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FWA 2018 post-con report.
7 years ago
Another FWA has come and gone. This years' theme "Galactic Gunslingers". Next year - "Pirates", May 9-13. It has moved dates about a month later, presumably to better accommodate our growth (just short of 5200 attendees this year!), and avoid scheduling conflicts with other events in the hotel.
I arrived Tuesday around 1:30 P.M. and checked in, stored my stuff in the room. Proceeded to the con office for loadout as well as drive one of the trucks. Trucks were loaded by 6:30 and got back to the hotel around 7:15-7:30. Went for some food and rested in my room for a while.
Wednesday morning we unloaded the trucks. Later that morning was the arrival of a friend from the Pittsburgh area, who needed a room spot for the night. We stored his stuff and he went about meeting people and such. I had to drive one of the trucks to pick up the food for the God Level Lounge, which kept me out and about until almost 7:00 P.M., by which time it was too late to return the rental truck. I milled around the con floor a bit, got some food, and went to my room for the night.
Thursday morning I had a roommate arriving from Florida, 2 friends arriving from Texas (by car), 2 local friends arriving, and 3 friends arriving from the west coast. Since I had booked a 2nd room for these 4 friends, I picked up the room cards and got them settled in. I had to return a rental truck, got back in time for staff registration, and opening ceremonies. Everyone was in line for registration, so I went up to my room, returned as Chamoore, and fursuited around in that for a couple hours.
Friday I didn't have much planned. Helped with some of the setup stuff (whatever didn't get finished Thursday). Visited Dealers Den, Artist Alley, Con Store (listed under "Loot!", below), and after getting into Killjoy, fursuited around for a couple hours, made sure to get plenty of photos taken (forthcoming soon-ish). My 2 local friends had to leave due to one of them not feeling well (long term health matters), so my Texas friend wanted to have a chat about it. After leaving his room, I was not feeling well myself so I went to visit our on-site medics. Saying I was in distress was an understatement. I was taken to a nearby 24-hour clinic and was there an hour or 2, but after getting some strong (prescription) pain meds and such, I felt much better and made my way back to the hotel. I milled around the con floor but didn't get into fursuit for the rest of the night.
Saturday I was still in pain. The meds helped bring it to a level where I could still leave the room and "do stuff". I slept in. I didn't fursuit at all on Saturday. However, there was NO WAY I would miss the charity auction if I had anything to do about it. So I did manage to attend that. Only 1 or 2 bids, no wins for me. (That's alright, as I didn't really need anything anyway, not to mention an unplanned expense visiting the clinic the night before). Right after that was the Dad's Garage improv act, which I highly recommend to anyone who likes that sort of thing and visits FWA. The auditorium was cold (as it should be for fursuiters) but with me not feeling well, I went to bed to try and warm up more than anything.
Sunday, last day of con. I'd missed a bit from the previous 2 days, but nothing that ruined the con for me. The group photo was at 10:30 A.M., so I had to get up, dressed, motivated, and into fursuit in time for it. "Foxy Brad" needed to make a public debut. I got into the room right on schedule, the group photo was taken, I stuck around for some of the fursuit mingle photos, and went to have more photos taken. Several folks made positive comments about "Brad" and at least 2 about his multiple tails. I didn't want to chance being ill in fursuit, so I went up after a couple hours and got out of it, came back downstairs and got my poster signed by the GOH, got my badges/photos from the photographer studio, and .... something else. We had to go pick up the rental trucks. We returned with those around 4:00, I went to the con store for an item I didn't want to pay full price for (and had a $5 con store credit to redeem as well). After that, we began take-down of the con, went to closing ceremonies, and began loading the trucks. Staff party was ... a little later ... and the Logistics crew had to depart to resume loading trucks. This year, FWA had some of the gaming going on until midnight and the dance/rave until 2:00 A.M. We had to wait until those rooms were done, closed, and packed up before we could load them on the trucks. We left the hotel with the trucks around 4:30 A.M. I returned in my personal vehicle (since my personal stuff wouldn't fit in the trucks) around 5:30. I had not slept all night. I asked about late checkout, the latest they could offer me was noon (as they had another large event arriving that day). So a couple hours of sleep later, we packed up all our stuff, made sure the room was clear, went downstairs, and checked out.
Loot!
Lanyard (given to all staff)
Badge
ID bracelet (RFID bracelets were used this year, typically intended to be non-removable. Most folks cut them off and trash them after the con is over.)
Belt "holster", the God Level Gift. Not a weapon holster, but with a number of pockets, waist and leg straps, it was very much in-theme and proved quite useful during the con.
Commissioned a badge in Artist Alley (photos when I receive it).
Con-Store goodies:
T-shirt
2 iron-on patches
3 pins
Themed lab-coat (bought at discounted staff rate)
See you all next year for "Pirates!"
I arrived Tuesday around 1:30 P.M. and checked in, stored my stuff in the room. Proceeded to the con office for loadout as well as drive one of the trucks. Trucks were loaded by 6:30 and got back to the hotel around 7:15-7:30. Went for some food and rested in my room for a while.
Wednesday morning we unloaded the trucks. Later that morning was the arrival of a friend from the Pittsburgh area, who needed a room spot for the night. We stored his stuff and he went about meeting people and such. I had to drive one of the trucks to pick up the food for the God Level Lounge, which kept me out and about until almost 7:00 P.M., by which time it was too late to return the rental truck. I milled around the con floor a bit, got some food, and went to my room for the night.
Thursday morning I had a roommate arriving from Florida, 2 friends arriving from Texas (by car), 2 local friends arriving, and 3 friends arriving from the west coast. Since I had booked a 2nd room for these 4 friends, I picked up the room cards and got them settled in. I had to return a rental truck, got back in time for staff registration, and opening ceremonies. Everyone was in line for registration, so I went up to my room, returned as Chamoore, and fursuited around in that for a couple hours.
Friday I didn't have much planned. Helped with some of the setup stuff (whatever didn't get finished Thursday). Visited Dealers Den, Artist Alley, Con Store (listed under "Loot!", below), and after getting into Killjoy, fursuited around for a couple hours, made sure to get plenty of photos taken (forthcoming soon-ish). My 2 local friends had to leave due to one of them not feeling well (long term health matters), so my Texas friend wanted to have a chat about it. After leaving his room, I was not feeling well myself so I went to visit our on-site medics. Saying I was in distress was an understatement. I was taken to a nearby 24-hour clinic and was there an hour or 2, but after getting some strong (prescription) pain meds and such, I felt much better and made my way back to the hotel. I milled around the con floor but didn't get into fursuit for the rest of the night.
Saturday I was still in pain. The meds helped bring it to a level where I could still leave the room and "do stuff". I slept in. I didn't fursuit at all on Saturday. However, there was NO WAY I would miss the charity auction if I had anything to do about it. So I did manage to attend that. Only 1 or 2 bids, no wins for me. (That's alright, as I didn't really need anything anyway, not to mention an unplanned expense visiting the clinic the night before). Right after that was the Dad's Garage improv act, which I highly recommend to anyone who likes that sort of thing and visits FWA. The auditorium was cold (as it should be for fursuiters) but with me not feeling well, I went to bed to try and warm up more than anything.
Sunday, last day of con. I'd missed a bit from the previous 2 days, but nothing that ruined the con for me. The group photo was at 10:30 A.M., so I had to get up, dressed, motivated, and into fursuit in time for it. "Foxy Brad" needed to make a public debut. I got into the room right on schedule, the group photo was taken, I stuck around for some of the fursuit mingle photos, and went to have more photos taken. Several folks made positive comments about "Brad" and at least 2 about his multiple tails. I didn't want to chance being ill in fursuit, so I went up after a couple hours and got out of it, came back downstairs and got my poster signed by the GOH, got my badges/photos from the photographer studio, and .... something else. We had to go pick up the rental trucks. We returned with those around 4:00, I went to the con store for an item I didn't want to pay full price for (and had a $5 con store credit to redeem as well). After that, we began take-down of the con, went to closing ceremonies, and began loading the trucks. Staff party was ... a little later ... and the Logistics crew had to depart to resume loading trucks. This year, FWA had some of the gaming going on until midnight and the dance/rave until 2:00 A.M. We had to wait until those rooms were done, closed, and packed up before we could load them on the trucks. We left the hotel with the trucks around 4:30 A.M. I returned in my personal vehicle (since my personal stuff wouldn't fit in the trucks) around 5:30. I had not slept all night. I asked about late checkout, the latest they could offer me was noon (as they had another large event arriving that day). So a couple hours of sleep later, we packed up all our stuff, made sure the room was clear, went downstairs, and checked out.
Loot!
Lanyard (given to all staff)
Badge
ID bracelet (RFID bracelets were used this year, typically intended to be non-removable. Most folks cut them off and trash them after the con is over.)
Belt "holster", the God Level Gift. Not a weapon holster, but with a number of pockets, waist and leg straps, it was very much in-theme and proved quite useful during the con.
Commissioned a badge in Artist Alley (photos when I receive it).
Con-Store goodies:
T-shirt
2 iron-on patches
3 pins
Themed lab-coat (bought at discounted staff rate)
See you all next year for "Pirates!"
