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Post by deepspaceswine on Nov 14, 2024 21:35:35 GMT -5
For those who attend conventions online or offline, what’re your favorite things to do? Least favorite? What panels do you go to or wish that were held by more cons? For me, I like to present on history, culture, queer and transness, and other topics as both a fan and scholar, but I also like to do meetups depending on the size. I’m not fond of huge meetups where folks are just left in a room. I’m more of an activity or discussion person myself.
What about you?
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butterball
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Post by butterball on Nov 14, 2024 22:10:17 GMT -5
My favorite furry convention function is ALWAYS the dance competition. Anthro Southeast (rip) and Furry Weekend Atlanta are the only cons I've gotten to go to in person, but I'm always looking up the recordings of dance comps throughout the year. It's what got me really interested in the fandom in the mid 2010's. I suck at dancing myself, but I love to watch them.
I also like going to panels about art and hobby-histories and stuff like that. Informative ones. Depending on the subject and how I'm feeling I might hit up something more interactive too.
I also like to just hang out with my friends! For the past three FWAs I've roomed with a group of 12 (spread across 3 rooms) that consist of a combination of my friends growing up in elementary/high school, friends from college, and a few of their friends. The host who herds all us cats always hosts a bad movie night room party at some point during the con too and that's always a fun vibe. At FWA I always try to catch a meal with my crew at Gus's Chicken, too.
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cohosh
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Post by cohosh on Nov 14, 2024 22:48:35 GMT -5
it's been forever since i've been to a convention, but i love a good hobby panel. and i have to agree with butterball, just meeting up with long distance friends and playing games or drawing together is so great. hoping ill be able to catch FWA next year!
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Valyce Negative
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Post by Valyce Negative on Nov 15, 2024 2:02:56 GMT -5
I'll say it- I still have to attend a proper "furry" convention myself: the closest one to where I live is EuroFurence and the rest in my country are just glorified huge meetups. However! I've been at comic conventions as an attendee since the mid 2000s and as a booth owner in the Art Dealing section since 2015. The first ones I went to especially were local events (my region had a ton of smaller but well organized cons or cosplay gatherings before Covid hit) just a train stop away from home and cheap enough so penniless high school students like me and my friends could still have a proper day out. One of my friends was obsessed with photography at the time and would take it as a personal achievement to take a pic of every single cosplayer we'd meet! The biggest event I saw as attendee was the Lucca Comics&Games (gonna leave some info and context for those who don't know! en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca_Comics_%26_Games ) which takes up a whole city. Crowds and general expensiveness of Lucca aside, it's still the one event whose setting and atmosphere perfectly encapsulates what's best about cons; you know that exciting feeling of party, friendship and celebration you feel in convention spaces? Okay, imagine that spreaded throughout an entire city for 5 whole days! It's a literal Toyland. Since I started selfpublishing my comics and making merch, cons have become more like workdays for me but I'd say my excitement for them has multiplicated since, even. Standing "on the other side of the booth" is just as galvanizing and it's always such a warm fuzzy feeling whenever I see customers happy of their commissions completed live on the spot or even returning fans curious about new volumes of my stories. Plus, the camaderie among fellow booth owners is unmatchable! I've made so many fellow artist friends: we travel together to new events, share booth space, plan projects together, share advice... I've even made friends with sellers that are not circumscribed to the self publishing area: at this point retrogame sellers know me and I've even made an art vs game boy cartridges trade with one of them at my latest event! XD So yeah, it's such an extasy everytime. Me and my husband's event schedule is almost regularly monthly at this point and we've been to most events of northen and central Italy, becoming a fixed seller in some of them at this point. As 2025 approaches we are musing to try some outside our country since, well, we print our comics in english too! We might try out ConFuzzled and a friend of ours has invited us to Furizon this upcoming June, which should be our first actually furry event. I don't know exactly what to expect but I'm positive it's gonna be a blast! |
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roo
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Post by roo on Nov 15, 2024 9:51:55 GMT -5
i've been going to cons for 21 years and have attended a number of panels i can count on my hands. it is pretty goofy because i actually am an assistant director of programming at anthrocon (i do all the music.)
not that i don't like them, i just feel like i have so many people i want to see and that takes priority and then there's literally no time. that said, my favorite are the really goofy chaotic ones, when i drop in on them - the bobby hill impression contests, "will it blend?" from the old FCN days, stuff that's off script and led by really clever folks just hits right. i guess i go to the dances and music shows a lot of (obviously) but in my mind those are separate from panels.
my fave thing to do is hop in suit and create chaos, the more the better. it's best at anthrocon because i can go into all the local businesses and screw with non-furries without feeling bad because everyone's in on it. beyond that, though, it's mostly meeting up with people i know from around the country and hanging in rooms with beers these days.
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obliviousally
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Post by obliviousally on Nov 15, 2024 10:22:38 GMT -5
i LOVE people-watching, honestly! i like hitting up panels and LOVE the dealer's room and art shows and stuff, but i really do love sitting around, chilling out, and watching folks do stuff. i love seeing old friends, even people i've lost touch with a bit, even if it's for a fleeting moment passing each other in the lobby lol
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AsterFloofyDragon
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Post by AsterFloofyDragon on Nov 16, 2024 22:00:43 GMT -5
I've only ever attended one convention (Megaplex 2024 in Orlando, FL) but I will say that I enjoyed attending topic panels, watching the dance comp, the fursuit parade (because OF COURSE), going through the Dealer's Den/Artist Alley, and just people watching! My next one may be Megaplex 2025 and my plan may mostly be the same except I'm dragging my normie(?) partner with me so I'll have company for the weekend.
I did struggle a lot with the meetup panels since I knew nobody and I am terrible with social interaction, especially with new people. But it was nice to sit and see how they were like, I feel that if I knew at least one person at one of these panels, I would've had an easier time lol.
Overall, I just liked the vibes at a furry con so much more compared to a traditional pop culture convention, my actual first convention in general being MegaCon Orlando. I liked how friendly everything was, the chill vibes, being able to feel like I could go around and do anything without worrying about getting my money's worth. I can't wait for my next one!
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butterball
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Post by butterball on Nov 16, 2024 22:20:13 GMT -5
I've only ever attended one convention (Megaplex 2024 in Orlando, FL) but I will say that I enjoyed attending topic panels, watching the dance comp, the fursuit parade (because OF COURSE), going through the Dealer's Den/Artist Alley, and just people watching! My next one may be Megaplex 2025 and my plan may mostly be the same except I'm dragging my normie(?) partner with me so I'll have company for the weekend. I did struggle a lot with the meetup panels since I knew nobody and I am terrible with social interaction, especially with new people. But it was nice to sit and see how they were like, I feel that if I knew at least one person at one of these panels, I would've had an easier time lol. Overall, I just liked the vibes at a furry con so much more compared to a traditional pop culture convention, my actual first convention in general being MegaCon Orlando. I liked how friendly everything was, the chill vibes, being able to feel like I could go around and do anything without worrying about getting my money's worth. I can't wait for my next one! Conventions are definitely more fun if you have a buddy or two (or almost a dozen-- but realistically I only see like half the people in that group often during the con lol), but something I've started to learn at the past couple FWA's is that a lot of people are kinda in the same boat as you in that panel room- they're there on their own, and they're there because they're interested in whatever the panel is about. That can make it a lot easier to start a conversation, or at least feel less alone in the room. For me a big part of the intoxicating escapism that is a furry convention is knowing you have more in common with the people around you than not.
But I know that's hard to internalize just from reading or hearing it, you just gotta try reaching out a few times and not be bitten for it for it to really stick in your brain and become more comfortable to do. It took two or three conventions of intentionally trying to go to stuff by myself instead of being magnetized to one of my friends for me to really hit my stride with it.
Megaplex is a convention I'd like to be able to hit up sometime, one of my friends moved to Florida this year and it'd be another chance to get to see them during the year!
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AsterFloofyDragon
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Post by AsterFloofyDragon on Nov 16, 2024 22:27:48 GMT -5
Megaplex is a convention I'd like to be able to hit up sometime, one of my friends moved to Florida this year and it'd be another chance to get to see them during the year!
I cannot recommend this convention enough! The con space is nice with plenty of spots for spontaneous meetups, sitting to chill, things were spread out well this year and I hope to see them continue that and improve next year. Its all indoors too so no need to worry about the heat, there's plenty of food options on property as well as outside. And though it is in the top 5 in terms of size, its still sub 10k so it didn't feel crowded except for right after the fursuit parade around the main common area, but otherwise it was navigable. |
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luxa
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Post by luxa on Nov 18, 2024 15:51:36 GMT -5
Basic answer but my favorite thing to do is meet people old and new. Cons are my main way of seeing long-distance fur friends and I always leave them having met wonderful people. I also love taking fursuit pics, hitting the dealer's den and artist alley, raves, and room party hopping. Sometimes I do casual phone pics and sometimes bring my camera.
A panel I would love to see at more cons is art trade hour! TFF had this and it was such a fun way to get and give art of my sona.
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