Tickets are now on sale.  Go get them while they’re still available!

Ok, it might be a bit early to assume we’re going to sell out like last year, but if we do then don’t say we didn’t warn you!  Our least favourite part of organising last year’s event was taking phone calls and answering emails from people looking for tickets after we’d sold out.  We even started to offer refunds (something we’ve never done before) so we could resell those tickets but only a handful of people took us up on the offer.  Our plans for this year’s event are much more ambitious.  Everything will be bigger and better with lots more to see and do and when our promotional efforts kick into high gear we expect ticket sales to increase significantly (remember the Dalek on the mountain last year?).  The only way to guarantee your ticket is to go get one now.

In other news, we’ll be running a Meet & Greet again this year.  Alas, Ianto is no longer with us but his Coffee Club lives on and tickets are currently on sale.  We’ve increased the number of tickets available to 50 and increased the time for the Meet & Greet to 1 hour so we can accommodate more people.  But, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the coffee club tickets sold out last year too so if you want one then go get it now.

Three bits of news this weekend.

First up, a date for the event. Vortex II will take place on Sunday 2nd May 2010. That’s the same bank holiday weekend as last year so with the Monday off work and school you can all party with us late into the night.

Next, a venue. It’s been on the site for a few days but our venue this year is the same as last year. Belfast’s Europa hotel was perfect for Vortex so we’re returning there for Vortex II.

Finally, the question you’ve all been asking. When do tickets go on sale? Tickets for Vortex II go on sale Monday 25th January at 9am. They will be priced at £10 and available though this website. A ticket will give you entry to the event and include access to the dealers area, the exhibition area, everything that happens on stage throughout the day (guest Q&As, game shows, auction, etc.), the evening party, disco and much more. Please read and follow the instructions on the booking page.  This will make things easier for us to process tickets.

We are working diligently on preparations for Vortex II and have already heard from many people about how glad they are that we have Kai Owen coming as our first guest. Expect more guest announcements in the weeks ahead.

We opened up to refunds 7 days ago and, to be honest, we haven’t had much of a response.  We were hoping to have a bunch more tickets to pass on to people who have been emailing and phoning us but it looks like we’ll only have around 10 tickets in total.

Refunds are still available up to 6pm Wednesday evening.  Then our final batch of tickets will be made available at 9pm Wednesday night.  I’m afraid it will be a first-come-first-served deal so you need to be ready to go at 9pm.  To make it fair, we won’t require you to enter names when booking.  Just book the tickets and email us the names after you receive confirmation that you have them.

We can only apologise to those who are unable to get tickets.  We can honestly say we were unprepared for the response we’ve got to this event, especially after the poor response we had to Genesis, our first Doctor Who event.  Genesis was our worst selling full day event ever so we didn’t expect Vortex to be our best selling.

Citybeat will be giving away 5 pairs of Vortex tickets this week.  The competition will run on the Robin Elliott show every day from 7pm.

Only a small number of people took us up on our refund offer (more on how to get those tickets later) so if you missed out on a ticket then this could be your last chance to get one.

Since tickets went on sale in February we have had a couple of requests for refunds.  Some people bought tickets but due to a chance in circumstances they are no longer able to make it to the event.  Unfortunately we had to turn them down.  We have a policy of no refunds in place so that we don’t receive ticket money, spend it on preparing the event and then have to give it back to anyone who wants a refund.  It’s simply not possible to run an event when you can’t guarantee the money you have in the bank will still be there in a few weeks!

However, since Vortex has now sold out we have decided to open up to refund requests.  There’s no point in having unused tickets out there when there are still people looking to attend.  Here’s how it’s going to work.  Anyone who wants a refund can email us at info@utevents.co.uk and request one.  We will put all requests in a queue, refund about 5 tickets at a time and make them available to book on-line.  When those tickets sell we’ll refund another 5 and continue until all refunds have been processed.

This refund process will only stay in place until April 30th.  After that date we’ll be too busy preparing for the event to be dealing with refunds so get your requests in now.  The only restriction is that we can only refund a complete transaction.  That is, if you bought 5 tickets we can only refund the whole 5 tickets.  We cannot refund 3 of them.  Also, we cannot guarantee everyone who wants a refund will get one.  If, for some reason, there is a larger demand for refunds than for new ticket sales then I’m afraid we’ll have to decline some requests.  It’s not likely, but we just have to make that clear to everyone.

If and when any tickets become available to purchase through this process we’ll tweet about it so follow us on twitter to be the first to know.

Any questions?

All tickets for vortex have now sold.  It’s our biggest selling event by a large margin and the first time we have ever sold out an event.  We’re delighted with the response and we’re working frantically to make sure Vortex is a day to remember for everyone who has supported us by buying a ticket.

If you missed out on a ticket then you may have one last chance.  We’ll blog about that later.  Right now we’re doing a little dance of joy.

There are still 2 tickets available for Ianto’s Coffee Club.  Remember, these won’t grant you access to the event.  The only people who can snap up the last couple are those who have already got Vortex tickets so get in there quick.

Just a very quick update.  90% of tickets for Vortex have now sold.  If the current rate of ticket sales continues then all tickets will sell out before the event and no tickets will be available to buy on the door.

Vortex is now officially our largest event (previously Hellmouth).

I finished my course in South Africa (heading to graduation in 5 minutes) and I’ll be returning to the UK this weekend so all tickets will be sent out next week.

I’m finally up-to-date with tickets.  The latest batch were sent out this morning.  If you haven’t got yours yet then it’s for one of two reasons.  It’s either got stuck somewhere in the internet tubes (email us and we’ll send them again) or you didn’t provided the information we asked for when booking a ticket.  In the later case, you’ll have an email asking for the necessary information.  Just reply with the details and we’ll send you your tickets.

To those who are intending to buy tickets, please read the information on the booking page.  It makes life so much simpler for me when processing bookings.

I’ve added a few more questions and answers to the FAQ and posted a provisional schedule, the same one you’ll have received in your update with your tickets.  Like the page says, use this schedule as a guide to plan your day but small changes are likely so check the website the day before the event for the final schedule.

Finally, I hope you all enjoyed the Doctor Who Easter Special.  Unfortunately I won’t get a chance to see it ’till I get home next Sunday.  I’m trying to avoid spoilers but I gather from twitter and Facebook statuses that it’s gone down pretty well.

Hope you’re all having a good Easter.

As most of you know from a previous blog, I’m down in South Africa at the minute on a training course.  I’ve had a hectic week, culminating with a day long exam on Friday, and now I’m studying for a “pass or fail the entire course” exam on Monday morning.

It’s also been a hectic week for UT Events since our Dalek appeared on the mountain over Belfast bringing a lot of media exposure to our little event.  That’s meant a whole heap of bookings that I haven’t had time to process yet.  I’m going to get as many eTickets sent out this weekend as time allows but if you booked towards the middle or end of the week then please be a little patient.  I’ll get to your booking soon.

And like we’ve said previously, if you have your PayPal Confirmation then you have a ticket.  Don’t panic just because you don’t have a message directly from us in your inbox.

Just a quick post to let you all know that the Vortex FAQ has been posted.  There’s not a lot there at the minute but as new questions come in we’ll answer them and add to the FAQ if necessary.  You’ll find that a lot of questions will be answered by the” Update” that is emailed to you with your eTickets.  I’ll get that on the site for downloading soon.

Please check the FAQ and the Update before sending us your questions.  It’s not that we mind answering them, it’s that we’ll probably just direct you to the answer in the FAQ and you can save yourself the time waiting on a response.