Anthrocon 2005 Con Report

[giza]

It's a bit belated, but I thought I'd write about the con anyway.

What was cool:

• Seeing old friends in person again
  
  
• Meeting new friends in person for the first time
  
  
• The hotel. They were really good about working with us. I tip the hat on my bald head to Ashley Cox and "Big Dave" from Wyndham's Convention Services department. They were a pleasure to work with.
  
  
• The elevators. There were very few problems with them. On the day when we had the fursuiter games in the Rooftop Ballroom, the hotel even set up one of the elevators as an "express elevator" that went just between the lobby and ballroom, to make for efficient transportation of fursuiters. That was a most excellent idea and it worked out really well.
  
  
• The Dorsai Irregulars. This was their 4th year with Anthrocon, and this year was their best performance yet. Every year, we usually have a few people who cause problems of one sort or another. This year, they handled many of the problems in their own, without having to contact unclekage or Operations. It was SO nice coming into Con Ops in the morning and just being able to flip through the logbook and read about any incidents that happened and were handled.
  
  
• My capable and professional Operations staff. You guys did a great job in the Ops Office. I don't know what I'd do without you! Thank you mach, tchall, vt_komainu, evil_dwagon, and Decker.
  
  
• duncandahusky and takaza for doing such a great job running Artists Alley.
  
  
• Three words: "Magic Tom" Hughsted.
  
  
• An individual by the name of "RB" who bought pizza and donuts for the Ops Office on at least one occasion. You rock!
  
  
• kellicjtiger, for volunteering a number of hours in Ops and other departments. We have plans for you next year, yessssss. :-)
  
  
• kageghostwarrior.com. We had made a minor typo on our badges. The back of the bades were supposed to say kaZeghostwarrior.com. But since "Kaze" is one letter away from "Kage", that one got by our. Our fix was to register the typoed domain name and point it at Mr. Albee's website. Problem solved!
  
  
• The free Internet access for members of Wyndham by Request. I just plugged my laptop in and clicked the link to get access. It was really nice to be able to check email once a day instead of coming back home to a big deluge of email.
  

Things that sucked:

• Galaxo Smith Kline for jacking up the parking prices to $20/day. We hate you.
  
  
• People who came down to Con Ops and complained to me about the parking situation, as though it were my fault. Yeah, that'll make me happy!
  
  
• Our attendance figures. As unclekage outlined in his LJ, our onsite registrations suffered this year because of a number of external factors beyond our control. Oh well.
  
  
• I was under a lot of stress during the con for some reason. I was really short when dealing with a few people and probably offended some people. I'm really sorry if you were one of the people I snapped at. I found that actually stepping out of the Ops Office and wandering around the con helped lower my stress levels.
  

The weird:

• The buttons nius made up that said, "Giza Made Me Do It!". I had nothing to do with the creation of those. That was Nius's idea!
  

My pictures are online at:

• http://www.claws-and-paws.com/furry/conventions/ac2005/
  
  
• http://www.claws-and-paws.com/conventions/ac2005/ (Use this one instead if your employer filters URLs on the word "furry")
  

I for one, welcome our new Pittsburgh Overlords!

Comments

[furahi.livejournal.com]

The buttons nius made up that said, "Giza Made Me Do It!". I had nothing to do with the creation of those. That was Nius's idea!
I for one think you made him do it! ;D

Isn't that GlaxxoWelcome's new name? And if so, what does a chem lab have to do with parking in a hotel? o_0

[giza.livejournal.com]

Their building is right next to the Wyndham, and there is a parking lot underneath both buildings that is owned by Glaxo.

[doco.livejournal.com]

OMG! There's teh furries all over the place!

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting o.o

Congrats on what I hear was a well ran con ^_^

[firedhusky.livejournal.com]

The hotel was definatelly enjoyable! they had raquetball court and the gym and pool were awsom :) Very respectfull staff too.

Parking wasn`t an issue, i parked Thurs till Sunday and paid 25 bucks.

Very enjoyable con :)
FDH

[tchall.livejournal.com]

It was a great con, and it was a pleasure working with you again in con-ops. Hey, this year I got a button out of it! Well, I got a button from Nius out of it. Anyway, I still got a button! Woo hoo! :)

[cyriljackal.livejournal.com]

So when is he changing his name offically to Ghost Shadow Bug now?

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

I did the smart thing. I didn't rent a car until after the con when I stayed in town for sightseeing. :}

(But then I went and hydroplaned in the rain on Atlantic City Expressway and dented some lady's car door, sigh...)

[nius.livejournal.com]

You made me do it. And Triggur started it.

[graveyardgreg.livejournal.com]

The con was great, and it's all because of people like you, Giza!

[pyesetz]

if your employer filters URLs on the word "furry"

That's disgusting.  What would cause an employer to decide that URL's containing "furry" are a major problem but URL's containing "livejournal" aren't?

[wolffit.livejournal.com]

GSK didn't jack up the price to $20. The price was $17, plus tax = $20.

Giza didn't make me do anything!

[normanrafferty.livejournal.com]

The con r0xx0red. Laird et al. were a blast! Thanks to you and all you do.

[giza.livejournal.com]

$17 * 1.07 (6% state + 1% city tax) = $18.19.

How did you get $20?

[giza.livejournal.com]

Blech. I'm just a glorified manager. :-P

[wolffit.livejournal.com]

I asked the garage operator about it, they told me the price was $17 plus tax. Perhaps there are other taxes besides the 6% state + 1% city sales tax?

[giza.livejournal.com]

That's not what we were told. We were told specifically that GSK raised the prices.

From my experiences parking elsewhere in Center City, no other lot charges tax. The price you see on the sign is the price you pay. I don't see why the lot at the Wyndham would be any different in this respect.

[wolffit.livejournal.com]

Huh. Well it's entirely possible the lot attendant was misinformed or was lying to me. I asked, I was given an answer, I cannot vouch for the correctness of that answer.

[scs-11.livejournal.com]

Heh. I've got some button plans in mind myself for next year.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[scs-11.livejournal.com]

Giza wrote:

The Dorsai Irregulars. This was their 4th year with Anthrocon, and this year was their best performance yet. Every year, we usually have a few people who cause problems of one sort or another. This year, they handled many of the problems in their own, without having to contact [info]unclekage or Operations. It was SO nice coming into Con Ops in the morning and just being able to flip through the logbook and read about any incidents that happened and were handled.

First, many thanks for the kind words. We always have a great time working Anthrocon, and are looking forward to next year in Pittsburgh.

And second...

IMHO we (the DI) take a more activist role at Anthrocon because of the consistancy of policy that Kage and the rest of you folks have put together. When incidents occurred (and they did; you saw a lot of my handwriting in that book) we were pretty sure as to what you guys wanted, didn't want, and would waffle about. More than once we cracked open the program book and re-read the code of conduct to make sure we were on solid ground with respect to a given issue. Once we were clear on the rules, we went ahead with a reasonable degree of confidence. Part of that confidence was because we know that you trust us. But a bigger part is that we trust you (the collective 'you', but the individual 'you' as well) to make a consistant response.

It's one reason we enjoy working Anthrocon so much - the lines are clear, and everybody on staff knows what they are. Unlike a few other places I won't name (details next time we're face to face), the Anthrocon staff has a lot of seriously competent folks on it. It makes life good.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

I doubt I'll make it, just as I've never made it...
But even I have some ideas now :P

Gotta find someone whos going to see if they interest them >_>

[rexxwolfe.livejournal.com]

That dude with the orange tie was from what show I plugged G4 and got a tech tv Channel not a show the funnyt hing is Giza THAT GUY. Was the one offering me money to get me home to go see my family.

[natashasoftpaw.livejournal.com]

It looks like English, but I can't get it to make any sense :-P

[rexxwolfe.livejournal.com]

Bite me