Feedback - Frontier Expo 2017

I thought I would start this thread as a way of sharing my thoughts on FX2017. Please feel free to add your own thoughts so that we can provide Frontier with some constructive feedback to help with next year's Expo (If there is one!) My thoughts on Frontier Expo 2017 -

1. Location

Stratford tube station easy enough to get to. Upon exiting station, we were directed a certain way by someone holding a "Frontier Expo - This way" sign. However, that appeared to be the only person with a sign as we saw no more along the entire route. Luckily, I know London enough to have found my way to the venue, but for others, it may have been a bit of a pain.

2. Venue -

A lovely venue, in one of the more scenic parts of London (Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park). Again, there was some confusion as to which part of Here East was hosting the event as most assumed it was the larger building, so some signs may have been useful to point in the direction of the building next door. Once inside, the entrance was incredible with a lovely lobby, partially decorated with Frontier Expo decor. A quick trip up in the lift soon revealed a large open space with everything set out. This space was definitely enough to hold an intimate setting for the community and staff to mingle. Something that you rarely get at other Expos.

Pros of Venue -
- Set in a lovely location
- Very open space, but small enough to be intimate.
- Main Stage area with E:D, PlanCo and JWE sections was an incredible layout and setup.

Cons of Venue -
- Lack of toilets for the amount of people.
- Catering options were quite bare. The hot food such as chilli or hot dogs weren't clearly advertised so a few people missed out on those.
- Lack of seating around the general spaces. Perhaps somewhere to sit in around the E:D and PlanCo areas would've be ideal.

3. Everything else!

- Free goody bag! Who doesn't love a free goody bag? The stuff inside it was incredible and definitely on the same level of awesomeness as that of the stuff at the PlanCo launch event. Frontier didn't have to do this, but it is very much appreciated and the stuff inside is going to be put to good use.

- Talks - The talks were very interesting and at a much deeper scale than I expected. The speakers were amazing and all presented very well. If I could improve or add anything to the talks segments, then I would perhaps like to add more Frontier talks. So talks from the Art departments or the Sound departments from each game. Talks on how they went about creating the games and the models etc.

- Staff - ALL the staff did a fantastic job both for Frontier and Here East itself. Everyone was friendly and welcoming. A huge thank you to the Frontier staff and volunteers that put the whole thing together too! I know it takes a lot of work from many departments to put pull off an event like that. It was very inspiring to see everyone from David Braben to Ed and Bo to John Laws all mingling and interacting with the community.



A HUGE thank you to Frontier for allowing their community to get together like this and celebrate such an amazing company [big grin] Here's to the next one!
 
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I agree with everything you've listed here.

But I have to start with a question first. Why on earth did I (as a VIP) have to go through the staff/founder entrance, that was litteraly next to the standard entrance for the 'common people'? I spent a few hours with Jamesviago, but everytime we walked to the main area we had to enter through different gates, while in the end always ending up at the exact same place. The fact that we had to go through the Staff/founder gate made it very confusing for a lot of people (VIP's) who thought they could enter the talks early, but were blocked at the gates by security telling them it was for founders only (after which people said they have been walking through the founders gate the whole day).

About the catering, I thought everything was very expensive, not much variety and as Jammy said: I have seen no hot food?

Content wise, the expo was not as great as the announcement did make me expect it to be. I had hoped we could at least get a roadmap like Elite got. It didn't feel special this time, it was just like any other update announcement.

It was my first game event visit and I did not no what to expect. The atmosphere was very comfortable. Met some nice guys, learned a lot of staff by attending to the talks and all by all had a nice day. Thank you for having me!
 
I agree to all of this, and i have to add one negative thing (sorry :O ) The whole Ticket thing was confusing for everybody to a point that the helpers confused the Founders ticket with the normal one. Also, the giveaway tickets were not all the same apparently. Nemmie and Gregor won a Ticket, but they weren't the same. Well that was the feeling we got, because there was a bit of a confusion about it. Maybe those two can talk about that for a bit.

But the good stuff:

Man this was a an amazing Event! I was positively surprised to be able to talk to a lot of Devs! Sure i missed out on a few, but that was no big issue because i was happy to talk to John Laws, Andy Chapel(l?) and Nick Rodgers. Everybody was very nice and very approachable. You guys Rock! I am very much looking forward to the next Expo :D
 
Also, the giveaway tickets were not all the same apparently. Nemmie and Gregor won a Ticket, but they weren't the same.

True, this is wat Bo stated in the thread:

Now, a little Foxy❤︎❤︎told me we have a few extra Standard tickets reserved for those lucky ones among you... 10 tickets, to be exact! So, if you can make it to London on October 7, 2017 and have plenty of INNER HYPE to share with us, please fill in this❤︎Google Form❤︎and we will pick 10 random winners who will get a free Standard ticket from us.

Now, I was very surprised to receive a VIP ticket. Did not complain about it, but I think it was a mistake.
 
Suggestions for the next year, especially the next Expo ...

First of all, I would like to thank the Livestreams of the Frontier Expo 2017. So at least one had the opportunity to be at home live.

But personally, I was a little annoyed in the run-up, as "short-term" these and other events are announced. These events are not planned one month in advance. Events such as the Frontier Expo were already scheduled for the beginning of the year.

Many of us have to plan our free days, weekends or even an annual vacation already at the beginning of a year. If then suddenly an announcement of a meeting like a community meeting or the Expo two months before the beginning of the event will be annoyed by many who can not be there because of, for them, scarce time. That is why it would be desirable to know at the beginning of next year when events are planned for the coming year.

What disturbed me very much at the Livestream of the Expo were the impatient comments of the ED players during the presentation of the Planet Coaster update. Perhaps that was why the presentation was too short in my opinion. Maybe the Elite Dangerous Forum did not give enough attention to the course of the evening. Sorry, but I've seen many of the Livestream comments during the PC presentation as sarcastic and arrogant.

My suggestion for the next Expo would be to choose a smaller location and split the Expo to two days. A day for Planet Coaster and Jurassic Park Evolution, because both games have a similar background. The second day then for Elite Dangerous. If you want to visit the Expo on both days, you will receive special tickets that will be valid for all events.

This are just suggestions and I know, most of them will be ignored ... but who knows, maybe we could plan our visits for commuity meetings and other events really a little earlier next year.

BTW: If you need a great example, how meetings are should organized, ask Joël. He announced the Efteling Meeting last Juli very early and most of us had enough time to add this event to our personal free time planning.
 
Dear Mods -

I've realised that this being in the CHC section might not be the best in terms of getting feedback.

If possible, please can it be moved to a more relevant, open forum so that more feedback can be given?

Thanks!
 
I agree with the comments here.
Speakers, Frontier staff, all good. Superb.

Food was stopped too early, waaaay too few toilets. Security staff, well, I don't want to use bad language about them, so, enough said.

Overall though, excellent. Totally worth it, so glad I squeezed it into my schedule.
 

Joël

Volunteer Moderator
Dear Mods -

I've realised that this being in the CHC section might not be the best in terms of getting feedback.

If possible, please can it be moved to a more relevant, open forum so that more feedback can be given?

Thanks!

Thread moved (not by me this time).

I'll post my feedback later this week. :)

Edit Oct. 13, 2017: post from Spanky merged with this thread.
 
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