ZA Furries

OK so this is post-poned now?
Can someone explain to me why, and what preparations have been done to date?

As Raven noted, we're working on an official release of the information. As soon as I'm back from the doctor, I'll let you guys know what's going on.

Confidentiality... it's a thing.

Alright, due to some unforeseen circumstances including our contact going on maternity leave last year for a fair amount of time, some of group members taking hiatus due to work or personal stress along with a longer turnaround time on responses than sometimes necessary we came to the conclusion that we did not have enough time to fairly expect people to raise their own funding as well as funding for the convention itself and have thusly postponed the convention to 2017.

We have however achieved the following, we've been able to begin the set up of a bank account that would be able to suit our needs for transparency on funding and ensuring that trust is maintained on our part for any funding going in there. A website (as some of you have already found out) has been set up for the convention and has been linked thusfar. There were other things to take into consideration as our original polls on this led us to think that we may not have had enough people to begin with, which also caused a fair amount of backlog in response from our venue.

As it stands, we are busy setting up a new date for the convention in Bloemfontein over the University holidays midyear next year. We had considered postponing to December but also, due to the nature of that holiday we have taken into account that many people would rather spend this time with their families and the fact that it will be uncomfortably hot over that period as well. (We don't want potential fursuiters to walk around outside and almost immediately faint from heat stroke.)

What we benefit from this postponement:

more time to gather personal funds

more time to arrange events

start up smaller 'fundraising' events to ensure that any extra costs would be as minimal as possible

Extending our planning committee to help with the fundraising efforts within provinces.

Above and beyond that, we've also set up a team for smaller weekend get-togethers in Gauteng now known as the Gauteng Fur Camp (GFC) which at present happens anything from two to three times per year. All of these may aid us in future to help with the fundraising efforts we intend to put in place.

Obviously one of the drawbacks of postponement would mean that there would be an increase of price by around 10% for the convention, which means that to cover this we'll also be working out a new price structure.

I understand that this is a major disappointment to some of you, however with the information that we have from the experience we feel that we have more understanding of how things are going to pan out. Keep you eyes open for our official launch of the website for the convention and pricing information which will be posted as soon as we have that information.

Any additional questions will be answered separately. Once again we understand that there is some frustration in regards to this but do note that we are still dedicated to turning this into a proper yearly event and there are many things to take into consideration for that to be done as well as ensure continuity. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I don't know about anyone else but for me this is actually really good news, since I might be able to save up enough to attend by then.

OK, very good.
Now I understand. I am not disappointed, I just wish I knew more about it hence me asking.
Conventions, are major work, I know this from my earlier experiences with anime conventions.

I don't post here as much as I could, but I'd like to do as much as I can to help make this con happen.

Well then, more time to make awesome stuff to sell at the con then ^.^

I'm just gonna say sorry, didn't think it would be an issue it's my bad. Won't happen again...

vakie wrote:I'm just gonna say sorry, didn't think it would be an issue it's my bad. Won't happen again...

Uh....? Don't worry.

This thing has been on my mind for a while, so I actually did some research.

The larger conventions, let's take for example eurofurence, they started very small, in the youth hostel I am told.

Just my opinion but I think we need to follow the same route.

There are small venues that can be had for a small fee. For example, Randburg High School, in Gauteng, is a venue used by a lot of people. I have used it myself a decade ago, for anime gatherings. Recently a model train festival was held there, and those guys are on tight budgets, tighter than anyone I know. This particular venue I mention is ideal for this, as it offers all we need, space, convenience, being indoors, etc...

What is also significant is I paid for the entire event back then, out my own pocket. So its not that bad, and you can make a success of it without the need of much sponsorship. Sponsorship is going to be very hard to come by, in this depressed economy.

I really appreciate the desire to go big, and to do it properly, but I also think, starting small is going to be the right way to do this. There are approx 300 members on this forum, most are not active, so if we assume worst case of 300 furs, that venue will be ideal. I myself squeezed 400+ anime fans in there, some 10 years ago.

In this situation, you might as well go big, because I don't see people flying all the way to Bloemfontein for a glorified furmeet. If you're going to have to shell out for a plane ticket, you might as well have to shell out for a venue as well.

Sev wrote:In this situation, you might as well go big, because I don't see people flying all the way to Bloemfontein for a glorified furmeet. If you're going to have to shell out for a plane ticket, you might as well have to shell out for a venue as well.

I don't know why, but this is always the problem, the transportation.
It has to be more than a furmeet, it has to be something unique.

And this is why I stress, small, because you don't need a big event to have something special.

What distinguishes this from the average furmeet?
* Whole weekend event
* All sorts of things to do, see, buy and sell
* Workshops
* Artists and art classes
* Talks

I don't know but, its a hell of a lot easier to get accommodation in Randburg, than it is in Bloemfontein. Everything is here, as this is a major centre. There is a Town Lodge within 500m of this particular venue I mentioned. It is also a lot easier from a lot of aspects, easier for me to get there on a budget, easier to get journos to cover the event, etc, etc...

It's because Bloemfontein is in the center of the country. Still, the reasoning basically comes down to this: we don't won't to make it more convenient for the JHB furs then the CPT furs, so we'll just make it inconvenient for both.

Interesting.

Cape Town to De Aar - 755km
Johannesburg to De Aar - 793km
Durban to De Aar - 994km (Just using google maps here, and short on time, but I believe you don't actually have to drive all the way around Lesotho)

Cape Town to Bloemfontien - 1005km (An entire extra digit there, no lies)
Johannesburg to Bloemfontien - 397km (Mind as well host it in JHB then imo)
Durban to Bloemfontien - 633km

Either my maths is bad or Bloem is very not central.

The usual solution, as applied in business, to the problem of location, is to hold the event in the major centres. So one day, in Cape Town, the next day in Durban, and the next day in Johannesburg. They do this with exhibitions. Maybe that way of doing it could be the way it works for us all.

There's history involved here, for the new furs.

We used to have a system where we'd do one year in CPT, one in the east (PE), and one in JHB. When it came to JHB, I had the following issues:

• It's too expensive. I got nice (cheap) lodgings and the CPT furs complained, because they can get it for cheaper
• The JHB furs didn't want to stay at the venue, because they can just go home in the evenings. And it's cheaper that way.
• We need a minimum number of furs to book accommodation at a venue.

With all these issues, it's hard to estimate how many to book for in time to get a good venue. Book too close to the time and there's no space. Book too far ahead and we get no guarantees number of people in attendance. And the BFN entire event is a LOT cheaper than we can get for any venue in JHB.

Oh I see...
I will do some more research then and report back with this in mind.

It would be nice if you could fill me in (via PM or otherwise) what has been done to date for the confurence you were going to have this year.

Makes sense, Val. It's a pretty unfortunate situation either way.

BlOemfontein also had a nice set up st the university where we could stay snd use conference fscilities for cheaper if i remember correctly.

To find thst in most other place s is hard abd expensive

I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't host/attend anything at a university right now.

Leeward wrote:I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't host/attend anything at a university right now.

Obviously hoping that things have calmed down by then.

I've made a point of wearing my UCT t-shirts just to see if anyone comments.

Okay, so the factors are

* Input cost for venue hire
* Input cost for accommodation
* All the other usual input costs i.e. decor, promo, advertising, etc...


Since I have never had the opportunity to be to one of these, can I ask a really dumb question, do you sell tickets to the event?

The ones that have happened have been private.

OK it seems I am missing something here.

This conference, was it meant to be public, or private?

Randall wrote:OK it seems I am missing something here.

This conference, was it meant to be public, or private?

Was meant to be public. Previous ones were semi-public, but generally with low turnout. These days we have furmeets larger than the previous conventions.

We calculated costs, and communicated that, and intended to sell tickets, yes.

OK, thanks for the information. There's a lot of homework for me to do, and stuff I didn't even know about.

Look I know it might seem to you I am an idiot or a loose cannon, but by all means, talk to me, I genuinely care about this.

Randall wrote:OK, thanks for the information. There's a lot of homework for me to do, and stuff I didn't even know about.

Look I know it might seem to you I am an idiot or a loose cannon, but by all means, talk to me, I genuinely care about this.

I suggest you direct that question at Ivic, he's got all the information available.

It kinda depends what you mean by public and private. It was only intended for furs and organisation was through furs or on the forum. None of that is strictly private. But it wasn't advertised and we didn't encourage others to come, they were small events. There wasn't anything for someone to see. Although there was public fursuiting in PE.