The Queues ￢_￢

[Coadey]

It was a big surprise to see how early people needed to queue for stage events, and how long some of those were, especially Pawpets.  The Hinkley staff were great at bringing around drinks and snacks, but I think (especially for newcomers) the 45-60 minute+ queues were a bit much.

I really hope the queues can be improved at the new venue, especially as the con gets bigger.  Early seating? Sponsor seating? It would also be helpful to set some expectations in the conbook and adjust the schedule leading up to big events.

[Panthras]

Hi Coadey, Pan from the Pawpet team here, we do apologise for the delayed start to this year's show. As well as we try to avoid them, technical difficulties will no doubt still happen, we hope that the wait beforehand didn't dampen your enjoyment of the show itself and we hope you enjoyed what we put on for you this year

[Fairlight]

I was surprised that people started queuing for the Pawpet show as early as 60 minutes before the scheduled start of the show...

I'm not 100% sure at the moment what to do about it... sponsor priority is one thing, maybe... or get early access for a charity donation... the problem is that everyone wants a good seat near the front so they can see the stage properly. One thing we'll definitely have next year is live projection on the side screens, so hopefully it won't make as much of a difference where you sit, as the screens should be well visible from everywhere in the room.

[Azzy]

One thing I thought (probably while queuing :p) was that the way the queue was laid out probably made it feel worse than it actually was. Stretching down a long thin corridor (and then outside) looks and feels much longer than, say, a snake. Obviously this was the only option at the Hinckley, and may well be the only option at the next hotel, but if it's possible to (e.g.) have the queue snaking, or even forming in a (very) nearby room rather than a corridor, then it might make things at least appear slightly better. (For what it's worth, the queuing was kinda in line with what I was expecting from other (non-Confuzzled) conventions, although the frequency with which main stage events started late was a little frustrating.)

I'm not 100% sure at the moment what to do about it... sponsor priority is one thing, maybe... or get early access for a charity donation...

You're probably aware of this sort of thing, but one thing I've seen done (mainly at big Comic cons) involves being able to buy 'tickets' for the front row for £££, and then tickets for rows 2 to 5 (or whatever) for slightly fewer £££, with these going on sale online before the convention. The utility of such an approach does depend on the room setup a bit though (and whether you can spare the staff to marshall people around), but it's a fairly simple approach that has the potential to relieve at least some of the queuing pressure (as well as raise a bit of extra dosh).

[RizzoRattie]

It was a big surprise to see how early people needed to queue for stage events, and how long some of those were, especially Pawpets.  The Hinkley staff were great at bringing around drinks and snacks, but I think (especially for newcomers) the 45-60 minute+ queues were a bit much.

I really hope the queues can be improved at the new venue, especially as the con gets bigger.  Early seating? Sponsor seating? It would also be helpful to set some expectations in the conbook and adjust the schedule leading up to big events.

Hi Coadey,

I do believe that we only had the 1 event this year that ran significantly behind schedule.  Everything else was very much on time, or started only 10 minutes late, which by convention standards, this is outstanding time tabling.  Given the limited seating availability in our main stage and numbers in the venue (safely seating only 400 in Paris suite, but having 800+ attendees) we could not implement an early come in and sit down policy as it would be unfair to non sponsor attendees.  This issue will be eradicated at the next venue as the main stage can accomodate upto 2000 people.

We ourselves cannot control how long people queue for.  On more than one occassion, people started to queue before we even put our barriers up.  Its their right to do so, and if they are willing to be patient to ensure they get the best seats, then unfortunately, they will always dictate when the queuing begins.  We coudl try and dispearse them, but they will only come back and queue again.  The wait time is regretable, but in the grand scehem of things, and a vetran of attending other conventions, I can assure you 45 minutes is a small wait.  I once waited 4.5 hours just to get registered for a US con, so it puts it a bit into perspective for you the kinda of queues we are referring too, and year on year we are always looking for ways to further improve our wait times.

The Hinckely staff were brialliant and their idea to have mobile sales stans really helped a lot. It ensured that people had drinks whilst they waited in what was sometimes a bit of a muggy corridor.

We appreciate your gripe with it, but also thank you for understanding and patience you endured to queue for some of the shows.  As said, we take everything onboard and will look to further improve any processes we can for next year.

Many thanks,

Rizzo

[JessLyra]

I dont think all events should be sponsers only. Had a few friends who were queued up for the main stage at the front of the queue only to get pushed back more by sponsers first.
If you are going to do this could there be more notice for "early sponsers" for that event?

[Codewolf]

It was a big surprise to see how early people needed to queue for stage events, and how long some of those were, especially Pawpets.  The Hinkley staff were great at bringing around drinks and snacks, but I think (especially for newcomers) the 45-60 minute+ queues were a bit much.

I really hope the queues can be improved at the new venue, especially as the con gets bigger.  Early seating? Sponsor seating? It would also be helpful to set some expectations in the conbook and adjust the schedule leading up to big events.

Hi Coadey,
    As TD Crowd control, queues and the like were my responsibility but even myself and my team were caught out with how early some people were queueing, for a couple of events we even had to tell people to go away and come back later, one of these was the pawpet show.

People had originally started queueing al least an hour before the scheduled start time for the pawpet show and this was something we could not have foreseen, we had to be especially fast in getting the props in to the stage from the storage room due to this, the show itself did have a sponsors only queue, but as we get larger so does this queue.

Ideally people should start queueing no more than 15 minutes before the start of an event, this gives myself and my team a chance to organise separate queues should they be needed, it also means that you are not queueing for ridiculous lengths of time.

- Codewolf

[ferret]

I saw people queueing for half an hour for the SECOND day opening of dealer's den.  'Nuff said, really.

Queuing and letting people in to rooms at the right time is always a problem and will always be something to work on every year.  We just have to keep trying to make it better.  When we have no queues for any event ever, and people can go in and sit where they like without inconveniencing anyone else, then we can stop working on this. :D

Puppets pre-show queueing outside and lateness -  we know this year was a bad year for this, and we all felt terrible about it - and people queueing way way before the start of the event does make it worse.  I know that there are a few interesting ideas on how to make the pre-show experience better next year.  We'll see how those pan out.

[MorbiusMonster]

I did suggest at the Feedback Panel that next year, big events in the main hall are released on LiveStream, filmed from the back of the main stage for people who might not be able to sit in the main hall. Although this might not occur next year, thanks to the generous size of the venue, I still think it would be valid for events scheduled in the evening so that people can enjoy them from the comfort of their room, from the bar or from a nearby restaurant with WiFi.

-MM

[Bezel]

I know that there are a few interesting ideas on how to make the pre-show experience better next year.  We'll see how those pan out.

I believe the plan is to have Codewolf juggling flaming torches whilst Dhary dances a jig dressed as a pirate, complete with wooden leg and eyepatch...

...or maybe I'll be missing my spleen by next year 

[suburbanfox]

I did suggest at the Feedback Panel that next year, big events in the main hall are released on LiveStream, filmed from the back of the main stage for people who might not be able to sit in the main hall. Although this might not occur next year, thanks to the generous size of the venue, I still think it would be valid for events scheduled in the evening so that people can enjoy them from the comfort of their room, from the bar or from a nearby restaurant with WiFi.

I'd love to see this happen -- even if it's just a case of "you can get to it from the hotel WiFi by going to this address" or "crappy camcordery video will be on Youtube by midnight" (of course, with the fantastic all-singing-all-dancing filmed-by-the-Official-Lensmen-and-edited-to-perfection one to follow). Being able to watch the streams wouldn't really replace the atmosphere of actually being there, but for those of us who just want to see what happens (like me), it's fine.

[Rorschfox]

If you want queues, you should have seen the monsters at Anthrocon!!

The sponsors' queue for the dealers' den was already about a hundred deep by the time I joined it - and that was an hour before the den opened! By the time it did open, I reckon it was over 500 deep...

(I didn't see the regular queue for the den, but I dread to think how long that one was!!)

Now, ConFuzzled isn't quite as big as Anthrocon (yet!), so the queues aren't quite that vast. But it does say one thing: there are a lot of events that a lot of folks want to go to!