Comic Con: Meet the locals bringing the event to life

Before it begins, we meet some of the local people helping to bring this star-studded event to life.

Jane Lowther

Jane is the managing director of KTEG, the event company organising the convention.

She has been working to "organise guests and put everything together."

She told the Gazette: "We've been working tirelessly to make the event the best we can, if we're going to do it, we need to do it properly."

READ MORE: Basingstoke Comic Con organisers address concerns 

"We made sure to get as many local businesses and vendors involved as possible, this is going to be a national event run by local people."

She continued by saying that she is "committed to putting on the best event possible and proving that Basingstoke has what it takes to attract some of the biggest names out there"

Phil Heather

Phil is the Marquee Manager at John M Carter Ltd, based in Winchester Road Industrial Estate. His company is responsible for the huge marquees that guests will experience on the tennis courts at the Hampshire Court Hotel, where the convention will take place.

He told the Gazette: "As a long-established local business we are always keen, where possible, to be involved with local events."

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"We arranged an initial site visit to The Hampshire Court Hotel where Jane gave more details of what she wanted to achieve and what areas where available for possible marquees."

"We are now supplying for exhibitors/traders a 30m x 12m structure and a 30m x 9m structure"

"Both of which will have a wooden boarded floor on a steel sub-frame."

"We are also erecting six 3m x 3m structures in the Hotel Courtyard for traders."

Dominique Wallace

Dominique is the founder and CEO of Event Temps, the Bournemouth-based company that is providing staff for the convention.

She told the Gazette: "We have a good mixture of people from Basingstoke and the local areas staffing the event."

"We aim to provide the best staff, paying a real living wage as a minimum."

She continued: "I believe that having event and hospitality staff with local knowledge will definitely help to create a more authentic experience."

Carolina Farina

Carolina lives in the town centre and has a number of duties to perform behind the scenes.

She is taking on a number of customer service roles to help the Comic Con run smoothly.

Carolina told the Gazette that she works to "Issue invoices and answer customer emails as well as working the event."

"I was looking for some temp work events and found out about Comic Con, I love working with production and backstage of events so it was a no-brainer for me"

She continued: "I was quite surprised that Basingstoke was holding such a large event, as not much happens here of this scale."

"It will prove that Basingstoke is more than capable of holding major events and locals can benefit from the attraction as well as temporary roles."

Readers can find out more about the Comic Con on their website.