How Things Work

[Too Tall]

MOST IMPORTANT: We want you to have so much fun at the event it is unbelievable! In order to make that happen we have a few things that we would like to explain which will ensure the weekend is the best it can be! Please take the time to read through this sheet! :-)

 

Respecting the Guests: Please remember that the guests are people too. There are to be no requests for posed photos or autographs outside of the photo and autograph sessions!

 

At the parties, please don't crowd the guests! Crowding the guests is honestly the quickest way to get them to leave. That doesn't mean you have to avoid them or not talk to them, just be aware of how many people there are around them already, up to 10 is OK, when it gets to 20 or 30, that’s WAY to many. You need to respect their space. If you feel a group of attendees is hogging a guest please talk to a crew member. The parties are not a place for photos with the guests. They are there to chill and have fun with you.

 

Vouchers: Your registration pack will contain vouchers for your autographs (these autograph vouchers maybe on the back of your convention guide book). Your pack will also contain your photo shoot vouchers if you are a Silver or Gold pass holder or have ordered them in advance online. If you think any of your vouchers are missing please let us know immediately. You will be asked for them when you come to claim your autographs or photo shoots. If you forget to bring these vouchers or lose them, you will not be able to claim your autographs or photo shoots. These vouchers are YOUR responsibility, please treat them as if they are CASH. You WILL NOT be able to claim your photo shoots and autographs without these vouchers.

 

Schedules: You will see schedules up on the walls and in your reg packs. To make it as easy for everyone as possible they include an estimate of when your groups will be called for each guests autograph and photo shoot. Please be aware this is ONLY AN ESTIMATE and you maybe called before or after this time depending on how quickly or slowly a specific guests queue is going.

 

Badges: We don't want to have things spoilt by gate crashers so please make sure you have them on and visible at all times. Especially at the parties.

 

Groups: Everyone is in a group based on their ticket number. You are simply split into groups of 30. Your group number will be on your con badge next to your ticket number. Please take note of your group number as when we're calling people over the weekend for autographs and photo shoots we will be calling you by group number. If you find you and a friend are in different groups, then please just let us know and if possible we will sort it out so you can both go in the same group.

 

Child tickets: The child ticket numbers are not important. They do everything based on their parent/guardians ticket number and group.

 

Entering the main hall for talks: We load the hall once each day at the start of the main hall session i.e. Fri @ 7pm, Sat @ 2pm and Sun @ 2pm, NOT for each talk. This is only an estimate of times, please see the show schedule for the specific times that the main hall events will start.

 

Any disabled people and their carers will go in to the hall first. Then we will fill the hall in ticket number order by calling people in groups of 10. Gold passes have a dedicated area at the front and come in first. Then Silver will enter and have a dedicated area behind the gold section, then Standard will enter.

 

If you have a Guest Encounter that starts at the same time as the first talk, please enter the talk hall FIRST and claim your seat for the rest of the day by leaving something on the chair to show that it is taken.

 

There is to be NO HOLDING OF SEATS for someone else. If you see someone obviously holding a seat please let the crew know. It MAYBE legitimate and the person has gone to a Guest Encounter. But if it is not legitimate then BOTH attendees (including the holder) will be moved to the back.

 

People with lower numbers holding seats for friend(s) will stop and is not fair. If you wish to sit with a friend with a higher ticket number please see below...

 

You do NOT have to enter as soon as you are called. If you have a friend with a higher ticket number you can wait for their number to be called and then go in together. You can stay back, but they can not jump forward.

 

Please be aware that with this system it does mean there is no need to arrive hours before the talks start. Getting to the main hall 20 minutes before is quite early enough. Around 15 minutes before the first talk/main hall event we will start letting people in, so as long as you are here when we call your number you will be in the same row as you would have been if you'd sat outside since the beginning of time!

 

Seating in the main hall: There is to be no moving seats! Once you have taken your seat in the main hall, that will be your seat for the rest of the afternoon. You can come and go as you please, but do leave something on the chair to show that it is taken. Please help your fellow attendees by helping us police this. If someone gets up and someone new comes and sits next to you, please do explain that the seat is taken, and that moving seats is not allowed.

 

Opening ceremony: The organisers will appear on stage and explain what’s happening over the weekend and welcome you to the event. The guests will come on stage for just a few minutes to say a quick hello.

 

Gold Pass drinks reception: For gold pass holders only. There will be 10 tables set out, there will be approx 15 people per table. Once you have gotten your drink please go to a table. Every other table will then have a guest brought to that table. The guest will be at that table for 5 minutes. The guest should have time to speak to everyone in your group. If you find you’re being missed, please do talk to a crew member. Your current guest will then move on to the next table, and you will get a new guest in 5 minutes. Please stay at your table as you will then get to meet each guest as they come around to your table.

 

Talk questions: We have an MC that asks the guests questions and runs the talks. If you want to ask a question at one of the guest talks and have not already submitted your question online then you can fill in a question slip from your reg pack. You can ask for extra slips if you need them. The box to put them in and the extra slips will be at the reg desk.

 

Photos in talks: For the comfort of our guests we only allow flash photography for the first few minutes of the talks. Only non-flash photography will be allowed after these first few minutes.

 

Recording of talks: No filming or sound recordings of the talks are allowed. If you see someone doing so please alert the nearest crew member. Although it may not appear to be hurting anyone, having this uncontrolled material out there and sometimes loaded on to the web can jeopardise these events being allowed to continue. So please do not do it and do report anyone you see doing it. Thank you.

 

Photo shoots and Autographs: You are called for each guest separately in your groups. When your group is actually called the crew will call out your group number. Also the big sheets at the end of the autograph queues, outside the main hall and outside the photo shoots will be updated to let you know your group has been called.

 

Don’t worry, with both photo shoots and autographs you can never miss your turn. Once your group has been called for a guest you can join that guest’s queue any time after that, even wait until Sunday if necessary. But please don't miss the end of the session on Sunday!

 

We've done our best to sort out the schedule so you don't get called to be in two places at once, but ultimately it is impossible to get it 100% right due to different guests going at different speeds. So if you do find yourself being called for both an autograph and a photo shoot at the same time, go to the photo shoot first. If you find yourself being called for 2 photo shoots at the same time, please let the crew in the photo shoots know. They can then make sure the photographer and guest in your second shoot know you are still to come through.

 

Multiple people in a photo shoot: If you want two or more of you in a single shot you must let the photo session crew know in advance. You will likely be asked to wait until the end of the shoot. Please be aware that it is ONE PERSON ONE TICKET. So if you want two of you in a shot you will need TWO tickets. You will receive two photos though.

 

Extra autographs: When your group is called to come down an autograph queue for the first time there is a limit of your one free autograph and two extra autographs. If you require more than 3 autographs from a single guest or buy an extra one autograph after having been down that guests queue, you must wait until the queue is open (i.e. all the groups have been called), before joining the queue a second time to get these extras.

 

Guest Encounters: These are a 45 minute chat (with coffee/tea/biscuits) with 12 attendees and one guest and can be won in one of two ways:

 

If you have a Guest Encounter that starts at the same time as the first talk, please enter the talk hall FIRST and claim your seat for the rest of the day by leaving something on the chair to show that it is taken.

 

1: Raffle tickets: 2 places in each Guest Encounter will be raffled off. Tickets can be bought at the reg desk. The winners will be announced at the same time as the auction winners. There is no limit to the number of tickets you can buy or the number of Encounters or places you can win.

 

2: Auction sheets: 10 places in each Guest Encounter will the auctioned. This will work by bidding sheets being put up on the wall at the event. One sheet for each guest encounter. There is no limit to the number of Encounters you can win. If you have a winning bid on 2 sheets you will win both.

 

Attendees bid by putting their badge number and their bid on the sheet. At a specific time, which will be stated on the sheet (say 1pm), the sheets come down and the highest 10 bids win. But everyone pays the value of the 10th winning bid. All bids are visible to people bidding later. You can come back and up your bid if you want. But if you want to up your bid you have to add a new one to the bottom of the list, DO NOT change or cross out your previous bid. That way we know the order that the bids were placed.

 

So let's say 11 people bid with some people changing their bids, the sheet could look like this…

 

NUMBER - BID

G10----£200

G19----£5 – IGNORED AS REBID BELOW

ST301-£10

G59----£10

S1------£7 – IGNORED AS REBID BELOW

G19----£7 – IGNORED AS REBID BELOW

G19----£10

ST23---£17

ST162-£9 – IGNORED AS REBID BELOW

S75----£31

ST197-£8 – IGNORED AS REBID BELOW

S96----£27

S97----£35

ST162-£20

ST197-£20

S1-----£20

 

So once sorted into bid order (And ignoring previous bids from the same person) they look like this...

 

£200, £35, £31, £27, £20, £20, £20, £17, £10, £10, £10.

 

As the 10th highest bid is £10, all 8 people with a bid higher than £10 win, but only pay £10. Even the person that bid £200. As you will see 3 people have bid £10. But there are only 2 places left. So the first 2 people to bid £10 win. In this case ST301 and G59. This is the reason for re-adding your bid at the bottom and not just changing it. If G19 had just changed their bid on line 5 to £10 it would have appeared they were the first person to have bid £10 (i.e. before both ST301 and G59), where as in fact they were the last person to bid £10.

[touchthesky]

Thanks for that :)

 

Only thing I need to ask though..about the not asking guests for photos apart from at auto/photo sessions.

 

You always see tons of photos of people with guests at parties etc...as long as the guest is happy to take a photo with you is that okay?

[Too Tall]

Firstly a small update announcement:

 

Something new as it has been requested a number of times.

 

Silver pass holders will now have a RESERVED priority seating area in the talks behind the gold section. This will mean only silver pass holders can sit in this area.

[Too Tall]

Thanks for that :)

 

Only thing I need to ask though..about the not asking guests for photos apart from at auto/photo sessions.

 

You always see tons of photos of people with guests at parties etc...as long as the guest is happy to take a photo with you is that okay?

To be honest we as a show would prefer that people didn't and so the official rule is NO. And it's why it's in here.

 

The problem with allowing it is simple. There are usually 600+ people in that party room. Almost all of them would LOVE a picture with the guest. So one person asks and before you know it, we have a queue of 50+ people wanting one. Suddenly it's turned into a photo shoot and the guest is stood there for 30+ minutes just having photos. We see it at every ET event.

 

The issue is that quite reasonably the guests don't want to look bad in front of their fans, so when they are asked, they say yes. This is because most of the time the guests don't realise the consequences of doing this. They say yes to the first 10 people, but then they suddenly realise they are now surrounded by 50+ attendees all wanting a photo. Because they don't want to start saying "no", they leave.

 

It's a shame but asking 95% of the guests for photos is one of the quickest ways of getting that guest to leave. If people didn't ask and just left the guests to have a good time, which does happen at other events we run, then the guests stay, sometimes until 3am.

 

We say it every time, that how long the guests stay is 100% down to the attendees. If the guest is being swamped and constantly asked for photos, they will leave. If they feel relaxed and are having fun, they'll stay.

[dragonsanddaffodils]

Firstly a small update announcement:

 

Something new as it has been requested a number of times.

 

Silver pass holders will now have a RESERVED priority seating area in the talks behind the gold section. This will mean only silver pass holders can sit in this area.

 

Thats a really great idea

 

Charlie had a great time on the dancefloor when he was just left to dance, he had a big crowd around him, but they were dancing, and all ended up in a big circle for Queen Much more fun than scaring them away

[_Chelsea_]

Firstly a small update announcement:

 

Something new as it has been requested a number of times.

 

Silver pass holders will now have a RESERVED priority seating area in the talks behind the gold section. This will mean only silver pass holders can sit in this area.

 

 

I'm dead pleased about this, thanks for sorting this one out :)

 

 

Charlie had a great time on the dancefloor when he was just left to dance, he had a big crowd around him, but they were dancing, and all ended up in a big circle for Queen Much more fun than scaring them away

 

Yes And we all had such good fun dancing with him, it's amazing when the guests aren't scared off.

[Myself205]

Firstly a small update announcement:

 

Something new as it has been requested a number of times.

 

Silver pass holders will now have a RESERVED priority seating area in the talks behind the gold section. This will mean only silver pass holders can sit in this area.

 

 

Good, thanks for listening.

[EdwardDiggory]

Charlie had a great time on the dancefloor when he was just left to dance, he had a big crowd around him, but they were dancing, and all ended up in a big circle for Queen Much more fun than scaring them away

 

How true is this.... Me and my group were dancing to the Glee It's My Life/Confessions mash up somtime near half midnight and I was rocking out a little too enthusiastically. I didn't realise that Charlie was standing next to me and I nearly elbowed him in the back Thankfully he didn't notice as he was too busy having a boogie!

 

I'm also pleased about the Silver Area in the Talks too!

[AngelBew]

Firstly a small update announcement:

 

Something new as it has been requested a number of times.

 

Silver pass holders will now have a RESERVED priority seating area in the talks behind the gold section. This will mean only silver pass holders can sit in this area.

 

 

Thank you for that

[Madjuliette]

Firstly a small update announcement:

 

Something new as it has been requested a number of times.

 

Silver pass holders will now have a RESERVED priority seating area in the talks behind the gold section. This will mean only silver pass holders can sit in this area.

Oooooh lovely - thanks TT

[LucretiaCullen]

thanks for that.

 

One question; re the photographs.

 

Does the one person per 'ticket' rule include babies? Say for example, I wanted my picture taken with a guest and wanted to hold my baby, would I have to buy another ticket for my baby?

I am asking this, as my baby cannot really be photographed without me! Well, he could, but the guests may not want to hold someones baby lol

[dragonsanddaffodils]

thanks for that.

 

One question; re the photographs.

 

Does the one person per 'ticket' rule include babies? Say for example, I wanted my picture taken with a guest and wanted to hold my baby, would I have to buy another ticket for my baby?

I am asking this, as my baby cannot really be photographed without me! Well, he could, but the guests may not want to hold someones baby lol

 

 

I'm sure this question has been asked before? TT, Queen Sindel or David B should be able to help here

[MrsTwilight]

Firstly a small update announcement:

 

Something new as it has been requested a number of times.

 

Silver pass holders will now have a RESERVED priority seating area in the talks behind the gold section. This will mean only silver pass holders can sit in this area.

 

 

I'm dead pleased about this, thanks for sorting this one out :)

 

 

Charlie had a great time on the dancefloor when he was just left to dance, he had a big crowd around him, but they were dancing, and all ended up in a big circle for Queen Much more fun than scaring them away

 

Yes And we all had such good fun dancing with him, it's amazing when the guests aren't scared off.

 

it was great when he could come dance on the saturday night?

[rayray_x]

We've done our best to sort out the schedule so you don't get called to be in two places at once, but ultimately it is impossible to get it 100% right due to different guests going at different speeds. So if you do find yourself being called for both an autograph and a photo shoot at the same time, go to the photo shoot first. If you find yourself being called for 2 photo shoots at the same time, please let the crew in the photo shoots know. They can then make sure the photographer and guest in your second shoot know you are still to come through.

This was HELL at ET3! I had to wait until the very end of Charlie's photoshoot to get my group photo, so I went to get Tinsel's autograph. I was one person away from getting my photo signed when I got a phone call telling me to get to the photoshoots now as they were ready. I nearly had a panic attack, whoever was by the desk at that point crew wise was a darling, as they sent someone to hold my space in the photo queue :) & Tinsel must've saw my panic cos she asked me if I was distressed :') I had to run from the autograph room to the photo room. Not cool!

But that's my own fault, not SM's :')

[MrsTwilight]

We've done our best to sort out the schedule so you don't get called to be in two places at once, but ultimately it is impossible to get it 100% right due to different guests going at different speeds. So if you do find yourself being called for both an autograph and a photo shoot at the same time, go to the photo shoot first. If you find yourself being called for 2 photo shoots at the same time, please let the crew in the photo shoots know. They can then make sure the photographer and guest in your second shoot know you are still to come through.

This was HELL at ET3! I had to wait until the very end of Charlie's photoshoot to get my group photo, so I went to get Tinsel's autograph. I was one person away from getting my photo signed when I got a phone call telling me to get to the photoshoots now as they were ready. I nearly had a panic attack, whoever was by the desk at that point crew wise was a darling, as they sent someone to hold my space in the photo queue :) & Tinsel must've saw my panic cos she asked me if I was distressed :') I had to run from the autograph room to the photo room. Not cool!

But that's my own fault, not SM's :')

 

drunk?

It was alot of rushing around but well worth it!

[rayray_x]

drunk?

It was alot of rushing around but well worth it!

What, am I drunk now?

[MrsTwilight]

drunk?

It was alot of rushing around but well worth it!

What, am I drunk now?

 

no while you was being confused

[rayray_x]

drunk?

It was alot of rushing around but well worth it!

What, am I drunk now?

 

no while you was being confused

Noo it was like 11am!

[Too Tall]

thanks for that.

 

One question; re the photographs.

 

Does the one person per 'ticket' rule include babies? Say for example, I wanted my picture taken with a guest and wanted to hold my baby, would I have to buy another ticket for my baby?

I am asking this, as my baby cannot really be photographed without me! Well, he could, but the guests may not want to hold someones baby lol

No you will not need a ticket for a baby.

[LucretiaCullen]

 

No you will not need a ticket for a baby.

 

 

thanks for clarifying.

[Dellefyne]

THANKS for the reserved seating area for the Silver, it really makes things easier!!!

 

As for the pics during parties, I understand the policy of SM/ME. It can go insane otherwise!

 

Thing I would advise is a group photo during the guest encounters though! Do you think it would be possible?

[gemma85]

THANKS for the reserved seating area for the Silver, it really makes things easier!!!

 

As for the pics during parties, I understand the policy of SM/ME. It can go insane otherwise!

 

Thing I would advise is a group photo during the guest encounters though! Do you think it would be possible?

 

Understand and respect the issue of not taking pics at the parties, there are just too many people and it would be madness!!!

 

But like Dellefyne has said, would it be possible to have a pic at the guest encounters?

There is a much, much smaller number of people at the GE, 10 or so, so it would take all of two mins to just have a quick snap and when they have paid that money to get a GE, it would be a nice little keepsake for those people. Please SM/ME, is this something you would consider?

 

Cheers on the silver seating though, awesome!!!!

[Spectrum]

Ooh, not sure about the logistics but a GE photo is actually a fabulous idea.

[dragonsanddaffodils]

At the moment, TT has said this:

 

Respecting the Guests: Please remember that the guests are people too. There are to be no requests for posed photos or autographs outside of the photo and autograph sessions!

 

 

Even in a guest encounter of say 10 people, it could take up half of the encounter taking photos, and if a group shot was organised, whose camera do you use, or do you use all of them?

 

A tricky one.

 

It is ultimately up to SM/ME when photos are allowed, but at the moment, all photos to be during photo sessions only

Edited March 9, 2010 by Rhianydd

[thewhiteladyofrohan]

at some of the events the guests did let people take pics after the encounter i think it depends on the guest. but i agree it would be nice to have one there too