Suggestions

[Chris C]

I met Jason in a previous smaller convention and he is a really nice bloke - he took the time to get out from behind his desk to give a middle aged female fan who was in a wheelchair a hug (well, done Jason!), though I think this will be harder for him to do in LFCC with the lengthier anticipated queues.

This previous convention was held in mid Spring and growing up in Scotland, I was comfortable wearing a light long sleeved top. Jason's desk at the time was right next to one of the entry doors and even though he was wearing a T-shirt, shirt and a thick leather jacket, he joked to everyone that he found it "freezing" as he grew up in Hawai'i!

So I think he will be more comfortable in the middle of the Olympia in July in a packed hall where a lot of the fans will actually find it uncomfortable with the heat and stuffy air, LOL! (Subtle hint to Showmasters to look into the air conditioning/layout of the signing areas).

Good to see a limit on the Diamond Pass in terms of number of autographs per person. I was at LFCC in July this year and the queue for Christopher Lloyd was unreal. I reckon most of the Diamond Pass holders were dealers as I reckon virtually no VQ ticket holders got to meet Christopher Lloyd judging by the high VQ ticket numbers issued and low VQ ticket numbers called. I mean, I saw one person leaving Christopher Lloyd's table with five identical hover boards signed by him and another with five or so "Back to the Future: Part 2" sunglasses similarly signed. No normal fan would want five or more identical items signed.

Dealers will always be at LFCC and will frustrate normal fans who can only afford a signature or two and making us wait all weekend or miss out but at least a limit on items on the Diamond pass goes a small way to leveling out the playing field a little though I suspect some dealers may send out teams of buyers on multiple Diamond passes to get their target of signed items.

[Queen_Sindel]

The autograph limit of 5 items is in place 99.99 percent of the time when a Virtual Queue system is operating. Very rarely there is an exception or something slips through. But the limit is there.

As for the air condition, there's not much SM can do than crank it up to the maximum. It is a large event in the middle of summer, the ac has its limits.

[Chris C]

Good to hear: I've never used a Diamond Pass before but I reading on the Pamela Anderson thread at allegedly some people were asking her to sign 20+ photos which is something no ordinary person would do.

I appreciate the A-list signing area will get stuffy and I appreciate the work done by the Olympia thus far. May I suggest perhaps trimming the actual queues sizes down a little bit as most of the stuffiness is generated by the mass of people all queuing up to meet the A-listers. So if these queues are trimmed by say, five places per queue and other people waiting e.g. VQ ticket holders encouraged to enjoy the rest of the convention and come back at an allocated time?

Also, can the signs showing the current batch of Diamond pass/VQ ticket holders  being called be made bigger e.g. twice as big? This may also help because if a fan (e.g. myself) can see from far away that I am not going to be called imminently, I don't have to wander up to the sign to read it or ask a steward and that could help ease congestion too.

I also noticed that in spite of the huge size of the convention, there is still empty space available to set up further signing areas - perhaps this can be looked into as well?

Edited December 23, 2017 by Chris C
Grammar correction

[Queen_Sindel]

There's some things that are being looked at, but as I am not in the office I can't comment on details too much. I can guarantee you that the lines won't be cut to 5 slots each though, that is much too short. That would create just masses of people lingering at the ends of the line waiting their turn.

[Raylenth]

34 minutes ago, Chris C said:

I met Jason in a previous smaller convention and he is a really nice bloke - he took the time to get out from behind his desk to give a middle aged female fan who was in a wheelchair a hug (well, done Jason!), though I think this will be harder for him to do in LFCC with the lengthier anticipated queues.

This previous convention was held in mid Spring and growing up in Scotland, I was comfortable wearing a light long sleeved top. Jason's desk at the time was right next to one of the entry doors and even though he was wearing a T-shirt, shirt and a thick leather jacket, he joked to everyone that he found it "freezing" as he grew up in Hawai'i!

So I think he will be more comfortable in the middle of the Olympia in July in a packed hall where a lot of the fans will actually find it uncomfortable with the heat and stuffy air, LOL! (Subtle hint to Showmasters to look into the air conditioning/layout of the signing areas).

Good to see a limit on the Diamond Pass in terms of number of autographs per person. I was at LFCC in July this year and the queue for Christopher Lloyd was unreal. I reckon most of the Diamond Pass holders were dealers as I reckon virtually no VQ ticket holders got to meet Christopher Lloyd judging by the high VQ ticket numbers issued and low VQ ticket numbers called. I mean, I saw one person leaving Christopher Lloyd's table with five identical hover boards signed by him and another with five or so "Back to the Future: Part 2" sunglasses similarly signed. No normal fan would want five or more identical items signed.

Dealers will always be at LFCC and will frustrate normal fans who can only afford a signature or two and making us wait all weekend or miss out but at least a limit on items on the Diamond pass goes a small way to leveling out the playing field a little though I suspect some dealers may send out teams of buyers on multiple Diamond passes to get their target of signed items.

Plus we have always advised anyone who wants to meet Lloyd to invest in the diamond pass - he is elderly and known to be a slow signer.  So it is not unusual for him to not reach the VQ's or only see a very small number.

[Chris C]

Hello Queen Sindel and Raylenth,

Thank you for reading and responding to my suggestions. To clarify, I suggest trimming each queue for a popular guest by five people not reduce it down to five people per queue which I agree would be too short. Rather, if each queue was reduced by five people each, and say there are fifteen guests at the most popular end, that would be 75 people less milling around and a lot less stuffiness and more comfortable environment for everyone - guests and fans. There would still be a healthy queue size for each guest and if the stewards make a few more batch calls to make up for the slightly trimmed queue size, then the same number of people can get to see their favourite actor and leave the convention without feeling like they've been caught in the rush hour of the London Underground for 8 hours in a row as I felt in July trying to meet the actors I wanted to meet.

I appreciate the recommendation about Diamond Passes for Christopher Lloyd. I don't want to turn the Jason Momoa thread to the Christopher Lloyd thread part 2, Winter Edition but by the grace of God and a large amount of waiting over the entire weekend, I did meet Mr. Lloyd eventually and he was a wonderful gentleman.

What I didn't like was some young lad managed to sneak in to the front of the Lloyd queue after the steward told him to go elsewhere, the fan sounded Spanish so he wasn't too sure what he was supposed to do while the steward went to the end of the Lloyd queue to sort something else out for a long time. The other fan in front of me (not a steward) said that the Spanish guy could stand next to him. I could have started off an argument there and then but it wasn't worth it as it could have got ugly with all the waiting masses however, I politely request that there is a steward at all times at the queue by the cash/voucher/photo print table of any very popular guest to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen as Diamond Pass or not, those who have queued legitimately should be allowed their fair place in the queue.

As for Diamond Passes in general, it is a choice for each person. If I only wanted to only meet Christopher Lloyd and nobody else and had I known I can pay for additional autographs per Diamond Pass (I used to think one Diamond Pass meant only one autograph plus the photo shoot and talk ticket, having never bought one before) - I was getting two items signed on behalf of a friend in Scotland who couldn't travel to London himself - then I would have bought one for Christopher Lloyd.

As it turned out, LFCC was amazing with many other guests I wanted to meet as well as Mr. Lloyd so it is boils down to the limit of money I am willing to spend to meet them all and get their autographs hence I didn't buy a Diamond Pass for Mr. Lloyd.

Anyway, back to Jason: top bloke, hope it all goes well for him and his fans in summer.

 

Edited December 22, 2017 by Chris C
Grammar correction

[Raylenth]

37 minutes ago, Chris C said:

Hello Queen Sindel and Raylenth,

Thank you for reading and responding to my suggestions. To clarify, I suggest trimming each queue for a popular guest by five people not reduce it down to five people per queue which I agree would be too short. Rather, if each queue was reduced by five people each, and say there are fifteen guests at the most popular end, that would be 75 people less milling around and a lot less stuffiness and more comfortable environment for everyone - guests and fans. There would still be a healthy queue size for each guest and if the stewards make a few more batch calls to make up for the slightly trimmed queue size, then the same number of people can get to see their favourite actor and leave the convention without feeling like they've been caught in the rush hour of the London Underground for 8 hours in a row as I felt in July trying to meet the actors I wanted to meet.

I appreciate the recommendation about Diamond Passes for Christopher Lloyd. I don't want to turn the Jason Momoa thread to the Christopher Lloyd thread part 2, Winter Edition but by the grace of God and a large amount of waiting over the entire weekend, I did meet Mr. Lloyd eventually and he was a wonderful gentleman.

What I didn't like was some young lad managed to sneak in to the front of the Lloyd queue after the steward told him to go elsewhere, the fan sounded Spanish so he wasn't too sure what he was supposed to do while the steward went to the end of the Lloyd queue to sort something else out for a long time. The other fan in front of me (not a steward) said that the Spanish guy could stand next to him. I could have started off an argument there and then but it wasn't worth it as it could have got ugly with all the waiting masses however, I politely request that there is a steward at all times at the queue by the cash/voucher/photo print table of any very popular guest to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen as Diamond Pass or not, those who have queued legitimately should be allowed their fair place in the queue.

As for Diamond Passes in general, it is a choice for each person. If I only wanted to only meet Christopher Lloyd and nobody else and had I known I can pay for additional autographs per Diamond Pass (I used to think one Diamond Pass meant only one autograph plus the photo shoot and talk ticket, having never bought one before) - I was getting two items signed on behalf of a friend in Scotland who couldn't travel to London himself - then I would have bought one for Christopher Lloyd.

As it turned out, LFCC was amazing with many other guests I wanted to meet as well as Mr. Lloyd so it is boils down to the limit of money I am willing to spend to meet them all and get their autographs hence I didn't buy a Diamond Pass for Mr. Lloyd.

Anyway, back to Jason: top bloke, hope it all goes well for him and his fans in summer.

 

Maybe Queen can move this to a separate thread out of Jasons?  If you do ever have any questions about how passes work please do ask Chris.  You can buy extra auto's in addition to most diamond passes up to the usual limit unless othewise specified, the number listed in the pass are just what you get included..  There have been a couple of diamonds where its been the auto's included in the pass only and no more.

Re the stewards, I know what you mean and it's a good idea but there is the issue of numbers - most events, not just Showmasters struggle to have the numbers of stewards they are expecting anyway as many who volunteers simply don't show up so they may not have enough to have extra on the lines unfortunately.

 Queue management is a delicate thing, you need enough in it to get as many people through as possible but not so many that you have an issue when the guest has to leave for an activity/break.  Cutting 5 people off the line limit really won't make a single difference to the temperature, people hang around in the area to see the guests and because they are hoping their number will be called soon, or waiting for a friend in line, so if you cut the number in the line those people will still be there, just waiting 5 feet behind the line waiting to join it. Believe me, many people will not vacate the area unfortunately even when asked to do so by the crew.  They will stay despite instruction to leave and there's not much that can be done about it.

Edited December 22, 2017 by Raylenth

[Chris C]

Hi again Raylenth,

Thank you again for considering my suggestions. I'm glad that I can give my two pence to making LFCC a bit more comfortable for all who attend.

I also went to Birmingham Collectormania this year and the set up there if you aren't aware was in a very large, very lengthy rectangular shaped part of Birmingham NEC. The guests were sat along virtually the entire long side of the rectangle - the actors on one side and sports stars on the other. The queues for the biggest stars at their tables were a bit shorter than LFCC (with the Diamond/VQ system of course in operation like London) which is where I suppose I got my suggestion from. The long table set up and slightly shorter queues made Collectormania very comfortable and enjoyable.

So my further suggestion would be to try the Collectormania guest set up: a big long signing area (which I think spreads out the crowd more) instead of the cluster set up as used in the last two LFCCs for the biggest names  which results in masses of people huddling together for the reasons you and I have discussed.

Edited December 22, 2017 by Chris C
Grammar correction

[Queen_Sindel]

Posts moved from Jason Momoa guest suggestions topic.

[fissijo]

I'm sure I have suggested this in the past (and if I haven't, shame on me because I think it every time I am at an event) but to further on Chris C's suggestion of larger VQ ticket number signs - it would be really useful to have a couple of big whiteboards at the entrances to the signing areas with a list of guests and what their queue is like. It would take maybe one crew member to walk round periodically (or be updated by others) and keep it roughly up to date. I think something like this would cut down a lot of people milling around the signing areas.

[Queen_Sindel]

They used to have whiteboards. I'm honestly not sure why they have been removed - I guess the events got be too big with several areas and it got too confusing. With confusing I mean only the guests of the respective areas being on the boards (simply because there are so many now) and then the crew members get mobbed because guest A isn't on the list. With over 100 guests for LFACC now you'd need really big boards or a really small handwriting, and the latter would make it even worse.

It's definitely more than a one person job to keep them updated. I think they used to have 2 teams of 2 even in the MK Shopping Center, that's the last time I recall hearing numbers. And it certainly didn't help that attendees used to scribble on the boards, even to the point of changing the numbers.

[Kurdamoni]

I have a suggestion; keep up the good work! I love LFCC 

[bobd_uk]

Suggestion that should be quite easy to implement!  Make the boards at the end of the queues with the VQ numbers on bigger.  At their current size people usually come up to 5-10m from it to see what it says (which is, of course, pretty much on top of the queue).  If it were bigger, people could see it from further away and stay away from the queue!

[taz101]

Hi Guys

Last year was my first Con anywhere and I really enjoyed it. Got Michael Madsen for my Kill Bill sword. 

Wondered if there's any chance of another Kill Bill guest, potentially Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Uma Thurman, Vivica A Fox? Or have any of these attended before?

Edited January 13, 2018 by taz101

[Kurdamoni]

5 hours ago, taz101 said:

Hi Guys

Last year was my first Con anywhere and I really enjoyed it. Got Michael Madsen for my Kill Bill sword. 

Wondered if there's any chance of another Kill Bill guest, potentially Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Uma Thurman, Vivica A Fox? Or have any of these attended before?

I think you better post this in the ‘guest suggestion’ thread  

[mpharris]

11 hours ago, taz101 said:

Hi Guys

Last year was my first Con anywhere and I really enjoyed it. Got Michael Madsen for my Kill Bill sword. 

Wondered if there's any chance of another Kill Bill guest, potentially Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Uma Thurman, Vivica A Fox? Or have any of these attended before?

Vivica was at LFCC in 2011 (and she was lovely).