Furries With Alcohol 2015 #FWA2015
I've been going to Furry Weekend Atlanta since 2007, but there is something I've never done until now: actually stay at the con.
A while back, Wezen approached me about a roomshare and I was eventually convinced that YOLO was a good a reason as any to go for it. I also really like the hotel.
For some background, I've been to the Marriott Marquis Atlanta many many times. Of the five DragonCon hotels, it is THE center of action. It has been that way even when the "fab five" was the "fab three", back when I started attending in 2003. With 60K+ attendees and thousands more "ghosts" flowing around each level, the place is magical. While it may be famous recently as a set for sci-fi films, the building itself is sci-fi - just look upward when in the lobby. When FWA made the announcement last year, I was amazed that FWA managed to secure such an iconic venue.
Arrival
I arrived Thursday evening and joined my roomies. Rather than opt for hotel valet parking, I chose the Peachtree Center deck (the official one). Was glad I picked the staffed deck as there were reports of break-ins and vehicles stolen from the (cheaper, unstaffed) surface lots. I've always preferred to park my own car and port my own luggage.
Pre-reg pickup at FWA was a lot less annoying than FC. The line moved along reasonably well. Main holdup seemed to be bored reg staff chatting up the attendees (including myself). I appreciate being recognized, but the next guy in line deserves as badge as much as I do.
Con badge art was nice. Unfortunately, the names were layered over the art in such a way that they are impossible to read in photos. Expect to see fewer pre-tagged photos of you online and more photgraphers making ID requests.
On the whole, having this little to say about registration is definitely a good thing. Keep up the good work!
Programming
After registration comes that excited moment when I look at the weekend's printed schedule (I'm old-fashioned) to see a trove of fascinating panels... Then comes the realization: "Oh yeah, I'm at FWA." Programming was just as much of an afterthought as ever. My perennial FWA con-report punching bag. Without further adieu, let me count the ways I hate the FWA schedule sheet...
What people actually did
Most people I talked to also hated the schedule. So, alcohol and/or fursuiting was substituted for con programming. Fursuiters (and their non-suited friends) who weren't drinking would hang out in and around the headless lounge.
Wezen gave me a cup of her version of an alcoholic Butterbeer. It was okay, I could sip it. Just didn't gulp it down like she (and everyone else) did. Never been much of a drinker. I went to someone's party Friday night and danced in fursuit for a while. The other fursuiters at the party were headless. A fursuit head does get in the way of booze consumption. Meh. After a while I got tired and left the party, stone-cold sober. For this, Wezen called me an old lion.
#oldlionagenda
This hashtag was born out of the snide comments made at me about my habits. Waking up early. Not drinking. Going to bed at midnight (or shortly thereafter). Meticulous, time-consuming, fursuit care. Napping after long fursuit appearances. Showing off my FWA '07 badge. Telling newbies what a real elevator con is like.
I started making joke tweets with the #oldlionagenda hashtag as if I were a crotchety "old lion". Amongst the less-funny prune-related tweets, there were gems like, "You young'uns get off of my con!" and "Back in my day, dragons weren't bad, just misunderstood".
Fursuiting
Since I wasn't drinking, I spent much of my time in fursuit or sleeping off the muscle cramps afterward.
Friday morning I escorted Wezen in her "Wubs" caribou fursuit down to Caribou Coffee for photos. After all these years, the people at Caribou Coffee still recognize me. They noticed that Wubs was wearing their "Morning is coming" shirt from last DragonCon.
Finally found a good mix of antics that resonated with the other attendees. A bit of greet-everything-that-moves, combined with love-and-shove, a dollop of mockery (especially those buried in their phones!), and a "like I own the place" swagger.
Friday I took it kinda easily and managed to do two solid appearances in one day. Did a portion of the Friday fursuit games and lots of floor interactions. Then dancing at a party that night. Last DragonCon, I was so impressed by wyoon's blower fans that I bought one of my own. The fan was hard at work all weekend drying out fursuits for Wezen and I.
Saturday was strenuous, Lineup and photo started at 11:30, parade was Noon, with Fursuit Olympics starting about 45 minutes after the parade ended.
Parade was good. I got a stupid pop-song stuck in my head and bee-bopped my way through the parade. Dispensing copious high-fives and energy along the way. I heard people call out to me along the route, which was kinda cool. Maybe I'll see some photos show up on the webs.
The gap between the parade and games was too short to get out of suit and too long to just marinate in the lounge, so I wandered around the hotel. I was very pleased to see that the hotel was supplying towels to the headless lounge! A godsend!!!
I joined a team of hyenas for the games. Games started with charades, which I was pretty darn good at. I'd make my entrance onto the floor with as much energy and presence as I could muster, drawing upon my old mascot tricks. The crowd responded with much-needed cheers, though it stopped as soon as I stopped egging them on.
Next was doing figure-eights on a scooter. I pushed the envelope a few times, drawing inspiration from Cake's infamous shenanigans. I took a chair to-go during musical chairs - and it took quite a while for the emcee to notice I was carrying one with me! Started getting tired by the time dodgeball (with giant beachballs) rolled around. The event was about half an hour too long and really felt grueling by the end. I gave it all I had.
Got back to the room at 4 and didn't leave until the Dance Competition. Recovery from that appearance occupied the block of time when nearly all of Saturday's panels were scheduled.
Sunday was largely devoid of fursuit events. Having the games on Sunday would have made a lot of sense. I suited up again around the time of closing ceremonies. AV staff kept letting the Windows Media Player toolbar show during videos, so I ran up the screen to "hit the play button" just as the video for FWA 2016 started playing. Got a nice crowd reaction out of that stunt!
Meeting Up
Saw a few furs that I hasn't seen at FWA in years. tilt_longtail and Draconis in particular. Just standing around chatting. Kinda reminded me of the days when FWA was still an airport con.
Saw Roko & Kirron in line for the dance competition. Plenty of newer acquantances too, skippyfox & Kittrel, Policewolf & Saberglo, and more from the local bowling meets.
One face I didn't see kai-wulf. He was working a different venue, since FWA brass was stupid enough to push him and his seasoned crew away.
Fail Weekend Atlanta
The Fursuit Dance Competition is FWA's signature event. It is the one event that they consistently get right every year. Except this year. AV dropped the ball and turned it into a low point.
First, the event started late. Really late. 53 minutes late. I could have baked a lasagna in that time. I'm glad I didn't attend in fursuit, otherwise I'd be hard-boiled.
The show seemed to end as soon as it started. Audio and projectors went out during the intro video. They clearly intended for a clever A/B camera transition to have an intro dance. Nope. Botched. Those participating in the intro quietly filed in during the first competitor's set. And the projectors were still out through about half of the first dancer's set.
To make up for lost time, they decided to dispense with the judges' commentary and trot the dancers out rapid-fire. Even that backfired, as AV miscued songs. Bemani's song started before he was even on the floor, screwing up his timing. Atsu's song was cut off halfway through, so he started over from the beginning. One performer's song was "corrupted", but they did manage to sort that out at the very end. Not without testing a few seconds of it live.
The crowd was jeering, "You #@&%ed up! You #@&%ed up!"
Tiger Paw tried to save some face by singling out AV staff for recognition during closing ceremonies. "If we didn't have AV, we wouldn't have all this!" It came off as a bit incredulous.
Bemani seemed to have predicted all of this nonsense by wearing an "I'm a fan of Oddy" shirt to the competition. The moral of the story: Don't let drama or "popufur" get in the way of putting talented people (Kai, Oddy) in the places they need to be (behind the console). Otherwise, your signature event becomes your biggest disappointment.
The Venue
So, how did The Marriott Marquis hold up to a herd of furries? Pretty well, actually. People complained about "elevator con", but that is mainly becuase there was zero policing of elevators. Going up to go down was common. All elevators went to level 10, so I frequently used the less-trafficked elevators to access 10, then walked down to the room at level 9.
How did FWA hold up to the Marriott Marquis? Not so well.
The hotel is huge. FWA coincided with Delta, Propane, and a star-studded fundraising event... all in the same hotel. FWA laid claim to International & Marquis levels (two lowest conference floors). The "Pulse" bar was on the highest (Atrium, fourth) conference floor, and it became a bizarre nexus of business suits and fursuits.
Given all of this space, FWA felt like it was stretched. DragonCon has around 63,000 registered attendees. Furry Weekend Atlanta boasts just over 3,000. After years of seeing this hotel during DragonCon, it was weird seeing it so... empty. It really felt like the place was 5% full at times, especially the morning. Other DragonCon veterans noticed this as well.
Furs spread out across the common areas of the four conference levels. There was no central congregation point. Fursuiters tended to favor Marquis level as it was where the lounge and main events was. Drunkards preferred the Atrium Level, where "Pulse" bar was located. Artists and dealers kept to the International Level. Others preferred the relative calm of Lobby Level. But wait, there's more! There was an additional common area on 10th floor where some overflow events (King Elliott, Tea Party) were held.
Staff/Volunteers in general were spread quite thin. One could have easily ghosted all but Saturday. The event rooms had badge checks... most of the time. The Marquis Level was wide open. A few people claiming to be from CNN were wandering around asking for photos. I declined, while others didn't realize who took their picture until it was too late.
Other venue-related issues weren't caused by the venue. The AV staff managed to blow a breaker, taking down both FWA main events AND the Delta event going on upstairs.
The Westin was confusing (What floor am I on?!?), though the space was a more appropriate fit for FWA. That said, I still love the Marriott Marquis. That hotel is sci-fi incarnate.
Closing
FWA 2016 will be in the Marriott Marquis again, this time over April Fools' weekend. I'd like to see FWA consolidate its operations onto the Atrium level, which would bring the con closer together. Maybe move board, video, & poker games to 10th floor. That kinda goes against what I just said, but it might be just crazy enough to work.
I will at least make an appearance at FWA next year, as is my custom. Whether or not I expend the money and effort to stay again... is up in the air. It'll probably come down to whoever makes me a roomshare offer at just the right time.
I had a lot of fun goofing around a magnificent hotel in fursuit and meeting up with friends new & old. But as with prior FWAs, the badge itself doesn't buy a lot of value. As I said before, most of this con could easily has been ghosted.
The key to delivering badge value is to get more of us into those panels. Content is the difference between a convention and a glorified hotel party. You do that with smart scheduling and putting that schedule information literally (with paper) into the hands of attendees. The result of FWA's chronic programming failures is the unofficial moniker, "Furries With Alcohol".
Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to visiting the Orlando Airport Marriott for Megaplex and returning to the Marriott Marquis for DragonCon 2015. Hopefully, I'll have time to give them the post-con writeups they deserve. In this case, frustration is a much easier motivator for writing than happiness and content.
A while back, Wezen approached me about a roomshare and I was eventually convinced that YOLO was a good a reason as any to go for it. I also really like the hotel.
For some background, I've been to the Marriott Marquis Atlanta many many times. Of the five DragonCon hotels, it is THE center of action. It has been that way even when the "fab five" was the "fab three", back when I started attending in 2003. With 60K+ attendees and thousands more "ghosts" flowing around each level, the place is magical. While it may be famous recently as a set for sci-fi films, the building itself is sci-fi - just look upward when in the lobby. When FWA made the announcement last year, I was amazed that FWA managed to secure such an iconic venue.
Arrival
I arrived Thursday evening and joined my roomies. Rather than opt for hotel valet parking, I chose the Peachtree Center deck (the official one). Was glad I picked the staffed deck as there were reports of break-ins and vehicles stolen from the (cheaper, unstaffed) surface lots. I've always preferred to park my own car and port my own luggage.
Pre-reg pickup at FWA was a lot less annoying than FC. The line moved along reasonably well. Main holdup seemed to be bored reg staff chatting up the attendees (including myself). I appreciate being recognized, but the next guy in line deserves as badge as much as I do.
Con badge art was nice. Unfortunately, the names were layered over the art in such a way that they are impossible to read in photos. Expect to see fewer pre-tagged photos of you online and more photgraphers making ID requests.
On the whole, having this little to say about registration is definitely a good thing. Keep up the good work!
Programming
After registration comes that excited moment when I look at the weekend's printed schedule (I'm old-fashioned) to see a trove of fascinating panels... Then comes the realization: "Oh yeah, I'm at FWA." Programming was just as much of an afterthought as ever. My perennial FWA con-report punching bag. Without further adieu, let me count the ways I hate the FWA schedule sheet...
- Why is this sheet so big?!? Roughly 17" x 11", it's like a restaurant placemat. Had a nice big map and a comically large (and nearly useless) logo of the con's charity. Further Confusion's mini-booklet is a much more functional solution - you can turn it to today's page and slip it in your pocket. AMAZING TECHNOLOGY!
- For more information go online: Paper works in all the places your smartphone doesn't. The Marriott does have better cell signal penetration than the Westin. Still, the panel descriptions (not on paper at FWA) should be available with the schedule in print. FC does it, Megaplex does it, DragonCon does it. Heck, DragonCon prints massive stacks of PAPER schedule change sheets each morning and makes them available in five hotels. Each sheet of paper provides instant data with zero lag and no dead zones.
- Spelling: "Floors War" (sic). I sarcastically told friends that I was expecting the Marriott carpet to have declared war on all inferior flooring. It was actually a dance competition for people not in fursuit.
- Cryptic names: "Power of Pretend". This was the only real fursuit performance panel, hosted by the legendary Yippee. Too bad I decyphered this cryptic name too late. To add insult to injury, it was scheduled two hours before closing ceremonies, long after that advice would have been useful (ssay, before all the other fursuit programming?).
- Clipping: "Small Talk: How to". How to what? The online version revealed the remaining text, "meet new people." tilt_longtail also fell victim to this phenomena, his panel reduced to a highly-ambiguous "Furry Films". (Really upset that I missed it because of the terseness of the schedule sheet)
- Dumb placement: Saturday's Fursuit Dance Competition immediately followed Matt Ebel's concert. This led to three problems:
- They had to rearrange the seats to convert from concert to dance floor. (Time consuming)
- People from the concert stuck around and nabbed the good seats. (DragonCon kicks out everyone after every panel.) People who waited in line (and the "god level" walkups) got shafted.
- There was zero slack built-in for seating the crowd.
- Also dumb placement: The local GA Fur meet was placed at noon on Friday. Locals are more likely to buy single-day passes (like I usually do) - schedule local-specific meets for "after work" or daytime on the weekend. Not in the middle of a workday (this year) or rush-hour (last year)!
- Clusterfrak: Outside of Main Programming, panels were jammed together (three in parallel with no gaps) in clusters at mostly-unhelpful times. For example, dinnertime or immediately following fursuit events. Only two scheduled events started at 10AM. C'mon, the kind of person responsible enough to attend "Personal Finance" (Saturday 6PM) is probably capable of walking up at 10AM on Saturday - a timeslot with zero panels!
What people actually did
Most people I talked to also hated the schedule. So, alcohol and/or fursuiting was substituted for con programming. Fursuiters (and their non-suited friends) who weren't drinking would hang out in and around the headless lounge.
Wezen gave me a cup of her version of an alcoholic Butterbeer. It was okay, I could sip it. Just didn't gulp it down like she (and everyone else) did. Never been much of a drinker. I went to someone's party Friday night and danced in fursuit for a while. The other fursuiters at the party were headless. A fursuit head does get in the way of booze consumption. Meh. After a while I got tired and left the party, stone-cold sober. For this, Wezen called me an old lion.
#oldlionagenda
This hashtag was born out of the snide comments made at me about my habits. Waking up early. Not drinking. Going to bed at midnight (or shortly thereafter). Meticulous, time-consuming, fursuit care. Napping after long fursuit appearances. Showing off my FWA '07 badge. Telling newbies what a real elevator con is like.
I started making joke tweets with the #oldlionagenda hashtag as if I were a crotchety "old lion". Amongst the less-funny prune-related tweets, there were gems like, "You young'uns get off of my con!" and "Back in my day, dragons weren't bad, just misunderstood".
Fursuiting
Since I wasn't drinking, I spent much of my time in fursuit or sleeping off the muscle cramps afterward.
Friday morning I escorted Wezen in her "Wubs" caribou fursuit down to Caribou Coffee for photos. After all these years, the people at Caribou Coffee still recognize me. They noticed that Wubs was wearing their "Morning is coming" shirt from last DragonCon.
Finally found a good mix of antics that resonated with the other attendees. A bit of greet-everything-that-moves, combined with love-and-shove, a dollop of mockery (especially those buried in their phones!), and a "like I own the place" swagger.
Friday I took it kinda easily and managed to do two solid appearances in one day. Did a portion of the Friday fursuit games and lots of floor interactions. Then dancing at a party that night. Last DragonCon, I was so impressed by wyoon's blower fans that I bought one of my own. The fan was hard at work all weekend drying out fursuits for Wezen and I.
Saturday was strenuous, Lineup and photo started at 11:30, parade was Noon, with Fursuit Olympics starting about 45 minutes after the parade ended.
Parade was good. I got a stupid pop-song stuck in my head and bee-bopped my way through the parade. Dispensing copious high-fives and energy along the way. I heard people call out to me along the route, which was kinda cool. Maybe I'll see some photos show up on the webs.
The gap between the parade and games was too short to get out of suit and too long to just marinate in the lounge, so I wandered around the hotel. I was very pleased to see that the hotel was supplying towels to the headless lounge! A godsend!!!
I joined a team of hyenas for the games. Games started with charades, which I was pretty darn good at. I'd make my entrance onto the floor with as much energy and presence as I could muster, drawing upon my old mascot tricks. The crowd responded with much-needed cheers, though it stopped as soon as I stopped egging them on.
Next was doing figure-eights on a scooter. I pushed the envelope a few times, drawing inspiration from Cake's infamous shenanigans. I took a chair to-go during musical chairs - and it took quite a while for the emcee to notice I was carrying one with me! Started getting tired by the time dodgeball (with giant beachballs) rolled around. The event was about half an hour too long and really felt grueling by the end. I gave it all I had.
Got back to the room at 4 and didn't leave until the Dance Competition. Recovery from that appearance occupied the block of time when nearly all of Saturday's panels were scheduled.
Sunday was largely devoid of fursuit events. Having the games on Sunday would have made a lot of sense. I suited up again around the time of closing ceremonies. AV staff kept letting the Windows Media Player toolbar show during videos, so I ran up the screen to "hit the play button" just as the video for FWA 2016 started playing. Got a nice crowd reaction out of that stunt!
Meeting Up
Saw a few furs that I hasn't seen at FWA in years. tilt_longtail and Draconis in particular. Just standing around chatting. Kinda reminded me of the days when FWA was still an airport con.
Saw Roko & Kirron in line for the dance competition. Plenty of newer acquantances too, skippyfox & Kittrel, Policewolf & Saberglo, and more from the local bowling meets.
One face I didn't see kai-wulf. He was working a different venue, since FWA brass was stupid enough to push him and his seasoned crew away.
Fail Weekend Atlanta
The Fursuit Dance Competition is FWA's signature event. It is the one event that they consistently get right every year. Except this year. AV dropped the ball and turned it into a low point.
First, the event started late. Really late. 53 minutes late. I could have baked a lasagna in that time. I'm glad I didn't attend in fursuit, otherwise I'd be hard-boiled.
The show seemed to end as soon as it started. Audio and projectors went out during the intro video. They clearly intended for a clever A/B camera transition to have an intro dance. Nope. Botched. Those participating in the intro quietly filed in during the first competitor's set. And the projectors were still out through about half of the first dancer's set.
To make up for lost time, they decided to dispense with the judges' commentary and trot the dancers out rapid-fire. Even that backfired, as AV miscued songs. Bemani's song started before he was even on the floor, screwing up his timing. Atsu's song was cut off halfway through, so he started over from the beginning. One performer's song was "corrupted", but they did manage to sort that out at the very end. Not without testing a few seconds of it live.
The crowd was jeering, "You #@&%ed up! You #@&%ed up!"
Tiger Paw tried to save some face by singling out AV staff for recognition during closing ceremonies. "If we didn't have AV, we wouldn't have all this!" It came off as a bit incredulous.
Bemani seemed to have predicted all of this nonsense by wearing an "I'm a fan of Oddy" shirt to the competition. The moral of the story: Don't let drama or "popufur" get in the way of putting talented people (Kai, Oddy) in the places they need to be (behind the console). Otherwise, your signature event becomes your biggest disappointment.
The Venue
So, how did The Marriott Marquis hold up to a herd of furries? Pretty well, actually. People complained about "elevator con", but that is mainly becuase there was zero policing of elevators. Going up to go down was common. All elevators went to level 10, so I frequently used the less-trafficked elevators to access 10, then walked down to the room at level 9.
How did FWA hold up to the Marriott Marquis? Not so well.
The hotel is huge. FWA coincided with Delta, Propane, and a star-studded fundraising event... all in the same hotel. FWA laid claim to International & Marquis levels (two lowest conference floors). The "Pulse" bar was on the highest (Atrium, fourth) conference floor, and it became a bizarre nexus of business suits and fursuits.
Given all of this space, FWA felt like it was stretched. DragonCon has around 63,000 registered attendees. Furry Weekend Atlanta boasts just over 3,000. After years of seeing this hotel during DragonCon, it was weird seeing it so... empty. It really felt like the place was 5% full at times, especially the morning. Other DragonCon veterans noticed this as well.
Furs spread out across the common areas of the four conference levels. There was no central congregation point. Fursuiters tended to favor Marquis level as it was where the lounge and main events was. Drunkards preferred the Atrium Level, where "Pulse" bar was located. Artists and dealers kept to the International Level. Others preferred the relative calm of Lobby Level. But wait, there's more! There was an additional common area on 10th floor where some overflow events (King Elliott, Tea Party) were held.
Staff/Volunteers in general were spread quite thin. One could have easily ghosted all but Saturday. The event rooms had badge checks... most of the time. The Marquis Level was wide open. A few people claiming to be from CNN were wandering around asking for photos. I declined, while others didn't realize who took their picture until it was too late.
Other venue-related issues weren't caused by the venue. The AV staff managed to blow a breaker, taking down both FWA main events AND the Delta event going on upstairs.
The Westin was confusing (What floor am I on?!?), though the space was a more appropriate fit for FWA. That said, I still love the Marriott Marquis. That hotel is sci-fi incarnate.
Closing
FWA 2016 will be in the Marriott Marquis again, this time over April Fools' weekend. I'd like to see FWA consolidate its operations onto the Atrium level, which would bring the con closer together. Maybe move board, video, & poker games to 10th floor. That kinda goes against what I just said, but it might be just crazy enough to work.
I will at least make an appearance at FWA next year, as is my custom. Whether or not I expend the money and effort to stay again... is up in the air. It'll probably come down to whoever makes me a roomshare offer at just the right time.
I had a lot of fun goofing around a magnificent hotel in fursuit and meeting up with friends new & old. But as with prior FWAs, the badge itself doesn't buy a lot of value. As I said before, most of this con could easily has been ghosted.
The key to delivering badge value is to get more of us into those panels. Content is the difference between a convention and a glorified hotel party. You do that with smart scheduling and putting that schedule information literally (with paper) into the hands of attendees. The result of FWA's chronic programming failures is the unofficial moniker, "Furries With Alcohol".
Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to visiting the Orlando Airport Marriott for Megaplex and returning to the Marriott Marquis for DragonCon 2015. Hopefully, I'll have time to give them the post-con writeups they deserve. In this case, frustration is a much easier motivator for writing than happiness and content.