I'll certainly agree that you and Mark had more communication with your staff than Darrel did with his. The highest profile example of Darrel's not listening, before his cancellation of the ConFurence, was probably Darrel's renumbering of the con to the year; ConFurence 13 to Confurence 2002. I may have been guilty of listening only to the other objectors, but was anyone besides Darrel in favor of that? Darrel’s staff soon learned to not bother to say anything except to agree with him; it was just a waste of breath.
But I still say that refusing to get any advice from s-f fans who had been running s-f conventions for years was a mistake. You should certainly try new ideas. I think that ConFurence introduced the ice cream socials, which have been extremely popular; the s-f conventions now have them, too. But when those new ideas are things that the s-f cons have already tried and found don’t work … How come other furry conventions like Further Confusion, Anthrocon, Midwest FurFest, etc., have modelled themselves more after the s-f conventions around them than on the ConFurences?
I guess that the above pertains more to the s-f and furry conventions of the late 1990s and early 2000s than to today’s cons with their emphases on dances, concerts, and games, more than on literary events. And of course there are many more panels and workshops on fursuiting today that the s-f conventions don’t have at all.
I'll certainly agree that you and Mark had more communication with your staff than Darrel did with his. The highest profile example of Darrel's not listening, before his cancellation of the ConFurence, was probably Darrel's renumbering of the con to the year; ConFurence 13 to Confurence 2002. I may have been guilty of listening only to the other objectors, but was anyone besides Darrel in favor of that? Darrel’s staff soon learned to not bother to say anything except to agree with him; it was just a waste of breath.
But I still say that refusing to get any advice from s-f fans who had been running s-f conventions for years was a mistake. You should certainly try new ideas. I think that ConFurence introduced the ice cream socials, which have been extremely popular; the s-f conventions now have them, too. But when those new ideas are things that the s-f cons have already tried and found don’t work … How come other furry conventions like Further Confusion, Anthrocon, Midwest FurFest, etc., have modelled themselves more after the s-f conventions around them than on the ConFurences?
I guess that the above pertains more to the s-f and furry conventions of the late 1990s and early 2000s than to today’s cons with their emphases on dances, concerts, and games, more than on literary events. And of course there are many more panels and workshops on fursuiting today that the s-f conventions don’t have at all.
Fred Patten