(If you have photos or videos with me, let me know! :3)

This con was one absolutely amazing experience. (Which you should get on your radar to go to next year!)

For starters, being guest of honor was, well... "honored" isn't a strong enough word to express how much it means to me. A level of recognition on that scale for the efforts I've put into  Furs-For-Life, and into the fandom in general, was more than I ever expected to receive. I was more than happy to do everything I could to hype the con and contribute to it. Having people come up to me to talk about Furs For Life, congratulate me, and sometimes even thank me, made me extremely bashful, but was really moving at the same time. <3

Timewise, this con was crammed in REALLY tight for me, I only had Friday to take off work, and had delays both getting to and returning from the con, so I got in Friday at 1am, and left Sunday at 9pm. (So next year, when you go, you should plan ahead better than I did!)

Initially, I was very concerned with the idea of fursuiting in a casino. My previous experiences with casinos involved me feeling sick and irritated from an unavoidable cloud of smoke around every turn. This hotel+casino did an excellent job of separating everything though! The vast majority of the space is non smoking, and is very well contained to specific areas. You know how well I take care of TK, and how much I LOATHE smoke. I will say this hotel gets a TK stamp of approval. *pawprint*

The hotel is chill and classy. It's like Vegas, minus the shallow attitude and need to make everything be HUGE and ASTONISHING (which ends up just being more expensive without any real quality). This place focuses on fun. Go-karting, arcade, laser tag, and bowling were the non-gambling hotel highlights, all of which are CHEAP. That's all in addition to the con itself, of course. (Which, did I mention you should go to? Because you should!)

The con space is very different compared to other cons, and I LOVED it. The central space has the main stage, hangout space, dealer's den, photoshoot spot, and "more fursuit-y" hangout place all connected without walls separating them. The main space has doors leading to all the other con rooms. What this means is that IT'S REALLY EASY TO FIND PEOPLE! For a con of 700 people, it felt much more lively because of how well-arranged the space was. Speaking of which, BLFC was literally the BIGGEST little furcon. It broke the old record held by FC, of largest first-year furcon. The hotel is also large enough for the con to grow tenfold without having to move. (Hey! Let's hit 1,000 next year!)

One thing I really liked about this con is that it was really easy to interact with (or avoid) people outside the con. Not feeling sociable with non-con goers? Go straight from the elevator to the con space. Want to make a bunch of kids smile? Walk down the hallway for just a bit and you'll find many people and kids who are very excited to interact with you. Granted, some were a little out of control, but nothing too bad. The con will likely have spotters looking out of us next year to fix that.

I had to run around a lot this con! Presented a panel on Furs For Life, did a video shoot, led the fursuit parade, judged the dance competition, did a meet the GoHs panel, and probably more I forget. It was all a lot of fun though! Next year, though, I will make time to organize some laser tag and go kart groups. I was able to find almost everyone I was looking for, and got to hang out with. Met some new friendly faces, too, which is always great.

Oh, did I mention DANCE TILL DAWN? Yeah, we have the con space for as late as we want it, so every night, the dances go as long as there are people and DJs around. Saturday went till sunrise at 6am, woo!

Staff are all amazing. They put their heart into the con and do what's needed to make things work. Honestly, everything went so smoothly! It was really impressive, and more put together than some other long running cons. This con will be replacing Califur for me this and probably next year. (Unless some cheap and easy way to attend falls into my lap) Califur was fun the first year because a group of friends I did not expect were there. The following year it was just not good to me. Too many creepers and pervs at that con (I was sexually harassed there a lot), and so little to do.

The only negative thing I have to say about the con is that I couldn't be there longer. So for reals, YOU SHOULD GO TO BLFC NEXT YEAR! <3

I honestly had to choke back tears as I was leaving... had a big wave of feels. To my friends that I got to spend time with: Thank you for making this con so wonderful, and for letting me share this experience with you. <3