Whitby Jo's response
Ok I promised to do this.
For the people not registered on the forum.
This is a post from Martin OldGoth on the responses from Whitby Jo to improve the Spa event and get people through the door
Here we go then, I've been through the various threads where people have made suggestions and sent them to Jo as a list of statements in no particular order, if I've missed something then let me know and I'll see about that too.
Here's a breakdown of what she's said.
1. Move the stalls so there can be DJ's downstairs, possibly using the theatre for housing them instead or the Leisure centre/some other venue, or if they were in the theatre they could trade in the evening.
The Spa traders would cause mutiny if I tried to move them totally out of the venue and I have a loyalty to them. The majority have been with me well over 10 years. So using the trader hall is out of the question but we are looking to use the Theatre. But the Theatre and Main Hall are treated as two seperate venues, with two seperate capacities (as are the main hall and the trader hall) and people may not necessairily be able to pass freely between one and the other. So for instance if everyone wanted to go into the main hall to see the headline band, this wouldnt be possible. We're waiting to discuss this with the fire officer as it seems a bit ridiculous.
2. Use the Theatre for something else (burlesque, gothic bellydancing etc)
We are looking to use the theatre in the evenings in the near future for
burlesque / costume ball type activities.
3. Have things going on in the foyer (suggestions included hair extensions, make up, even a tattooist)
Great idea about hair extensions etc in the foyer in the evenings and its a possibility. But in the evenings we're only allowed 5 stalls by the glass windows in the foyer (its in our contract), bearing in mind each band usually has merchandise, we dont have much space to play with. Tattooists must have access to hot & cold running water so we couldnt do that, but maybe Henna tattoos or similar would be possible.
4. Tickets sold either from just one outlet, or via the website, and sent out on a date that's announced when you buy it.
Due to reasons of cashflow and how/when we pay some people. Its impossible to have just one outlet for tickets. Yes we can announce a date when tickets will be posted when ppl buy tickets. Will speak to Axy about getting it put on the actual confirmation email ppl receive when they buy a ticket on the site. Also our ticket sellers get a big benefit out of selling tickets. It brings customers into their shop, they get a cut of each ticket sale and some of them use the ticket revenue to boost their stock orders pre Whitby, as they dont have to pay me until the end of the weekend.
5. People in charge of certain things, such as the stalls and then they can deal with the questions.
We do have people in charge of things. Each venue has a person in charge of the stalls and The Spa has a WGW Duty Manager employed from 9am - 2am Friday and Saturday. Someone to answer emails - i think this is pretty much sorted now. I can get over 200 legitimate emails a day dont forget I have 150 traders as well as
1000 ticket holders, bands , crew, guest list, band and media queries. I try
to answer most emails within a couple of days and ive said here before if
ppl mark their email 'URGENT' it will get treated as such.
6. More advertising / maybe competitions in goth mags to win tickets in exchange for an advert
Only this week we've been talking to Goth Magazines about an advertising exchange and yes we definately could run competitions offering free tickets.
7. Day tickets being available as a last minute thing if weekend tickets weren't sold out by for instance, one month before the event.
We have only had one WGW that didnt sell out in recent times which was April 08 and we did sell day tickets.
8. More merch/souvenirs.
We would love to do more merch but just havent had the cashflow to do so in recent times. The majority of places have a minumum order which makes it really expensive. It is something we'll do as soon as we can.
9. Make venue look better/cover the windows somehow and dim the lights in the foyer
We've spoken to The Spa about the bright lighting in the foyer. For Health and Safety reasons the lights cant be dimmed and we cant put anything on the windows walls unless they are fire retardant to a specific standard which makes it very expensive (more council red tape). We couldnt afford a professional company to help with this one But if we have anyone on the forum who has experience of this kind of thing and could help us create an atmosphere on a budget, please let us know.
10. More time for DJ's and annoucne them
There will be more time for DJ's at future events and until very recently we've advertised the DJ's on the promo material. But we can do that again.
11. More seats in the main hall, or at least tables for people to lurk round and be able to put their bags/drinks on.
There are around 500 seats put into the main hall. How many ppl are of the opinion we need more? As Spa Management always tell us no-one sits on most of em! We can have more if its a general concensus that we need more. More tables, yep point noted we can do that.
12. More effort put into the Myspace, changing the 'top friends' to reflect the event more, with band and DJ profiles that are current to the coming event (a lot of people didn't even know there was one)
My space was looked after by Mel and more recently Pete W so for obvious reasons isnt up to date. But having said that it was never meant to be a comprehensive guide to the event thats what the website is for. I personally just felt the event should have a my space presence.
13. The ticket should cover the Met as well so you could go to one one night and the other the next if you wanted to
Yes this is possible, but will only make the financial situation of WGW worse as we'd still only be allowed to sell 1000 tickets (the capacity of the Spa) in case everyone wanted to be in one venue at one time. So 100% of the Met overheads would have to come out of the profit of the Spa event. At the moment, it isnt financially viable. But we could look to offer say a half price Met ticket to Spa ticket holders.
14. Design a WGW banner for people to add to Myspace/LJ
Will speak to Axy about the design of a WGW banner ad.
15. A program rather than itinery, makes more of a souvenir.
We've talked with the Goth footy people about working together but something like this would need advertising to cover the printing costs and again this is a ££££ problem .We did approach all our traders to ask them if they were interested in placing an ad in a programme and we had very little response (and we didnt even mention
a price).
16. Spa staff (rubbish bar staff, incompetent doormen)
yep 100 per cent agree! And i feed it back to them ALL the time but frankly they dont give a monkeys chuff and tell me all that other customers are happy (yeah right) So my answer to this, in fact Im begging you guys. COMPLAIN. Send an email to the spa, BACK ME UP. Im happy to give the Spa Managements email details to anyone who'd like it.
17. Smoking area seperate from entrance to make it easy to count people coming in if they don't have to go out the same way and not get counted out..
This has been resolved too. Punters will now go down the cloakroom corridor and out of the theatre door for their nicotine fix. NOT through the main door.
18. Start earlier to allow more time for DJ's or more bands
Can we have a show of hands as to how many ppl would actually come earlier if we opened the doors earlier? Its certainly something we can look at. 6pm would probably be the earliest due to soundchecks.
(can we maybe start a poll on a public section of the forum?)
19. WGW guides.. badged people that are newb friendly and can be approached by people needing info
There are ALWAYS ppl on the info stall from 9am - 2am each day who are very friendly and experienced.
20. Keep the foyer clear.
Keep the foyer clear of what exactly?People? Elephants?
21. Give flyers to stalls that are booked so they can send them out with orders prior to the event as free advertising
Yep we can give flyers to stalls who book with us.
22. Better organisation, someone to answer emails
Are people volunteering for this and to be guides??
23. Sponsorship from companies that are kind of related
We've spoken to 50 or so companies re sponsorship in the last 12 months and have drawn a blank. Drinks companies will offer us (or rather the Spa) drinks promotions but not actual sponsorship. Most didnt even give us the courtesy of a reply.
24. A Shuttle service from Scarborough or another nearby place with a lot of accomadation so people could stay there if they couldn't get into Whitby
The way fuel prices are going I dont think anyone could afford it! Its a 50 mile round trip. That's a big 'shuttle'.. We have put several appeals in the Gazette for ppl who have any accom in the area surrounding Whitby to contact us.
25. Sell the film that that guy (Matthew I presume) shoots every WGW
One of the reasons we are allowed to film many of the WGW bands is that we state the tapes are for personal use only - cos i never get to see the bands! If we were to want to sell them there would be all sorts of copyright issues
________________________________________________
and that's it I think:
As for 13 - I've pointed out that people meant more like WGT, but I think what Jo means is that the spa will only allow a 1000 tickets to be sold that allow people into that venue, and the council would not allow more (despite the fact that they count people), but I'll get clarification.. and update that later...
_________________
www.thirteen13.co.uk
For the people not registered on the forum.
This is a post from Martin OldGoth on the responses from Whitby Jo to improve the Spa event and get people through the door
Here we go then, I've been through the various threads where people have made suggestions and sent them to Jo as a list of statements in no particular order, if I've missed something then let me know and I'll see about that too.
Here's a breakdown of what she's said.
1. Move the stalls so there can be DJ's downstairs, possibly using the theatre for housing them instead or the Leisure centre/some other venue, or if they were in the theatre they could trade in the evening.
The Spa traders would cause mutiny if I tried to move them totally out of the venue and I have a loyalty to them. The majority have been with me well over 10 years. So using the trader hall is out of the question but we are looking to use the Theatre. But the Theatre and Main Hall are treated as two seperate venues, with two seperate capacities (as are the main hall and the trader hall) and people may not necessairily be able to pass freely between one and the other. So for instance if everyone wanted to go into the main hall to see the headline band, this wouldnt be possible. We're waiting to discuss this with the fire officer as it seems a bit ridiculous.
2. Use the Theatre for something else (burlesque, gothic bellydancing etc)
We are looking to use the theatre in the evenings in the near future for
burlesque / costume ball type activities.
3. Have things going on in the foyer (suggestions included hair extensions, make up, even a tattooist)
Great idea about hair extensions etc in the foyer in the evenings and its a possibility. But in the evenings we're only allowed 5 stalls by the glass windows in the foyer (its in our contract), bearing in mind each band usually has merchandise, we dont have much space to play with. Tattooists must have access to hot & cold running water so we couldnt do that, but maybe Henna tattoos or similar would be possible.
4. Tickets sold either from just one outlet, or via the website, and sent out on a date that's announced when you buy it.
Due to reasons of cashflow and how/when we pay some people. Its impossible to have just one outlet for tickets. Yes we can announce a date when tickets will be posted when ppl buy tickets. Will speak to Axy about getting it put on the actual confirmation email ppl receive when they buy a ticket on the site. Also our ticket sellers get a big benefit out of selling tickets. It brings customers into their shop, they get a cut of each ticket sale and some of them use the ticket revenue to boost their stock orders pre Whitby, as they dont have to pay me until the end of the weekend.
5. People in charge of certain things, such as the stalls and then they can deal with the questions.
We do have people in charge of things. Each venue has a person in charge of the stalls and The Spa has a WGW Duty Manager employed from 9am - 2am Friday and Saturday. Someone to answer emails - i think this is pretty much sorted now. I can get over 200 legitimate emails a day dont forget I have 150 traders as well as
1000 ticket holders, bands , crew, guest list, band and media queries. I try
to answer most emails within a couple of days and ive said here before if
ppl mark their email 'URGENT' it will get treated as such.
6. More advertising / maybe competitions in goth mags to win tickets in exchange for an advert
Only this week we've been talking to Goth Magazines about an advertising exchange and yes we definately could run competitions offering free tickets.
7. Day tickets being available as a last minute thing if weekend tickets weren't sold out by for instance, one month before the event.
We have only had one WGW that didnt sell out in recent times which was April 08 and we did sell day tickets.
8. More merch/souvenirs.
We would love to do more merch but just havent had the cashflow to do so in recent times. The majority of places have a minumum order which makes it really expensive. It is something we'll do as soon as we can.
9. Make venue look better/cover the windows somehow and dim the lights in the foyer
We've spoken to The Spa about the bright lighting in the foyer. For Health and Safety reasons the lights cant be dimmed and we cant put anything on the windows walls unless they are fire retardant to a specific standard which makes it very expensive (more council red tape). We couldnt afford a professional company to help with this one But if we have anyone on the forum who has experience of this kind of thing and could help us create an atmosphere on a budget, please let us know.
10. More time for DJ's and annoucne them
There will be more time for DJ's at future events and until very recently we've advertised the DJ's on the promo material. But we can do that again.
11. More seats in the main hall, or at least tables for people to lurk round and be able to put their bags/drinks on.
There are around 500 seats put into the main hall. How many ppl are of the opinion we need more? As Spa Management always tell us no-one sits on most of em! We can have more if its a general concensus that we need more. More tables, yep point noted we can do that.
12. More effort put into the Myspace, changing the 'top friends' to reflect the event more, with band and DJ profiles that are current to the coming event (a lot of people didn't even know there was one)
My space was looked after by Mel and more recently Pete W so for obvious reasons isnt up to date. But having said that it was never meant to be a comprehensive guide to the event thats what the website is for. I personally just felt the event should have a my space presence.
13. The ticket should cover the Met as well so you could go to one one night and the other the next if you wanted to
Yes this is possible, but will only make the financial situation of WGW worse as we'd still only be allowed to sell 1000 tickets (the capacity of the Spa) in case everyone wanted to be in one venue at one time. So 100% of the Met overheads would have to come out of the profit of the Spa event. At the moment, it isnt financially viable. But we could look to offer say a half price Met ticket to Spa ticket holders.
14. Design a WGW banner for people to add to Myspace/LJ
Will speak to Axy about the design of a WGW banner ad.
15. A program rather than itinery, makes more of a souvenir.
We've talked with the Goth footy people about working together but something like this would need advertising to cover the printing costs and again this is a ££££ problem .We did approach all our traders to ask them if they were interested in placing an ad in a programme and we had very little response (and we didnt even mention
a price).
16. Spa staff (rubbish bar staff, incompetent doormen)
yep 100 per cent agree! And i feed it back to them ALL the time but frankly they dont give a monkeys chuff and tell me all that other customers are happy (yeah right) So my answer to this, in fact Im begging you guys. COMPLAIN. Send an email to the spa, BACK ME UP. Im happy to give the Spa Managements email details to anyone who'd like it.
17. Smoking area seperate from entrance to make it easy to count people coming in if they don't have to go out the same way and not get counted out..
This has been resolved too. Punters will now go down the cloakroom corridor and out of the theatre door for their nicotine fix. NOT through the main door.
18. Start earlier to allow more time for DJ's or more bands
Can we have a show of hands as to how many ppl would actually come earlier if we opened the doors earlier? Its certainly something we can look at. 6pm would probably be the earliest due to soundchecks.
(can we maybe start a poll on a public section of the forum?)
19. WGW guides.. badged people that are newb friendly and can be approached by people needing info
There are ALWAYS ppl on the info stall from 9am - 2am each day who are very friendly and experienced.
20. Keep the foyer clear.
Keep the foyer clear of what exactly?People? Elephants?
21. Give flyers to stalls that are booked so they can send them out with orders prior to the event as free advertising
Yep we can give flyers to stalls who book with us.
22. Better organisation, someone to answer emails
Are people volunteering for this and to be guides??
23. Sponsorship from companies that are kind of related
We've spoken to 50 or so companies re sponsorship in the last 12 months and have drawn a blank. Drinks companies will offer us (or rather the Spa) drinks promotions but not actual sponsorship. Most didnt even give us the courtesy of a reply.
24. A Shuttle service from Scarborough or another nearby place with a lot of accomadation so people could stay there if they couldn't get into Whitby
The way fuel prices are going I dont think anyone could afford it! Its a 50 mile round trip. That's a big 'shuttle'.. We have put several appeals in the Gazette for ppl who have any accom in the area surrounding Whitby to contact us.
25. Sell the film that that guy (Matthew I presume) shoots every WGW
One of the reasons we are allowed to film many of the WGW bands is that we state the tapes are for personal use only - cos i never get to see the bands! If we were to want to sell them there would be all sorts of copyright issues
________________________________________________
and that's it I think:
As for 13 - I've pointed out that people meant more like WGT, but I think what Jo means is that the spa will only allow a 1000 tickets to be sold that allow people into that venue, and the council would not allow more (despite the fact that they count people), but I'll get clarification.. and update that later...
_________________
www.thirteen13.co.uk