So this was my first time going to ANE proper, Boston's premier furry convention. My housemates n local friends were almost all staff members, and they did a goddamn helluva job running the whole thing with effectively a skeleton crew. They managed to bring in 2500+ attendees, 27,000$usd for charity, did so all despite the numerous problems with the hotel.
The Boston Park Plaza hotel was picked a few years ago by previous con staff, who then left after the rest of staff voted to switch from the previously problematic 'k9 officer bulletproof vest' charity.
The hotel is very old, and very 'historic', with a prime location a literal block fromt he Boston Commons (tldr Bostons' Central Park). but on top of management clearly not investing in properly updating and renovating their hotel, they skimped out.
-a part of the ballroom ceiling fucking collapsed on Thursday night from an effectively ignored sewage pipe leak, thankfully when nobodywas underneath or nearby.
-hotel staff were overheard telling non-furry guests 'we're not letting these freaks back'
-my constaff friends were trapped in an elevator for 20 minutes, with no communication from hotel staff. Upon being freed, hotel staff accused them of breaking the elevator. My friends stormed down to the front desk demanding to speak to the General Manager, and ended up in an encounter with this one fuckwit employee, Marco (and yes i will namedrop this fuckwit, cuz fuck him), who proceeded to call my friends homophobic slurs. The General Manager was away for the weekend, and never heard a word of the incident until the Sunday morning of the con.also the food fucking sucked. Eggs out of Carton awful.
Fuck Park Plaza.
BUT YOOOOO ANE 2023 IS GONNA BE FUCKING RAD
especially since i'm prolly coming onto staff for logistics >:3c