Guests

[Admin]

Just an offshoot on guests.

I was out the front Sunday afternoon and near the novotel saw Christina Cox...she was standing with a guy who looked very much like the actor Peter Mensah, wonder why if he was there with her he wasn't a guest?

You are correct and he did not want to be a guest, he was there on personal business.

Admin

[Admin]

- Why is the 'No Posed Photos' rule in place when guests have no queues, and are in fact very happy to pose (thus making them feel uncomfortable having to refuse requests)?

Most importantly:

- Why do you feel the autograph collecting fans have vastly decreased at Expo's in recent years? Are you aware it is because of things such as 'No Posed Photos', and the uncomfortable experience they are put through when forced to queue in small aisles to areas which appear to have simply been an afterthought so are incredibly small (making, I've no doubt, the guests feel just as uncomfortable)?

Definately Expo to blame on this one. As anyone who did the Gattlestar guests will testify, when you met one guest you was just inching very slowly to the next guest, waiting to meet them, and nothing was really to stop you bar the girl running up and down the queue shouting out "no photos no photos" I was standing right in front of ALESSANDRO JULIANI and i asked him if i could take a photo of him, and he said "sure" so i did (unfortunatley the guy standing behind me asked the same thing and "that" girl came flying down "no photos no photos!"

Sorry can not answer this point, but have in part elsewhere in the thread.

Expo have really pulled out all the stops to make their celebrity guests feel really special, being tucked away in a corner, no room to move or meet fans, not being allowed to make the choice of letting them decide whether or not they wanted to have their photo taken.

Again I have addressed this point elsewhere in the thread.

Will it change? Of course it wont, lessons were not learnt when Amanda Tapping was there, and so long as Expo see events as highly successful, things are not going to change are they? I would sincerly hope they would change. I can remember a time when Expo events were the best. Friendly, nice environment to meet guests, a varied selection of dealers, but i fear those days are long gone. Most of my mates now boycott Expo as they dont like the experience they are put through, i'm waivering after this latest one

We are sorry that you feel this way and also your friends but hopefully you will see that we listen and if possible address problems if we can.

Admin

[Admin]

Most other events that have guests attract the autograph hunter who predominantly comes in, gets an autograph, may be has a quick look around and leaves, this just does not happen at the MCM Expo events, people do not want to leave.

With all due respect, I have to disagree with that. I'm a long term supporter of previous expo events as well as the old sci fi show fairs that used to take place... whilst I fully understand the needs of your business in changing with the times and offering something unique to draw bigger crowds to your shows, I do feel that perhaps you're missing the point somewhat as to what "autograph hunters" actually want from an event.

I'm quite happy to queue for any length of time in order to meet an actor or director of one of my favourite films. I'm quite happy to pay a reasonable fee for the opportunity too. In the past, expo events for me have been very enjoyable and I've had the pleasure of meeting many great guests. From many recent comments posted on this forum though, I've noticed a worrying trend for photography being banned whilst obtaining autographs/meeting the guests.

Again, I fully understand the need for expo to generate as much profit as possible. Whilst you obviously enjoy putting on the events, you are a business after all. The problem is, it seems that unlike past events where attendees where given the choice of paying for an official photo shoot as well as taking their own photos at the time of signings, nowadays the choice has been taken away and it's a case of pay for an official photo or have no photos at all. I think this is a great shame, as for me (and I'm sure, many other attendees) one of the main reasons for coming along to meet the guests is to obtain a photographic memento of the meeting.

Quite often, the actual obtaining of a signature isn't as important. That's not to say I wouldn't buy one or several 10x8's to get signed, I usually end up buying as many as I can afford, but faced with the fact that it's becoming more and more awkward to obtain personal photos at Expo, rather than turn up, obtain autographs and not want to leave, I'm much more likely to not even attend at all.
Of course, I understand that sometimes guests prefer no flash photography when they are signing, but then again, I have always politely asked before taking any photos and have never had a guest refuse to pose with me.

To summarise then, happy to support Expo, pay the same entry fee as everyone else, happy to queue to meet guests and happy to pay for signed items. NOT happy when the choice to purchase an official photo or take my own instead and get to spend more on actual signatures is taken away from me.

At nearly every previous signing event I've attended across the country over the past 10 years I've purchased signed items for a friend of mine who lives in the United States - as he can't attnd in person to get a photograph with the guests, he asks if the guests would mind posing with the item they have signed for him, so he can frame the photo with the item. The guests have always been more than happy to do so, but this is much less likely at Expo now judging from many of the comments from other attendees.

Please give customers the choice... at the end of the day, I think you'll find most autograph collectors are more than happy to come to your events and spend their hard earned cash, but if we are forced to queue all over again and pay an extra fee just to have a photographic memento of the day, quite often it's enough to put us off from coming along in the first place.

I hope you will take my comments on board as they were intended, meant as constructive feedback rather than unreasoned criticism of your events. The NEC Memorabilia show has always been one of the best events for "autograph hunters" in this country over the last decade, primarily due to a great and varied selection of cult tv and horror genre guests at every event and the freedom to take unlimited photographs with all the guests at the signing tables. PLEASE don't take away the option for attendees to take their own photos with guests at the NEC in future now that you've taken over the running of Memorabilia events, if you are planning to offer the official photo shoots there. It will be a devastating blow to autograph collectors if you do.

Best of luck with all of your future events

Grant

Hi Grant

We have no intention of changing the format of MEMORABILIA but enhancing it, so what ever the photo policy is currently for MEMORABILIA will stay the same unless the guest requests otherwise which a number now do.

Admin

[Admin]

Sorry to burst your bubble but I did want to get in, get a photo and auto and leave but I had to queue for over an hour to get in, queue to get the photo done as he was late arriving, wait for my photo (thanks Denise and the team for giving it to me early) and then got to the front of the auto queue and was told to wait 2 hours for the guests to go on stage and then have lunch. I did not want to waste my whole day queueing for this, that and the other. Please just drop the guests as the whole procedure is not working, not enough space, It was hard to work out where to join the auto queue, if you wanted one guest then you had to blank the others as you were forced to walk right past them, etc etc. I did not want to sound insulting but I am not the demographic you are looking for so maybe just concentrate on what makes money and move the guests to more suitable show or convention.

As we have said the guests are part of the event and will continue to be so.

Admin

[Admin]

Does Admin have any replies to the questions they said they'd answer?

Thats what I wanted to know.

Looks like anyone who isn't soley into Manga or Anima, doesn't warrent a reply from Admin, hmmm?

Sometimes I wonder why they bother posting in this thread at all, it doesn't seem like they care (even if they do, which I'm hoping is the case)

We do care and have answered as best we can.

Admin

[Admin]

Judging from the review of the latest Expo, on the Latest Updates page of the Website, the guests are the main reason people come to Expo. Why should Admin bother with the handful of us posting on this thread when the current system of handling signings and photoshoots is attracting thousands of visitors to Expo?

I am obviously missing the point to this posting or is it sheer sarcasm?

Admin

[borgmanjayce]

It's good to know that the organisers of the Expo are planning on making improvements for future Expo's such as adding new events and bringing back old ones and I know that they're catering a lot to the anime and manga fandom which is a good thing, but I was wondering if there was anything more that they could do to cater to that particular market as well as to fans of Japanese pop culture such as in the form of bringing guests from shows like Power Rangers or more manga creators such as CLAMP or Naoko Takeuchi [creator of Sailor Moon] over or if possible, bring over any voice actors/actresses from Japan as it would definitely bring in a lot more visitors if the organisers could make it happen as has already been proven in the form of a event in Paris which takes place every year which is the French equivalent of JapanEx and which manages to get the likes of Halcali and other guests every year.

If you could get the likes of L'Arc-en-Ciel, T.M.Revolution, Halcali, Puffy AmiYumi to make appearances at either the MCM Expo or JapanEX then you'd get even more Japanese pop culture fans wanting to visit than the amount that already do so.

I'm sure next year's JapanEx will be a good event but will it be a good one if it doesn't have any guests from Japan?

[darklamba]

I've been coming to expo for the past 3 years and I have to say every year, the expo has gotten bigger everytime, however it still always feels cramped round the edges. The main central area has been given for space for publicity but, to me, it seems like this is causing the problems with congestion round the edges.

London expo is one of the few expos that I have seen that has a such a mixture of both sci-fi and anime/manga. Although I do go for the anime side, the sci-fi has always weighed up evenly with the anime. I like expo because, in like other anme conventions, you don't have to book up months in advance to get in. I think the organisers do a good job with majority of expo planning.

With regards to guests, I have to agree with some of the people on here, the space allocated to guests has shrunk over the past few years, I do feel they should have a bigger area for them. As well as this, I think The guests should have there own choice for photos, with a sign saying the actors/actresses "have to right to refuse photo's if they choose."

[hiro_nakano_2006]

hey i wanna see Brad and so im coming down on the Saturday 25th, but does anyone know what time he'll be appearing on that day because my trasport is kinda on a limited time scale im afraid

please help a fellow fan?

[SciFiGeek]

Is it time for Expo to ditch the Autograph Guests?

I have been attending Expo for several years. The space devoted to Guests signing is getting less and less each expo. There is no room to queue. One queue to see four guests and when you get to the front, one of them has gone for a break and another to a photo session! Other shows are far better at organising signings. A great deal of the stalls that used to come to Expo which appealed to the Auto and SciFi collector have stopped coming. Expo has been fantastically successful with attracting the Anime and manga fans, I think it should concentrate on this market.

What does everyone else think?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo the MAIN REASON WHY I ATTEND SHOWS IS FOR THE GUESTS, MORE GUESTS THE BETTER AND LESS STALLS. This will be my first time because i always had to work on half term and miss seeing COOOL guests such as the Warehouse13 people