Anthrocon 2008 Con Report

Total attendance: 3,390 (a new record and 19% increase in attendance)

Total fursuiters in the fursuit parade: 453 (a new record)

Total amount donated to Pittsburgh Parrot Rescue: $3,900 at the auction + an extra $5,000 from Anthrocon at Closing Ceremonies (rigelkitty has additional amounts which will be posted this weekend)

Our Guest Of Honor was legendary Disney cartoonist Floyd Norman, who has worked on such classics as Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians. Our theme this year was "It's A Jungle Out There."

We will be moving to the 82,450 square foot Exhibit Hall B in the DLCC next year, which is almost twice as large as our current space. Bonus: It will cut down the distance people have to walk from the hotel to the Dealers Room.

The local merchants were actively soliciting the furries again this year. Our friends at the Steel City Diner made authorized Anthrocon t-shirts once more, and signs outside local restaurants said "WELCOME FURRIES" with tails and stuff drawn on them. Liang's Hunan, taking a cue from Fernando's chalk pawprints on the sidewalk last year and apparently not wanting to be outdone, spray-painted pawprints on the sidewalk outside their restaurant this year (it was raining and they hadn't washed away). I heard good things about the bar called Tonic on the corner, which seems popular with the fursuiters, but didn't go there myself.



The Dorsai Irregulars liked the Pocket Reference Guide I made for them this year. No major complaints about the Dining Guide, except we need to add hours of operation.

The guy dressed up as Capt. Jack Sparrow was wandering around in character, liked my Purple Pony t-shirt and told me "purple is the new black." -=) He also asked our Guest Of Honor Floyd Norman when he was going to do a Pirates Of The Caribbean cartoon during a Q&A panel.

We had keycards with custom artwork by kittrel at the Westin. This was possible because she indicated her submitted conbook artwork could be used for "other publications" on her release form. "Other publications" being loosely defined as "any printed materials Anthrocon produces." We used it for the cover of the Pocket Program as well.

I've heard people complaining again this year that the con is "too big" and it's hard to find people. One should keep in mind going to AC is a lot like going to a big theme park (we even have costumed characters!), so I'd like to offer some helpful advice: One thing people can do to make their lives easier on site is make sure you have people's contact info and cellphone numbers before going to the con, or plan to meet at a specific place and time. It's a lot easier to track people down and meet up when one has a way to get in touch with them or a definite schedule. I was extremely busy during the con, and knowing where people were and how to get in touch with them helped a lot.

That being said, I did get a chance to meet up with pholph, pocket_entropy, foxlord, johnnyblanco, Bazil from Suburban Conspiracy, giza, kj_roo, mrianti, triggur, mach, normanrafferty, and soooooo many others. I think I even talked to rattuskid once or twice. It really is one big blur, though.

We had about 10 different media requests this year: Three TV stations, three radio stations, two newspapers, a furry podcast, and the National Geographic crew. All the reports I've seen have been positive overall. Some reporters still get our name wrong (i.e., "Athrocon"), but otherwise no major complaints. I got interviewed by KQV News (never saw the final report if there was one), the Pittsburgh Tribune Review (I'm in like half the article), and the National Geographic folks (will probably only be seen internally by NG).

Funniest moment while being media escort: Someone in a kitty costume who wouldn't talk to the reporter from the Tribune, but instead wrote responses on a Magna-Doodle type drawing board. He asked what she did when she was out of costume and she wrote back: "What costume?"

Most surreal moment while being media escort: Seeing someone taking pictures of bigbluefox, who was videotaping the National Geographic crew, who was interviewing unclekage.

While the media was nice enough to work with, my biggest disappointment is that I ended up escorting them around again despite my best intentions to Let Rafferty Do His Job. (Even though we figured it was okay to turn the NG folks loose on their own, our media policy says they require an escort and we couldn't really change horses in midstream.) So I basically only got to see the things they saw. Rigel took over for me for a few hours on Sunday. On the bright side, though (I always look for the silver lining) I did get to learn some new things and get to more or less see the con through the eyes of a newbie as a result, so I guess it's not all bad.

I did manage to get to a few events: Uncle Kage's Story Hour, the Masquerade, Bucktown Tiger in Concert, Rigel's dance on Saturday night, the Convention Staffer's Roundtable, the Cheetah Lawn Room Party, and the Fursuit Parade. People seemed to have liked Rigel's dance a lot.



LOTS of new fursuits in the Fursuit Parade this year, though they still only make up 13% of our attendees. The group photo was taken on the upper and lower balcony overlooking the river to fit every one. Rumor has it one of the tour boats stopped as it was passing and the people on board were watching trying to figure out what was going on.

Sunday night at the Staff Dinner the Dorsai Irregulars sang an Anthrocon-themed filk of the "Boomdiyada" song from the Discovery Channel which was very cool. Afterward, I headed off to my traditional Very Important Meeting In The Bar with the Publications staff afterward to discuss ideas for next year.

Monday we had our post-con meeting with the Westin and DLCC, made a quick stop at the printer to drop off the balance for the conbooks, and then headed home. A carful of furries from Maryland caught up with us somewhere on Interstate 70, recognized my license plate, and waved at us. Hray!

Here's a pretty awesome music video someone put together of Anthrocon 2008:



Also this, which was shown during the Masquerade:



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