New stuff at ConFurence 2003 (April 25-27, 2003, Burbank Hilton)

Here's just a few notes on things that are different at this coming
year's ConFurence convention:

* Theme: The Furry West
* Hotel Party Floor
* Children's Programming
* Not one, but TWO filk contests.

* Theme: The Furry West. This includes everything from old west cowboys, to native american tribes, to the southwest mexican-americana. It's a really neat theme to work with, and has so far garnished a *lot* of positive response.

* Hotel Party Floor: This year will mark the first time that we will have a specific floor at the hotel for people to host parties in their rooms. We are currently filing a special staff position called "Party Maven" who will be responsible for making sure that people who want to hold a party will be placed on the party floor when they check in. The Party Maven will also make sure that parties know the rules and are listed in the newsletter. Once we have this position filled, we will tell people how to contact the Party Maven if you are planning to hold a party.

* Children's Programming: Allison Stern has signed on to run our Children's Programming track. More details on this later, but I believe this makes the first Furry Con with a specific children's programming track. Allison is an experienced convention committee member having grown up in fandom, and loves working with kids.

* Not one, but TWO filk contests. Ok, so this isn't really new, but most people didn't know that there are actually two distinct Filk contests every year... One is judged by popular vote at the convention itself, and one reviewed throughout the year by several experienced filkers. Both contests are administered by Kay Shapero. Visit her site at http://home.earthlink.net/~kayshapero/cf_filk.htm for more information.

Visit The ConFurence Group website at confurence.net for more information or to find out about this and other events hosted by The ConFurence Group, such as CritterConDiego in August, and The Ursa Major Awards presented each year to the best in anthropomorphic arts and literature.

The ConFurence Group is a membership organization dedicated to promoting anthropomorphic fandom related events, formed in April of 1999 to fill the vacancy created when the original creators of ConFurence stepped down. The term "ConFurence" is a U.S. registered service mark of The ConFurence Group and specifically refers to the annual convention hosted by The ConFurence Group each spring in Southern California. Use of this term for any other event or product is strictly prohibited.