I'll start this con report off by mentioning that it was my first Midwest FurFest that I attended since 2003. I wanted to attend it since then, but I ended up having other Christmas travel plans (some trips to Europe, among other things) that sucked up my money and vacation days.

The executive summary was that it was nice to come to a con where I didn't have to work as much as I did at Anthrocon. I still worked this con, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I flew into to Chicago on Thursday night before the con. I ended up sharing a flight with this guy:

Apparently his parents let him come to MFF, provided that he shared his flights out and back with a responsible adult. Sometime my name was mentioned. I have no idea how this happened.

Now that pic was taken just outside of the Art Show, where I was working for Aureth this year. It was nice to work the art show, because I didn't have to be on my feet as much, and it was a relatively quiet environment. It also awesome to work with Mindslide again, seeing that I hadn't seen her since 2003 or so.

On Friday night I hit the dance, so I could dance to the sets of Kale and other DJs. And yes, this a pic of Darth Vader at the dance:

The good news is that my cardiovascular system was in good enough shape that I could dance for 30 minutes without stopping. The bad news is that my muscles weren't used to this sort of activity and I paid for it dearly the following days with very sore calf muscles. Well, at least I know my limits now. :-/

On Saturday afternoon there was the fursuit parade. While the pictures came out nice, I was totally freezing while I took them. It was around 40 degrees with a bit of wind when these pictures were taken:

At some point on Friday, Orvan Ox came by the art show with some deliveries:

Aside from the art show, I ended up volunteering a few shifts with security at the con. I had originally packed my Dorsai Irregulars beret, since I knew a few other DI would be attending the con. I never thought I'd actually end up having to work as a DI at that con. There was some joking amongst the DI about it being the shortest time ever to negotiate and complete a contract.

The downside to helping out with security is that it affected my performance in working the art show. I was rather tired and Saturday and Sunday and it hurt my productivity a bit. I'll have to be more careful about over-extending myself in the future.

On the way out on Monday, I saw this incredibly cool Okami-themed car, complete with a Michigan license plate that read "OKAMI":

The rest of my pictures can be found at: http://flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157610262520115/

I know I didn't mention a lot of names in this con report. It's not because I forgot about all of you, it's just that I felt it'd be redundant since I've been to so many cons in such a short time.

My next two cons will be MagFest in January and Furry Connection North in April. I'll see you there!

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I'll be arriving at Midwest FurFest on Thursday and leaving on Monday.

I'm working in the Art Show again. Here are the hours I'll be on duty:

Friday: 11 AM to 3 PM
Saturday: 1 PM to 3 PM, 7 PM to 1 AM
Sunday: 11 AM to 6 PM

Hope I'll see the usual gang of folks there!

Okay, I uploaded all of my pictures form Midwest FurFest. Okay, let's get the link to all of the pics out of the way: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157622889526042/. And now, pictures that I found especially interesting!

First picture is from the Method 1 Live show. Since the hosts couldn't have beer in con space, they instead reviewed Drank Beverage. Along the way, they also decided it would be a good idea to drink Brawndo, and even mix them in the same glass and drink the olive oil-colored concoction. That didn't end so well, as this picture tries to illustrate:

One Standard Issue Furpile that happened Sunday night outside of the dance:

And some actual huskies, who were part of last year's charity, came by to be trained for working with large crowds:

The first Steampunk fursuit that I recall seeing at a furry convention:

This Beast fursuit--or combination of fursuit and face paint, rather, was pretty cool. The first time I've seen someone do something like that, too:

Poor Raptor Red!

Want the rest of my pictures? They're at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157622889526042/. Have fun!

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Well, this year's MFF came and went. And man, did it ever go well. This was one of those conventions for me where everything seemed to go right and fall into place. It was a rare moment at the con when I didn't have something to do or someone to chat with.

As is my tradition with attending conventions, I tend to work them too. This year, I worked in Operations for Puma and his staff. It was a different experience, and overall I enjoyed being in more of an attendee-facing role at this year's MFF.

As I mentioned in a previous comment, Raptor Red was there, in a new version of his fursuit. He was rather expressive, which is normal for him:

The fursuit parade had 574 fursuiters this year:

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Impatient? You can view all of the photos over here!

Midwest FurFest was a furry convention held in Chicago from November 16th-18th, 2012. It was held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare which was a rather nice venue, with plenty of public space for socializing and gathering. I worked in Convention Operations (Con Ops) again under Puma again, and when I wasn't working, I did what I normally did: I took pictures.

I tried to do more closeup fursuit muzzle pictures with Nikon D3000, and the results came out pretty well:

Of course, no convention could be complete without Raptor Jesus, Master Splinter, and The Drama Llama seen in that order:

Way too much fun was had at Midwest FurFest. (Want the full set of pictures? They're over here!)

At this time, my next furry convention will be Furry Connection North, to be held in April up in Michigan. Have a good Christmas, and I hope I see you all there!

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MidWest FurFest is just around the corner, and I will be working in Convention Operations (ConOps) for Takaza.

Here are my duty hours:

Thursday: 1:30 PM to 4 PM
Friday: 4 PM to 7 PM
Saturday: 4 PM to 8 PM
Sunday: 4 PM to 8 PM

Outside of those hours, I look forward to hanging out with friends, flailing around at the dances, and generally having fun. I'll see you there!

I was back in Chicago again from November 22nd to 24th for MidWest FurFest.

Once again, I worked staff in Convention Operations, under Takaza. Con Ops went really well this year, as we had many experienced staff members and plenty of manpower to get things done. I actually got to do something new: walk around to other departments in the convention, check in with them, and see if they needed anything. It was a nice extra responsibility to have this year.

Our charity this year was One Tail at a Time, and we were able to raise $8,000 for them and then gave them an additional $20,000 on top of that, bringing the total to $28,000.

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I spent December 5th-7th at MidWest FurFest, held in the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Rosemont, IL. It was another well-run convention that I had a good time attending (and staffing).

Friday

In addition to walking around the convention and seeing friends, I dropped in on Eosfoxx's "How To Draw Animals" panel. She went through detail on how to draw different kinds of animals, and how they differed from humans. Not having much of an art background myself, I actually found the panel rather informative. I came away from there better understanding the artistic process, at least when tablets are involved.

Saturday

This was the big day with our Fursuit Parade. I got to help count the parade again, which is both fun and affords me an interesting view of the parade. The final count for number of fursuiters in the parade was 1,132.

The rest of the night involved hanging out with some friends until about 1 AM. Then the chlorine gas attack happened. I won't go into that here, seeing as I already wrote about that.

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I attended Midwest FurFest last month, which was held from December 1st-4th, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Chicago, IL.

Once again, I was on staff at this con. I worked in VIP Services as a Handler for one of our Guests of Honor. That meant that my job was basically to be their point of contact during the convention. I was responsible for meeting for them at the airport, getting them to all of their panels on time, and relaying any questions or issues that came up to the appropriate department (room requests, A/V requests, etc.). This role suited me well, because the cadence was "take them to a panel, then sit down for an hour". As I am still recovering from my injuries, not having to be on my feet non-stop really really helped.

The most impressive thing about Midwest FurFest was its attendance this year--they continue to show amazing amounts of growth and had a whopping 7,075 attendees this year! People have asked me if they attendance numbers might surpass Anthrocon one year and it is entirely possible--Chicago is a well-placed city which serves as a hub for planes, trains, and busses, and the hotel scales really well for conventions. I know based on my own experience when I worked at Anime Central in 2009, the year in which it had 19,511 attendees. Both cons are well run, and if you like both, you should attend both. If you like to staff cons, then please staff both (as I do).

Instead of doing a fursuit parade this year, they tried something instead called the Fursuit Menagerie. They instead set up photography stations around the main ballroom and the foyer outside of it and had scheduled photoshoots for different kinds of fursuits (different species, different color, etc.). While I missed the parade as I come to know, it was nice to be able to socialize with some friends during the shoot.

Looking for the rest of my photos? I have them up here:

• Facebook
• Flickr

My next convention will be Anthro New England, slated to have its third convention in a couple of weeks. I hope I'll see you there!

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I attended Midwest FurFest back in December, where I served as a staff member in VIP Relations. The con did amazingly well, with 8,700 attendees and they raised $85,000 for their charity, CRISP.

This was the convention's first year in the Rosemont Convention Center, and the extra space was welcome for places like the Dealers Room and the Art Show. It also gave the game room space to expand into. This gave the con a much bigger feel to it was very different from me from past FurFests. Not that I still didn't enjoy it. I got to see a lot of friends again and catch up with them.

As usual, I took a few pictures:

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