Conifur announces dates, guests for 2003

Conifur Northwest will return to the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center in Tacoma, Washington, September 26 through 28, 2003. We are very pleased to announce that Brent "Grrrwolf" Spotswood and Chuck Melville will be our Guests of Honor.

Registration forms will be available at the website (www.conifur.org) soon. We are currently recruiting staff and reorganizing. Please check regularly for new details. Start making your plans to attend Conifur, the best furry convention in the Pacific Northwest!

Conifur 2002 was our last convention under the leadership of founder James "Tibo" Birdsall. Since founding the convention is 1997, James has served five years as convention chairman, and has certainly earned a vacation. Many thanks to James! Stepping into the hot seat this year is Matthew "Shandower" Romanek. For the last two years Matt has run Conifur's Art Show, and before that was in charge of Registration.

Conifur 2002 was a rousing success with an actual attendance of 395 and we're looking forward to a bigger and even better convention in 2003. When our previous hotel went out of business just months before the event, the outlook for future Conifurs seemed a little grim. Thanks to the support of our members and sponsors, and the wonderful staff of the Tacoma Sheraton (who even convinced another group to reschedule an event to make room for us), we had a great convention after all. In addition, the facilities at the Sheraton are significantly nicer and more flexible than our previous location, with plenty of room to expand.

We'd like to thank all of our members, supporters, sponsors, dealers, and guests of honor for making the previous five conventions such great successes and a lot of fun. We look forward to seeing you all again for an even better furry good time in September!