Well, I never thought I'd be saying this, but BronyCAN was A BLAST. Seriously. I can't even explain why, but I had more fun staffing that con then I've had at any con in my 6+ years of staffing cons.


$7600+ to Childrens Hospital. 820+ attendees. 6 Voice Actors from the show, plus special guests. Incredibly motivated and dedicated staff. Great media coverage of the event. Honestly, I can't picture a 1st year con going much better!


For those who don't know, I was asked to consider helping with BronyCAN about a month ago by  trapa, particularly since he was unable to attend due to his trip to eurofurence this year. At the time, I had no interest in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, although I had watched a handful of episodes and was aware of what it was about. The staff were new to running conventions and had a great ground work in place, but lacked a good deal of operational experience and knowledge they needed to really pull things together.


Trapa's line to me regarding MLP was, "Maybe you'll find a way to like it". He suggested I give it another try. So, I did. I had been watching a lot of dramatic shows like Dexter and Breaking bad, and while I love both of those series, they are.. not exactly uplifting. With being single and feeling a little down these days, I needed a pick-me-up. I don't know what exactly happened; something to do with Ashleigh Ball's voice of Rainbow Dash, along with some very creative writing in a few episodes, but .. I'm hooked. This show is exactly what I need right now :)


That inspiration followed with my immediate jump into staff. .. And a ton of absolutely frivolous pony merchandise purchases. :)


The BronyCAN staff, including chairman Jay, HR guy SilverShock, and others expressed their gratitude for my opinions and thoughts on the plethora of subjects that encompass running a con like this. Jay, being from Saskatchewan, was obviously disassociated from the physical side of the convention until his arrival a week before, so I helped out where I could, along with Silver and others. There were certainly a good number of challenges. The largest challenge was an IT need that sprung up unexpectedly that required  VancouFur to provide a full set of registration equipment. Mindseye was able to donate a server for the convention's usage.  Trapa and  Rainfurrest donated the use of their hard card printers. It was truly a team effort.


In the end, I wound up running on about 4 hours of sleep a night for 2 weeks leading up to the con. To say it was a lot of work is a huge understatement. I know for a fact I was not the only one with this kind of schedule, either. It takes a LOT of work to get a con like this to happen.


Kristie, aka Rabbitausaur, had the job of wrangling all the show guests and VIPs and setting their schedules for appearances, autographs, interviews with media, etc. Wow. She sure had her hands full. I tried to help where I could.


A number of panelists didn't show up to their panels, and some were quite involved panels that included the contracted show talent. Somehow, we jumped in and salvaged those situations. Moreso, Lee Tockar is MY HERO. He is one of the voice actors on the show, and easily the most fun person I have met in the past few years. Incredibly dedicated, wanting to help, and... just a total class act. I can't even count the number of times he stepped in to make an awkward or desperate situation work out for the best. You rock, dude!!


On a personal side, I was absolutely not ready for just how excited I was to meet Andrea Libman. I have always been a fan of voice actors in general; I think it started with Optimus Prime way way back when I was very young. I listen to the voices that people contribute to characters and it is often my initial interest in the character. This was certainly the case for Rainbow Dash, who is voiced by Ashleigh Ball (who I really want to meet one day). Another character that really grabbed me.. well, actually two.. are Pinkie Pie and Flutter Shy, both voiced by Andrea Libman. Andrea is a Vancouver native (born in Toronto, but raised here) and ex child actor who provides her unique, smooth, but high-pitched voice to these two characters. Not only a talented person, she was a complete sweetheart and put up with my ridiculous requests of her during the VIP dinner and autograph signing. She was a true pleasure to talk to and.. dare I say, get to know! She honestly made all this effort for the con worth it.

I also got to meet and talk to Tabitha St Germain (Rarity, Luna, Granny Smith, and a ton more), Vincent Tong (Prince Blueblood, Donut Joe, plus others), Claire Corlett (Sweetie Bell), Rebecca Shoichet (singing voice for Twilight Sparkle & for the show intro), and briefly with Nicole Gauss (one of the show character designers) who also drew me an MLP style dolphin in my sketch book!


I had a blast. I will absolutely be helping with next year's con, assuming we can pull one together, and I have a set of memories I will not soon forget. I am, without any shadow of a doubt, a brony now.


BTW, Rainbow Dash is best pony ;)