My fear is that registration will turn into a lottery in the future, much like how hotel room shortages are handled. But for now, the attendance cap feels like the best decision.
It went exactly this way in my country. People joined staff just to get a guaranteed ticket, then skipped out on their shifts (usueally they had friends on staff who covered up for them and dumped their work on volunteers). Others who were key to the scene, the older shepherds, stopped going because they and their friends couldn't get tickets. Hope anthrocon doesn't get the same.
Thank you in advance to every one of our staff, volunteers, and attendees! We want to run the best convention possible so you can have the best time possible-that’s what Anthrocon is all about.
Awwwww! Zervon and I have been super sponsors for the last 20 years or so, but they were all sold out within 2 hours of opening them for sale today! Won't be the same next summer, guess we will have to go to Furnandos for lunch.
Definitely a lot of tight challenges, but all of these changes feel really well-thought over and earnestly designed to help AC keep succeeding, and I'm honestly here for all of them. Thank you to all the AC staff/volunteers for putting so much care and consideration into the con for all of us!
They can try but then those new issues hit like lost in mail/late/act of god destruction/forgery/I left it at home/lost in luggage. Trust me we been there and its how much better can we make it vs.. well.. the post office.
I miss the old days when you could book a room and the hotel a couple of weeks before the con when you knew what your work schedule etc was. Not singling out AC, it's most cons at this point. I understand, supply and demand, but it's unfortunate that planning to attend a con has become so stressful.
The problem is really that the furry fandom has struggled to adapt with cons getting larger. Really need more cons across the US that get larger as a collective (which is slowly starting to happen) but there's been too many focused on going to whatever the largest one is.
@@Vincent_Hayes The problem is exactly as you say people just want to go to the biggest because that's where their friends are going, overlooking that they maybe only see those friends for 30 seconds if at all. If people used the big cons to kickstart things and moved to going to smaller local cons as they built up a social network, the load would be more evenly spread.
Holy crap. I never thought I'd live to see the day Anthrocon outgrew Pittsburgh! The fact that the fursuit parade is now big enough to cause problems for the city just blows my mind. But yeah, I agree...where else would it go? Pittsburgh is itself a huge city and there aren't many that are bigger in the region, with the infrastructure to accommodate. As much as I despise lotteries and attendance caps, I'd rather deal with that then risk the city coming in to shut us down. As much as AC has become an institution there, we totally should not take that for granted.
IKR. It would be a devastating blow to Pittsburg's economy if Anthrocon moves away to a new city or venue. Plus, the whole community would be sad to see their furry friends go.
@@GeronimoClawz I'm actually glad that Pittsburgh throws in with AC the way it does. Because of the Republican sweep, we're not sure if Megaplex is going to be safe any more.
@@adriantallent8557 I joined the fandom at Megaplex 2012. It was ok for a couple of years but nowadays, the staff there doesn't really know how to run a convention anymore. I think Megaplex is by far the worst convention in the fandom & I just don't like it anymore. Anthrocon still is and will forever be the best fur-con no matter what.
@@GeronimoClawz Megaplex has been forced to move away from its all-ages con experience due to implicit threats from the Florida governer. That and competition from other cons has sort of led to them experimenting with things that they weren't ready for. I'm sure some of their old staff jumped ship because of it. I feel similarly about FWA. I used to love it but over the last few years it's been bizarrely poorly executed. They used to be exemplary for how well run they were but it was like the pandemic made them forget everything they'd learned.
@@danzerfoxable True, this is true, you need a person or persons to sit there and make the badges then put them into envelopes, and mail out. It would be better and made more easier, just pay a bunch of people to sit down and do it. :D Or if people want to volunteer, why not. :P
AWU does that, and then they require you to show up with your badge and ID. Regardless of physically sending you a badge, they need to ensure that the person who registered is the person with the badge. If nothing else, they need to make sure minors are not receiving adult badges. As a point of reference, I waited in reg line Friday morning for about an hour in 2023. That con had a little over 1800 attendees.
@@Denadrins Mhm, the idea has been used a lot at other theme conventions like anime and such as well over 15K to 25K worth of people show up. Like to think, that at this rate, the convention space might be so cramp that it gets too close to the fire codes of how many people in a room and building for safely. Oh! they could hire a few people in each state and country, so that shipping would be cheaper as they ship from your state or country. :D
AC24 was my first ever furry convention and the city of Pittsburgh will always be special because of that reason. Take the last minute of the video seriously. I volunteered 20+ hours for my first con, and so many others did more or staffed. AC can't operate without these people. I plan on joining the AC staff team because of that. Even if one can only volunteer for 2 hours over the whole weekend, it helps. Onward to 2025. Godspeed. 😎🧡
I think we can appreciate that as a Furry Con, the messaging is clear and concise. It is lovely to see, as much as the decisions being made were difficult, safety, enjoyment and ease of access was being considered.
Alternative solution to the parade problem, hold parade on two different days, with a max attendance cap for each, but total attendance of both should be plenty (for now).
100% agree with the attendance cap. I've staffed another convention and we had to do the same thing this year. Fortunately it didn't sell out that quickly. You could still register a week before the event. The DLCC is a massive building but you can only fit so many people. And finding hotel rooms for these events is such a headache. I'd rather be denied early in the process than pull my hair out trying to find lodging after paying for registration. What the shuttle service really needs though are city style busses. The ones with multiple doors that are designed to load and unload passengers quickly. A large portion of the time the shuttles spend doing their routes is loading and unloading passengers. The busses with a single door in the front that leads to stairs and a long aisle of rows of seats take so much longer to load and unload. And it makes it take longer for the shuttles to get through their routes which makes them less frequent.
I'm quietly hoping this new provider is the Port Authority so we can get those city style buses. We outgrew those Pittsburgh Transportation Group buses years ago.
I think that these are reasonable changes. I am not happy about the fursuit parade but understand the reasons. The shuttles are going to be a big plus IMO.
These all feel like very reasonable solutions to the problems Anthrocon faces. I'm looking forward to 2025! Thank you to everyone on staff who has worked hard for the simple love of the convention to make things more functional for all of us!
The changes will definitely be unpopular with some but they definitely do need to be implemented the lines for registration were really bad and the parade was so chaotic
I'm looking forward to a reg system that runs as smoothly as FWA, I hope the updates mean an update to enterprise-level reg. Also, if the text on the site could be updated to highlight that change, that would be great -- I was initially under the impression that it would just be a reg cap (which wouldn't solve the issues reg already has)
That sounds just about good on Thursday to make it all just preregistered attendees only. But, I wish the convention would ship badges to all prereg' attendees by mail so that attendees won't have to worry about waiting in long lines all day to get their registrations.
I don't think any solution is acceptable other than mailing preregistration badges - this is standard practice for large conventions. More significantly, I will not be attending Anthrocon again until a new hotel booking system is put in place. You must require a deposit again to prevent parties from grabbing multiple rooms right away, you must allow people to waitlist for specific hotels and price ranges.
Very reasonable changes. I hope to see a better streamlined pre-reg pickup, with more honest hours (plan to close earlier ahead of time instead of a last second announcement while folks are already on their way to con ctr) and i hope the parade is organized far better for this upcoming year. Watching people leave the room long before my group- that had entered after us- despite the line system that seemed to be in place, was very frustrating.
Implementing changes from feedback to help more people have a fantastic, enjoyable experience and hope to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible, as safe as possible. Hard choices and decisions from Anthrocon but with staff and attendees at the forefront on the outcomes. Great work, Anthrocon! Keep it up!
Many cons are doing this now. Denfur did restrictions on number of memberships in 2021 & 22. Rumer is that may return in 2025 due to the location in downtown Denver. SDCC may also be limiting attending members due to numbers as well.
Some very sensible changes to limit the size there. Much better than Confuzzled who announced they were having to close registration when they actually closed it.
the parades, the main problem i have seen and others is that you march them out in a single line or lines of 2. Then from those two lines, people stop, shake hands, hugs, and makes people from behind stop and have to go around you. Most of the time people don't move around people and will wait. So just tell them to not stop, don't shake hands, don't hug and keep walking. If you want to do that, do it AFTER you make a lap and finish the parades. Instead of single file lines, just go out as a massive group, be a lot faster and quicker than an hour or 2 hours of waiting to walk. A single or a double file line, takes and hour just to get to the last person in the line if there is more then 1500 people in line since the con itself broke a world record years ago.
Uncle Kage is usually by the 2 down escalators every year with a megaphone telling people not to stop, showboat, perform, or otherwise hold up the lines. People do it anyway. The parade lineup fills their staging hall to capacity too preventing many fursuiters from joining. Anthrocon absolutely should limit the parade to full fursuits and complete partial fursuits to address the crowding problems and put on the best show for the Pittsburgh audience. Everyone knows this would upset people, but it's necessary to adhere to fire marshal capacity limits and still wow the locals who close down multiple streets for furries every year. Poodlers, heads-only, and inflatables would still be able to mingle with the crowds and block party outside the parade. Capacity and parade length has been a problem for 3 years now -- changes are unavoidable.
@@dragonmyr Your right about that and the escalators. Instead, they could go around the convention space rather than down and outside to go back inside and up.
@@defqontuna The AC fursuit parade used to be that way. It snaked through the dealers den instead of going outside for the public portion. Starting and ending the parade in Hall D might be a solution (no escalators), but that would disconnect it from the photo taken in Hall C. I can't see AC getting rid of the public portion of the parade.
Has there been discussion of mailing out con badges to cut down registration lines? I know it was an idea many suggested but it wasn't mentioned in this video.
Cost and reliability of the post office are the two biggies. And frankly what does the con do when someone, or several someone's claim the badge lost in the mail?. We have proof it was sent and you have just your word it is not in your hands. Toss in acts of god/weather/strikes/mismailed and more and what a mess. It can be done, in small batches, and at a cost too. Does the badgeholder want to pay for that registered mail?.
@@pakeshde7518 I figured that would be the reason. I was hoping they would address it specifically in the video just so there was an official reason against it.
A huge aviation show I attend every year, Airventure in Oshkosh WI has a system they call "express arrival", you can opt to have your wristbands, in their case, mailed to you. I'm surprised furry cons have not also adopted this. Airventure does warn you, if you forget them, or loose them, sucks to be you, you're buying them again. BUT if I had that choice I would absolutely get my badge sent ahead of time, this would reduce burden in the registation lines significantly
The issue arises that you have to validate the badge. Now you are making it more complex during the con. Volunteers will then need to not only spot that attendees have a badge but they will need to check the validation of the badge. Especially since there are different classifications. A minor must not have an adult badge and somehow you have to check that. Which means even if you have the badge in advance you still have to show ID and sign code of conduct. The amount of time saved isn't going to be much.
Thanks for this in advance. My only question is about what the goal of the bag policy for the raves and will that be changed? How is anyone supposed to be able to bring their life saving medical gear if they can't have a bag?
I really think you guys should do mailed out NFC wristbands for prereg and completely eliminate reg line except for those who are buying reg onsite. This is how all major festivals and larger events are done nowadays (pretty sure FWA does this now).
Who the heck said they want you to move out of Pittsburgh?? Lmao Also, I know you've talked about it at length, but it's disappointing that you will not be mailing in badges.
Yeah, all I can think is that if there is a venue that would work, then eventually furries near it will start a convention and eventually grow into that venue. There's a good reason why fan-driven conventions don't end up in the biggest venues and industry-driven ones do. If a furry con wanted the Javits center, they'd have to have industry sponsors and that would get messy fast.
So, a question about the parade. Will people with disabilities that require handlers at all times be able to have their handlers with them in the parade??? Or will the suiter and handler not be allowed to join the parade at all??? Because that would kinda suck big time, but I also understand that the parade is BIG so it would be hard to let handlers in with their suiters. I hope the handlers and disabled suiters will be able to join still, but I also understand if that will not be the case
My two cents: the need to sort through pre printed badges is the slowest solution. Don't get me wrong, they do great, lovem, all hard workers. It is just that the process itself is slow to run back and forth. Looking forward to the new process.
i knew things where going to have to happen and it is needed. Just don't turn into a lottery for folks cause that might just turn deadly for the con. I still plan on going
I love you Uncle Kage, you're permanently a stop off for a present anytime I can get you. I'm still going to try to go for a con safety as staff or volunteer and break my record of 55 hours.
Regarding the Fursuit Parade, It was really good to have this reduction. In these two editions that I participated, there were too many people that could cause a rebellion. Congratulations For This Decision!
managing thousands of people is no joke. letting them be at a convention centre to do their own thing is one thing, but telling attendees, where to go, and what to do in a fursuit parade is basically impossible for a team of mostly volunteers. people may not like these decisions, but it is simply impossible to manage this many people with arguably not that well educated voulenteers on controlling a mass of people. (just as a reference, when a lot of people are in one place, they almost stop behaving like people, and more like a fluid. like water, there can be literal waves going though a crowd, and if not managed correctly, people can and have suffocated in these crowds) i hope that the atendee limit will be implemented in a way that the least amount of people will be upset. (mainly for it to not be "pay to win" and to fight scalpers which can ruin a conventions image. And maybe split the registration as at most 70-80% of the cap can be registered online, and the remaining 20-30% be able to be registered on site.) ps: *volunteer*. the conventions relies on people helping the small permanent staff team with for example setting up and tearing down stages. i have personally never voulenteered, because I either wasn't old enough when I attended, or the convention was in the us while I am in Europe and didn't hate the kind of money to fly in a few days earlier, but if you can, please volunteer.
AC24 was my first ever con, and im so excited to be able to experience AC25. Thank you so much anthrocon staff and volunteers for all the hard work you guys do ❤❤
Will the hotel system be updated as well? When booking a room every year my selected room type has been taken from under me as i type in my card information. Will a holding room system be in place while checking out?
Overall though as a pgh local i adore this convention and am proud of it being my home con. I appreciate all the hard work the AC team is putting into the event every year ❤❤
@@Mineaime as someone else from Pittsburgh, the idea of getting a hotel to not have to drive there every day sounds very nice lol. Hope that works out for you this year!
Wait, they seriously didn't prevent this? Every bigger hotel (like Hampton brands, etc.) I've been to has a system where a 15 minute clock to hold your room starts as soon as you get to the review screen. You have that entire 15 minutes to look over your reservation one last time, enter your card, even move money around between your bank accounts if you need to. And as long as you hit the final button before that timer runs out, the room is yours.
A second Anthrocon in October or November would be AMAZING. Hopefully it'd be a smaller event that rolls the experience clock back to the 2010's when friends could all get the same hotel together and lines weren't hours long.
Definitely concerned over the fursuit parade standards, as it may mean that comedic staples such as cardboard heads and even some partial suiters may be left out.
I’m guessing partials are gonna be split, some get in, some won’t. I’m curious to see if they’re gonna ask people to sign up via a forum or if they’ll do it at the door again
I agree. I think it's good for normies (parents & kids) to see dorky joke costumes like that since it conveys we're chill and just having a good time, and not taking things too seriously. Even things like face paint / body paint is like, such a huge historical aspect of 90s / early 2000s furry culture, and I wouldn't want to banish that either. Of all the things in the announcement the idea of "standards" for fursuiting seems the most risky to me. Those kind of mindsets are what's intimidated me from ever getting into fursuiting to begin with. They should just put a cap on the parade if they need to, much simpler x3 That said, the guideline could be as simple as "multiple costume pieces themed after an animal or anthro creature, with the goal of performance & character" so you don't just get people wearing just a tiger stripe t-shirt and joining in. So IMO, even a cardboard fox head could count since it at least follows that spirit of "performance & character."
I doubt they will let partials in at all... I know for sure they wont let handlers in, having everyone in the parade to rely on untrained staff to rescue them if theres an emergency.
@@benjlehma they have emergency services present at the convention at all times, especially at the parade where overheating is very common, they also let handlers go to their suiters to give them water and stuff if needed. It’s not ideal, but there is help if someone needs it
Fair and valid points. Totally understandable cause I know linear growth is fine, exponential growth is a logistical nightmare. I have confidence in the Anthrocon team.
So after some thinking I put forth an idea: Could there perhaps be two possible parades of smaller size? -A fursuit parade, as already existing, hopefully a bit earlier or later in the day on Saturday than 2pm to avoid the intense peak heating hours of Pennsylvania July. Even though the outdoor time is somewhat brief, it's a common issue for fursuiters to be exhibiting signs of heat exhaustion at the end of the parade route. -A smaller, "Spirit of Anthrocon" parade for participants who aren't particularly or exclusively fursuiters, but still dress up for the con in impressive garb and want to have a fun time and show off their creativity. It could be in the evening or on Friday or whenever could fit into the schedule as convenient, and has the benefits of including anyone as well as pulling some of the numbers off of the main fursuit parade to make it more manageable size-wise. Dare I pun that it would be less like herding cats. Waiting to see on the actual announcement of the parade standards/restrictions but I wanted to just toss an idea on the table and see what others think about it. A festival in my area does a similar thing with separating their main big parade from... what turned into a pet parade now by having them on different days and it works very well.
It's bad enough that people who don't have suits get discriminated against in the fandom. People saying partials shouldn't be allowed in the parade sounds pretty elitist for a group geared towards I'm inclusiveness. Don't understand how 20,000 people can march half lit for St Patrick's Day but 3k is unmanageable
Pittsburgh home and garden show has 300,000 visitors/attendance. You should talk to them to figure out how they manage that if we can't manage 16k. Also why don't you start the parade outside so you can have more people walk in it. Instead of limiting the speed of the parade to the two escalators in the building... Also announcing the cap is going to cause a lot of FOMO and probably cause a lot of people to refund tickets.
@@TalynWuff it’s still 300,000 people over 9 days which would be over 33k people in a day. I think my point still stands. Not all attendees are inside the convention space at all times either. They are spread throughout the city and the hotels. 33k people are still going thru some kind of registration a day. They are also not usually local. Considering they have guests of honor from HGTV.
Disagree, this isn't a change in furry necessarily, it's just a change in furry conventions. Hopefully means furry conventions will start to grow in number and we'll get more at the same time in other areas vs. everyone trying to go to whatever the biggest is. We need more furcons in the US and abroad for more accessibility and affordability.
@@uni_meadows The fandom in general is full of people fighting for "acceptance" that we dont want, and thinking odd things like you must have a suit to be a furry etc etc. It's all newcomer shit. The people who "identify" as animals and whatnot, and dont know what a Therian/Otherkin is. The saying "nobody hates furries more than a furry" is going away, and with it - our self policing. The grooming seems to be rampant again, like back in 2008.
I feel like 80-90% of attendees pre register, so what does this new rule solve? The line is still going to be hours long. We need mail options for attendees who can't physically wait in long lines.
My fear is that registration will turn into a lottery in the future, much like how hotel room shortages are handled. But for now, the attendance cap feels like the best decision.
It went exactly this way in my country. People joined staff just to get a guaranteed ticket, then skipped out on their shifts (usueally they had friends on staff who covered up for them and dumped their work on volunteers). Others who were key to the scene, the older shepherds, stopped going because they and their friends couldn't get tickets. Hope anthrocon doesn't get the same.
Thank you in advance to every one of our staff, volunteers, and attendees! We want to run the best convention possible so you can have the best time possible-that’s what Anthrocon is all about.
Love you Uncle Kage! And your staff and supporters and mom!
Awwwww! Zervon and I have been super sponsors for the last 20 years or so, but they were all sold out within 2 hours of opening them for sale today! Won't be the same next summer, guess we will have to go to Furnandos for lunch.
Saints doing their best to ensure everybody has fun. Much appreciated.
Thank you for planning and running this convention so diligently and providing such transparent and structured updates to us all :)
Shout out to the staff and volunteers 🌟 As a dealer in the den, Anthrocon is the best run of all the cons we do across all genres!
Thank you, Anthrocon volunteers, staff, and organizers.
Definitely a lot of tight challenges, but all of these changes feel really well-thought over and earnestly designed to help AC keep succeeding, and I'm honestly here for all of them. Thank you to all the AC staff/volunteers for putting so much care and consideration into the con for all of us!
Sounds like some necessary changes, this convention is absolutely massive, hopefully things go more smoothly this next year
PLEASE consider mailing out badges as well. That would reduce the line problems too.
They can try but then those new issues hit like lost in mail/late/act of god destruction/forgery/I left it at home/lost in luggage. Trust me we been there and its how much better can we make it vs.. well.. the post office.
It's a full-time job. You gonna pay those people?
I miss the old days when you could book a room and the hotel a couple of weeks before the con when you knew what your work schedule etc was.
Not singling out AC, it's most cons at this point. I understand, supply and demand, but it's unfortunate that planning to attend a con has become so stressful.
The problem is really that the furry fandom has struggled to adapt with cons getting larger. Really need more cons across the US that get larger as a collective (which is slowly starting to happen) but there's been too many focused on going to whatever the largest one is.
@@Vincent_Hayes The problem is exactly as you say people just want to go to the biggest because that's where their friends are going, overlooking that they maybe only see those friends for 30 seconds if at all. If people used the big cons to kickstart things and moved to going to smaller local cons as they built up a social network, the load would be more evenly spread.
Holy crap. I never thought I'd live to see the day Anthrocon outgrew Pittsburgh! The fact that the fursuit parade is now big enough to cause problems for the city just blows my mind. But yeah, I agree...where else would it go? Pittsburgh is itself a huge city and there aren't many that are bigger in the region, with the infrastructure to accommodate. As much as I despise lotteries and attendance caps, I'd rather deal with that then risk the city coming in to shut us down. As much as AC has become an institution there, we totally should not take that for granted.
IKR. It would be a devastating blow to Pittsburg's economy if Anthrocon moves away to a new city or venue. Plus, the whole community would be sad to see their furry friends go.
@@GeronimoClawz I'm actually glad that Pittsburgh throws in with AC the way it does. Because of the Republican sweep, we're not sure if Megaplex is going to be safe any more.
@@adriantallent8557 I joined the fandom at Megaplex 2012. It was ok for a couple of years but nowadays, the staff there doesn't really know how to run a convention anymore. I think Megaplex is by far the worst convention in the fandom & I just don't like it anymore.
Anthrocon still is and will forever be the best fur-con no matter what.
@@GeronimoClawz Megaplex has been forced to move away from its all-ages con experience due to implicit threats from the Florida governer. That and competition from other cons has sort of led to them experimenting with things that they weren't ready for. I'm sure some of their old staff jumped ship because of it.
I feel similarly about FWA. I used to love it but over the last few years it's been bizarrely poorly executed. They used to be exemplary for how well run they were but it was like the pandemic made them forget everything they'd learned.
If only they would send out preregistered badges via mail, that would eliminate that entire line...
I think the main issue is that they would then need to hire a shipping crew to mail out the thousands of badges for the whole year
@@danzerfoxable True, this is true, you need a person or persons to sit there and make the badges then put them into envelopes, and mail out. It would be better and made more easier, just pay a bunch of people to sit down and do it. :D Or if people want to volunteer, why not. :P
Yeah, there's some work that can be done. Just gotta prioritize it.
AWU does that, and then they require you to show up with your badge and ID. Regardless of physically sending you a badge, they need to ensure that the person who registered is the person with the badge. If nothing else, they need to make sure minors are not receiving adult badges.
As a point of reference, I waited in reg line Friday morning for about an hour in 2023. That con had a little over 1800 attendees.
@@Denadrins Mhm, the idea has been used a lot at other theme conventions like anime and such as well over 15K to 25K worth of people show up. Like to think, that at this rate, the convention space might be so cramp that it gets too close to the fire codes of how many people in a room and building for safely.
Oh! they could hire a few people in each state and country, so that shipping would be cheaper as they ship from your state or country. :D
AC24 was my first ever furry convention and the city of Pittsburgh will always be special because of that reason. Take the last minute of the video seriously. I volunteered 20+ hours for my first con, and so many others did more or staffed. AC can't operate without these people. I plan on joining the AC staff team because of that. Even if one can only volunteer for 2 hours over the whole weekend, it helps. Onward to 2025. Godspeed. 😎🧡
Oh my god,I thought that the Convention was gonna be canceled next year.. thank god🤦🏼♂️
I think we can appreciate that as a Furry Con, the messaging is clear and concise. It is lovely to see, as much as the decisions being made were difficult, safety, enjoyment and ease of access was being considered.
Honestly I am surprised that these things are only happening now as I would have expected the need for them to happen to have occurred years ago.
YASSSS!! Can't WAITTTTT!! 🥳🥳🥳
Alternative solution to the parade problem, hold parade on two different days, with a max attendance cap for each, but total attendance of both should be plenty (for now).
100% agree with the attendance cap. I've staffed another convention and we had to do the same thing this year. Fortunately it didn't sell out that quickly. You could still register a week before the event. The DLCC is a massive building but you can only fit so many people. And finding hotel rooms for these events is such a headache. I'd rather be denied early in the process than pull my hair out trying to find lodging after paying for registration.
What the shuttle service really needs though are city style busses. The ones with multiple doors that are designed to load and unload passengers quickly. A large portion of the time the shuttles spend doing their routes is loading and unloading passengers. The busses with a single door in the front that leads to stairs and a long aisle of rows of seats take so much longer to load and unload. And it makes it take longer for the shuttles to get through their routes which makes them less frequent.
I'm quietly hoping this new provider is the Port Authority so we can get those city style buses. We outgrew those Pittsburgh Transportation Group buses years ago.
All of these are sound and practical decisions.
Crazy that attendance nearly doubled in 2 years for what was already one of the largest cons
The Illumiknotty appreciates your transparency, Dr. Conway.
I think that these are reasonable changes. I am not happy about the fursuit parade but understand the reasons. The shuttles are going to be a big plus IMO.
These all feel like very reasonable solutions to the problems Anthrocon faces. I'm looking forward to 2025! Thank you to everyone on staff who has worked hard for the simple love of the convention to make things more functional for all of us!
The changes will definitely be unpopular with some but they definitely do need to be implemented the lines for registration were really bad and the parade was so chaotic
I'm looking forward to a reg system that runs as smoothly as FWA, I hope the updates mean an update to enterprise-level reg. Also, if the text on the site could be updated to highlight that change, that would be great -- I was initially under the impression that it would just be a reg cap (which wouldn't solve the issues reg already has)
I’m so thankful these changes are being made!!
I think all these changes are great!
That sounds just about good on Thursday to make it all just preregistered attendees only. But, I wish the convention would ship badges to all prereg' attendees by mail so that attendees won't have to worry about waiting in long lines all day to get their registrations.
I don't think any solution is acceptable other than mailing preregistration badges - this is standard practice for large conventions. More significantly, I will not be attending Anthrocon again until a new hotel booking system is put in place. You must require a deposit again to prevent parties from grabbing multiple rooms right away, you must allow people to waitlist for specific hotels and price ranges.
Looking forward to a better future for AC
Very well said!
Thank you sooooooooo much for this update I wish for anthrocon to stay in Pittsburgh
Awesome 👍😃🤩👌
best business decision made by a business
I love anthrocon soooooooooooo much
Very reasonable changes. I hope to see a better streamlined pre-reg pickup, with more honest hours (plan to close earlier ahead of time instead of a last second announcement while folks are already on their way to con ctr) and i hope the parade is organized far better for this upcoming year. Watching people leave the room long before my group- that had entered after us- despite the line system that seemed to be in place, was very frustrating.
Implementing changes from feedback to help more people have a fantastic, enjoyable experience and hope to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible, as safe as possible.
Hard choices and decisions from Anthrocon but with staff and attendees at the forefront on the outcomes. Great work, Anthrocon! Keep it up!
It's a nice problem to have being too popular 😊
I really hope I can make my way over from Sweden and attend some day
Many cons are doing this now. Denfur did restrictions on number of memberships in 2021 & 22. Rumer is that may return in 2025 due to the location in downtown Denver. SDCC may also be limiting attending members due to numbers as well.
Some very sensible changes to limit the size there. Much better than Confuzzled who announced they were having to close registration when they actually closed it.
the parades, the main problem i have seen and others is that you march them out in a single line or lines of 2. Then from those two lines, people stop, shake hands, hugs, and makes people from behind stop and have to go around you. Most of the time people don't move around people and will wait.
So just tell them to not stop, don't shake hands, don't hug and keep walking. If you want to do that, do it AFTER you make a lap and finish the parades. Instead of single file lines, just go out as a massive group, be a lot faster and quicker than an hour or 2 hours of waiting to walk.
A single or a double file line, takes and hour just to get to the last person in the line if there is more then 1500 people in line since the con itself broke a world record years ago.
Yeah. My main concern is that they will enforce "Full fursuits only allowed to participiate" -rule for the parade. That would be total bs move.
Uncle Kage is usually by the 2 down escalators every year with a megaphone telling people not to stop, showboat, perform, or otherwise hold up the lines. People do it anyway. The parade lineup fills their staging hall to capacity too preventing many fursuiters from joining. Anthrocon absolutely should limit the parade to full fursuits and complete partial fursuits to address the crowding problems and put on the best show for the Pittsburgh audience. Everyone knows this would upset people, but it's necessary to adhere to fire marshal capacity limits and still wow the locals who close down multiple streets for furries every year. Poodlers, heads-only, and inflatables would still be able to mingle with the crowds and block party outside the parade. Capacity and parade length has been a problem for 3 years now -- changes are unavoidable.
@@dragonmyr Your right about that and the escalators. Instead, they could go around the convention space rather than down and outside to go back inside and up.
@@defqontuna The AC fursuit parade used to be that way. It snaked through the dealers den instead of going outside for the public portion. Starting and ending the parade in Hall D might be a solution (no escalators), but that would disconnect it from the photo taken in Hall C. I can't see AC getting rid of the public portion of the parade.
@defqontuna the city is part of the parade now, and it's become an event for them as much as it is for us.
Has there been discussion of mailing out con badges to cut down registration lines? I know it was an idea many suggested but it wasn't mentioned in this video.
Cost and reliability of the post office are the two biggies. And frankly what does the con do when someone, or several someone's claim the badge lost in the mail?. We have proof it was sent and you have just your word it is not in your hands. Toss in acts of god/weather/strikes/mismailed and more and what a mess. It can be done, in small batches, and at a cost too. Does the badgeholder want to pay for that registered mail?.
@@pakeshde7518 I figured that would be the reason. I was hoping they would address it specifically in the video just so there was an official reason against it.
I realize this is an important policy announcement, but I just keep getting distracted by the bottom half of Ultraman standing on the mantle.
Interesting thought. What if you are able to do two fursuit parades? Do one on Friday and one on Saturday both with a cap limit?
I want anthrocon to continue to come back to Pittsburgh every year
A huge aviation show I attend every year, Airventure in Oshkosh WI has a system they call "express arrival", you can opt to have your wristbands, in their case, mailed to you. I'm surprised furry cons have not also adopted this.
Airventure does warn you, if you forget them, or loose them, sucks to be you, you're buying them again. BUT if I had that choice I would absolutely get my badge sent ahead of time, this would reduce burden in the registation lines significantly
The issue arises that you have to validate the badge. Now you are making it more complex during the con. Volunteers will then need to not only spot that attendees have a badge but they will need to check the validation of the badge. Especially since there are different classifications. A minor must not have an adult badge and somehow you have to check that. Which means even if you have the badge in advance you still have to show ID and sign code of conduct. The amount of time saved isn't going to be much.
Thanks for this in advance. My only question is about what the goal of the bag policy for the raves and will that be changed?
How is anyone supposed to be able to bring their life saving medical gear if they can't have a bag?
And this is how you KILL a convention RIP Anthrocon
I really think you guys should do mailed out NFC wristbands for prereg and completely eliminate reg line except for those who are buying reg onsite. This is how all major festivals and larger events are done nowadays (pretty sure FWA does this now).
Who the heck said they want you to move out of Pittsburgh?? Lmao
Also, I know you've talked about it at length, but it's disappointing that you will not be mailing in badges.
Yeah, all I can think is that if there is a venue that would work, then eventually furries near it will start a convention and eventually grow into that venue. There's a good reason why fan-driven conventions don't end up in the biggest venues and industry-driven ones do. If a furry con wanted the Javits center, they'd have to have industry sponsors and that would get messy fast.
So, a question about the parade. Will people with disabilities that require handlers at all times be able to have their handlers with them in the parade??? Or will the suiter and handler not be allowed to join the parade at all??? Because that would kinda suck big time, but I also understand that the parade is BIG so it would be hard to let handlers in with their suiters. I hope the handlers and disabled suiters will be able to join still, but I also understand if that will not be the case
My two cents: the need to sort through pre printed badges is the slowest solution. Don't get me wrong, they do great, lovem, all hard workers. It is just that the process itself is slow to run back and forth. Looking forward to the new process.
i knew things where going to have to happen and it is needed. Just don't turn into a lottery for folks cause that might just turn deadly for the con. I still plan on going
I love you Uncle Kage, you're permanently a stop off for a present anytime I can get you.
I'm still going to try to go for a con safety as staff or volunteer and break my record of 55 hours.
👍
Regarding the Fursuit Parade, It was really good to have this reduction. In these two editions that I participated, there were too many people that could cause a rebellion. Congratulations For This Decision!
seeing as most people pre-reg these days ... Thursday is still gonna be a mess ... People just wake up early and camp out at this point lmfao
managing thousands of people is no joke. letting them be at a convention centre to do their own thing is one thing, but telling attendees, where to go, and what to do in a fursuit parade is basically impossible for a team of mostly volunteers. people may not like these decisions, but it is simply impossible to manage this many people with arguably not that well educated voulenteers on controlling a mass of people. (just as a reference, when a lot of people are in one place, they almost stop behaving like people, and more like a fluid. like water, there can be literal waves going though a crowd, and if not managed correctly, people can and have suffocated in these crowds) i hope that the atendee limit will be implemented in a way that the least amount of people will be upset. (mainly for it to not be "pay to win" and to fight scalpers which can ruin a conventions image. And maybe split the registration as at most 70-80% of the cap can be registered online, and the remaining 20-30% be able to be registered on site.)
ps: *volunteer*. the conventions relies on people helping the small permanent staff team with for example setting up and tearing down stages. i have personally never voulenteered, because I either wasn't old enough when I attended, or the convention was in the us while I am in Europe and didn't hate the kind of money to fly in a few days earlier, but if you can, please volunteer.
Will there be another winestream soon?
AC24 was my first ever con, and im so excited to be able to experience AC25. Thank you so much anthrocon staff and volunteers for all the hard work you guys do ❤❤
Thank you uncle kage
Will the hotel system be updated as well? When booking a room every year my selected room type has been taken from under me as i type in my card information. Will a holding room system be in place while checking out?
Overall though as a pgh local i adore this convention and am proud of it being my home con. I appreciate all the hard work the AC team is putting into the event every year ❤❤
@@Mineaime as someone else from Pittsburgh, the idea of getting a hotel to not have to drive there every day sounds very nice lol. Hope that works out for you this year!
Wait, they seriously didn't prevent this? Every bigger hotel (like Hampton brands, etc.) I've been to has a system where a 15 minute clock to hold your room starts as soon as you get to the review screen. You have that entire 15 minutes to look over your reservation one last time, enter your card, even move money around between your bank accounts if you need to. And as long as you hit the final button before that timer runs out, the room is yours.
Midwest FurFest - please take notes
Okay idk if this is already implemented but do you guys split your fursuit parade in 2 parts?
So first Anthrocon needs caps to make sure it's a quality experience. Have we considered second Anthrocon to cater to demand?
A second Anthrocon in October or November would be AMAZING. Hopefully it'd be a smaller event that rolls the experience clock back to the 2010's when friends could all get the same hotel together and lines weren't hours long.
Really nice but i hope Anthrocon next year, Sadarius Wolf returned
Definitely concerned over the fursuit parade standards, as it may mean that comedic staples such as cardboard heads and even some partial suiters may be left out.
I’m guessing partials are gonna be split, some get in, some won’t. I’m curious to see if they’re gonna ask people to sign up via a forum or if they’ll do it at the door again
I agree. I think it's good for normies (parents & kids) to see dorky joke costumes like that since it conveys we're chill and just having a good time, and not taking things too seriously. Even things like face paint / body paint is like, such a huge historical aspect of 90s / early 2000s furry culture, and I wouldn't want to banish that either.
Of all the things in the announcement the idea of "standards" for fursuiting seems the most risky to me. Those kind of mindsets are what's intimidated me from ever getting into fursuiting to begin with.
They should just put a cap on the parade if they need to, much simpler x3
That said, the guideline could be as simple as "multiple costume pieces themed after an animal or anthro creature, with the goal of performance & character" so you don't just get people wearing just a tiger stripe t-shirt and joining in. So IMO, even a cardboard fox head could count since it at least follows that spirit of "performance & character."
I doubt they will let partials in at all... I know for sure they wont let handlers in, having everyone in the parade to rely on untrained staff to rescue them if theres an emergency.
@@benjlehma That's not true at all. I go every year and handlers are always allowed what are you talking about? That's an acknoledged saftey thing.
@@benjlehma they have emergency services present at the convention at all times, especially at the parade where overheating is very common, they also let handlers go to their suiters to give them water and stuff if needed.
It’s not ideal, but there is help if someone needs it
Fair and valid points. Totally understandable cause I know linear growth is fine, exponential growth is a logistical nightmare. I have confidence in the Anthrocon team.
honestly if there are to much people than no new people can't come? than honestly what's the point of new people coming to conventions then
You're our favorite uncle
Thank you, Anthrocon
That's some really well thought through changes for sure!
Good luck and godspeed!
Kazookie from Eurofurence!
So after some thinking I put forth an idea:
Could there perhaps be two possible parades of smaller size?
-A fursuit parade, as already existing, hopefully a bit earlier or later in the day on Saturday than 2pm to avoid the intense peak heating hours of Pennsylvania July. Even though the outdoor time is somewhat brief, it's a common issue for fursuiters to be exhibiting signs of heat exhaustion at the end of the parade route.
-A smaller, "Spirit of Anthrocon" parade for participants who aren't particularly or exclusively fursuiters, but still dress up for the con in impressive garb and want to have a fun time and show off their creativity. It could be in the evening or on Friday or whenever could fit into the schedule as convenient, and has the benefits of including anyone as well as pulling some of the numbers off of the main fursuit parade to make it more manageable size-wise. Dare I pun that it would be less like herding cats.
Waiting to see on the actual announcement of the parade standards/restrictions but I wanted to just toss an idea on the table and see what others think about it.
A festival in my area does a similar thing with separating their main big parade from... what turned into a pet parade now by having them on different days and it works very well.
I understand the changes even if it makes me sad to hear. 😢
There is this question. So we have to go a day before Thursday or on Thursday from arriving by train to your hotel?
are foreign IDs accepted? like, a french passport for exemple
Yes, passports are an acceptable form of ID.
@@Meefer Thank you!
It's bad enough that people who don't have suits get discriminated against in the fandom. People saying partials shouldn't be allowed in the parade sounds pretty elitist for a group geared towards I'm inclusiveness.
Don't understand how 20,000 people can march half lit for St Patrick's Day but 3k is unmanageable
Pittsburgh home and garden show has 300,000 visitors/attendance. You should talk to them to figure out how they manage that if we can't manage 16k.
Also why don't you start the parade outside so you can have more people walk in it. Instead of limiting the speed of the parade to the two escalators in the building...
Also announcing the cap is going to cause a lot of FOMO and probably cause a lot of people to refund tickets.
That probably has sponsors and paid staff. Anthrocon is a non-profit event with fully unpaid volunteers.
Those 300,000 attendees don't stay three solid days. They're usually local, come in for 2 hours then go home. That's 1 attendee.
@@TalynWuff it’s still 300,000 people over 9 days which would be over 33k people in a day. I think my point still stands. Not all attendees are inside the convention space at all times either. They are spread throughout the city and the hotels.
33k people are still going thru some kind of registration a day.
They are also not usually local. Considering they have guests of honor from HGTV.
What being a furry is, is changing.
I feel many people joining the fandom have misunderstandings about what it is to be a furry.
Disagree, this isn't a change in furry necessarily, it's just a change in furry conventions. Hopefully means furry conventions will start to grow in number and we'll get more at the same time in other areas vs. everyone trying to go to whatever the biggest is.
We need more furcons in the US and abroad for more accessibility and affordability.
@@Vincent_Hayes Im not talking about just the convention. I said "What being a furry is"
???
@@jackaryyy Can you elaborate instead of being vague then?
@@uni_meadows The fandom in general is full of people fighting for "acceptance" that we dont want, and thinking odd things like you must have a suit to be a furry etc etc. It's all newcomer shit. The people who "identify" as animals and whatnot, and dont know what a Therian/Otherkin is.
The saying "nobody hates furries more than a furry" is going away, and with it - our self policing. The grooming seems to be rampant again, like back in 2008.
Ein möll
MAIL BADGES OMFG ITS SO EASY
sounds like if the age minimum to get in being 21 would help with deciding the amount of attendees
Hi I am a furry. I am a wolf husky. Can you help my tell me mom. She thinks furry bad can you help me please.
I feel like 80-90% of attendees pre register, so what does this new rule solve? The line is still going to be hours long. We need mail options for attendees who can't physically wait in long lines.
Thursday on site reg line was up to 5 hours long last year. Just axing it entirely seems reasonable TBH
Need to have tvs like in airports TSA, except it will just play this video on loop 🫡
Sounds like very logical and necessary changes.