I don't agree with "lack of desire for growth" being an issue.
A lot of furry conventions rightfully want to maximize their attendance and reach out to more people each year -- especially people getting their first experience with the fandom. Just read FurFright's LiveJournal and look at all the people who talk about FF being their first convention. Conventions can be life-changing experiences in a person's life, and it's only natural to want to bring that to others.
But furry conventions are not for-profit businesses that are focusing on greater profitability each and every year. They are run for the benefit of their attendees and therefore they need to consider attendees' preferences. Many attendees want to have a reasonable chance of catching up with people they already know... that becomes very difficult as a con grows and becomes less intimate. As an example, most private golf clubs keep a fixed membership number and a waitlist, and there's a good reason why -- their current members don't want their experience to be reduced by fighting for tee times, dining time, etc.
FurFright made a strategic choice to emphasize quality and provide the best con environment it could to a more limited crowd, rather than focusing on bringing it to as many attendees as possible. It might have resulted in challenges down the road as prereg sold out sooner and sooner, but it never got to that point, and in my view it was an acceptable strategic decision.
In fact, FurFright didn't quite hit its attendance cap this year (Belic announced 1496 at Closing Ceremonies and joked that it wasn't too late to snap up the remaining 4 tickets).
So yeah. There are plenty of cons out there focusing on growth. It's perfectly acceptable if there are a few out there that decide to focus on different priorities.
I don't agree with "lack of desire for growth" being an issue.
A lot of furry conventions rightfully want to maximize their attendance and reach out to more people each year -- especially people getting their first experience with the fandom. Just read FurFright's LiveJournal and look at all the people who talk about FF being their first convention. Conventions can be life-changing experiences in a person's life, and it's only natural to want to bring that to others.
But furry conventions are not for-profit businesses that are focusing on greater profitability each and every year. They are run for the benefit of their attendees and therefore they need to consider attendees' preferences. Many attendees want to have a reasonable chance of catching up with people they already know... that becomes very difficult as a con grows and becomes less intimate. As an example, most private golf clubs keep a fixed membership number and a waitlist, and there's a good reason why -- their current members don't want their experience to be reduced by fighting for tee times, dining time, etc.
FurFright made a strategic choice to emphasize quality and provide the best con environment it could to a more limited crowd, rather than focusing on bringing it to as many attendees as possible. It might have resulted in challenges down the road as prereg sold out sooner and sooner, but it never got to that point, and in my view it was an acceptable strategic decision.
In fact, FurFright didn't quite hit its attendance cap this year (Belic announced 1496 at Closing Ceremonies and joked that it wasn't too late to snap up the remaining 4 tickets).
So yeah. There are plenty of cons out there focusing on growth. It's perfectly acceptable if there are a few out there that decide to focus on different priorities.