Ok, I know this is a new and somewhat unusual beware for this community. I'm posting because FurFestNorthwest.com are contacting many artists trying to sell dealers tables and art panels. I know quite a few artists, and my wife is one of them, and I hate to see anyone get in to something like this without having all of the background info first. I'm not trying to disparage FurFestNorthwest, just make sure that everyone knows what they're really getting in to. Everything here is from the horse's mouth or their website. Good Luck to them and all, and we'll see how it goes.
I'm highly skeptical about this Con, and I know a lot of other folks are too. Nobody knows exactly how it is funded. They claim that all they need are "only" 200 furs to pull it off[1]. Bringing in 200 furs in only 4 months of planning is a huge challenge for a big city, let alone little Moscow, Idaho. If they go bust, will you get a refund? Will you spend $450 dollars to fly from Denver Colorado [2], plus $80 a night[3], plus pay for some of your banquet[4], and possibly tentative costs to run a tentatively open dealer table and participate in the tentatively priced art show, only to find that the entire con consists of 20 bored furries from eastern Washington? Will you pay hundreds of dollars and drag your artwork to Idaho just to find that you're spending an overpriced weekend vacation in a little college town with few attractions?
1. http://www.furbox.net/forums/viewto
2. http://furfestnorthwest.com/howtogether
3. http://furfestnorthwest.com/whenandwher
4. http://furfestnorthwest.com/banquet.h
There is only a little more than a month left, and yet...
* There is no programming schedule.
* There are no clinics scheduled.
* There are no presentations scheduled.
http://furfestnorthwest.com/
In fact, the only things scheduled are...
* A Fursuit Parade (well, that's easy to promise. 2 fursuiters makes a parade.)
* A Fursuit Talent show (Again, 2 fursuits for the win!)
* Fursuit Photographs, at your additional cost of course.
* And another Fursuit Parade! Why settle for just one parade?
http://furfestnorthwest.com/events.htm
Oh, and maybe they will take a group out to "see some wolves". In fact, maybe even "see some wolves" in the wild! Tramping around in the woods with a group of furries in search of wild wolves, how fun!
Of course, what is a Furry con without an art show? Well, maybe we'll get to find out. "Art Show information will be updated as soon as possible". And the dealers den will "tentatively" be open. Huzzah!
http://furfestnorthwest.com/artshow.h
http://furfestnorthwest.com/dealers.h
And don't worry about food. "This page will provide information about any meals offered as well as food available outside of the con site where possible." But you can be sure that they might "subsidize" your banquet meal on Saturday. You know, as soon as they "decide what to feed you".
http://furfestnorthwest.com/food.ht
http://furfestnorthwest.com/banque
Registration is, well, tenative. In fact, everything is tentative! Registration prices are tentative. Art panel prices are tentative. Dealer table prices are tentative.
http://furfestnorthwest.com/registratio
Happily, they have guests of honor. Well, maybe. Assuming one of them can even get to the con...
http://www.furfestnorthwest.com/bb/view
Don't you worry about a thing. This con is run like a well oiled BDSM fetish night! How can you be assured of this? Because all of the staff workers are Slaves! Ok, maybe this is a cheap shot, but giving your workers the title "Slave" is not exactly the way to create a professional image.
http://furfestnorthwest.com/staff.h
So sign on up and they'll bill you, you know, when they're ready[5]. Tentatively.
5. Actual quote: "we'll bill you later, probablywhen we get the registration software done."
I'm highly skeptical about this Con, and I know a lot of other folks are too. Nobody knows exactly how it is funded. They claim that all they need are "only" 200 furs to pull it off[1]. Bringing in 200 furs in only 4 months of planning is a huge challenge for a big city, let alone little Moscow, Idaho. If they go bust, will you get a refund? Will you spend $450 dollars to fly from Denver Colorado [2], plus $80 a night[3], plus pay for some of your banquet[4], and possibly tentative costs to run a tentatively open dealer table and participate in the tentatively priced art show, only to find that the entire con consists of 20 bored furries from eastern Washington? Will you pay hundreds of dollars and drag your artwork to Idaho just to find that you're spending an overpriced weekend vacation in a little college town with few attractions?
1. http://www.furbox.net/forums/viewto
2. http://furfestnorthwest.com/howtogether
3. http://furfestnorthwest.com/whenandwher
4. http://furfestnorthwest.com/banquet.h
There is only a little more than a month left, and yet...
* There is no programming schedule.
* There are no clinics scheduled.
* There are no presentations scheduled.
http://furfestnorthwest.com/
In fact, the only things scheduled are...
* A Fursuit Parade (well, that's easy to promise. 2 fursuiters makes a parade.)
* A Fursuit Talent show (Again, 2 fursuits for the win!)
* Fursuit Photographs, at your additional cost of course.
* And another Fursuit Parade! Why settle for just one parade?
http://furfestnorthwest.com/events.htm
Oh, and maybe they will take a group out to "see some wolves". In fact, maybe even "see some wolves" in the wild! Tramping around in the woods with a group of furries in search of wild wolves, how fun!
Of course, what is a Furry con without an art show? Well, maybe we'll get to find out. "Art Show information will be updated as soon as possible". And the dealers den will "tentatively" be open. Huzzah!
http://furfestnorthwest.com/artshow.h
http://furfestnorthwest.com/dealers.h
And don't worry about food. "This page will provide information about any meals offered as well as food available outside of the con site where possible." But you can be sure that they might "subsidize" your banquet meal on Saturday. You know, as soon as they "decide what to feed you".
http://furfestnorthwest.com/food.ht
http://furfestnorthwest.com/banque
Registration is, well, tenative. In fact, everything is tentative! Registration prices are tentative. Art panel prices are tentative. Dealer table prices are tentative.
http://furfestnorthwest.com/registratio
Happily, they have guests of honor. Well, maybe. Assuming one of them can even get to the con...
http://www.furfestnorthwest.com/bb/view
Don't you worry about a thing. This con is run like a well oiled BDSM fetish night! How can you be assured of this? Because all of the staff workers are Slaves! Ok, maybe this is a cheap shot, but giving your workers the title "Slave" is not exactly the way to create a professional image.
http://furfestnorthwest.com/staff.h
So sign on up and they'll bill you, you know, when they're ready[5]. Tentatively.
5. Actual quote: "we'll bill you later, probablywhen we get the registration software done."
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Look who one of their guests of honor is...
None other than Starfinder herself. Ummm... Not very good to pick someone with so bad a reputation. Oy.
I wish them luck, though. Starting a con is hard work.
Its also weird that Javachickn is asking for help to get there (shes also from california) and theyre like "dont worry we WILL get you here", yeah? With what money.
As we used to say... what is there to do in Moscow? Go to Pullman!
I'm REALLY doubtful about this...REALLY...
...well, someone needed to say it. It's completely unprofessional and disorganized and I honestly think it will bomb. I'd have more faith in them if they were a little more realistic..
In other words, these people are too cheap and/or lazy to travel a few hundred miles across the state in order to attend Conifur (or, since that's dead, Rain Furrest) and want a more local convention. Since there is none, they'll put it on themselves. But if they're too cheap or lazy to travel 300 miles, then how can you trust them to put up a decent convention? Not to mention how, similar to large predators like tigers, a single conention requires a lot of territory to call "local" if it's going to have decent attendance. Especially if it's for a fringe subject, like furry. There's Califur and FC, but CA is a big, populous state, and both LA and San Francisco are major airline hubs. Every other convention I can think of has a LOT of land around it before it sees the next.
Setting a furry convention in Idaho with six months of planning is asking to go bankrupt and/or have a notacon. I'll be very surprised if this gets 100 people, much less 200.
I mean, goodness, this is planned for next month, and nearly nothing is set in stone yet? For this reason, I extremely doubt this "convention" is even going to take place. :/
It's only now that they're considering making a UK con, possibly based in or near Sheffield as we know we can regularly get numbers once every six months. Our only problem is making sure it doesn't clash with Anthrocon (as our last meet did) or any other major convention and yet be at a time of year when people will want to attend.
Fact is, big events take a lot of planning and usually some grounding from smaller similar events in the past.
FurfestNorthwest is not affiliated with Midwest Furfest, which is a service mark of Midwest Furry Fandom, Inc.
I'm the art show director for the new regional convention Rain Furrest and we spent nearly 8 weeks debating and going over countless name submissions and ideas just to figure out a name that would work for us, that represents us, and is far enough apart from anyone else's. I should think that anyone who wants to run a legitimate, carefully planned and attended convention would similarly spend the kind of time and devotion to detail as we do at Rain Furrest. It's not just about originality, there are laws to protect organization's intellectual property - good names are NOT easy to come by.
Sorry. That's not a good way to bait people to come. Dunno. Being an artist, I think I'd rather like to see who is coming, tax information, artist alley thing. On the site I'm rather shocked to see merely 2 lines in the Dealer's section..and tons of pages revolving around fursuiters.
You cannot put together an event in 4 months. You cannot if you want quality.
Other issues raised would be:
* Taxes
* Artist Alley
* Space
* Signups (who of our fellow artists are gonna be there?)
* Information on the hotel (details that the basic hotel site can't give)
* Whose coming?
* Places to eat around the location?
--There are a lot of FAQs that have been over looked. And to be honest, my doubts are further instilled reading (and observing) how people's questions and concerns are deleted from the forums...
Location is also a big thing. Whoa boy. It'd be like me trying to get people to Murray Kentucky... where the biggest thrill there is Wal-Mart (yes I can say that. S'where I attended college). Doesn't mean it's not a nice area, but it is unfit for a convention.
You've raised a lot of good issues, BlueRoo... Ones that I think many people have been thinking but reluctant to ask. As someone else said, first times of cons are usually flops -- that's due to normal doubts regarding the con.
Unfortunately many people will not believe something unless they see it.
Good luck to them and their efforts - but I feel they won't have much support if they can't seem to have their act together...
Where is the next closet hotel?
Are their rooms reserved for congoers?
has someone gotten in contact with the hotels to see if they will offer special rates to con attendee's?
How is parking is there enough?
Is there avalible space for people who wish to take campers to park?
:D
Two: Transport, Moscow isn't exactly a major port for a huge number of airlines, therefor more expensive if one flies in. Leaving Grayhound, Train or self transport.
3: Short notice, folks need to plan weeks and even months in advance. Spur of the moment usually doesn't work.
4:Fire at the hotel, then the info is erased from the website.....Uhhhhhhh...Errrrrrrr...Warni
5:I don't wish ill upon the con, in fact I hope they can pull it off, But for that first year or two, lets see if they can make it work before we declare the con a corpse.
Just....God help us all...Don't pull a Texas Fur Meet. Like expect the artists to bring the panels, bid sheets, hooks, pegs, lighting. Or announce that they have the hotel for the following year and the GOH...and neither the hotel or GOH knew about it. Or have the con Friday and Saturday only "Cause folks gotta be at work on Monday". Or have zero clue on when the dealers room was going to open, and how late til, or who sat where. Though I hear the BBQ was a success.
Anyway. In all seriousness, I know anything like this is hard to plan, but from the point of view of someone who's never been to a con before, this looks more like someone trying to plan a big sleepover with his/her buddies instead of a true convention.
Or, if you're closer south, there's Califur, smaller, but near LA.
I've not seen too much drama at Cons, which is a good thing.
posted questions
PS: one of our staff members is a veteran of running a sci-fi con years ago. Moscon
So no, don't think that I'm going to this con with the intent to drum up a huge profit, or 'screw people over' as the folks above so kindly put it. I'm just going there to have fun. I was approached by the con staff with the offer to be a GoH, and to do the photos, and I took them up on thier offer since it seems like a fun opportunity.
And the photo thing? I am doing it mostly because I LOVE photography. Even if I don't end up turning a profit, and the con decides to make thier own CD's and sell them and I just get to write it up as 'experience', I'll STILL do it, because it's doing something that I love.
And you know, those of you below who are bashing me don't actually have access to my private, friends only LJ. If you did you'd see that all my recent clients are pleased with me, and my commission turn around times are much faster than before, and communication is way better. Yes, I fucked up in the past, however you folks really need to stop hanging it over my head and making such a stink about it when my past issues no longer apply to present transactions. My current clients are kept happy and updated, and those who weren't updated were given refunds.
Just my $0.02
That being said however, I do know there is alot one can do in Idaho, just some things the "Citified" furs wouldn't so much get into that the more "Countrified" or rural furs would.
I think my biggest concern is the general treatment of outsiders by Idaho natives. It's worse in some areas I'll grant you, but I do speak from experience and second hand from others who have experienced the same things. Visitors are welcome as long as they don't over stay their welcome (generally less than a week), and outsiders moving in is greatly discouraged, and are often shunned and eventually run off. The fastest way to get that kind of treatment is to mispronounce Boise (most pronounce it Boy-zee, but local and accepted pronounciation is Boy-see, soft S). Unfortunately, outsiders have been labled as generally bad and often regarded as troublemakers, generally not wanted unless them being there benefits/proffits the locals. Otherwise it's "Go away, we don't want you here." Idaho IS small town USA, the whole state is. I think that is the only real downfall of Idaho in general.
As a place in and of itself though, there's great countryside to see and there's always something to do somewhere, you just have to be willing to walk out the door and look for it, give up the "easy city" expectations and think like a local. A rural local. That's not hard either. Just simply expect to spend alot of time outdoors rather than in climate controlled ammusements. Believe me, there's fun and interesting things to see and do all over Idaho. And the locals, as long as they know you're "Just Visiting", you shouldn't have issues with any of them, especially in a "College Town" where they're more likely to accept "Out-Of-Towners" because of the comings and goings of students year after year.
For the con though, from the sound of it, they just want to do this for this year since the statement about convention proffits going to a local horse rescue charity rather than towards putting up a follow up con next year. I could be wrong on that though.
Ok, so I miss Conifur, but so does everyone. It was the first con I EVER went to. I had just turned 18 and it was the day after my b-day (oct 29, 2000) and I wentaround like a fan girl asking the artists if they knew how cool they were. the next year I was a dealer. Two years later I started making a profit and hooked a friend on the con. I'm pissed that con drama/ upper management bs killed the con, just like it killed Confurence (I was at the last two, I was interviewed for Jimmy Kimmel live). So, basically, when I heard Conifur died, I was hit pretty hard. I got the message a few weeks ago that there was a con starting up in Idaho. I politely declined as I was getting married soon and all my money was saved for the honeymoon aka Comic Con. True, I also didn't feel like driving to Idaho from Seattle, but that wasn't the main reason.
What I'm getting at all this is that, we miss conifur, and there is none. So, save your money and go to FC. Or there's gonna be Rainfurrest next year. If you don't wanna go to a start up con, then don't go, but don't make it a big drama thing. That's just pety.
And look, real info! http://www.allfurfun.com