Furry Migration 2018 Convention Report
Well. Furry Migration 2018. That was quite the experience. I gotta say, that con has definitely improved since I last went there. It was a very enjoyable weekend. There were definitely some rough spots here and there, but overall I was pretty impressed. But enough chitchat, let's get into the journal.
Thursday
I left work at around 5, and drove nonstop until I got to Minneapolis. Thankfully, FM is the closest con to me, so the drive wasn't really that bad. I listened to some Foxes and Peppers and The Dragget Show on the ride up. Fairly smooth. Mostly.
They say that Minnesota has two seasons: winter, and construction. It wasn't until I arrived in Minneapolis that I realized just how true the expression was. If the roads weren't covered in crags and potholes, they were barricaded and blocked off. Add to this the fact that MSP is a busy metro area, and it made the traffic pretty hairy. Thankfully I was driving in around 9PM, so the roads weren't that packed. But let's just say I was glad to get my car parked.
I pulled up to the hotel (after looping around once because I couldn't find the entrance) and drove into the parking garage. Unfortunately, the Hyatt where the con was doesn't own its connecting parking garage, so they don't have a way to set the prices there. The parking ramp charged an ungodly $24 a night to park there. For reference, I can park my car at DSM airport for 2.4 days for that much money. It was gross. But, I ended up paying it, because I had way too much luggage, and didn't want to have to haul it halfway across town just to get to my car in the $5 ramp.
Speaking of stuff... I tend to bring too much. In addition to my backpack and my clothes duffel, I also brought snacks, my fursuit (in two other bags), two different-sized fans, and a drying rack. New this year was a pair of mic stands and yet another bag, containing audio equipment. I'll get to that later. Suffice to say, it took 3 trips back and forth to the car to get it all into the room. And yet it never occurs to me to get a luggage cart...
On the 3rd trip back, I ran into my 1st roommate, Denro. He had gotten to the hotel before me, and was hanging out with his friends during the interim. We made our way up to the room and exchanged pleasantries. He's a pretty cool guy. His fursona is a dark blue husky, and he wears a tuxedo with his fursuit. Very cool.
We hung out for a bit while I unpacked. After a bit, we heard that our 3rd roommate, Caige, had arrived. After a brief mixup with the room keys, he made it to the room. He's a few years older than Denro, but still in school. I think he's a fox husky mix. Anyway, we hung out for a bit, and then he started playing this video game called Lethal League on his computer. It's basically combat volleyball, and it seemed pretty cool.
I quickly went down and got registered. I took a quick stroll around the conspace. There was... very little activity. It seemed like not a lot of people had shown up yet. There was no line at reg, so I got my stuff very quickly. I was hungry, so I decided to go down to dinner. I went to the hotel restaurant, as it was close and relatively affordable. I got their chicken sandwich with seasonal vegetables. Not too pricey, though I'm sure there were cheaper options elsewhere. I wanted to make sure I ate something relatively healthy, as I anticipated that I would be eating a lot of crap this weekend.
Also, interestingly enough, it was thanks to this sandwich that I learned that I didn't mind having tomatoes on my sandwiches. I had previously always picked them off, but I just ate the whole thing, and I didn't mind at all. Honestly, it made the sandwich more refreshing.
After eating, I met up with the other two roommates and we hung out for a bit. Denro offered to let Caige wear his 2nd fursuit (which was just a head, but still pretty cool) for the con. Also apparently Denro had heard of Lethal League. He also recommended this game called Gwent, that I might want to look into.
Notice that I haven't mentioned a 4th roommate. Well, said roommate was a complete no-show. I had posted an ad on the FM forums for roommates, and this person was the first one to respond. I reached out to them, and told them they were on-board, and they said sure. However, the last time I heard from them was August 5th. No emails. No telegram messages. I reached back out again, multiple times, and got no response. As I write this, they still haven't seen my Telegram messages. They had previously mentioned they had spotty internet, but I wasn't expecting them to completely disappear on me. As a result, we ended up paying extra money, because we had to split the room bill 3 ways instead of 4.
Lesson learned: follow up earlier, to make sure they're still good.
Anyway, we hung out for a bit, I did some basic fursuit prep (Shallie's hair gets very tangled sometimes), and then we went to bed.
Friday
I was up at around 8AM (cursed work schedule), so instead of trying to sleep in longer, I got up, ate a quick breakfast of the various snacks I brought, grabbed a few supplies, and went out onto the conspace. Even though it was the first official day of the con, it was still quiet. There were a few people here and there, with more coming in, and a few token fursuiters. But it wasn't very busy at all. It seemed like the main con areas were still being set up.
And that brings me to my first of two real complaints about Furry Migration: its sparse programming. I'm the type of person who goes to cons for the panels, shows, and events. I don't go to room parties, and I don't just hang out with people all day, because I don't know that many people. Plus, most cons have REALLY fun programming, and it would be a shame to miss it. So I tend to put a lot of stuff on my schedule, so that I always have something to do.
But with Furry Migration, that wasn't always an option. See, opening ceremonies at FM started at 4:30 in the afternoon on Friday. And they had, like, one or two events just prior to that. But otherwise, there was nothing. From the morning all the way up to 3PM, there was zero programming. Nothing. You either hung out with friends, played around in fursuit, or left.
Further, throughout the rest of the con, there were a lot of dry spells, where there wasn't much going on that I wanted to go to. At most other cons I've been to, they pack the schedules so full that you have trouble choosing what to do with your time. But here, there were times where I would struggle to find ANYTHING to do. And to me, that's not a good sign. It's cool to have a more relaxed, spread out con when you're smaller, but FM had over 1,000 attendees. Having a sparse schedule with that many people ultimately means you'll have a lot of bored people.
And I don't know why they do it this way, especially the extremely late start time. Is it because they think Friday morning programming is a waste? Is it because their staff is unavailable until later in the day? Is it because they have a very specific idea of what a con "should be" like, even if that differs from the expectations of con-goers? Until they make a public statement, your guess is as good as mine.
*end rant*
Anyway, to help pass the time, I grabbed a table and set up my LaunchPad, laptop, and speaker, and started making some music. I messed around with some of my old song projects, and started working on a basic cover of Fox And Pepper's "Reach Out." I actually saw one gentleman walking around with an electric guitar, playing various songs. When he sat down, I offered to have a jam with him, but it sounded like he was tired and needed a break. I don't blame him; the amp he was carrying around on his belt was not light (I had the same one).
After playing around with my music for a bit, I got a message from Denro saying that he and Caige went out to a diner nearby for lunch. I quickly made my way over and joined them at the bar. The area around the con actually had quite a few restaurants within walking distance. There was almost as much variety as we had at AnthroCon. Very nice.
The diner had some lovely and affordable food. Denro ordered pancakes (because he is vegetarian), and they were GIGANTIC. Each one was the size of a dinner plate, and he had 3 of them. He didn't end up finishing them, and took the leftovers home (we joked that he could take the pancakes, fill them with his leftover fries from the other night, and make a burrito). Caige got a pretty awesome-looking Reuben sandwich. And I ended up ordering their jerk chicken sandwich with fries. It had pineapples on it, which was an interesting touch. Very filling, just what I needed.
After we ate, the three of us went back to get into fursuit. Caige had the idea to go back to his place and pick up his blazer (he lived close by so that wasn't too hard) so that he would match Denro a little. He went to go do that, and me and Denro went out onto the con floor. Again, not too much going on, but we made the most of it. There were people with cameras, including one Big Blue Fox (BBF for short). I was really surprised to see him there, but in hindsight, it made sense, as one of the GoH's was TaniDaReal, and they probably flew over together. I also ran into my old acquaintance, Inflatable Zebra, which was nice. He seems to go to a lot of the midwest cons.
I saw a fair few other fursuiters, including some familiar faces. I ran into ChuTora from the Iowa Furs group, as well as another Iowa fur who wears a hellhound fursuit (I keep forgetting her name, I feel really bad about it!). We chatted in the headless lounge for a while, which was nice. She told me about how a bunch of fursuiters went over to RAGBRAI (the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) in fursuit, and really surprised the normies. It's always really fun to see non-furries react to fursuiters. They're always like "what the hell is that?! That's amazing!" and want to give you hugs and take photos and whatnot.
I also ran into a gentleman named Mesci, who was carrying around a gigantic Twilight Sparkle plush. I complimented him on it, and then he revealed that HE MADE THE THING. I was floored, it was such a nice plush! He then explained that he was trying to sell it that weekend (in hindsight, the price he was offering was REALLY reasonable considering how large and high-quality it was). I didn't purchase it, but I did get one of his business cards. I hope he has continued success!
Other highlights: I danced around to the music from the guy with the guitar, I witnessed a fur pile and made judgmental gestures (in jest of course), I did a quick look around the dealer's den, and I did an impromptu photoshoot for Mr. Zebra and his friend while I stood by a balcony (and attracted the attention of some muggles below). It was good times.
Throughout this, I eventually ran into Caige, who was looking for Denro. We did a quick scout around trying to find the tuxedoed ninja, but to no avail. We ended up in the upper headless lounge, taking a breather. Therein we ran into a fennec gentleman and his girlfriend. Let me tell you, he was a riot. He would go on about all the raucous and lewd things he would do, but then was all like "but that's not me, I'm just an innocent little fennec who has never done drugs or had sex ever." He was also super understanding when he asked me what my pronouns were, which was a nice surprise. His girlfriend was delightfully snarky.
Did I mention that he had a CamelBak filled with cheap red wine? And a flask containing a "Dark chocolate Manhattan." Apparently, you can make an absolutely delicious drink if you swap out the vermouth in a Manhattan with dark chocolate liqueur, and exchange the rye for bourbon. I think I am going to try that sometime; I don't actually like the taste of vermouth, and I have a bottle of Forbidden Dark Mocha, so that's a thing. At any rate, I don't think we ever saw him again that weekend, but it was still a good time.
Caige and I eventually found Denro, and we hung out for a bit, before I parted ways and went to opening ceremonies in suit. The con staff came up on stage one at a time and talked a bit about the weekend. They were going to have a fursuit hugging booth, which was new. You were able to sign up for a 20 minute slot, and then give hugs to people as they came by (donations to charity encouraged). They introduced the guests of honor: Rick Griffin (author of the webcomic Housepets) and the aforementioned TaniDaReal (an amazingly skilled artist). Fox Amoore and Pepper Coyote were also recognized as the musical special guests for the weekend.
Oddly, they didn't really make a big deal about the charity. They only mentioned it a little, and I don't believe they brought the charity representatives up to talk to the audience (another small example of atypical con behavior). But honestly, I don't remember much about opening ceremonies, as I was blind and sweating due to the fursuit. I was contemplating sticking around for the Meet the GoH panel (which is usually very interesting), but I was too hot, so I needed to take a break. I went back to the room to clean up.
After I was clean, I was then famished. I decided to go out and look for a place to eat dinner. I ended up in a Vietnamese restaurant called Lotus (which was in the same shopping center as Rainbow Road, the gay adult store I was dragged into during my first Furry Migration). I ordered their House Pho, and BOY WAS IT GOOD. And HUGE. I ordered the small, and the bowl was almost as big as my head; I sadly couldn't finish it. And it was like $10 with tip. Great deal! Highly recommend. I also ran into a couple furries there, who asked about the Fur Squared shirt I was wearing; I made sure to put in a good word about my favorite con.
After dinner, I went back to the con space to see what all was going on. It was around that time that I saw that they were playing Jackbox in the game room. As a diehard Jackbox fan, I had to play. We ended up playing Quiplash, Trivia Murder Party, Guesspionage, and Bracketeering (for those who are unfamiliar, I encourage you to buy the games and experience the wonder). It was a good-sized group, which made it better. I remember one of the brackets was Giraffe vs Giraffe. Also "the worst explanation for why swiss cheese has holes", I put "Sergals, man" and won.
I eventually peeled myself away from the game, so that I could go to the Whose Line panel. While I waited for things to start, I saw BBF, Alkali Bismuth, and Dixie Lioness sitting at the charity table and chatting it up with folks. I have a huge amount of respect for all of those people, but I specifically wanted to speak with Alkali. I am currently one of the Dragget Show's patrons on Patreon, and despite interacting with Alkali briefly in the past, I had never truly met him before. So I wanted to put a face to the name and introduce myself. I waited around for him to have a break in his conversation, summoned up some courage, and went up to say hi.
He was like "hello, my friend" and I gave him my name. It took him a second, and he went "wait, you're SHALLIE!?" and he got up out of his chair, ran around the table, and gave me a hug. He was so excited! He commented that my name reminded him of South Park (I didn't get the reference). We talked for a bit about the con, about Xander, about the fact that he was going to have to work a lot in the next few weeks. But overall, he was genuinely happy to see me, and was an absolute sweetheart.
He then asked "do you like beer, or rum?" I responded rum. He then handed me a cup that was sitting in front of him and gave me a sip. It was fruity and delicious. Apparently, BBF had whipped up a concoction that combined Malibu coconut rum, pineapple juice, and... something else, and Alkali was impressed by it. "I don't usually like Malibu, but this was really good!" he said. I gave him the cup back, and I bid him adieu. As I was leaving, he said "Me and Xander are fans of YOU." I was beaming. Seriously, Alkali may be a loud boisterous booze ferret, but the man has a heart of gold and is very generous with his time.
Was kinda sad that Xander couldn't be there though. He's kind of amazing.
I walked into the panel room for Whose Line (adult version). Unlike most events of its kind that I've been to, this one was NOT run by Alkali. Instead, it was run by a gentleman named Dronon. But honestly, it was good to see someone else run the panel for a change. Dronon did things a little differently than Alkali, and that's not a bad thing. I really enjoyed myself, and I hope he runs it again next year. I even worked up the courage to participate in some of the games. I won't go into too much detail, as Silvergatomon was there filming the whole thing, so I'll share the highlights. There were some fun fursuit shenanigans. Alkali played 5-word vocabulary with Dronon, with the amazing line "F*ck smegma, moist convention!" And I ended one of the games with one of the other players falling on my foot and spraining my pinkie toe (which still hurts). Despite the injury, it was a heck of a lot of fun.
After Whose Line was Convention Horror Stories. Alkali was onstage with Giza (whom many people have probably seen running operations for tons of cons in his trademark white mage robe), Charles (one of the higher-ups at FM, who apparently has tons of con experience), and Maci (the AV technician for multiple midwestern cons including Fur Squared). Lots of interesting and funny stories. Again, Silvergatomon was there filming the whole thing, so it'll be online.
After the panel was over, I was bushed, and went up to my room to pass out.
Saturday
Today was the big day. Today was the day that I would run MY panel.
I woke up, got packed, ate a quick breakfast, and went down to the panel room. To find it locked. I sat down to wait for someone to come unlock it. To pass the time, I called my father to wish him a happy birthday. He seemed in good spirits.
After a while, I figured no one was coming, so I went over to Con Ops to see if they could unlock the room. They called someone down to do so, and I got in to get set up. The room was... not ready at all. Thankfully it had sound equipment, so my first big concern was allayed. But everything else was not set up. I had to rush to get a few rows of chairs in place, and then get all of my equipment turned on and plugged in. I started messing around with the mixing console in the room to see if I could get a microphone set up, and to see where I could plug in my computer.
Thankfully, a FM staffer came in to check to see if I was ready to go. That's something I really appreciated; the con staffers take the time to go in and make sure all the panelists have everything they need before they start. That's attention to detail. And I'm glad he showed up; he was able to run into the other room and snag some audio cables for me, so I could get it all plugged in. It was just about noontime when I finished setting up.
And people showed up! There were actually more than three people at my panel! By the time the panel was over, at least a dozen people were there. It was great!
So what was my panel? "Let's Record a Song In An Hour!"
Basically, I had a song built out on my computer, using a bunch of audio samplers as instruments. I then wiped out all of the audio in the samplers, so that they were silent. Then, at the panel, I would record sounds from the audience members, mangle them up in my software, and use them to build out the song. And I would do all that in an hour (well, 50 minutes to be exact). And at the end, I would perform the finished song, with lyrics and an instrument solo.
It was so much fun! Everyone was getting really into it, I didn't have to coax people to come up to the mic to be recorded, and we were laughing and having a good time. Yes, I fumbled with the lyrics a little, and I forgot to record the final performance, but it otherwise went off without a hitch. At the end of the panel, some people came up to me and asked if they could find me online (I gave them my YouTube channel). That's how I know it was a success: if people come up and talk to you after your panel, you did a good job. I can't wait to watch the replay from Silvergatomon.
Also, I'm planning on recording another performance on my own, and using that to make a music video for the song. So, if you follow me on YouTube, keep an eye out for that.
After the panel was over, I once again scrambled to pack everything up so that I could get into my fursuit for...
The fursuit parade! I lucked out and was able to get to the staging area before it started. We all crowded around the doors, and were off! It was pretty fun, as usual. Unlike most times, I actually brought my own camera along, to film the parade from the perspective of someone IN it. Definitely made things more interesting. At the end of the parade, we all crowded in the hotel lobby for the group photo. We were packed in like sardines, and I was sweating profusely, but several minutes and 4 howls later, we were done.
I was getting ready to head back up to my room when who do I see but my old buddy Hemlock Fox! I didn't even know he was AT Furry Migration! I gave him a big hug and we started making our way over to the headless lounge. On the way, I once again ran into Mr. Zebra and gave him a hug as well. Once in the headless lounge, Hemlock and I spent some time catching up and talking about convention plans and whatnot. I keep forgetting how far he is from... like, every convention. Thankfully, it sounds like he's moving to Minneapolis in the future, so that's cool. I introduced Hemlock to Denro while he was there, and then I agreed to meet Hemlock up in the consuite for some grub (after getting cleaned up of course).
It was the first time I had been to the consuite that weekend. This is one of the things that Furry Migration does REALLY well. AnthroCon has no consuite. MFF has a really basic one with poptarts and soda (which makes sense considering the fact that they are so big). Fur Squared has a nice consuite with a big selection of snacks and occasional hot meals, but it's only available to sponsors. But Furry Migration takes the cake. They have hot food available (the options were hotdogs and rice, and occasionally chili and soft pretzels) the entire time the consuite is open, as well as snacks and sodas. They even have condiments for the rice and hotdogs (teriyaki and sweet chili sauce, mmmmmm!). And it's available to all attendees, free of charge.
Heck, they even had a cotton candy machine to go with the carnival theme. Did I mention the carnival theme? They called it the "Midway Menagerie." They had posters all over the con space depicting various anthropomorphized circus acts (fortune teller, firebreather, human cannonball, etc). They also had booths where people could go play simple carnival games. It added some more whimsy to the experience.
Anyway, I met up with Hemlock at the consuite, and we chatted some more. It was good to take some time to relax and chat with someone. I had been scrambling around all morning. Plus, I was rather hungry, so I ended up housing two hotdogs and four scoopfuls of rice. It helped.
I was then off to Whose Line (general audience edition). This one was very similar to the one the previous night, but we had the restriction of keeping it PG. Which honestly made things a bit more funny, because we didn't just resort to dirty jokes the whole time. I do remember sharing the stage with Zen Fox for one of the games, which was interesting. At any rate, this one was also filmed, so I'll let Silvergatomon take care of it. I prefer to provide commentary on the bits that weren't filmed, anyway.
After Whose Line, I went over to see the Fox And Pepper after dark concert. As per usual, they played various songs in their repertoire, but with a more casual lighthearted vibe, and not caring as much if they make mistakes. Honestly, a big part of the fun is the banter between Fox and Pepper. Pepper is this big goofball who says the most random stuff, and Fox is the straight-man who is just standing there behind his piano, making snarky comments about Pepper's oddities. The dynamic works really well.
Also, I started noticing something. For many of the more silly songs, it often wasn't Pepper choosing them. It was Fox, playing the intro lines for the song, and then Pepper going "oh we're doing this now!" Like, he was the one that started playing the riff for Amish Paradise. This seems to suggest that Fox WANTS to do the silly songs, rather than just being made to play them by Pepper the whole time. It's like, Fox has a fun side. He just expresses it in a different way than Pepper.
It also seems to suggest more of a partnership between them, rather than them just sort of begrudgingly working together. They may operate on slightly different wavelengths, and they may butt heads at times (they talked about it during the show), but they're really good friends, and their music is definitely a collaboration.
Anyway, the concert is definitely worth a watch. Good times.
After the show, I went down and grabbed a turkey burger from the hotel restaurant. Again, didn't feel like leaving. I do remember hearing one of the bartenders talking about how it was his last day, and talking about how his last week has been really stressful. I kept thinking "yeah, you've got a mob of weird animal people here!" It was funny.
After I ate, I went up and looked around a bit, and went over to catch the tail-end of the Open Mic panel. Some of the comedians were REALLY funny! Like, I know open mics have a bit of a reputation for being full of cringy non-comedians who don't know what they're doing, but there were some pretty great acts there. And then Alkali and Pepper (who were giving feedback) told some other humorous stories. I think it was recorded. Definitely worth a watch.
The last event of the night was Adult Fursuit Charades. However, it ended up being kind of a bust, because we had a grand total of 3 fursuiters there. I was going to get in suit for it, but I was feeling kinda sick to my stomach, and my toe was still acting up, so I decided to take it easy. So instead of doing charades, the panel host ended up playing Monickers with the group. It was really fun. If you haven't played Monickers before, I strongly recommend you give it a try. It's hilarious and awesome, probably one of the best party games I've played in a while.
After the panel was over, I went up to my room and ended up talking with my roommates for the better part of 2 hours about all things furry. It was pretty nice.
Sunday
The morning was spent mainly on packing and checking out of the room. I grabbed a vegetarian quiche for breakfast and then we got to work. It ended up taking about an hour to get it all settled. With checkout, I was now no longer able to fursuit (I had to put it away in the car).
After checkout, I quickly stopped by the dealer's room and bought a small keychain as a memento for attending. I quick grabbed some lunch in the consuite with Denro. I then made my way back to main stage to go see something called DreamWorld. Turns out, it was a concert performed by Erin Kitsune, a lady I see fairly often in the Foxes and Peppers telegram chat. She performed mainly piano/orchestral instrumental songs, and it was pretty nice. Very emotive pieces, if a tad bit repetitive. Still enjoyable.
She also used her concert as a means of collecting money for the charity. She auctioned off multiple copies of her album, and all the money went to the charity. I ended up bidding on and winning one of them. I wanted to donate to the charity, and hadn't really had a chance before, so I seized the opportunity. Further, she incentivized charitable giving by making a goal: if they hit $250, she would perform the rest of the concert in her fursuit head. Well, let's just say she needed to drink her water with a jumbo straw towards the end there. All told, her concert raised $310, which is pretty impressive for a small solo performance!
After the concert, I grabbed a seat with Caige outside the main stage as we waited for the Fursuit Dance Competition finals. I hadn't been to a dance comp in... a very long time. I kind of stopped going to them for some reason. I don't quite know why, considering the fact that the dance comp has historically been one of my favorite events of the entire con. And this one was no exception. It was the first time I had been to a dance comp where the performers were on a floor in the center of the room, rather than on a stage. It definitely adds a new dynamic to the performance.
The show was HIGHLY entertaining. There were some AMAZING performers, and I encourage you to watch the replay. I'm not 100% happy with the results (there were some people I felt should have won), but overall it was a great time.
The dance comp ended kind of early, so we had like an hour and a half to kill before closing ceremonies. Denro had disappeared, so Caige and I wandered around a bit before ultimately ending up in the gaming room, playing Rock Band. It was pretty fun! I hadn't played Rock Band since... well, since Fur Squared where I played in suit. We each took turns playing the various instruments. Turns out I actually really enjoy playing bass. Caige and I ended up playing like 5 or 6 songs with some other furries, including a fursuiter on drums for a bit.
Finally, it was last call. We only had time for 1 more song. A girl came up to the mic, expressing a desire to "do karaoke" (I think she didn't realize it was Rock Band). She scrolled for a bit, before settling on... "Photograph" by Nickelback. I think she chose it because of the memes. Anyway, the song was starting, and she quickly realized that she didn't know any of the lyrics. Not knowing what to do, she put the mic down and said she was out. Not wanting to let the song go to waste, I grabbed the mic. And I knew what I had to do.
See, I hate Nickelback. They are "country metal." They're cheesy. And they're just annoying. So, I decided to make a joke out of it. Instead of actually attempting to read the lyrics on the screen, I simply sang different variations of "Look at this photograph!" for every single line. "Look at this photograph! Look at this photograph! Look at this photograaaaaah! Photo photo photo photo! Graaaaaaaph! Graaaaaaph!" And then, halfway through the song, I got bored, and started ad-libbing lyrics about Furry Migration. It was very silly, and people got a good laugh out of it. I do hope someone caught that on film.
At 4, they kicked us out of the room, so we met up with Denro and some of his friends. Apparently one of Denro's friends did something called a "blind fursuit commission." He commissioned a fursuit, knowing absolutely nothing about it. The maker created the fursuit in secret. And then, when the person actually received the suit, they opened it and put it on blindfolded, so that the only thing they could see was the hands. Which sounds FRIGGIN AMAZING! Not to mention the fact that the suit was absolutely adorable. So yeah, I'd like to do that sometime.
And then DINOSAURS ATTACKED.
We were just waiting in the hallway, when four people wearing inflatable dinosaur costumes come barreling through the doorway and sprinted down the hall, the sounds of "FWUMP FWUMP FWUMP FWUMP!" echoing through the con space. One of the dinosaurs had a comically huge head, and was flailing it around like a club. The four dinosaurs fought and wrestled in the hallway for a bit, knocking each other over. The crowds cheered and laughed as the dinosaurs wobbled and flopped around. Then they ran off, ran back, and ran away. It was hilarious and amazing, and I saw no less than 5 people filming it. But I wasn't one of them, because I accidentally set my camera to picture mode instead of video mode, so all I have are 3 really blurry pictures.
After the dinosaur rampage, I went to closing ceremonies. They announced the final attendance: 1107 attendees. Pretty solid. But then they announced the charity total: $2500.
I was shocked. "That's it?" I didn't know what to think. Why was their charity total so low? But then, I started putting the pieces together, and I saw things that started to make sense.
They didn't promote their charity very much. Some people didn't even know who the charity was. IIRC only 4 events at the entire con were "charity" events. The con didn't have a lot of the big earners, like the voice charity auction and the charity poker tournament. All of these things made it seem like charity was an afterthought. This would explain why an 1,100 person con would raise $2,500, while a con of the same size that did a lot to promote the charity raised $21,000. And this was the other big complaint I had about Furry Migration: they didn't do enough for charity.
I sincerely hope that next year, they put a lot more time and effort into promoting the charity. Otherwise, it's really not going to be worth the non-profit's while to show up.
Also, next year's con theme is sports. Yay.
After closing ceremonies, I wandered around a bit trying to find Denro and Caige. They apparently had gone out for a walk with some friends while I was at the closing. No biggie. I ran into them eventually, and the three of us went over to Buca di Beppo for dinner. It's a pretty solid Italian place if that's your jams. We got the Pizza Bianco, cheesy garlic bread, spicy broccoli, and brussel sprouts with prosciutto.
After we ate, we said our goodbyes, and we were on our way. Denro needed a ride home, and he lived in the same town as me, so I gave him a lift. I ended up getting home at almost midnight. This made the next day at work very difficult.
Overall
Furry Migration was a lot better than it was the last time I went. And I think it's a con that does a lot of things really well. But there are some crucial areas where it can improve. If it can fix its problems with programming and charitable giving, it has the potential to become a powerhouse on the convention scene in the midwest. It's a con with a lot of heart, some very dedicated staffers, and a lot of unique and innovative ideas. I wish them all the best.
As for me, I had a good time. It wasn't my best con experience ever, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect that from any convention. On the whole, the positive outweighed the negative. I got to meet Alkali, I participated in Whose Line more than I ever have, and I got to run a panel that was a moderate success. I am going to be back next year, and I'm excited for the next adventure.