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Turns out there is a first year con coming to where I live. I don't know much about it but if anyone from here goes let me know and you can crash in my basement, or somewhere else you may find comfortable.

It wasn't bad, had some issues (mostly due to bad hotel staff though) still dunno if I'll go next year, I may I may not. Anyone care to hear details of it?

Here's my report on it (directly copied and pasted from where I first posted it after someone said 'I took a short stop by Condition Zero Hour. Few fur suits but most were in plain clothes. The hotel is hoping no one notice the con. Typical of hotels for any con like event who have no clue what cons of any sort is about. I'll stop by Saturday to see what else is happening. So far, the registration is really slow.'



------start report after 1 day-----

It was.

Reg was suppose to open at 5, didn't end up starting until 5:45 which some of the staff that was looking over the lines kept checking for updates and kept getting the 5-10 minutes thing even they didn't like.

When the line started to move (which I was first, not that is matter, just sayin) there was a mini delay on how to handle new regs and pre-regs, but it got sorted out pretty quickly.

The opening ceremonies wasn't bad, just a meet of the staff and some of the guests of honor, the actual one (which had a theme to it was delayed until tomorrow, I dunno if I'll go to that, was tempted not to go to this one since I usually don't go to those but it had to be the first con I've went to that had opening ceremonies then nothing for an hour or two, that and I usually don't go to them since cons have usually started by that time so already doing stuff, that and went with people, nothing else was going on, was good though) which there was a delay before the games room and other ones were open but by that time I was already home, around 11:30.

From what I was told staff didn't start setting up until around 3, give or take an hour, and the dealers were just starting to set up around 4-5. Should have started that at 12 and dealer set up, unless if it was a hotel issue of when set ups could be done, first year con and all but some improvement can be made there for next time, though at least keeping order and attention of the reg line appeared to have very little problems if any from what I could see so that's a plus. I bet next time around things will be better with that but even if things did start on time it didn't seem like much was going to go on today (picture AN's thursday and a watered down Friday), but tomorrow should be much better.


Did meet some nice people though. Becka let me use her room for storage (so I could leave something bulky there over night and just it in the morning, and some other guy helped fix some fuzzy ears on a headband that were falling off ( roughly a couple years old from AN, hooray for glue guns on site!).

Though some guy kept giving out really small business cards to promote some anime club, how'd he get past security Razz

Tomorrow I'll be there till 9 or 10 then going to a friend's b-day party.

---- end day 1 ------




---------The rest of it!----------
Saturday was pretty good. I got there a little before 10, no word if the rescheduled opening ceremonies happened or not but that was go. Walked around the small dealer's room/artists alley then as I went to see what else was going on I peaked in the board game room and saw and old friend from high school (Jordan). Mason (I went to school with his brother Luke) was there too, he created a game called Don't Quit Your Day Job, a ******** up but insanely fun card game where the goal is to be good enough at making a web comic to make enough money to quit your day job. It was still in 'beta' testing but they do plan releasing it to the public within a year or two. I spend about the majority of the day playing that game. I did also attend a sports panel.

It ended a bit early due to a number of people leaving to return to their staffing duties but there was a lot of topics that were discussed. After getting a break for food from the good room time for me QYDJ. At around 9 they packed up, some other games started and I went to a friend's house for his surprise birthday party. I assume other stuff happened during that time but I wasn't there to see it. Though a guy who watched the last hour of the the QYDJ session drew *for free* some of the characters that were generated. If only he was there for the first two games I saw, he would have drawn some crazy s**t. Let's just say the 3 Words of the weekend were 'shitting d**k nipples' o_O.



There was also a survival game during the whole weekend, which the HQ for that game was in the board game room. The prizes (which wasn't announced until the finals from one of the players in the game, was originally suppose to be just for fun) were different levels of membership for the con next year.


Both of which tie in the to con's 'story'. Apparently the opening ceremonies was suppose to go over all of that in detail (the con book did mention it, and online before hand too) but a live action story to go with it. Though one of the final acts (from what was over heard by staff in the HG/board game room, which they were very open about, someone would have to find a hidden 'bomb' (which was really a tinfoil baking pan). They are lucky no cops or hotel staff overheard the word 'bomb' used. Who knows how that would have ended.

Then again hotel staff didn't seem to like the idea of the con there since they didn't want con goers to be in view of non-con guests, which was why the registration line up was done the way it, or so the reasons that was given. Those who asked about what was going seemed to be ok with it. The best explanation (which was the only one I heard someone say that I can remember) of what a furry con was comparing it to a Sci-Fi con, but instead of your humans, Klingons, Borgs, robots, Chewbaccam etc, etc, it's the same thing except foxes, cats, lions, skunks, tigers, etc.

The con also had a zero weapons policy (which was mostly a hotel rule) which INCLUDED nerf guns or anything that would fall in place of a normal peace bond at any other con. Though I saw multiple times where that wasn't followed, and some other smaller rules, but meh.

Came back sunday around 9:30, hit the food room for breakfast, which was warm up home made iced tea, some kind of non-named-brand cola and Cookie Crisp, yay. The board game room wasn't open yet but Mason was in another room doing some rock/paper/scissors/checkers game. QYDJ started about a half hour or so later. Things were more layed back Sunday, was a slow day but stuff was going on.

The charity auction did have some good stuff go. One top seller was a multipass that would get them into the con for the next 4 years, and some other stuff related, $1500, and it was a staff member that was the highest bidder. Another interesting item was having a room named after you (instead of 'room 1, room b' you could name it what ever you want) I think it went for a least a couple hundered.

I left shortly before 4pm, was tired and didn't feel like going to closing ceremonies, but there was a panel for people to tell the staff what they liked and didn't like.

Here's some points that I liked and didn't like.



---Cons---
-Reg was suppose to start at 5pm, didn't start until 5:45. Was apparently due to the hotel telling the staff that to set up early they'd be charged for an extra day, which is stupid, oh well, at least I remained first in line for that. Other set up issues came as result of that as well.
-Not allowed to bring food out of the food room nor bring outside food into the hotel.
There were people doing, was like a 75% enforce rate though.

--food room did not have kool-aid (but it did have other good stuff so that doesn't really count lol).

-Swtiching of what rooms were only to change them back while the rooms were being used.
-No floor plan. Schedule did say what was going on and in what room but not shown were. -A number of people did not know the vip admission food room was on the 5th floor.

--every toilet in the hotel were those crappy lowflows. Ones in peoples' rooms were even worse. I was in someone's to make some small repairs and general socializing. I had to literally bend ove far, hold the handle for a bit, it sucked. The non-room ones did flow a bit faster though. Though that's a hotel issue, so doesn't count.

- It was said (during an event, can't recall which one) that due to the con's story, new con-chair and one less offical major staff every year (though more non major staff though, so still same crew just named different apparently). Which means someone is taking over Frost's position next year (according to the con-book anyway, officially it's a group effort though) still pretty soon creative is going to have to really think for the story to seem predictable. I mean for what it's worth it isn't bad and it does seem interesting from what I've read on it but didn't have to say it publicly, seemed what happened at the end be less dramatic for those that did see it.

---Pros---
-Overall location was good
-FOOD, and good food too. (well fed buff)
-panel/event rooms came equipped with toilets and aparently a shower (appeared to be suites, small but good), reminds me of the days of Anime North at the Regal were you could see outside in most panels rooms and if nature called it could be answered and not much would be missed.
-With the exception for most of Friday there was always something to do, I just found something really fun and didn't feel like doing much else. Other things on the program did look interesting, but not enough from prying me away from the cards.
-Apparently there is a dead dead patry going on till Midnight which I can still catch the last bit of if I wanted to, wait, Sunday bus schedule, oh well.
-The opening ceremonies that did take place wasn't bad at all. Usually I don't go to those since other stuff is usually going on at cons but since it seemed everyone was going there I went was well.



Letdown of the con............Friday as a whole. It seemed like a waste of time. Granted staff did try to recover but by the time they did it was a bit late for me, oh well that happens sometimes.

Highlight of the con...........If it wasn't for Mason and Jordan it might have been a dance or the food but Quit Your Day Job!


Stats:
Spot in reg line: 1
wait in reg line till it moved inside the reg room: roughly 45 minutes.
Repairs made: 3 (2 to ears, one two an arm hole).
Times flushed on Saturday: 12 give or take a few.
Free artwork got: 4
Free tiems got that wasn't artwork: part of someone's gingerale while waiting for reg line to move, free slice of pizza someone bought but offered to give up, handful of peanut M&Ms, 2 vanila oreos, 1 can of red bull (room temp), 2 mini glow sticks (given to a friend seen hour hours after leaving the con).
Someone singing off key in rock band that I could hear: 1 (jordan, can't remember the song
but he did make up for it in the next round).
money left over from con = true

Overall grade, a push between a C and B- . Slack was given for the lack of enough set up time and factors explained about other delays on Friday but I think another hotel could be considered, appeared to have problems with what hotel staff was saying, but at least we know now what this hotel can and cannot do for the most part.

The push is due to whether or not this is true, it was overheard by something that heard Frost say that did not seem to care if certain perks was promised in the higher priced admission block that didn't happen and no attempt was made to make it for it come Sunday afternoon. Granted stuff can happen to through people off. I feel that they did put an honest effort in trying to catch up with what time and resources that they had at their disposable, but if it's true and he really did say that then that's not cool. If something was made up say at the dead dead party I heard nothing about it, oh well, just sayin' that it would have been nice to know sooner if something would have been done to make up for it. If it was true though again, who knows about hearsay these days -_-

Ah what the heck, I'm remembering the better times than the few bad, met some nice people, had good conversations, danced for a little bit, well fed, enjoyed what I did take part in doing, fun times, despite a floor plan, once I heard where stuff was from what other people said where stuff was, final grade: B.


Will I return next year: Well mostly I'll have to see how the cash flow is. While I'd save on not needing a hotel room per-say, though it wouldn't hurt (or just arrange something with someone I know that is going, or has a car or lives near by) being able to go I almost couldn't afford, but if that isn't an issue I'd say about 60% yes.

I believe they can make it better, just a matter of clearing up the red tape and issues hotel management may have from what I can tell (which much credit goes to the guy, I forget his name but he was mentioned in the review panel) for getting up really early to make sure there was hot food in the food room since the hotel changed how they could serve/cook/store it on site.

I'll admit my answer to the same question for Anime North is at 50% but that's mostly due to finances and a couple minor things.

Bonus note: The avatar for my con badge that Andrew made got a ton of positive feedback.

--IT'S OVER!--