Antheria Fizzle...

[furtech]

martes and I got there about noon and spent about an hour before we got our badges. There were only 15 people in front of us! I heard someone who'd registered yesterday say that they were averaging about 7 minutes per new reg...not a great start. Reg, generally was fubar.

We went out to see the beach party: nada. And unfortunately, there was no programming on Saturday because of the beach party that no one went to. So no Stan Sakai. Hung around to talk to Thornwolf in the dealers room for a while (which is always nice, but this time was the highlight of the entire convention! Thanks, Thorny!).

Most of the events were moved to the private lagoon today/tonight, but I wasn't sure I'd could make it back. Also: I wonder at the wisdom of having the big night of the con on Sunday. Don't most people head out before then? There was no excuse for not having a schedule on the website: this made it very hard for people to make plans (to see Stan, I needed to be there either Friday or Sunday, not Saturday-- which is the normal "big" day). Their website was poorly updated and most information was disseminated via Fur Affinity (which I don't follow). I didn't see a single flyer on this at any recent con...what's up with that? Still, they were sensitive to this: one of the concoms saw our disappointment at the not-beach-party and offered to refund our membership or extend them to Sunday when most of the events had been moved to. Their heart is in the right place: it's the organization that needs work.

The concom had so many neat plans: a beach party, techno-dances at a private Lagoon, an immersive world-- but such poor execution. And virtually no publicity. They had great ideas, but you'd never have known it from their public face.

I think they are trying to create a live-action version of "Second Life": a kind of immersive event filled with neat worlds and dancing and other 2nd Life stuff, but they need to adapt this to the real-world needs and logistics of ordinary con-goers. For instance: on 2L, it's no big deal to flit from one place to another in a costume...but RL? Few people in hot costumes will leap at the chance to walk several blocks to a public beach to do stuff, especially if the weather isn't nice (it was hot and humid) and where their costumes will get filled with sand (fursuit olympics+Beach=mess!)

Hopefully they can grow into the con they envisioned. It might have been better to have started as a large party, like Fur Fright did. At least bring in some experienced convention runners (like a Glen Wooten).

I should add that it looks like Sunday (today) is going to be the Big Day: most of the events have been moved to the private lagoon (big techno-dance tonight, fursuit games, etc.), but Calicougar has family obligations so I'm going to hang around up here and get some work done and give the dogs the run they didn't get yesterday.

Comments

[oats-a-plenty.livejournal.com]

People on my twitter were wanting to go to the beach, but the hotel told them earlier that the beach was closed. I wanted to go to this one because the charity was the Alex Foundation (any I love parrots, and now pigeons too).

You're right, sort of whacky why they moved everything to Sunday, when Saturday is usually the big day for any weekend con.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I really think they were running this like a Second-Life event-- where you can do things on the fly and still have it work. Hopefully they'll work on those things and make it work next year.

[vulpesrex.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry that this didn't work out for you guys. I had first heard of this convention about two weeks ago, when Darrel Exline made a post about it, pointing out the rather legally dodgy way that the con - as a business entity - was set up. He took that as a very ill omen of things to come, emphasised precisely by the lack of info about the thing anywhere in the general furry or fannish communities.

I take it that neither Uncle Kage nor 2Gryphon were there - at least on Saturday? Did the people running this look like the same, usual suspects behind CaliFUR? And I think that KFWB's website mentioned a beach closure somewhere (high bacteria count/sewage treatment plant overflow)...did they have no back-up for such a thing?

And - my regards to Thornwolf! Good to hear she's doing well.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Darrel is hardly one to talk...I'll never forget what he did with the last Confurence (among other things).

Kage and 2 were both there: in fact, Kage was the person we'd met while looking for the beach party. 2 was trying hard to help things along: the dealers had nothing but good things to say about him. And although Merlino was a guest, I don't there there was much overlap with the Califur group.

Thorn is saving up money in preparation for a possible move, so if you've a mind to, throw a commission her way!

[diadexxus.livejournal.com]

Uh. Wow. I am glad I didn't spend money on that one this year.

-J

[thornwolf.livejournal.com]

Thank you for stopping by! I appreciated the company and conversation :)

[geewu10.livejournal.com]

Well, I did offer advice (since I've been running Conjecture down here in San Diego this weekend, attending Antheria was sort of an impossibility), but everyone had everything set for any contingency (uh, well, that was what they thought), so my assistance was not desired. In fact, when I asked a question at one point, there was just a bit of a paranoid response, so I stopped offering to help.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you had an Lj account...!

Unfortunately, I can believe that. There must be something called, "First Time Con-runner Syndrome". People with tons of ideas and enthusiasm and no experience, re-inventing the wheel and striding confidently forward like that Tarot card (The Fool).

Good for you to make the effort, though. Second-time-con-runners are often much humbler when it comes to seeking advice...

Is Conjecture -your- con (ie, the chair) or are you just on the comcon? I should have traveled the extra miles and taken in Conjecture instead.

[geewu10.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not that stupid - but since I'm the art show guy in San Diego (and auctioneer everywhere else), I can't NOT do the art show...