Chinwag host the worst London event ever!
The problem with work is that it keeps getting in the way of everything else. I shouldn’t complain as it’s nice to be in demand, but I’ve thoroughly neglected all my blogging duties. Back to it with a little roundup.
On Thursday night I went to the Chinwag ‘Big Summer 07′ event. Quite simply the worst event experience I’ve had in London. Jess and I were in the queue for 45 minutes. A team of volunteers for The Big Chill managed to work the line and hand out crap very quickly, but no one from Chinwag could do the same to get us through the door faster?
Once we neared the front of the line we then saw signs informing us to get into two separate queues marked A-N and M-Z depending on the first letter of our email addresses. Madness. No one was in the mood to split up from their friends at this point despite the sudden barking orders of Chinwag militia. As it turned out it didn’t matter as both lines bottlenecked at a single table anyway. The stressed staff where by this point having as much fun as we were as they dealt with pissed off people and multiple printed lists of registrants that weren’t in alphabetical order. Shambles.
By this point we had been joined by Rob and the Twitter drums were informing us that once inside things weren’t much better. We sound found ourselves pushing through yet another incredibly long queue for food to join an even longer queue for the bar.
Rumours about the money running out in the next half hour or so where all that people were talking about. It was a little like being in a badly run student union bar, but as one fellow Twitterer put it, “Everybody is scum”.
The wanker ratio was high.
Leaving poor Annie Mole behind we left and bumped straight into Ian Forrester with his ever handy videocamera and felt much better after slagging the event off on ‘tape’. In fact we did meet some interesting people there, but they were all in the queue or fuming and already on their way back to the nearest station.
We went for a nice meal (and a large quantity of wine) at Dino’s before rounding up more Chinwag survivors via Twitter and retiring to the nearest pub for some more venting…
This is from the final reminder email they sent out to those of us ‘lucky’ enough to have registered in time:
Save time & hassle - print your badge in advance! Simply print it out, cut it out, write your name & company on it, bring it along, and hey presto you’re in faster than those who don’t!
Everyone I saw had done this and it did nothing to help speed things up.
Doors open at 6pm and the bars open at 6.30pm, when entertainments also begin. We anticipate sizeable queues, so best to get there early
I have friends who got their way earlier than me (they queued for just as long) and friends who got there after I left (they also queued for just as long).
Bottom line: I’d rather chew through my own lower intestine than go to anything branded Chinwag again.
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Hi
How about going - fook me! a free party!
and have some fun rather than complain about standing in a queue and “the money running out”
Perhaps the organisers were not on the ball with this event
so they’ll learn and get it right the next time
The free bit was the problem. I would quite happily have paid to get a decent drink or even just got inside and dropped a fiver to someone for some nosh ala Geek Dinners. I’ve organised events myself and been involved in some huge ones and it’s not rocket science. At one point we were told that ‘no one expected everyone to turn up at the same time’ - well once they realised that was what had happened they should have let everyone in quickly. Maybe one or two would have ‘gatecrashed’ without being registered, but it would have been way easier for the Chinwag peeps to wander around a crowd handing out wristbands to those that needed them and checking them off a list than expecting half of London to stand outside in order to get a siggy burger after yet another queue. Talk to ANYONE who went and they will all have at least one decent idea as to how this could be avoided. Sadly on the night all the interaction we got from Chinwag was to be told over and over to get in the ‘correct’ queue. When the girl in front of me explained why she wasn’t going to do that after already being in this queue for almost an hour she was given a a shrug of the shoulders and a “suit yourself!”.
It’s not like the organisers had no idea of expected numbers either. They sent me enough emails but not one of them could have contained a pre printed pass that I just show as I stroll in?
I didn’t go because it was free or had a free bar and food I went because it was billed as something special. If once inside it had been great I would have forgotten the hassle to get in instantly. Sadly it was crap.
Hi Mike,
I’m sorry you had such a rotten time at one of our events. We don’t like disappointing anyone who has made the effort to come along to anything we organise. I can only apologise and let you know that we’re taking all this on-board for future events.
I understand your frustration at the delays in getting in to the venue. With over 2,000 people expected we had planned for a large number of door staff to try and make this process as painless as possible. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, the number of people available for the door was halved at the last minute. This inevitably led to queuing, as we tried as best we could to get everyone through as quickly as possible.
Your feedback about charging is useful and it’s something we’ll certainly take on board for future events. One of the reasons that we were having to be strict on the door was due to the large number of registrations and taking into account the usual drop-out rate for the events.
Most of the people who made it into the venue had a great time, and there was still lots of people chatting animatedly and dancing until the end of the night. Aside from the queues the majority of feedback has been positive, and there’s some nice pictures to boot:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/chinwag/
I’ll understand if you don’t want to come to our future events, but I hope you’ll re-consider.
Toodle Pip
Sam
Cheers for taking the time out to reply Sam. I’ve been talking about this with a lot of people all day, even had a couple of phone calls about it, and everyone who has met and worked with you guys say you are a great bunch and it was a pity that the event went awry. I’ve also been hearing about what went wrong and why. If I’d had any of that info on the night I may have reconsidered leaving so early.
Twitter would have been a perfect way to update the people outside if your numbers were down. I would have happily passed the word from my phone, but even friends who nipped to the front of the line could get no info from the people on the door.
I wrote that post last night - five days later and I was still feeling sore over the whole thing. But, as I said to one of your colleagues earlier today, London needs more decent events so good luck with the next one.
Thanks Mike - using Twitter on the night would’ve been a good idea, unfortunately it was all hands on-deck to try and get everyone in the door. Next time though, definitely. Hoepfully we’ll see you at the next one.
You’re absolutely right, the event was a complete shambles. I queued for over half an hour to get in, then had to queue again as soon as I got in to get anywhere near the food or drink.
I find it sinister and disturbing that Chingwag are so keen to respond to any and all criticism they’ve received, usually with the line “well, it’s was free, stop complaining.” The phone calls are particularly creepy, like it’s a sin that anyone dare speak out against them.
Let’s face it, all anybody gives a damn about at the events is the free food and drink, and they punished people with giant queues on both counts. Nil points to Chinwag.