2013 Calgary Comic Expo Thread ! 3 days of Nerdom!

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

If you are going to pay someone $100k or more to come for a weekend, i don't think a room at the palliser is going overboard. Especially when it's off season right now.

Wait, Wil Wheaton gets $100K+ to come for a weekend?

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by FlamesAllTheWay

- Nathan Fillion went around and personally thanked a whole bunch of volunteers by name and shook their hands behind the scenes.

This really doesn't surprise me. After attending his spotlight, I could tell that Nathan Fillion really wanted to be there. He seems genuinely happy to come see his fans is thankful to them for his success. Just another reason why I think he's such an awesome actor/person. I hope he comes back.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Garret Wang stayed at the drop - in.

[Julio]

Originally Posted by polak

Doesn't have to be the Palliser. Lot's of big names stay at the Hyatt, Delta and Sheraton...etc.

I'd bet good money that they stayed at the Sheraton.

If they were here on vacation or personal time then yeah, I could see them staying at one of the really pricey ones but if they're being put up by someone else then it's almost certian that they got a decent room at one of the higher end, but still not ridiculous chains.

Remember as well that there are a few hotels that sponsor the Expo. Two that I can think of are the Palliser and Hotel Arts. Blocks of rooms for guests are almost certainly a huge part of their support of the show.

[MrMastodonFarm]

http://flipon.tv/event/calgary-expo-2013/

Calgary Expo 2013
April 26th - April 28th, 2013
Thank you for supporting the Calgary Expo 2013 on FlipOn.tv Watch ARCHIVED video from the event here.

All the panels, from all three days. 15 bucks to access them all but they do have select free ones. Great if you missed anything.

[IgnitedSoul]

^ There's also a code inside the program guide for $5 off, and a volunteer was handing out papers advertising flipon that also had a code to save $5. Those codes were CALGARY13X5 and CALGARY13TIX5 respectively. Not sure if it makes a difference which you use.

[Mazrim]

Kudos to the Expo staff for a much smoother experience than last year! The only hiccup I experienced was the messed up line formation they had to get into the Wil Wheaton panel. They had everyone walking in circles around the Palamino rooms (fire regulations, apparently) and it was like musical chairs. If you were lucky, you were in the group they divided up and got to sit down first. Us in the second group got whatever was left, some people got screwed. There was essentially two lines to get in, and it was very confusing and they admitted to not being sure what to do.

Otherwise I had a great time and enjoyed everything I went to. Bought some nice things from vendors I haven't seen elsewhere and got to meet some cool people. Sitting in the North hallway of the BMO centre let me see some of the guests walking by too.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Wait, Wil Wheaton gets $100K+ to come for a weekend?

Why are you saying his name so funny?

[blankall]

Originally Posted by polak

Well color me shocked. The expo must be making more money then I thought.

Every time I've seen someone tweet something about their hotel in Calgary it's usually one of the three I mentioned.

Not sure how having large expenses equates to making money.

All that shows me is that actors are fussy people who demand luxuries.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by blankall

Not sure how having large expenses equates to making money.

All that shows me is that actors are fussy people who demand luxuries.

I highly doubt any of those actors knows Calgary hotels. it's just that word of mouth and good experience helps in recruiting more guests for future shows.

[MrMastodonFarm]

For those wondering about line issues on Sunday.

An open letter to all Calgary Expo Attendees;

Well another episode of the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo has come and gone. As a whole, I am happy with how this year has come together from an operational standpoint. However, while reviewing social media I have found that there are many people who were not happy with the line situation that occurred on Sunday morning for admissions. I would like to take a moment to address this situation specifically and hopefully clear up any misunderstandings or confusion that the queue process created for you as an attendee.

There are many of you who believe that there were changes made between Saturday morning and Sunday morning admissions, and from an outside perspective that may have looked to be so, but that is actually not the case at all. There were absolutely no changes made for the queue system. What did change was the capacity in those admissions lines of people who had already completed the badge exchange process. Going into Sunday morning, there were less then 4,000 ticket holders that had yet to do badge exchange at the Big Four building, as opposed to roughly 10,000 on Saturday. The other 16,000 attendees had already completed this process and arrived on site as badge holders at the onset of Sunday. Combine that fact with the fact that there were a huge amount of you that chose to arrive early to line up on Sunday, thus increasing the length of the admissions lines dramatically from what they were on either Friday or Saturday.

During consultations with Stampede, Calgary Fire Department, and Calgary Police Services, it was decided to do a controlled and staggered admissions into the show halls to ensure the safety of you as an attendee, and also to ensure we did not run into any capacity issue that could not be easily and quickly addressed and controlled. To do so, we brought limited groups into the halls through two main controlled entrances, followed by a quick assessment of crowd movement before we brought the next group in. We would not then, nor will we in the future, open all of the doors of the BMO to free flow traffic until such a point as the admissions lines have entered into the facility safely.

The fact of the matter is that we were able to admit 20,000 attendees into the BMO halls in 1 hour and 23 minutes. That is a staggering amount of people to flow into the limited space in such a short time, and we were able to accomplish this in what I feel was a safe and effective manner for all parties involved. While I regret that some of you may feel that we did not perform to your satisfaction, in the end we must do what we feel is best for all people attending the event. If we were to allow free flow traffic from the onset of the show, we would risk running into a situation where areas could not support the capacity of entering attendees and be forced to enter into lock down situations that could potentially last far longer then the original controlled admission formula we chose to use.

With that said, we also realize that there are always opportunities to make improvements to all areas of the show, and the admissions process is certainly no exception. I personally have noted many aspects of the process that can be tightened up on that could potentially shorten your wait time to enter the event, and during team debriefs I am sure we will come up with other new and innovative ideas that will help the overall process. Myself as the Expo's Operations Manager, and the entire Show Team as a whole, are committed to doing whatever we can to ensure that your experience at the Calgary Expo is both rewarding and safe, and you have my word that I shall explore avenues that will ensure that we are able to greatly improve your experience each and every year. We are already underway planning for the 2014 Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and hope that you will trust that we have your satisfaction and safety firmly in mind as we undertake any and all changes to the show's operational procedures.

Sincerely,
Shayne Henkelman
Operations and Logistics Manager
Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo

[Nyah]

I had to miss it this year. Does anyone know a website that has a good photo gallery of some of the costumes?

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Nyah

I had to miss it this year. Does anyone know a website that has a good photo gallery of some of the costumes?

This is the best one I know of.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...0670969&type=1

[Nyah]

Those are awesome! Thanks!

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by SebC

This is the best one I know of.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...0670969&type=1

haha, best costume:

[Dion]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

haha, best costume:

I like these gals

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Dion

I like these gals

I know those gals.

[Brannigans Law]

You could legit beat off to some of those pics in that FB page. If one was so inclined that is.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

You could legit beat off to some of those pics in that FB page. If one was so inclined that is.

And... I'm already starting to regret sharing that link. Even though it's a public album.

[cDnStealth]

That one dude's N7 armor is amazing. Every year I attend I leave with the feeling that I need to get myself some Stormtrooper armor.