The Midwest FurFest Community

Video Up On FurFest.Org

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:40:39 GMT

Dear Mirko, Cheetah and everyone at Neofelis Communications,
The video you all have prepared for the MFF home page is great!
I'm really looking forward to this year's con and this has made me all the more excited to attend.

Everyone else,
If you haven't visited the site in awhile, do yourself a favor and check it out:
http://www.furfest.org/

Need a room at this year's MFF

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:51:03 GMT

Anyone willing to shelter a black lab at this year's MFF from Thursday through Monday?

(x-posted to personal LJ)

An new member and looking for a room

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:59:06 GMT

Heys my name is SaberClaw. I am a new member to this group. A friend told me about MFF and that I should try and attend Mff08. I am interested in going so I was wondering if anyone has any room at the Westin Hotel for a nice feline? I hope to find a few welcomeing furrs to join and meet at MFF this year. I hope to read from u guys soon.

MFF Art Show?

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:03:25 GMT

Hey MFF staff!

Any idea on when the information for the 2008 art show is going to be available? There's not the option to clink that portion of the menu on the website. I'm highly interested in participating in the show, and with the con being 4 months away now, shouldn't there be something in the way of information available? I need to start prepping art for the show now if I'm going to participate, as I'm sure other artists will as well. Any assistance would be appreciated!

ACME Delivery and MFF 2008

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:49:02 GMT

ACME Delivery needs to know what to send and who to send it to. So there is a poll asking about such things.

Top Chef

Wed, 28 May 2008 23:26:56 GMT

Just FYI, tonights Top Chef was filmed at one of the Westin's restaurants, Tramonto's Steak & Seafood.

Room share for MFF?

Thu, 15 May 2008 11:34:15 GMT

Just wanted to ask everyone out there that I'm going to need to find a room to share at MFF. Anybody have any space for a lovable collie? *pleads with puppydog eyes*

Surrounding area?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:25:40 GMT

Does anybody know how big the parking lot at the Westin is or if there is a Wal-Mart nearby? Me and a few friends are looking to save money by staying in a small camper that we've got. Info is much obliged ^.^

Thanks.

Web Link for Reserving at Overflow Hotel

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:49:15 GMT

You can now reserve your room online at our overflow hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Deerfield/Lincolshire!

For more information about the Holiday Inn Express, see the Midwest FurFest website.

As a reminder: We will be running a shuttle between the Holiday Inn Express and the Westin Chicago North Shore throughout the convention weekend at the top and bottom of every hour between 3:00 PM and 2:00 AM on Thursday and between 8:00 AM and 2:00 AM Friday through Sunday.

MFF looking for DJs!

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:20:53 GMT

Fancy yourself a music lover who can get furs to get up out their seats and shake their tails? Then MFF is looking for you! MFF is currently looking for DJ's to play at the con this year. With the new hotel we are trying to make the dance a good one and we can't do that without the musically talented furs out there.

What are we looking for?

MFF is looking for talented energetic furs who have their muzzle/beak/snout/whatever buried in music and are willing to share their passion with others. DJs who not only have an ear for music, but also have a flair for performance will score high marks. This is not just limited to electronic music. The format of the dance(s) is still up in the air so we are looking for furs from all walks of life (dubstep and glitch score major points with me though :0).

What format is prefered

MFF is looking to support the major DJing formats. Turntables, CDs and laptops. Any other specific needs should be alerted to myself.

Holy carp I'm excited, how do I sign up!?!?!11
Email me with your info and a demo at dance.2008 (attt) furfest.org

I have a suggestion/comment/complaint/gripe

If it is about Perro then we have probably already heard it. Emails and suggestions for the dance are more than welcome and should be sent to the email address listed above.

Why are foxies so awesome

It's a universal truth. Just accept it.

Thanks for reading, looking forward to working with all of you!

^_^

Panel request

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:57:49 GMT

I hope it's not too late to request space for doing a panel. The furs from the East, have asked me to chair the rails_n_tails panel at MFF this year. Who would I query to see if a room is available for an hour or so?
Furs who are modelers, work in the industry, or anyone who might want to stop in and see what it's all about are welcome.

Overflow Hotel Announcement!

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:09:44 GMT

The Westin has sold out of rooms on Saturday night.

We are happy to announce our overflow hotel for this year (which is also the closest to the Westin), the Holiday Inn Express Deerfield/Lincolnshire.

This 115 room hotel is located a little over a mile away from the Westin and is offering the following rates during the convention:
2 Queen Beds room for $85/night
1 King Bed suite for $95/night

This includes the following amenities for all rooms:
Swimming Pool
Hot Tub
Complimentary High Speed Internet
Complimentary Express Start® Breakfast Bar
*Shuttle Service to the Westin and Train stations nearby

Also, all suites do come with a Microwave and mini Fridge

*There will be shuttle service between the hotels running often during convention hours starting on Thursday and ending late Sunday night. More information will be on our Website soon.

If you would like to reserve a room at the Holiday Inn Express, please give them a call at 847-374-0260. Online reservations will be provided soon.

As always, if you have any questions, please send an email to hotel.2008(at)furfest(dot)org.

Need Roomie

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:44:38 GMT

Hey guys, Res here. I am going to be attending MFF this winter and me and my mate need a third person to share a standard room with us to defer the cost. If anyone is interested in rooming with 2 babyfurs let me know. We are both clean and quiet and would just need private time for the you know what.

Suite Requests and Fursuit Floor Requests are now available!

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:52:29 GMT

Midwest FurFest is pleased to announce that Suite Reservation Requests and Fursuit Floor Requests are now available!

The Westin Chicago North Shore has a limited number of suites available, including Junior Suites ($159/night), Westin Workout Suites ($159/night), Executive Suites ($259/night), and Deluxe Suites ($459/night). Please see our suite request page for room diagrams and pictures. The Suite Request page can be found at http://www.furfest.org/2008/mff2008-suiterequests.html

We are also pleased to announce that Fursuit Floor requests are now being taken. These will be for rooms on the third, fourth, and fifth floors of the Westin Chicago North Shore. To make a request, you will need the real name of the person who made the original reservation, as well as the reservation confirmation number. The Fursuit Floor Request page can be found at http://www.furfest.org/2008/mff2008-fursuitfloorrequests.html

Do you have questions about suite requests or fursuit floor requests? You can always send an e-mail to our hotel liaison at hotel.2008@furfest.org.

Con photos from 2005-7

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:41:52 GMT

I finally got around to uploading my con photos to Flickr, including 770 shots from the last three instances of Midwest Furfest. Share and enjoy. :-)

Images licensed under CC-BY-SA (but consider MFF policy before use). If you do not wish your likeness to be distributed, let me know.

Hotel Rooms

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:50:04 GMT

Howdy folks!
If you tried and failed at making reservations over the weekend, you should be able to reserve again!

We are running close to selling out the hotel (already!!!) and they are having to do some shifting around in their systems to ensure they get all the rooms in our block, but there are rooms available from Wednesday until Monday.

You can reserve two ways
Online: http://2008hotel.furfest.org
Phone: 847-777-6500

If you don't see any rooms online, then give them a call to reserve. If they say Wednesday is sold out, reserve the rest of the weekend and then email hotel.2008(at)furfest(dot)org with your name and confirmation # and I will work with the Westin to get your reservation corrected.

The suites at the Westin will be coming available soon, will announce here the pricing and availability in the next few weeks.

We have an overflow hotel lined up, more on that when we sell out of regular rooms at the Westin.

If you have any questions, you can reach me at hotel.2008(at)furfest(dot)org

Major site updates.

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:36:46 GMT

Greetings folks!

There are quite a nice set of shiny new updates on this year's MFF 2008 site! The fellowing areas have been updated:

*Registration (main page for it added)
*Artist Alley (now added)
*Hotel (red text by the top of the page)
*Guests of Honor (info about Foxfeather R. Zenkova posted, Lucky's to be added soon)
*Credits for artist contributers to the site (added under Contacts).

A note about the hotel. The convention hotel is currently out of double beds as of February 28th. King size beds may still be available. Please contact the Westin for any room inqueries.

More to come soon!

Midwest FurFest Newsletter: February/March 2008

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:52:09 GMT

Midwest FurFest 2008, "North to Alaska!"
November 21-23, 2008
Westin Chicago North Shore
Wheeling, IL

Greetings everyone!

The end of winter is in sight, and we here in Chicago are ready to shake off the blanket of snow that has all but smothered us this winter and move into spring. A time of rebirth, of starting anew...and starting to really get to work on bringing you Midwest FurFest 2008!

It's early yet so we just have a few things to let you know about. Rest assured there's much more on the way!

First and foremost, in addition to the talented Guests of Honor who we announced at the Closing Ceremonies of Midwest FurFest 2007, Matt and Darcy Sowers (Code Name: Hunter) and Lucky the Evil Dog (mascot for hire), we are pleased to announce our third Guest of Honor, Foxfeather Ženková!

Foxfeather is a gifted artist who works not only with paper and canvas but also leather and tagua, as well as sculptures, masks, and more. Her style ranges from the realistic to the more abstract, all firmly grounded in the beauty of the natural world. In addition, Foxfeather shares her home with a small menagerie of critters, including fennec foxes, pied crows, parrots, toucans, and a growing collection of rare reptiles; we hope that she will share some of her stories of raising and living with exotic animals as well.

For more information, see Foxfeather's website at http://www.foxloft.com
-----
The next important bit of information is that double rooms are SOLD OUT at the Westin Chicago North Shore. There are still plenty of king bed rooms available, though. You can reserve your room online by following the links from our website (http://www.furfest.org/2008/mff2008-hotel.html).

Also, we have finalized a procedure for reserving suites at the Westin Chicago North Shore! Look for an announcement from our Hotel Liaison, Takaza, in the coming week with what suites are available and how you can reserve yours. Suites will need to be reserved through a specific procedure, otherwise you may very well not get the convention discounted rate!
-----
We also want to remind you that while the venerable but little-used MFF-Talk mailing list went away earlier this year, we are seeing more interest and discussion at the Midwest FurFest Forum, conveniently located at http://forum.furfest.org/index.php

The Midwest FurFest Forum are the official discussion forum for discussion about Midwest FurFest, room sharing, ride sharing, and more! Stop on by, register for an account (it's free!), and join in the conversation.

You can also subscribe to MFF-Announce, a low-traffic mailing list with only official announcements from Midwest FurFest. For more information, visit http://www.breuckman.com/mailman/listinfo/mff-announce

That's all for now. We'll be keeping you up to date on all the latest information throughout the year, though. Stay tuned!

Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts during MFF 2008

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:49:24 GMT

Okay. I think I officially have a good reason to want to go hear the CSO during MFF 2008. They just released their new season schedule and the work they're performing:

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"

This I think I need to see! I thought I'd post this here if anyone is interested in doing such an outing.

(x-posted)

Art Show

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:17:41 GMT

Greetings furry fans!

I am Jim Doolittle, the new Art Show Director for 2008. Some of you may remember me from when I ran the art show in 2000 and 2001, or from when I was convention chairman in 2002 and 2003. So while I am the 'new' director, I have been around Midwest FurFest and our art show since the beginning. I'm looking forward to working on the Midwest FurFest convention committee again, and putting on the best art show possible.

To that end, I need your help! First of all, I'm interested in any comments you might have about the art show, from both an artist's perspective, and a bidder's perspective. What do you wish that we did differently? Is there something we need to add to the show? Is there something you wish we didn't do? I'm looking for comments now, before I finalize any new art show policies for 2008. Feel free to post here in the journal, or email me directly at artshow.2008@furfest.org.

We are already planning on expanding the show--our new hotel has allowed us to put the art show in a larger room, and we will respond by increasing the amount of panels by over 30%. I know there were some communication issues last year...rest assured that will not be the case this year. While I do work a very demanding job with long hours in the spring and in the fall, there is plenty of room in my schedule to manage the pre and post convention art show prep and planning work.

Again, if there are any issues that you wish me to address for this year, now is the time to bring them forward.

Secondly, we are heavily recruiting for art show staff this year. Over the past several years, we have been doing larger and larger art shows with essentially the same sized staff. We can't do that any more...we need new people to step up and help us grow further. I have openings available all weekend, starting with the setup crew on Thursday evening, artist check-in on Friday, data entry Saturday night, and artist and buyer check-out followed by tear down on Sunday. We really need your help to run a successful show this year.

I also have a need for IT support. If you have experience with UNIX shell and C programming, mySQL databases, basic networking, and a desire to serve your convention, the art show database solution that we are currently using could use some bugfixes, maintenance, and updating, as well as at-con, on-site support.

If you are interesting in volunteering for any of these staff positions, please email me: artshow.2008@furfest.org.

Thanks for your attention and I look forward to seeing you this November!

To Counter Some Rumors...

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:02:54 GMT

Contrary to rumors which have been posted elsewhere, please note that the Westin Chicago North Shore is NOT sold out of either double or king rooms for any night of the convention. We had a few days where reservations that included double rooms on Thursday night were told that that room choice was unavailable; all that was needed was to expand the room block for that night, which has been done. As is stated on the Midwest FurFest Forums:

If you try to reserve on the Westin website using the link from the Hotel page and you get the message:

The bed type preference you specified was unavailable.

Don't panic! This just means that our room block needs to be expanded for one of the nights that you are trying to reserve. All you need to do is send an e-mail to Takaza, our Hotel Liaison, at hotel.2008@furfest.org and let him know which nights and what type of room you are trying to reserve. Please keep in mind that our hotel contact typically only is available between 9 AM - 5 PM Monday through Friday, so if the problem occurs on a weekend it may take a few days to resolve it.

Any hotel questions? Just drop Takaza a line.

Grrr

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:40:29 GMT

Just battled with the incredibly slow Starwood/Westin web site for hotel reservation for next November. And I do mean incredibly slow.

After filling out four pages of forms in order to get a room reservation for MFF, they insist my credit card expiration date is incorrect. I have the card in front if me, the date I'm entering IS correct. Tried three times with the same result.

I think the real problem they're having is that the card expires before November. Of course, I've had this card and account for longer than their brain-dead web programmer has been alive, probably. It's perfectly good, but won't have a new expiration date until it's due for renewal, several months from now. If I wait that long to make my reservation, they may well be overbooked and out of space. The Hyatt never had a problem with this, nor has any other hotel I've ever booked. Do they expect me to go open a new account somewhere just to get an expiration date that is more than ten months in the future?

So now I'm already angry with them and I've never even set foot on their premises. And I still have no reservation.

Fursuit Panels - Past and Future

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:03:32 GMT

I took some time to make a spreadsheet of all fursuit panels from all 8 years of Midwest Furfest (except 2002 because I couldn't find my conbook!)

EDIT: (thanks to Duncan, he supplied me the info from 2002! thank you! will update shortly)

HTML spreadsheet of Fursuit Panels 2000-2007 (sans 2002)
I found that the same panels tend to get ran every year. Its a bit of a cookie cutter format that works... presenting the info that people seem to want. The new hotel gives high potential to present informational panels in more ways than before.

Look at the spreadsheet and tell us what is missing. Is there a need for more information on a subject? Is a panel being ran that is out of date? Over the years, have there been areas that have been forgotten about?

I haven't heard much feedback from convention attendees or other staff members about the Fursuit panels offered. The old saying goes "if it ain't broke.. dont fix it" but it dont mean we cant accessorize :)

thanks in advance for your feedback.

Eric E. Stevens
Snap E. Tiger
MFF08 Constructed Fuzziness - Fursuit Track Co-Head

2008 MFF site is now officially launched.

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:47:47 GMT

The new site's still at its home over at www.furfest.org.

I'm still looking for folks willing to donate 2-D art to the site with our theme. Available sections:

*Art Show
*Artist Alley
*Charity Auction
*Convention Book
*Dealers Den
*Events
*Travel Info

Urgent Anyone know the wherabouts of KitFox?

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:25:42 GMT

As the subject says, does anyone know KitFox from MFF's Art Staff, or know what's going on with him?

I and a few other mail-in artists from MFF have not gotten our art back since the con ended in November, and it seems that his voicemail inbox is full and he hasn't responded to any emails from artists or staff. Unfortunately he lives 3 hours away or so from other staff members, so it's not feasible to just 'drop by' until they contact him.

If anyone has any leads, we'd be most grateful.

-Kitsumi