Hi Everyone After having the time to talk to all heads of crew I feel it is time to talk to you about the weekend and what we feel worked, whats needs to be improved and to clear up some of the issues over the weekend. To start with, it was the busiest LFCC ever and even though we took on a another hall, the venue was full on Saturday by around 12 noon. For this years event we did expect bigger crowds so we took on more crew, we went from 250 trained crew to 350 and for the first time ever we also took on volunteers that helped with things like holding doors open and running, etc, so the total was around 380. As well as crew we took on more space in the venue, the Brompton Hall which was a very large space that we had used many years ago to run a entire EMS show in. This extra hall space would help with capacity and also give us a bigger space to put on a Super stage so more people can get into the talks, free or paid, as some of these over the last few years have run out of seats. These two aspects we felt would cope with the EXPECTED demand from the fans over the weekend. We also kept an eye on the pre-sold ticket sales as this is a good guide to what to expect, numbers wise. Every year the numbers attending LFCC go up, sometimes by 10% and in the past couple of years by 20% to 30%, and we try to predict this and after each event we rearrange how the following year will need to expand to cope with the growth. We all work hard at these events - every one of us from newbie crew to all the heads of each department, and if we do not get our predictions right its very hard work indeed on us all. So we really try to get the numbers right. This year LFCC we estimated growth of 40% in one weekend, and thats a lot of people to service and look after and provide what they want and expect out of the weekend. We are all there to help deliver what they want out of the weekend, but some things are out of our control and things in life do change. At that point we are the ones that have to explain why things have changed, make the right choice for the majority of attendees and get the best out of a changing situation so that we can fix it to the best of our ability. We do this every day at LFCC and we are on top of as much of it as we can. The crowds outside of the venue were very large this year and also there seemed to be many people that felt it was a good idea to wait outside the main doors for the standard entrance to be let in. Some of these people were there from 9.30am and this did not help when we needed to get people in lines ready for the opening. This did continue to create issues for our crew up to 11am, as some standard ticket holders would not move on down to where the Transformers vehicles were parked even when asked several times. This did not help us keep the entrance clear so it was not easy for people to see what doors to go to or where to line up. After the doors are all open and everyone in the lines are in, it wasnt an issue but in the morning it would have been so much easier if some of these people did do as we asked and moved down the to the truck so we could have made our job a little easier. Next time we will have more crew to move people along and communicate this, we had around 25 out there in total and more will be needed next time. I do have some points I feel need to be understood and clarified. The Early pre-paid ticket holders line all gained entrance by 10.05am on Saturday The Standard pre-paid ticket holders line all gained entrance by 12.15pm on Saturday All Golds and Silvers had a dedicated Entrance and were let in first as normal. The entrance to the gates at Earls Court are manned by their staff and in the past we have been kept waiting in our car as the other door is opened first. This is not something we have control over and we have tried in the past to get them to open at the same time, but as we are not the only people in the building they will not agree to this happening. We stopped selling pre-sold Standard tickets way before the cut off time for the online shop. This was so that we did not over sell the event. We did not go over our limit in advance, and we had spare capacity on the day on Saturday for several thousand tickets, however these were used up by many more Early entry walk ups on the morning than was expected. On Sunday there was never a time where the health and safety officers and ourselves felt there was an issue with capacity and it seemed to be about right all day so there was no need to stop walk-ins In the future we feel it has come to a point where we are not going to sell on-the-day Walk-in tickets for the Saturday, as this day is now at a point where its going to be at capacity very early. All tickets structures will be looked at fully for next years event as we are at a point where we are now getting more and more bigger guests offered to us and we will have this type of demand at this event every year. So the way forward will be to first look at pre-selling Saturday only to start with and to keep an eye on if we need to pre sell Sunday also. We are also looking at exclusive ticket packages for bigger A-list guests, where this would be a dedicated ticket that would guarantee you get to meet this A-list guest and guarantee getting the photo op and signing all in the same ticket. These would be a stand alone ticket with all this included. General admission people would get to buy pre-sold photo ops and autographs at the show (subject to availability) but the people who bought the exclusive packages would get priority first. we want to have these big A list guest at our events, but we do not want people upset when they just turn up and cannot get everything they want, so we feel this maybe the way forward. Stan Lees manager and his crew had the last word over what Stan does and will not do. This is subject to change on the day as we are all human and sometimes things change we get tired or we get ill. These things mean that you can agree a contact and have it all worked out but at the end of the day if you are just not up to it you cannot make yourself or make someone do something they they really should not be doing. So we respect that his team have last call on what activities Stan does or does not do. We all want Stan to be meeting fans for many years to come and we would not do anything endanger that. Stan was flown in on Thursday morning so he could rest up and relax ready for the Friday night signing and this allowed him to be ready. Something we were told not to say was that he was going to film something on Thursday or Friday and when it came clear it was Thursday, Stan told his people why not do a signing in the morning that way he could get to see more people at his last European show, we worked out how this could happen and told you all of this extra possibility of meeting this legend. The Friday pre show signing worked very well and I know many of you got to see him there. This made our day much longer and my crew worked longer hours to make this happen as well as opening up the venue to the public early. You may not be aware that this did have a big cost, but it was right for the fans attending so some of you could see him before and would take the pressure off the other days. When talking to Stans people I was told that the photo shots were a good way for him to interact with more people as it is a little faster than a signing session and also its easier on Stan so we renegotiated with Stans people to take part in more photo ops. Stan told me himself that the photo ops we had at LFCC - AMAZING thats the most efficient he has ever seen anything like that and it was really well run. At the same time I had the only moment really with him over the day as I was busy running the show but I asked him, so you created all this in a way what dose that feel Like? His response to me was he never thought it would get this big where so many people would care so much to travel to one place its just astounding , that for me made my day. On the note of photo ops, all that took place over the weekend were managed well and efficiently and more were taken than ever before even though there was many clashes as there was so many guests. It seems to have been looked after well with the crew helping people to be in the right queues so they got all of them and did not have to miss any of them which was quite a amazing thing, as i say we are here to help. We have read about one of two things regarding touching guests. At the end of the day our crew pass on whats been asked from the guests themselves and in this case it was communicated that no touching was requested. This can simply be if a guest shakes the hand of everyone in a photo op then they may not be able to sign for 4 hours afterwards. Just think about that. Also most guests are polite and may not want to say no to someone when a hand is offered out, so simply we ask that no touching of the guest please. I think that everyone can understand this if they think about it. Signing sessions with Stan on Friday went well with numbers will over what was expected of him, he was also enjoying the experience and was in full form. Saturday again was all within what we had expected and his numbers again were good and above what we felt he would get through during the day, but by the end of the day he was quite tired and it was catching up with him. He did not feel that he could stand and talk to everyone in the meet and greet but he wanted to do it and not let his fans down that had come to meet him. As he was not coming back again it would be their only chance so we suggested that he sat on the stage and talked to them from there in one go and then many would hear what he had to say not just two of three and he could be sitting down and not have to stand. He liked that idea and was happy with the new plan and he could still give everyone who was there special attention. Sunday was a different story. the day started off when I was informed very late from Stans team that he was going to arrive late. Stan had a bad night and was very tired. I told them that we could work around this without any issue and if we needed to change photo ops times around we could do this or whatever we needed to make it easy on Stan. So they just keep me up to date on what is happening and what time they thought he would be in - at that time I was told they thought it would be around a hour later than it should have been. At 10.30 his team told me he was going to be there very soon, and at 11.11 he was in the building. He had a very bad night and he wanted to take it easy, so his team and ourselves agreed to take it a little slower and whenever he wanted to stop for a break we would stop. This was the plan but then halfway through the day I think the tiredness just hit him and hit him hard and he just did not have the energy to keep going. At that time we called a stop to the signing so he could have a bigger rest, at that point his management and ourselves could see talking to Stan he was very tired, but he did not want to let anyone down and he wanted to know if all the gold and silver pass people had been seen and if there was still the talk that fans came for and the photo ops. So we said we would work out a plan. We agreed to stop the signings and we needed to tell the fans this ASAP. We also agreed to hold on making a decision on if we could go ahead with the photo ops or not and to just see how he felt near the time. If we took some time out for Stan to rest he would be able to do the talk he felt and he so wanted to do that so we put this new plan into action . I informed everyone personally who was in line about this change of events and that he would not be signing for the people that had been queueing, I also informed as many gold and silver pass holders we could find that we were trying to arrange a signing for them but it was 50/50 at this time but we would try. He wanted to do this for them and we tried to pass over how disappointed Stan was himself as he so wanted to meet as many of you as he could but his team and ourselves felt that we had to protect him as he just wanted to please as many fans as he could but it was not right to let me push himself that much so we went with this plan. He rested and got ready to go on stage and just before going on stage he said he was up for signing for the last of the silvers and golds that he had not met yet and he was up for the photo ops and was feeling better. He apologised for letting anyone down which we all know is just not the case, he went on to the stage and was full on and a trooper and also did all the photo ops for everyone there. I hope that helps you understand what was going on behind the scenes now, and at this point I wish to say sorry for anyone that did not get what they wanted from the event or Stan. This is his last ever time here in the UK and we worked very hard to make this happen, everything that was arranged and planned out for Stan to do over the weekend was approved by Stan and his team every step of the way , at no time would we or his team allow Stan to over work himself, but Stan does want to please people and that was something we needed to look out for and look after. We were all there this weekend to give everyone a rare last chance to meet this legend , we know some of you are not happy and did not get everything you wanted, but we did manage to give many people this last chance. If you feel that we have not acted correctly then do please contact us via email and we will respond to you personally. I personally would also like to say thank you to the many people that came up to me and thanked me when I had informed them that the signings had stopped for definite, several of you said thank you for being honest and just telling it as it was. Its something I try to do with everyone and I to respect all that attend our events. There were some hard decisions to take but they needed to be taken and we did what was best for the many and the one (i.e Stan Lee.) Now to some other aspects of the show The air con was working on all days 100% although some people have said that we only had it on Sunday when it was the fact that it rained in the morning cooling down the hall and the roof and the air helping to keep it a little cooler for longer. At no point was there any issues with anyone reporting getting hurt due to the amount of people attending the event. I did deal with one person who trod on a piece of glass which some thoughtless person had left outside, but which i dealt with. Apart from Stan being tired he loved being at the event and really enjoyed meeting all the fans and he was pleased to have been able to say goodbye to his European fans in such a big way. We had more comic guests at the event than anywhere in the UK who signed for FREE. It was the first book zone which was just quite amazing and made a lot of people happy with over 60 authors, again signing for FREE. More TV/Film guests than at any European con, over 100 of them with more photo ops than ever before and more talks than ever before with lots also being FREE One last important point: THE DUSTY BATMOBILE :-) Could I tell you that this was created to look like it had just come out of Acme Chemicals? Or I could just tell you we took the clean up and prep crew off this task so we could look after the Stan Lee pre show signing as it was a last minute thing we just did not have the crew to do both tasks. Unfortunately these volunteers do not grow on trees and finding good people at short notice it hard. So it ended up with having a dusty Batmobile at the show. for that I am sorry also. We at Showmasters do listen and we do not make the same mistakes twice. we will take on board all your points and fix the things that need fixing and improving like we do every year. New things have to start somewhere and be improved till they are running well , just like we did with our photo ops, and VQ systems. In the end we will get it running to the standards you expect from us. On a personal note we only ever want to run the best events that are safe, fun and something to look back on and be proud of. this weekend I did not get to see much of the event as it was so busy and things needed attention so there was little time to stand back and see what we in the office have been working towards for the last year, but it will all have been worth it if we have made the majority of people happy over the weekend. If not we are truly sorry and we will work hard to get it right for everyone in the future. Thank you for taking the time to read all this and i hope you see we do care and do want to get it right for you all. Yours sincerely Jason
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 12:55:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015