Again for those who have not read recent blog entry made by yours truly I attended the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo April 27-29 of this year. It was a sell out event, in fact the amount of people attending created a problem for organizers and attendees. The following is a letter I wrote down the Sunday morning of the event after having had many issues with the event Saturday. I will be forwarding a copy of this letter to the organizers in the hopes they will take and use my suggestions. Despite all the problems I did enjoy the event and i plan on attending next year again. But anyway here is my letter written Sunday April 29th at about 7am:
Suggestions to Organizers of the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo for the 2013 Event:
1: Over sold? based on the venue capacity and how many people bought 3-day passes you should not over sell this event. Do the math. Why are people with 3-day passes being turned away? They should get priority!
2: To better organize photo ops why not have people book their preferred time to get a photo when they purchase their tiks on-line. Then if there is available room for a specific time only enough tiks for that space should be sold the day of the photo. Those who bought their tiks in advance should get priority for the photo. (I bought a Patrick Stewart photo op months ago and yet I initially was turned away after being in line for 2 hours. How is that fair?)
3: This event is proving to be more and more popular, and is no doubt making a ton of money. So why not extend the days and hours to accommodate the people. For example:
Thursday 3pm-9pm
Friday 10am-8pm
Saturday 10am-8pm
Sunday 10am-6pm
Have Friday be a full day too. I'm sure the money made would more than pay for the facility rental.
4: Again getting back to the photo ops: why not hire more photographers and have more areas open to them. Photo-ops are a gold mine and make lots of money so why not have more and make it faster. Have at least 6separate photo op areas. And again have attendees book their preferred time in advance so not to over crowd, and that way you don't have to turn anyone away. Pre-booking preferred times will also control line-ups, and no one will ask for refunds. This way attendees won't be wasting their time.
5: Summer time is better. We got lucky this year and the weather cooperated but this should definitely be a Summer event, the June 2011 event was excellent for weather and having to stand outside. Also in the summer you can take advantage of warmer temperatures by having events outdoors. Fence off an area (a parking lot for example) rent a tent and have certain events outdoors, thus helping to control the population indoors.
Thank you for your time,
Chris Lockhart
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