description of the Gold Pass that we had a reserved seating at talks. He answered that there was no queue but reserved seating inside, which was not true. I took some pictures at the end of the talk. It was just chaos to go in this talk anyway. The same happened to my boyfriend and his brother at the Jeremy Renner talk, a red shirt and a guy with a boss shirt said to them that there was no reserved seating for Gold Passes. I had two tickets to see Diamond Passes talks but with these conditions, I decided not to bother.

250£ is a lot of money and I don't feel I received what I paid for.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Marie-Loup

[Legolassie Malfoy]

Awesome LFCC. One of my favorites and I have done them all bar three. Definitely a vast improvement on last years.

The pluses;

* Plenty of space which helped keep it feeling quite comfortable and not too hot. The floor plan was easy to navigate.

* Jeremy Renner.

* Brilliant staff on the things I took part in.

* The lovely security team we got chatting to outside one of the entrances.

* Jeremy Renner.

* Great layout.
* Interesting displays.

* Jeremy Renner.

 

The negatives.

* The talk set up wasn't great. While the talk itself was great (Jeremy's) I did find occasionally the sound quality varied. I also wasn't keen on the lighting setup change part way through the talk. It meant my camera kept losing focus. I think if non-flash photography is going to be allowed then a lighting setup so allow for that.

* Extra help passes not being recognised by staff on the entrance to Jeremy's shoot on the Saturday PM shoot. My friend and I were a little annoyed that the lady working the scanner didn't have a clue what the Extra Help pass was for. It meant that we didn't get to use them as intended. I think it is important that all crew be made aware what the Extra Help pass is and what it can be used for. We were lucky that we went in fairly quickly and had no health issues at the time. Both my friend and I have potentially dangerous health conditions (she is a Type 1 Diabetic and I have a chronic heart condition that has resulted in double heart failure) so we were worried when the lady didn't recognise the pass. Please make sure that staff are fully aware of the pass if they are being offered. Thank you.

Overall, the event was amazing and I got to take away from it some incredible memories.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Legolassie Malfoy

[WayneLee]

LFCC 2016 was my first ever convention and although a little apprehensive before going as going solo, I had a great time met so many nice people, guests and other attendees. Wowed by so many of the cosplay costumes they were simply amazing. I did find a fair bit of confusion with the gold pass as with being my first con unsure about it and what it could do but after getting it found it a life saver with the time saved.

 

I just don't know how everyone does it as my legs were killing afterwards but looking forward to my next.

[whisp]

Just registered to say thanks to all, my 1st convention and absolutely loved it, everyone was so friendly and my daughters loved every minute, my youngest especially pleased with the amount of folk asking for pictures with her, Peter Mayhew made her whole weekend by calling her his little wookie, she still has the smile on her face now. will def be doing more conventions in future