The close of Tails and Tornadoes this year marked the sixth convention I’ve so far attended. I started the year focusing on group activities and helping folks get to events and get photos, and ended the year trying my hand out at volunteer staffing. Admittedly, I’m still struggling to strike a balance between things that I enjoy at these conventions. Every single fur con I’ve left this year, I left with regrets that I wasn’t able to do more. This little article goes over some of the big amenities I’ve tried at furry conventions, and how they may be useful to you, the new(ish) con goer.
Volunteering: Volunteering is, hands down, the best way to make friends at a furry convention if you have no friends and no costume. If you find yourself in this position, the biggest resource you have to give is your time. Give that freely. Bringing value to others without expecting anything in return is a force that you put to work in your favor by volunteering, and doing so will get you many friends and networking opportunities.
The downside to spending your time volunteering at furcons, is that it can be boring. To the extent that you are volunteering, you could miss many of the big, prime events of the convention, as well as all the spontaneous moments that happen out there.
Lately, I have integrated volunteering into my convention schedules. I have liked it very much, but have struggled to find a balance between volunteering and my penchant for the more exciting convention events.
Board game room: I’ve never been a big fan of this, but one time a friend of mine dragged me into the board game room and forced me to play with himself and another group he organized. I admit I liked it. I also must admit that, as a profoundly introverted person, after playing board games with new people for a few hours, I felt a lot more comfortable around them afterward, and felt much more of a rapport with them for the remainder of the convention.
The downside of board game rooms is that they are usually in secluded areas of the convention. It tends to be rather low energy; lower than what I typically look for. If you have a fursuit or a neat costume, spending hours and hours playing board games seems counter intuitive to me.
Panels: In my experience, panels have been very hit-and-miss. Most panels I’ve gone to have been a waste of time, but a few of them have made my convention a couple times. The best strength of going to panels is their flexibility: Really, anything can go on here, and a well thought out panel is often one of the better memories I’ve had at any convention. For example, I went to a ‘cartoon town’ panel at TFF with a fur suiter friend, and it had all kinds of cool cartoon props which ended up providing excellent photo opportunities with him and other fur suiters. This year at TTFC, the feline fursuit panel ended up being a great networking event and felt like a mini fursuit parade.
The ‘Toon Town’ panel at TFF offered many spontaneously cool photo opportunities for suiters
However, the feline panel at TFF this year was a complete dud. Panels at large furcons can be highly impersonal. I’ve been to ‘cat appreciation’ panels which is basically an open mic session for awkward weirdos to talk about their cats. I’ve been to a ‘TikTok tips’ panel which ended up being a woman trying to organize others to dance for her TikTok channel.
Raves and concerts: These are my personal favorite events of most conventions, mostly because they are the most fun with the highest energy, and if you have a cool fursuit or costume, you can really shine and get a lot of attention.
Coolest spontaneous photo opportunities tend to be Friday and Saturday evenings
On the other hand, these events can be very disappointing if you’re there without friends. The raves and concerts here have the same energy as a club. If you’re awkward, don’t have many friends and don’t have a cool costume, you might walk back to your hotel room feeling deeply disappointed. Ask me how I know.
The Fursuit Parade: If the convention you’re attending has a fursuit parade, go to it. Most of the big conventions have long done away with their fursuit parades due to it being far too long of an event. Smaller conventions still have them. Fursuit parades have been the crescendo of every furry convention I’ve been to, if that convention still has one. You’ll regret not attending one and getting photos during and after.
Maybe join us?
Going alone to a convention really sucks. Our Christian furry convention crew is always looking for new friends, and help each other out with commutes, photo-taking and hotel splits. We typically attend conventions in Texas and Oklahoma. We don’t do anything sexual, we’re not woke and not gross. When not going to conventions, we congregate on our Discord server, the Furry Wholesome Hangout, which also not woke or gross. Give us a visit and join a game night or artist hangout!
https://discord.gg/s7yKJQjH
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