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Post by jonathan85 on Jun 4, 2011 16:48:42 GMT
Hey,
I booked my AA ticket a couple of weeks ago, but I've heard absolutely nothing since then - no confirmation e-mails or anything like that? The cash has def been taken from my account, but I've not even had anything through saying I've got a ticket for the event. Has anyone had any similar experiences this year? As the weeks go by,I'm starting to wonder....
Should point out I've never had any trouble before, so don't know what's happened this time!
Cheers,
Jonathan
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Post by legios on Jun 4, 2011 21:09:23 GMT
I made a booking a few weeks ago and hadn't heard anything either. I didn't think anything of it until you mentioned it actually.
Probably nothing to worry about, but if you are concerned they do have a "contact us" link on the website and you could drop them a line by means of that.
Karl
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 5, 2011 12:42:15 GMT
I booked mine ages back and waitied a while or so for the confirmation stuff to arrive. will check time spans.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2011 14:03:56 GMT
I booked mine early in the year and only got my confirmation a couple weeks ago, They're just doing the confirmation emails in large batches to save time on their part I think. I'd probably not get worried until like the end of june/mid july maybe
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2011 14:29:10 GMT
With regards to confirmations... and all other work to do with the convention this year to be honest, I can best sum things up with a post I made on another forum which may help to explain some of the reasons behind delays this year. Please remember that the post was targetted at the other forum so it may make references that will seem a little... out of place but I thought copying the whole text seemed better...
* * *
I thought I'd sign up here and start to try to post to address some points, concerns and comments made about Auto Assembly 2011 by some members here and to clarify a few issues regarding this year's convention.
One thing I do want to say to start off with is that there have been a lot of changes in my life personally since Auto Assembly 2010. This has had an incredible impact on myself and a majr knock-on effect on my wife, daughter and as result, Auto Assembly itself and to be frank, the convention has had to take a back seat to real life. Without going into detail, just a few of the things I am currently dealing with are:-
* Coping with losing my job in August 2010 and trying to find a new job
* Day to day financial problems associated with the above
* A major court case that has been ongoing for over 12 months
* An impending second court case against my former employer
* Repeated serious illness of my father
* Preparing for a house move (which fell through a few weeks ago)
* Attempting to recover from a prolonged period of clinical depression
To name but a few.
While many of you reading this may think, "What's this got to do with me?", what most people who attend Auto Assembly don't appreciate is that running this convention is done in my spare time and is an unpaid role and in fact, is something I invest a lot of time and money into. The stresses of Auto Assembly 2009 and workload involved almost destroyed my marriage, and I have spent literally thousands of pounds over the years on ensuring that the convention continues.
On to Auto Assembly 2011 and to be honest, as I said, this has had to take a back seat to real life. For several months I simply did not have the time to update the website, the banner or ensure that booking confirmations were sent out as quickly as I would have liked. It is a very time-consuming process, especially with the amount of work that is involved in running the convention. My role includes working with sponsors, dealers, guests, venues, Transformers licence holders, overseeing the budget, processing all bookings and orders, managing the entire committee, marketing and promoting the convention and much, much more. And that doesn't include all the work undertaken by the rest of the team.
At the same time, I am trying to organise initial plans, the venue and guests for Auto Assembly 2012 and deal with some major issues that are arising with the Holiday Inn for Auto Assembly 2011 which will affect most attendees. We are not only relocating for 2012 because we need a bigger and better venue, but because the Holiday Inn is no longer suitable by our standards.
We are also finding things increasingly frustrating when we see people publicly criticise us or even make abusive or threatening remarks against us. As I have said, we run these events for no personal gain whatsoever. We have incredibly ambitious plans for the long term and want to give fans the best convention possible and often receive little or no thanks for what we do, but when people act like this towards us, we feel deflated to the point where we do question whether or not we want to continue at all.
With my personal issues over the last 8 months I have asked myself this question repeatedly but I am STILL commited to running Auto Assembly and we are making solid plans for at least the next five years but we want your support. We know that 2011 has not been the smoothest of rides for us, but as you can see, we have had more than our share of issues behind the scenes as well.
I will say now that Auto Assembly 2011 is going to be an incredible event and - as you will see from the Youtube channel and our regular updates - we haven't finished yet with what we are planning and if any of you want to get involved as volunteers, sponsors or anything else to help make this our best convention ever then we'd love to hear from you. Just stay tuned and get ready for a knockout event...
Until 2012 when we blow it out of the water!
Simon
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Post by legios on Jun 6, 2011 21:42:40 GMT
Simon, thank you chipping in there.
As I said, I figured that it was probably because of all the stuff I was aware that you had on your plate - and lets face it, you have had a very stressful year and no-one could really be surprised if you have higher priority things on your mind that AA quite a bit of the time. As I said previously, I didn't figure it was anything to worry about - I wasn't planning on giving it any more thought until a lot nearer the time.
I hope that you don't feel that anyone around here has been threatening you - I'd like to think that we are all aware and appreciative of the enormous amount of work that you and the rest of the team do to make AA happen. My tangential involvement in one that never actually got off the ground many years ago has taught me how many plates have to be spun behind the scenes to make them happen at all.
Karl
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2011 11:49:31 GMT
It's no-one on here, but there have been some people who have been pretty abusive towards myself and even to the point of threatening to come along to the convention and cause trouble.
To be honest, that's the sort of attitude I don't want or expect from people and it has made me wonder at times whether I should continue running the convention. At the end of the day though, I am incredibly passionate about running the convention, and whether it will make me unpopular amongst certain groups of fans or small circles of people or not, I will take steps to issue lifetime bans to people if they come along with the intention of causing trouble.
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Post by legios on Jun 7, 2011 12:01:22 GMT
I am incredibly passionate about running the convention, and whether it will make me unpopular amongst certain groups of fans or small circles of people or not, I will take steps to issue lifetime bans to people if they come along with the intention of causing trouble. Seems like a fair reaction to me. Folk just out to make trouble is something that any convention can do without. Spoils the social atmosphere and ruins things for folks who are looking to enjoy the event. Excluding folks who prove themselves unduly disruptive is arguably any convention committee's right and, arguably, responsibility. Karl |
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primenova
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Post by primenova on Jun 7, 2011 13:49:05 GMT
Everyone here on the Hub have the upmost respect for the excellent work Simon & The AA team do for the amazing conventions we have every year. Should have my payment for this years heading to Simon soon, hopefully & making sure i paid for 2012 at this years event. We can book the hotel room later on direct don't we? [that's the convention hotel room to get that poster]
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 7, 2011 19:18:07 GMT
Anyone who wants to pay a lot of money to come to a convention to 'make trouble' is a fool. Though I doubt anyone inclined to make threats would have the nerves to turn up anyway.
-Ralph
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Post by jonathan85 on Jun 11, 2011 12:33:15 GMT
Oh heck, what have I started? ;-)
In all seriousness, absolutely no criticism was meant in my original post - I was more just wanting to make sure that it wasn't just me. Absolutely huge respect for the hard work you put into AA, and anyone who intends to make trouble at AA is just an idiot.
Cheers for coming on here to clear things up,
Jonathan
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Post by legios on Jun 12, 2011 15:49:40 GMT
Well, my confirmation has duly arrived so I am all ticketed up. Now to put on my logistical officer hat and wrangle meself up some travel and accommodation.
Karl
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Post by Bogatan on Jun 16, 2011 18:23:11 GMT
Just going to hijack this thread with my own issue. Does anyone know if the holiday inn has a convention rate?
The only mention I can find of the hotel on the AA website is to say where the convention is happening. If it does a link would be helpful, if it doesn't or its sold out it would be nice to find that information quickly and easily.
Edit:
Buried in the FAQ I found this which still isn't very helpful as it doesn't say how to get the reduced rate or if it's still available.
What sort of hotel accommodation is there in Birmingham?
The Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre has over 250 bedrooms, which will be available for Auto Assembly attendees at reduced rates. Should we use all of these, the Holliday Inn has several "sister" hotels in the City Centre so we should be able to have these rates negotiated at these as well. Alternatively, there are plenty of other hotels within a few minutes walk of the Holiday Inn.
Alternatively, for details of other hotels, contact Birmingham's Tourist Information centre on 0121 202 5099.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 16, 2011 19:25:59 GMT
Have you had your confirmation email for the convention? The reduced rate booking code is in there plus the phone number to ring which the Kaptain says has been diverting to voice mail all week.
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Post by Bogatan on Jun 16, 2011 19:37:37 GMT
Ahh that explains it. I was trying to book it all at the same time. I don't like booking these things without knowing the full cost.
So what I actually need to know is the convention rate still available and if so how much is it and for what days as I want to be there Thursday night.
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