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GamerCon fiasco: Convention Centre hits back after organisers blame venue

Thousands were queuing in the rain for hours on Saturday waiting to gain entry to the event.

gamercon Queues on Saturday morning for GamerCon.

THE CONVENTION CENTRE DUBLIN has issued a statement on problems at the GamerCon event on Saturday that saw thousands of people stuck in queues outside the venue.

Many ticket-holders gave up and decided to head home rather than spend a prolonged amount of time queueing. There were angry scenes on Saturday morning when the delays began, after the centre reached capacity.

Earlier today, the founder of the gaming event said the venue was to blame for part of the problem.

Referring to queuing problems inside the centre Ferdi Roberts said in a statement that the Convention Centre Dublin are responsible for “people management and public safety within their building”.

According to the statement:

GamerCon had 21,600 attendees through its doors over the course of this weekend. 11,000 on Saturday 18th and 10,600 on Sunday 19th.
We clearly had challenges with queuing on Saturday When I was informed of this I made the decision to offer a refund to attendees who were outside and did not wish to queue further. We communicated this offer in person at the event, via social media and via our phone app.
Having debriefed from Saturday, a number of important changes were instituted based on the day’s experience with the result that there were minimal delays in queues outside on Sunday, with most attendees experiencing between 30 and 45 minutes queuing into the venue which we feel is to be expected with an event of this scale.
There were also issues with queues within the building. This was not under GamerCon’s direct control – the Convention Centre Dublin are responsible for people management and public safety within their building. The Convention Centre Dublin were fully aware of the ticket sales and expected numbers of attendees as this was discussed in the months leading up to the event.

If you cannot view this video, click here

In a statement released to Newstalk.com a spokesperson for the convention centre said:

Ticket sales for every event held at The CCD are managed by the event organisers, not by The CCD, who are contracted to provide the venue. The organisers of this event hired an event management company and a security company to run the event.
The number of tickets sold was based on an underestimate by the organiser of the amount of time people would remain at the event.  This meant that for much of Saturday the number of people wanting to enter the venue at the same time was too high.
The safety of visitors and staff is our absolute priority and for this reason, we restricted access to the building to ensure the numbers in the building never exceeded the maximum licensed capacity, which was advised to the organisers in advance. We understand GamerCon are offering refunds on tickets via their website (www.gamer-con.com).

TheJournal.ie contacted the Convention Centre Dublin several times today but was not sent a statement.

GamerCon says it will be “proactively dealing with all refund requests” and will be in contact with affected ticket-holders “individually over the next 5 working days”.

With reporting by Daragh Brophy. 

Read: Alcohol, cannabis and cocaine found in blood of Paris airport attacker >

Read: Miscommunication over severity of fisherman’s injury responsible for last journey of R116 >

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    Mute Daragh Cassidy
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    Nov 21st 2017, 8:56 AM

    Snow on the hills in late November. Wow. Who’d have thought it.

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    Mute Michael Kelly
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    Nov 21st 2017, 2:09 PM

    @Daragh Cassidy: Don’t fall for that rubbish Story, this is Dublin/ Ireland we’re talking about..! It’ll be Sunny out all next week… Penneys just need to get rid of a few hundred thousand, ( instead of a few thousand ) extra raincoats & umbrellas that somebody from Stock misordered..!

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    Mute David Dineen
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    Nov 21st 2017, 8:52 AM

    Contact me ,Mr plow “I’m your man “

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    Mute Patrick J. O'Rourke
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    Nov 21st 2017, 8:56 AM

    @David Dineen: As Billy Connolly once wondered…”how does the fella who drives the snow plough get to work”.

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    Mute Damocles
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:06 AM

    @Patrick J. O’Rourke: he lives next to the depot.

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    Mute John Fitzpatrick
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    Nov 21st 2017, 7:06 PM

    @David Dineen: the plough king is the man

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    Mute John O'Connor
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:35 AM

    Half inch of snow?
    National emergency!

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    Mute Stephen Devlin
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    Nov 21st 2017, 10:25 AM

    @John O’Connor: Yep same with a bit of wind.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Nov 21st 2017, 2:19 PM

    @Stephen Devlin: say what you like but the storm warnings before Ophelia definitely saved lives. 3 died which is tragic and it could have been a lot worse.

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    Mute C_O'S
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:10 AM

    Lots of red berries still on the Hawthorne trees is a sure sign of a harsh winter ahead. Stock up the larder “InCaseEmergency” ICE situation.

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    Mute David Dickson
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    Nov 21st 2017, 2:03 PM

    @John Tierney: gather berries.

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    Mute Lad
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    Nov 21st 2017, 4:05 PM

    @John Tierney: Yes.

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    Mute Abe Brennan
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    Nov 21st 2017, 4:39 PM

    @C_O’S: lots of berries on the Hawthorne trees, just means theres lots of berries on the Hawthorne trees.

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    Mute B Ó Raghallaigh
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    Nov 21st 2017, 8:59 AM

    Winter is coming…

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    Mute Patricia Cautley
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:28 AM

    Red alert! Let’s queue to clear out the local supermarkets like during ‘Hurricane’ Ophelia! No better people to prepare for dramatic siege conditions. We panic without basic provisions like crisps, white bread and tea……

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    Mute Cian O Donoghue
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:49 AM

    @Patricia Cautley: Any house that runs out of tea, well, it isnt an Irish house anyway…

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    Mute Séa Graham
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:07 AM

    We need Itsy Bitsy Teeney Weeney Yellow Non Slip Machiney. Someone get on to Doncaster council. Maybe they’ll let us borrow David Plowie as well

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    Mute Mick Power
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    Nov 21st 2017, 11:01 AM

    @Séa Graham: more like michael o’cleary

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    Mute Maid Marian
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    Nov 21st 2017, 11:12 AM

    Would love a white Christmas.

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    Mute Séa Graham
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:49 AM

    Remember real snow in the 80′s? None of this melennial rubbish! People in my village would battle through 4ft drifts to get to the church on Sunday. Not for mass, for the bloody great snowball fight after the service.

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    Mute Horace
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:28 AM

    Take that global warming.

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    Mute Brian O Reilly
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:49 AM

    Great for the kids,!

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    Mute Anthony Halpin
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:21 AM

    Que cars and houses getting sprayed with salt from tractor muck – spreaders.

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    Mute Daffy the Bear
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    Nov 21st 2017, 7:28 PM

    @Anthony Halpin: Cue?

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    Mute Fiona deFreyne
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    Nov 21st 2017, 2:25 PM

    What is happening? We are getting wintry weather in Winter.

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    Mute Lee Jones
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    Nov 21st 2017, 3:20 PM

    @Fiona deFreyne: technically it is still autumn winter starts the 1st December.

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    Mute Brian O Reilly
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    Nov 21st 2017, 2:02 PM

    Two snowmen in a field ,one sniffs the air and enquires of the other “Can you smell carrots?
    I’ll leave now.

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    Mute Kevin Conway
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    Nov 21st 2017, 9:17 PM

    @Brian O Reilly: take your coat… it’s going to be cold out there

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    Mute Joseph Dempsey
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    Nov 21st 2017, 2:15 PM

    What forecast are they looking at? It’s 14 degrees outside now and to remain mild until Friday WTF

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    Mute Gisbert Bayertz
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    Nov 21st 2017, 1:24 PM

    Somebody think of the children

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    Mute dodofrey
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    Nov 21st 2017, 8:53 AM

    Blurg…

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    Mute @muirinho
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    Nov 21st 2017, 2:20 PM

    From article:

    While today is mild with temperatures between 13 and 15 degrees, temperatures are set to drop to five degrees tomorrow and go down to zero tomorrow night.

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    Mute @muirinho
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    Nov 21st 2017, 2:21 PM

    Sorry, that was meant to be a reply to @Joseph Dempsey

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    Mute Misanthrope
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    Nov 21st 2017, 3:47 PM

    Sunblock it is then

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    Mute Kevin Slater
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    Nov 21st 2017, 3:13 PM

    Yellow snow warning lol

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    Mute dodofrey
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    Nov 21st 2017, 8:52 AM

    Blurg….

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    Mute whitecross
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    Nov 21st 2017, 6:33 PM

    Wow heavy rain in Ireland ,nothing new there we have that in the so called summer .and snow in winter who would have thought that might happen .

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    Mute The Falcon
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    Nov 21st 2017, 6:13 PM

    Dont eat yellow snow !!

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    Mute Brian O Reilly
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    Nov 21st 2017, 10:45 PM

    Kevin Conway: I am well covered thanks though

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