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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 12:12 pm 
Lifer
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Holy Shit! :shock:

I must have arrived after that happened. That was INSANE! :shock: :(


And the videographer is right that a crowd that big could cause a stampede when finally allowed in, and potentially kill someone! :evil:

I mean Canadians in general are a docile bunch but even we have our limits!

Unbelievable!

Yeah as much as seeing the stars has its allure, I think 2010 was my first and last Fan Expo. That was ridiculous!


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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:46 am 
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Watch for an update in Tuesday's Toronto Star

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 2:00 pm 
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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/854623--sci-fi-fans-fume-over-mismanaged-fan-expo

Sci-fi fans fume over mismanaged Fan Expo

Fan Expo organizers, activate your force fields: a revenge of the nerds is brewing.

Hundreds of gamers, superfans and sci-fi geeks are fuming after a mismanaged weekend at Fan Expo Canada, a popular annual convention celebrating pop culture.

Eventgoers say this year’s three-day convention was marred by hours-long lineups. On Saturday afternoon, crowds became so unmanageable organizers had to shut down door sales and temporarily lock out ticket holders, prompting hordes of frustrated fans to start chanting for refunds.

While the Fan Expo has always seen its share of organizational glitches, loyal attendees say this year’s convention was by far the worst.

“This is very hard for me to admit: I wanted to cry in frustration,” said 28-year-old Mike Dodd, who covered Fan Expo for his website, This Week in Geek. “Sure there’s been hiccups previous years but this was a friggin’ joke.

“I’ve never seen people so demoralized. A sad nerd is not a good thing.”

The annual pop culture convention, which attracted just under 60,000 people in 2009, has been rapidly gaining popularity and this year saw record numbers thanks to a star lineup, including comic book creator Stan Lee, Adam West (TV’s Batman) and Star Trek’s William Shatner.

Organizers were “definitely overwhelmed” by this weekend’s crowds, said Aman Gupta, president and CEO of Hobby Star Marketing, which operates Fan Expo.

Gupta said a scheduling conflict forced this year’s convention to move from the south hall of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to the north, which has smaller capacity. Organizers also tried to shorten last year’s lineups by hiring 85 more staff and doubling their ticket entry points. The problem is, the improvements worked a little too well.

“We took last year’s problems, we solved them extremely well to the point where it hurt us in a different area,” Gupta said. “We need to find that happy medium.”

Clara Nigh has attended Fan Expo for four years and preordered a $60 deluxe weekend pass, which was supposed to give her in-and-out privileges. But on Saturday, Fan Expo’s most popular day, Nigh left the convention centre to grab some lunch; when she returned, hundreds of people were waiting outside locked doors.

A security guard told her no one was allowed back in until patrons inside started leaving.

“That line wrapped around the block,” she said.

Sunday’s wait times were better but lineups still snaked around the block, Nigh said. And to make matters worse, she added, staff members were still selling tickets.

“I thought, 'money grab,'” Nigh said. “How can you take people’s money when you can’t guarantee them entry? When you can’t even guarantee people who prepaid months ago?”

Gupta said door sales were shut down for about three hours Saturday when the main level of the convention centre exceeded capacity.

The weekend was just as tough on staff and volunteers, he said, and two of his publicists actually broke down in tears.

“We’re really sorry and we’re going to do absolutely everything we can to fix this problem for next year,” Gupta said.

But for 27-year-old Stephen Bryce, who made a YouTube video railing against the disorganization of this year’s event, nothing will ever get him back to the Fan Expo.

“If someone did lose their temper in that crowd, all hell would’ve broken loose,” he said. “We very much had the impression the people running the convention were flipping us off and laughing at us, saying, ‘Ha ha, we got your money, we can do what we want with you.’ ”

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:17 pm 
Lifer
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Thanks for posting that Sid.

I was told by my friend the exhibitor that last year's Expo was held on a different (lower) level of the Metro Convention centre, and that the room was huge compared to this year's location.

"Scheduling conflict"...

I don't understand how they can have a bigger venue in previous years, and knowing how many pre-paid purchases they have (taking into account all the attendees that plan on "just showing up at the door") this year--- and NOT be able to secure the same sized floor as last year!

I'll admit I don't know how it works- first come first served or you have to "outbid" the other group wanting the same floor- But my thoughts are that they just didn't want to come up with the money for the larger floor, and went with the smaller "cheaper" option.

Which of course was a complete disaster! :evil:

This reminds me of a Creation Convention that took place in (1996?)...

It was a two day Star Trek/ X-Files convention. Star Trek on Saturday, X-Files on Sunday. The Creation organizers predicted a couple of thousand attendees for Star Trek and maybe 500 to 1000 for X-Files.

The complete opposite happened.

Maybe just over 500 people showed up for the Star Trek half of the weekend (I went to the Star Trek half but skipped the X-Files half).

Over 5000 attendees showed up for the X-Files day! This was at a hotel who's main auditorium had a maximum capacity of 3000, which meant that 2000 people who paid for their ticket were shut out of going to see the stars attending! :shock: :evil:

I was told that the dealers room completely sold out of X-Files paraphernalia within the first two hours of opening it's doors- which further infuriated the crowd of loyal X-File fans (yeah... I was an X-Phile back then too).

In the end it was another disaster. After which Creation entertainment swore never to do another convention in Ontario again. They never did!


Getting back to Fan Expo- I "might" give it one more shot (although being a week before Dragon Con I'll probably just skip it)- but I don't think the organizers will have to worry about "record attendance numbers" next year after this year's fiasco! :roll:


PS... is anyone else reading this thread? :lol:

Kevin

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:46 pm 
Duke Bronson
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Creation can suck my Schweddy balls.

Again, all thise further solidifies my decision to never go to this convention.


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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:57 pm 
Grease Monkey
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Yeah I hear you guys, the only saving grace for me this weekend is that I was a volunteer for the masquerade which got me my ticket and the fact that everything that was not directly related to hobbystar was really really cool. Looks like I might have to substitute for Dragon Con next year :P

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 5:42 pm 
Duke Bronson
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You fukn better.


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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 7:02 pm 
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I was reading though the comments before and after the video was linked on the Toronto Star article (nice post Sarge :) ) and some of the comments range from the articulate to the downright (deservedly perhaps) dastardly. One comment in particular was rather profound, it conceded that the employees of Fan Exploit Canada see only the attendees as paycheques and they only responded to the media and not the customers who felt endangered and/or ripped off. What I read was a very good idea, to contact the media sponsors of the event instead to raise concerns... it's all but a pipe dream I guess but like what Kevin and others have said, someone WILL eventually get hurt bad there.

EDIT: Sharing an email I received.

"Contact your credit card companies [if you paid that way] and tell them you did not receive what you paid for and they can charge back the cost."

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 8:14 pm 
"Have you met me?"
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SSgt Burton wrote:
PS... is anyone else reading this thread? :lol:

Kevin

Yeah, I gotta keep tabs on you guys somehow. :mrgreen:

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 8:31 pm 
Grease Monkey
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Sgt Baldwin wrote:
You fukn better.



Like Ficus says, it's spelled Fookin :wink:

we need to chat at some point, maybe sometime during comic con in Montreal?

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 9:51 pm 
Duke Bronson
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Snake Eyes wrote:
Fan Exploit
I fcuking love it. Epic title.
Wookiemart wrote:
we need to chat at some point, maybe sometime during comic con in Montreal?
For you pal, anytime during MTLCC.


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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:37 am 
CORPSMAN-UP!
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THATS IT! IM VOLUNTEERING TO BE SSGTS PERSONAL MEDIC AT DCON 2011...

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:06 pm 
Lifer
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Well I mentioned that I would have some more pics to share (and since I'm not at DC right now I have the time to post 'em :lol: :cry: )- so here they are:


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This is the pic I paid to have sitting in the Batmobile. I had a second picture taken standing beside the car, but the photographer didn't host it online... So to share it here I had to take a "picture of a picture":

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Here's one I found online that I thought was cool- one of the Facehuggers that the FOX booth was handing out (which is only a cardboard cutout on a popsicle stick) hanging from a light.

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And one for Mike. :wink: A couple of police hotties. However they were there to promote another convention and were handing out flyers, so I don't consider them true "fans" (which is also why I didn't bother getting my pic "with" them). Pretty easy on the eyes though. :wink:


And finally another pic I found online that I thought summed up the weekend perfectly! :lol:

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:13 pm 
Duke Bronson
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They charged you? Dressed like that? What a freakin' cash grab!

While at Philly Comic Con, the owner of this one asked me to act in a scene and then get his picture taken with me. :|

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 6:23 pm 
Ready to Rock & Roll!
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The look on that guy's face! :D :lol:

"But Officer, I was only doing 120!" 8)

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 6:37 pm 
Grease Monkey
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hey there boy wonder, when did you get to sit in the driver's seat?

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 8:36 pm 
Ready to Rock & Roll!
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Wookiemart wrote:
hey there boy wonder, when did you get to sit in the driver's seat?

Didn't you get the memo? :wink:

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 9:00 pm 
Grease Monkey
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lol ok i guess you can tell I'm not a big DC reader then :P

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:37 pm 
Ready to Rock & Roll!
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Wookiemart wrote:
lol ok i guess you can tell I'm not a big DC reader then :P

Neither am I. I only heard about that issue on an episode of The Big Bang Theory tonight. :wink:

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:31 am 
Lifer
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Sgt Baldwin wrote:
They charged you? Dressed like that? What a freakin' cash grab!


Yeah... what can I say. :|

Some of these guys are pure businessmen. While I certainly would have appreciated them giving me some free pics (because I actually did draw a wee bit of attention from the crowd: "Hey it's Robin by the Batmobile!")... I can understand that the bottom line is that these guys are there to make a buck.

They did come all the way from Phoenix Arizona! :shock:


Wookiemart wrote:
hey there boy wonder, when did you get to sit in the driver's seat?


:lol:

While I was sitting in the car, I made a couple of jokes that I should actually be sitting in the passenger seat- or that I was finally old enough to have my driver's license. :lol:

It's funny... While DC went with the R.I.P. Batman storyline in 2008- "Grayson" told the story of the death of Batman 4 years earlier. :roll: :lol:

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 9:42 am 
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I seem to recall the Boy Wonder did get to drive the Bat Mobile in a couple of the TV series Eps. Usually what the Caped Crusader was under cover or otherwise engaged/held hostage as Bruce Wayne!

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen is coming to Toronto
PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 7:47 pm 
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SSgt Burton wrote:
I did get to meet Burt Ward (the '66 tv series Robin) that day! He was really pleasent for a star- sometimes you get the standard "smile-handshake-thanks" but Burt made the effort to talk to me for couple of minutes. Really nice of him as he didn't have to go out of his way to make "me" feel comfortable (I tend to get a little tongue tied when getting autographs).


I got to meet him a few years ago in Jersey at a small con there. The guy in front of me got me to take a pic of him & Burt Ward together, and I got a photo signed for my stepdad. A couple minutes after I'd walked away, one of his assistants caught up to me & told me that she'd been sent by Ward to see if I had wanted to get a pic with him too, but didn't get to. Turned out that he'd kinda felt bad that I didn't get to (if I'd wanted to), so he had her find me. :) I politely declined, explaining that I felt it wouldn't be fair to my stepdad for me to get a pic without him in it. She understood & went back to pass that on.

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 Post subject: Re: Lance Henriksen was in Toronto & Hobbystar dropped the b
PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:38 pm 
Bad Boy
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Cool hottie pix, Kev.
Thanks for the mention!

Mike

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