I attended Midwest FurFest last month, which was held from December 1st-4th, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Chicago, IL.
Once again, I was on staff at this con. I worked in VIP Services as a Handler for one of our Guests of Honor. That meant that my job was basically to be their point of contact during the convention. I was responsible for meeting for them at the airport, getting them to all of their panels on time, and relaying any questions or issues that came up to the appropriate department (room requests, A/V requests, etc.). This role suited me well, because the cadence was "take them to a panel, then sit down for an hour". As I am still recovering from my injuries, not having to be on my feet non-stop really really helped.
The most impressive thing about Midwest FurFest was its attendance this year--they continue to show amazing amounts of growth and had a whopping 7,075 attendees this year! People have asked me if they attendance numbers might surpass Anthrocon one year and it is entirely possible--Chicago is a well-placed city which serves as a hub for planes, trains, and busses, and the hotel scales really well for conventions. I know based on my own experience when I worked at Anime Central in 2009, the year in which it had 19,511 attendees. Both cons are well run, and if you like both, you should attend both. If you like to staff cons, then please staff both (as I do).
Instead of doing a fursuit parade this year, they tried something instead called the Fursuit Menagerie. They instead set up photography stations around the main ballroom and the foyer outside of it and had scheduled photoshoots for different kinds of fursuits (different species, different color, etc.). While I missed the parade as I come to know, it was nice to be able to socialize with some friends during the shoot.
Looking for the rest of my photos? I have them up here:
My next convention will be Anthro New England, slated to have its third convention in a couple of weeks. I hope I'll see you there!
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