Furry Connection North con report

[giza]

I can't believe I forgot to write more details about my trip to Furry Connection North!

For the impatient, my full archive of pictures can be found on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157604580955859/

I flew in on Wednesday night, so I could help out with setup on Thursday. For those of you reading this who have never been to a furry convention before, people tend to arrive early and stay late. So we did setup on Thursday morning to prepare for folks arriving as early as Thursday evening:



As the con started to fill up on Thursday and into Friday, we got the con suite and the "Pimp Suite" up and running. There were plenty of things to munch on, with beer for those over the age of 21:



The layout of the hotel consisted of an atrium with a large central area where attendees could congregate, similar to The Zoo at Anthrocon:



Registration was at the set of long tables that were off to the side of the area. And for those of you were who in that area and saw a wireless network with the SSID of Cheetahs Are Chewtoys? That was my doing. You're welcome.

Let's talk about the dances for a minute. The dances absolutely rocked. With laser lights and fog, they were lots of fun:



I was working on security at this convention, so I didn't get to drop in on as many panels or performances as I would have liked, but I made a few, including Branwyn's performance, and the "Science and Pseudoscience" panel. I didn't get to make all of Uncle Kage's Story Hour, but I did get to "buzz" the Story Hour halfway through with some of the other Dorsai Irregulars. 5 of us just walked in the back, single file, and stood there. This was enough to derail his train of thought and cause him to blurt out, "OMG it's the Dorsai Irregulars!"

On Sunday afternoon, there were fursuit games, held in the open area in the atrium. There was a turnout of 20 or so fursuiters:



One of the things that I liked about working this convention was that the folks running it had the attitude of, "Get the hard work done, THEN party". So when Sunday evening came around, partying was something we did:




Overall, the con went great! The hotel staff were awesome, as were the convention staff. Everyone had a job to do, and they went about doing it. No attitudes, no infighting, just hard work all around. And that's how a successful con happens.

The final attendance of the convention was 372 attendees. This is a record for a first year furry convention held in a new city, and is something that we can all be proud of.

If there's one thing that could be improved on, it would be the temperature of some of the hotel rooms. That was pretty much the only significant complaint we had. And it will be addressed for next year's Furry Connection North. :-)

Our Guest of Honor (Latin Vixen) seemed to enjoy the convention too:

Comments

[streakthetiger.livejournal.com]

God I heard sooo much about those lazers ^.^
I think this is one con i'll have to put on my list of those to visit in the near future.

[markmccloud.livejournal.com]

Good lord. A slushie machine! o_o I missed those. You know they made "sprite" and "cherry coke" slushies at one point, but who knows where they still have those.

[espilonarge.livejournal.com]

Seriously, not enough food. n.n;;;

[giza.livejournal.com]

I don't think I had any pics of the food tables that we had set up.

I totally gorged myself on chips and salsa one evening. (And if my physician reads this, he's going to kill me!)

[eddiddiums.livejournal.com]

Ahh good times. I can't wait to do it again next year.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

It was slusharrific! Although, I'm not actually a fan of the taste, but it looked good.

[sagejackal.livejournal.com]

Excuse me while I go punch myself in the nuts for missing this con. .____.
Those lasers alone are epic. With the amount of people I know that went, I can't believe I didn't know about this con until after it happened. o.O

*looks at last pic and does a face_palm while smirking*
Val certainly can be "special" at times. XP

[giza.livejournal.com]

Well, it was a first year con. Many people look at first year cons and go "meh".

This con was the exception to the rule.

[espilonarge.livejournal.com]

*pats your belly* Bugger your physician. I bet he'd enjoy it hehehe.. ;)

[baconcoyote.livejournal.com]

It was great to finally get a chance to at least say hi to ya Giza! We must have a drink at AC if you can muster up some time! :)

[giza.livejournal.com]

My physician is Dr. K.

If I tried that, he'd gut me with a scalpel in one hand, while eating some organic whole grain veggies with the other. He's the Chuck Norris of doctors.

[zeeth_kyrah]

And wow, was it ever! Lots of epic in this post.

[skippyfox.livejournal.com]

"The final attendance of the convention was 372 attendees. This is a record for a first year furry convention held in a new city..."

Didn't AC start off with about 500 in Albany? And FC had 691?

[giza.livejournal.com]

To the best of my knowledge, neither of those were "new" conventions.

I believe that Albany Anthrocon in 1997 was an outgrowth from Confurence East, and FC was an outgrowth from Confurence when it vacated its old timeslot and/or location.

Contrast with FCN which was an outgrowth of, well... nothing at all.

[andrew7782.livejournal.com]

When was there pizza? ;.;

[giza.livejournal.com]

At the staff party.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Toss me your email address and I'll toss you my cellphone number. :-)

[baconcoyote.livejournal.com]

ansalon01@yahoo.com ! :)

[wildw0lf.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a great time *wags*

[wildw0lf.livejournal.com]

And I would have just about died laughing if I saw an SSID named that :)