Canadian Anthro & Cartooning Expo

Sent into me by Jeff Novotny: "Everyone involved with the Canadian Anthro & Cartooning Expo (CACE) is
pleased to officially announce the date and venue for our inaugural 2002
convention. The event will be held from Friday, August 16 to Sunday,
August 18, 2002 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada." Read on for the full announcement of the first strictly furry convention in Canada. (Update: I was reminded of Feral!, which is a Canadian furry event four years running, now.)

The Canadian Anthro & Cartooning Expo is a start-up convention dedicated
to writing and art in the genre of anthropomorphics, and comic,
cartooning, and illustration art in general. The event is distinguished
by its strong focus on art and writing, with an emphasis on classes,
instruction, and panels. The convention is also distinctive due to its
rating limit, which in order to provide for a comfortable convention
experience for all fans does not allow for X or hard-R rated adult
content in the art shoppe or art show (but does allow for tasteful
artistic nudity). We'll provide more specific guidelines within the next
month when art show and dealer/artist registration information is made
available. Although the convention emphasizes anthropomorphic art and
writing, non-anthropomorphic cartoon or comic based art is also all
right.

Tentative features of our convention include an art show, art shoppe
(our combination artists' alley and dealer room), three rooms for panels
or workshops (including a nearly 700 sq ft feature workshop), a con
suite/video room, a "Sketch Pad" (an artists' lounge where you can do or
trade sketches or just hang out), likely a small gaming room, contests
and art jams, and hopefully a few entertainment features. We're still
working out some of the details of what we'll be offering, but we are
working on bringing you professional-level instructors and panellists
throughout the event. Our feature guests will be announced within the
next couple of months once all of the contract details have been worked
out.

Our venue for this event is the Courtyard Marriott: Ottawa Downtown
(listed as the Courtyard Hotel on Mapquest), located at 350 Dalhousie
Street, in the heart of the Byward Market, which is Ottawa's dining and
entertainment district. It's also within a 15 minute walk of the
National Art Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum, and the
Parliament of Canada. Among the amenities of this nice four-story,
183-room hotel are an indoor swimming pool, exercise room, whirlpool,
and coffee shop.

Hotel rooms may be booked at the special convention rate of $125 CAN.,
which translates to approximately $80 US, by phoning the hotel's
reservation department at 1-613-241-1000 and providing the convention's
Booking Code which is "CAC". This rate is valid no matter how many
people are staying in the room. Please be advised that this special rate
is only available until 30 days before the convention. However, the
convention's room block is not very large, so please book early to avoid
disappointment. If we know in time that the event will be popular, then
we could arrange to add extra rooms to our reservation block.

The convention will begin accepting memberships around the approximate
time frame of early to mid October, as certain administrative details
need to be attended to first. Details about payment options and mailing
addresses will be provided at that time. Memberships for the convention
will be available at three levels (all details subject to change):

An attending membership will be available for $30 CAN. (about $20 US)
until July 19, 2002, and then for $40 (about $26 US) at the door. This
entitles you to attend all events (some workshops may have fees for
materials) and bid for art displayed in the art show. A convention
guidebook and badge are also included in this price.
Sponsoring memberships will be available for $90 CAN. (about $60 US). In
addition to including everything provided with the attending fee, this
deluxe package helps support the convention financially, and includes a
complementary BBQ with the guests and other sponsors on Saturday night,
a convention T-shirt, an exclusive print by one of the guests, priority
registration assistance, and our sincerest smiles.
If you cannot attend the convention due to time limitations, you can
still show your support by purchasing a Supporting Memberships for $15
CAN. (about $10 US). In return for this contribution/donation, you will
receive a copy of the convention guidebook, and perhaps another small
token of our appreciation.

A web page describing the convention will be available within the next
month. It will contain all the information listed above along with
updates. We'll let you know what the URL is as soon as the page is up.

Once again, thank you for your interest in CACE. Please note that all
information regarding convention activities or content is subject to
change without warning, and the convention accepts no liability for
changes of this type. All US exchange rates are also subject to market
fluctuations.

Best;

Jeff Novotny ... convention chairman, Canadian Anthro & Cartooning Expo