The Energon Pub

We are constantly looking for ways to improve Auto Assembly. We know that that convention is far from perfect and while most of you seemed to enjoy Auto Assembly 2011, we know that there were things that didn't go according to plan or there were things that we could have done better.

At the same time, we know that there are things that many of you would love to see, guests you'd like to see at future events or ideas that you may have for general improvements for the convention so we've decided to give you all a chance to have YOUR SAY to help influence what we do here at Auto Assembly.

We are running this virtual "suggestion box" here and on a number of other forums to get your thoughts on the convention so we can start work now on Auto Assembly 2012 so we have plenty of time to make plans and to help us make Auto Assembly 2012 even better than ever!

Simon

The only suggestion I would make, for purely selfish reasons, is to move the convention date to either late August or early September. As I recall, the previous four conventions have all taken place either at the beginning or the middle of August, which means sadly I'm not able to attend for personal reasons.

I actually live in Cannock which is only about 45 min's away from the venues in Birmingham and I have been so desperate to attend ever since I moved to the Midlands in 2006 from Kent.

Now I know that's obviously impossible to move the date for 2012, however I'd still like to put the suggestion out there for future consideration.

Thanks.

With the date, we have to take into consideration a number of factors. First, and most importantly is the availability of the hotel itself. For 2012, the Hilton wasn't available for our "regular" weekend that we have held the convention for the last three years so we had to bring the convention forward slightly.

What we also want to try to do is avoid other conventions as much as possible so we look at their dates or their event history to see if there is a pattern to when they have held their conventions so we know what months to avoid again.

Finally, we want to make sure we avoid any UK bank holidays because public transport can be a nightmare with service alterations and holding Auto Assembly during the school holidays is much better for us, increases our attendance figures (it makes it much easier for families and our younger attendees to make it to the convention).

From the hotel point of view, August is also a traditionally quiet month for events and there aren't a lot of business conferences or product launches that take place at conference hotels, so it's one of the best times of year for us to get a better deal when it comes to negotiating for room rates and accommodation! It may seem chaotic at times, but we do have *some* logic to what we do!

Well, the lay out could be improved alot on this years.

Seperate room for talks/media as the sound from the general crowd was competing and often over took the events that were happening.

The opening ceramony was far too long and felt a little patronising/pompous. It seemed more like the orgniser was patting himself on the back, saying arent we great rather than a welcome to the day these are out guests and please enjoy. At first it was taken with good spirit but then wore very thin.

Allow the dealers to openly sell third party goods, these are not knock offs(infact some could argue they are about as much of a knock off as a wonderfest toy). A lot of fans would spend far more money if they could get what they wanted at a Transformers Convention rather than waiting a month and going to the London Expo or a month earlier going to the LFCC to get what they want.

The positioning of the guests, especially the voice actors, was pretty bad especially for any sellers near by. David Kayes was worse the Greg Bergers though to be honest.

Better security for dealers, I heard from several dealers they stock had been stolen, some by the case. Whilst most fans look down apon this it is a problem at almost all conventions(especially rife at the Expo). This might be for the dealers to look at themselves, but might be worth mentioning some where on the website what would happen if people are found breaking the law at the con.

Improved layout for the system of collecting passes and queing for entrance as this years really didnt work very well having them at the desk along a fairly narrow corridor. Again, given the fact there was a second area set aside for use this could have been easily avoided.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm actually hoping to attend at least one day for AA 2012.