Rainbows end! 

Kiwifruta: drove from Tauranga, 2 hour queue. What else to do in Aucks with 3 young boys, wife and a baby?

Denny's for lunch? PB Tech Manukau is a few hundred meters away. Rainbow's End is just across the road. Zoo/MOTAT/Museum are all about 20 minutes away.

Went with my wife today, glad we scanned our badges, the only thing we walked out with was a half price PC! It's not the most amazing machine as we weren't expecting to actually win, so we didn't budget for it, but at half off, we certainly weren't going to turn it down. 

The guy that won with us certainly made the most of it though, with an i7 extreme system and all the bells and whistles. Overall, it wasn't an amazing event, and our highlight was certainly winning the build your own during the first draw. I now wish I would have been a little more prepared for actually winning. But I'll certainly make the most of the machine. 

I drove out with my son, took a look at the queue, and the parking situation and decided we weren't prepared to wait. 

Is it crazy inside? @nikt is there likely to be an off peak period? I'd like to consider coming back it's only a 15 minute drive so I'd come back if there was likely a smaller queue and less busy time.

Drove out - couldn't get anywhere near close... turned around.

I'll check out the on-line voucher and see if there's anything that jumps out at me.

Well, me and my group have decided to bail out from tomorrows event.

Not gonna waste the petrol or time to go all the way down to manukau to wait in a long line that we were meant to skip as a part of "pre-booked" tickets that were available. Really disappointed that the event is this poorly organised and based on almost all of the reviews I've seen (including every single review on Facebook being 1 star) the general consensus is that its a waste of time and your gonna being waiting in line longer then you might actual spend in the event.

I noticed someone had said on FB that it might have worked better as a paid event in the future but to be honest, they would have to do a free event again to restore peoples faith in their ability to put on an event and actually use the ticket system they advertised as giving priority access to those who booked. I wouldn't pay for a ticket to this event if they did it in the future purely because if they screw it up with a free event then at least I can walk away and say "at least I don't have any money in this". If it were a paid event then whats to stop the same thing happening and people then having to request, and possibly even fight for, a refund when they decide the queue is too much for what they thought would be and easy access event.

Really hope that someone can bring a great, well organised Tech Expo to NZ and it be an event people rave about rather then complaining.

nessport20:

 

Well, me and my group have decided to bail out from tomorrows event.

 

Not gonna waste the petrol or time to go all the way down to manukau to wait in a long line that we were meant to skip as a part of "pre-boked" tickets that were available. Really disappointed that the event is this poorly organised and based on almost all of the reviews I've seen (including every single review on Facebook being 1 star) the general consensus is that its a waste of time and your gonna being waiting in line longer then you might actual spend in the event.

 

I noticed someone had said on FB that it might have worked better as a paid event in the future but to be honest, they would have to do a free event again to restore peoples faith in their ability to put on an event and actually use the ticket system they advertised as giving priority access to those who booked. I wouldn't pay for a ticket to this event if they did it in the future purely because if they screw it up with a free event then at least I can walk away and say "at least I don't have any money in this". If it were a paid event then whats to stop the same thing happening and people then having to request, and possibly even fight for, a refund when they decide the queue is too much for what they thought would be and easy access event.

 

Really hope that someone can bring a great, well organised Tech Expo to NZ and it be an event people rave about rather then complaining.

 

I think you are being a little harsh. Sure it could have been organized better, but I know a few people who went who said other than it being busy, they saw some value in it. 

I think it would work better if they limited tickets to a day and kept the total numbers to manageable sizes. 

It's the first year they have tried this, putting on an expo of this nature is huge work, and learnings will come from even the most successful event. 

Kudos to the sponsors and those who paid to put on a free event. 

Just limit tickets, maybe have a morning and afternoon session.  Cant fault them for trying, just hopefully they will do things a little differently next time :)  Guess the expected amounts were underestimated a little. 

I know it may come off as harsh but even though it was free it would still have been good not to see people saying the queues were long and that it was pointless to have a ticket system if having a ticket didn't mean you got in.

Hopefully they will look at this a learning curve and the next one they organise turns out better but I am still a bit disappointed that it's not turned out the way I was hoping for.

Eeerg. Drove from Hamilton with two kids, traffic was crazy, parking non-existent. Queues were massive at event.  Waited in line for 10 minutes but it was obvious the queue was 2 hrs + long.  Realised that once we got inside, probably would not be able to move due to the ridiculous number of people. 

Decided to flag it and drive home. Wasted four hours of my weekend, and bummed out a father/son event we had all been looking forward to.  Spoke to others travelling up who believed their reserved tickets would give them instant access and skip the queues. WRONG!

So much for 'Tickets Limited' nonsense and reserving your space. We will be boycotting PB Tech for a while for shilling this. Have unsubscribed from their marketing and will take a different route to work so I don't have to drive past anymore.

Total Debacle

mrcarbohydrate:

 

So much for 'Tickets Limited' nonsense and reserving your space. We will be boycotting PB Tech for a while for shilling this. Have unsubscribed from their marketing and will take a different route to work so I don't have to drive past anymore.

 

 

Tickets actually were limited, although possibly not limited enough for a venue of that size. This is their first time running an event of this kind, so some difficulties are to be expected. The site now indicates only people with pre-booked tickets can attend, rather than getting priority access, which clearly didn't work out today. It sounds like they've already started making changes, and next year should see further improvements.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.  I was going to do this with my sons tomorrow, but it's an hour drive from here and we all hate queues.  We'll find something else to do - weather looks nice for a day outdoors