stuff and FURREST CITY MINI CON
Sep. 14th, 2025 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
obliviousallysaturday was FURREST CITY MINI CON!!!!!
it was extremely successful - 192 attendees in total!! we had a small space at sears think[box] on the case western reserve university campus (a staff member used to work there and had organized a small meet there previously and discussed that it might be a good option for a larger than a meetup, con-like event). and that's something we worked on over the last year or so (definitely moreso others on staff than myself, especially our finances person)!
i spent all day running around, mingling, doing whatever was needed in the moment - hanging out up by the parking garage to be a wayfinding point to make sure people could navigate their way to the venue (love what a maze college campuses can be), going along to help with the west side market excursion (and also acquire lots of goodies!!), meeting lots of folks for the first time, watching in on panels, poking around the little dealer's room, watching people play video games, etc., etc.
i'm honestly so happy this came together so well and went off without a hitch - folks who know me know i've historically been kind of a debbie downer (and sort of an aggressive realist when asking pointed questions to the people who'd claim it would be 'so easy' to get a con going here) when it would come to establishing a furry convention in cleveland. lots of factors are already kind of 'against' it - we're sandwiched between anthrocon and midwest furfest, two of the biggest 3-4 conventions in the states. it costs money, it needs people willing to do the thankless work of running a convention (and events in general!), and it needs people willing to simply show up. and i think it really just needed the right combination of people to get the gears moving - we have an amazing board and staff that are really committed to cultivating a real, living community and that's so deeply, deeply awesome and i'm so very happy to be proven wrong about my prior feelings on the matter X3
after we closed up and cleaned out the space, the remaining staff walked up to little italy and had coffee/food at a little tea shop called algebra and i finally got off my feet lol
also, rode the rail for the first time in cleveland! i never, like, bothered with it previously, but we were able to take it directly from the corner by think[box] out to the intersection at west side market, which was really cool!
i also reeeeeeally wanted to be able to take photos of the graffiti along the rail lines, so much of it was SO good
ANDDD!!!! webri found me and was like 'hey did u ever check artfight??' (they had messaged me back during artfight if they could draw something for me and then i forgot about it b/c i never got back around to doing artfight) and i was like 'NO I DIDN'T LEMME DO THAT NOW' and was greeted with this masterpiece
it was extremely successful - 192 attendees in total!! we had a small space at sears think[box] on the case western reserve university campus (a staff member used to work there and had organized a small meet there previously and discussed that it might be a good option for a larger than a meetup, con-like event). and that's something we worked on over the last year or so (definitely moreso others on staff than myself, especially our finances person)!
i spent all day running around, mingling, doing whatever was needed in the moment - hanging out up by the parking garage to be a wayfinding point to make sure people could navigate their way to the venue (love what a maze college campuses can be), going along to help with the west side market excursion (and also acquire lots of goodies!!), meeting lots of folks for the first time, watching in on panels, poking around the little dealer's room, watching people play video games, etc., etc.
i'm honestly so happy this came together so well and went off without a hitch - folks who know me know i've historically been kind of a debbie downer (and sort of an aggressive realist when asking pointed questions to the people who'd claim it would be 'so easy' to get a con going here) when it would come to establishing a furry convention in cleveland. lots of factors are already kind of 'against' it - we're sandwiched between anthrocon and midwest furfest, two of the biggest 3-4 conventions in the states. it costs money, it needs people willing to do the thankless work of running a convention (and events in general!), and it needs people willing to simply show up. and i think it really just needed the right combination of people to get the gears moving - we have an amazing board and staff that are really committed to cultivating a real, living community and that's so deeply, deeply awesome and i'm so very happy to be proven wrong about my prior feelings on the matter X3
after we closed up and cleaned out the space, the remaining staff walked up to little italy and had coffee/food at a little tea shop called algebra and i finally got off my feet lol
also, rode the rail for the first time in cleveland! i never, like, bothered with it previously, but we were able to take it directly from the corner by think[box] out to the intersection at west side market, which was really cool!
i also reeeeeeally wanted to be able to take photos of the graffiti along the rail lines, so much of it was SO good
ANDDD!!!! webri found me and was like 'hey did u ever check artfight??' (they had messaged me back during artfight if they could draw something for me and then i forgot about it b/c i never got back around to doing artfight) and i was like 'NO I DIDN'T LEMME DO THAT NOW' and was greeted with this masterpiece
