BronyCon 2013 Review! Wait, WAT?!

Yeah, this is accurate.

I have two things to give to you my fellow bronies. One of them is an apology, and the other one is a 4 month late BronyCon 2013 review. If your wondering if this post is still worth your time being late and all, I'd say it is, because no one anywhere in the fandom wrote a review like this... There was probably a reason for that though.

First off, I apologize. 

I screwed this up pretty good. This post should have been done within 2 weeks of BornyCon itself. All of the staff knew that the post would come a bit later than most of the other reviews you might pick up on. But that was because we were compiling everything that had happened at the con. You all would be able to get a closer, more in depth, and more detailed perspective on everything that happened at the con, more so than even those that actually attended, but didn't get to see everything they wanted. Also, we could keep the record of this convention as something you could always come back to later if you wanted more information.

But it may have been overly ambitious, or maybe I thought it was going to be easier than I thought. One thing lead to another and the post was mostly finished, but still missing key components. Suddenly school started up, and I got burried under work. Suddenly, most of the staff was either trying to push through classes, or getting deployed. The whole project collapsed under it's own weight from the force of the real world intruding on the rest of us. So I had to make a decision: put this off until free time and focus on my studies and real world problems, or work on this and help out with the fob, and suffer real world consequences.

It seemed like an obvious choice. Clearly, the right thing to do was to put down the colorful ponies and get back to the grindstone. After 3 months of neglecting my responsibilities here, I can now tell you. I'm not sure it was worth it. Throwing myself into books and ignoring my friends and social connections was a huge step backwards for me, and worse, every time I'd see the site, or hear a ping on skype a little piece of me thought I let you all down.

But school is over for the winter, and for this past week I've been busting my ass to get this post done. To reinvigorate the site, because by God it makes me happy. This crazy nonsense I do with all of you silent observers gives me satisfaction where solving endless streams of triple integrals does not. At the end of the day, I need this. I recognize that now.

As such: things will be a lot more active then they have been, and you're not going to see me throw away my responsibilites to you like that again.

Thank you for your patience.

Now let me show you the most ridiculous BronyCon post you've ever seen.

This freakish post is divided into 5 sections:

The Events, The Guests, The Con,  The Others, The Final Take Away

All of which are further divided into their sub parts which involve lots of videos, quotes, pictures, and explanations. You probably won't get through this whole thing in one sitting, so look for the stuff your interested in first.

Also, if you don't think you've seen enough pictures of BronyCon by the end of the post, check out Major Tom's Flicker to see all of them, and then some.



Events:

• Opening Ceremonies
• Military Bronies Panel
• FiW panel
• Comic Panel
• Voice Actor's Panel
• Bronypalooza: Night 1
• Bronypalooza: Night 2
• Military Bronies Luncheon

Guests:

• Lee Tockar
• Brenda Crichlow
• M.A. Larson
• Amy Keating Rogers
• Michelle Creber & Madeleine Peters
• Andy Price, Katie Cook, Heather Breckel
• Cathy Weseluck
• The attendees
• The cosplayers
• The vendors

Con:

• Organization
• Security
• Human traffic

Others:

• Non-brony press
• Brony press
• Local community
• Furries
• 4chan
• Food
• Oddballs

The Final Take Away

The Events

The Opening Ceremonies:

     I wasn't there for the opening ceremonies, I was setting up the Military Bronies Panel downstairs, while most of the other guys were preparing for the ceremonial march. Although we did end up on EFN's livestream... Blame DustyKatt, that wasn't planned. (0:27:25 on the video) Although after he invited us we did end up giving him an honorary member plaque. We also show up again around 0:33:00 Just remember, there's a half hour of waiting for the opening ceremonies. (More on that in a second)



Military Bronies Panel

So, we had the first panel of the day. I don't care what anyone else says, because our panel was ready to go minus some livestream issues with EFN. It would have gone off without a hitch if there wasn't a half hour delay for the entire convention, and if any of our AV stuff worked. The convention staff, and EFN's staff were scrambling to get things done, but there is only so much you can do 2 hours prior to opening. Also, the main focus of both EFN and the Bronycon staff at the time was to get the Mane Hall ready, especially considering that is where Opening Ceremonies were. EFN had everything ready to go by 10:00 except Sun Hall where we were at. Some managerial staff was saying something about union issues. I tried contacting EFN for comment but they never got back to us, so I'll have to leave it at that. Regardless, the stream was up for us by 10:30. Although it didn't make too much difference to us, as we had our own cameras anyway. As for BronyCon, here's what the head of programming had to say about the delay:

"... the load in time to get everyone inside the 400 level Mane Event Hall took far longer than I thought it would take. It was the slowest load in of all the events in that hall for the weekend. As to why the load in was slow, I don't have that answer. We did, however, filter in some buffer time in our schedule to ensure the rest of our Programming did not suffer for the late delay."   - Obsidian, Head of Programming

Luckily, we are capable of adaptation. Although, what most of you didn't hear was the sonic blast that came from the speakers when the con staff were struggling to make the audio output work. It was the sound of Tweak screaming at Pvt. Fluttershy, except louder by a bajillion times thanks to a maxed out speaker system. It nearly knocked me off my feet. You can watch the panel below. All in all, the panel seemed to have been received very well, and we gathered quite a few people, for being so early. We tried to show off the Jungle and Pvt Fluttershy animations, but it didn't work... so we just re-enacted the Fluttershy one. The panel briefly went over how we all became bronies, and many light hearted, and some serious, questions during Q&A.

Left to Right: Miche, Firebrand, Saber, Saunter, Rainbow Dash, Tweak, Black Gryph0n, and the back of Spangle's head
Miche, is displaying his total inability to have discipline while holding the guidon.

Our AV equipment failed us, so after some time, we just decided to re-enact the Pvt Fluttershy scene ourselves.
Adapt, improvise, overcome, rah?

Tweak, likely explaining his "how I became a brony story", while Black Gryph0n ponders the meaning of the universe

Tweak giving a flaccid knife hand, while I think about stealing Shining Armor's corn dog

Josh wondering what on Earth I'm looking at, while I make plans on how to acquire the corn dog...

The corn dog in question, while Miche AGAIN displays ZERO bearing

I'd say that it was a pretty legit turnout.

Friendship Is Witchraft Panel

The panel was rather entertaining but a little short, and part of the new episode starts at 2:00, you will hear a constantly faint buzzing. That is from the fact that the speakers were deafeningly loud. So yeah, there was no chance in hell of me actually speaking to any of the fobbits in the room while the animation was running. Remember that for Bronypalooza: It was deafeningly loud when people were talking.





Comic Panel

The comic panel war rather hilarious because Andy, Katie, and Heather are hilarious especially with each other's interactions. Silvermane and Tweak lead the panel, and both of them consider it a high point of their convention. Also, Katie was not making fun of bronies, but they were telling it like it is. Also: "Of course I'm going to drink two bottles of wine in one day and write a comic about ponies for little girls."  @ 0:10:51




Voice Actors Panel

Oh god, it's all of them. AT THE SAME TIME. I mean, it's one of the main points of  con. Michelle attempted to sing "Hush Now, Queit Now." I think it sounds better with mumbling. Also, there is a fantastic Cathey Weseluck impression of a drainpipe at (0:20:40). You might notice Silvermane running the audiance Q&A. Also, Lee Tockar wants to ride Snips.





Bronypalooza: First Night
   

Not that much of an exaggeration really.

You probably heard stories about this one, and they are all pretty true. BOTH of the one story speakers hanging from the Mane Hall's ceilings seemed to be set on blast. If you take a look at the video below, you will find that the music OUTSIDE of the hall was nearly deafening, that's when we decided to get closer... Next time I'm bring commercial hearing protection and a decibel meeter.

Warning: filmed by potato

Those speakers were immense, they make Vinyl's Base Cannon look down right miniature. There were a lot of comments about the floor waving, the windows buffeting, and the chairs on the floor below vibrating. Even a phone being shaken off of the little plastic tables attached to the support beams. So, not unlike this:

Except, way, WAY louder! So loud that it was not really even in a fun way (at least not for me). There is always a little bit of give in a building, much like the way sky-scrapers will actually sway in the wind, but you really don't want it to be perceptible. The problem here was that although the building was never in any real danger of collapse, it is disconcerting to know that steel beams thicker than you are having to cope with the noise. Head of BronyCon PR mentioned this:

"The Baltimore Convention Center is built to flex and move around to take weight, such as thousands upon thousands of bronies jumping up and down rocking at BronyPalooza. I can't personally comment on the Richter Scale, and can't seem to get in touch with the appropriate people to ask. I am told there was a seismograph in the basement that would have had that recording. Upon further inspection of the trusses, it was [found] that it was not ideal to have the trusses handle the weight of the gear in addition to dealing with the movement being caused by the flexing of the building. It was handled immediately Saturday morning."

Source: EQD, See those structural support thingies in the background?
They were SHAKING.

One incident we didn't record was when the speakers were again (just like the Military Bronies Panel) set to damn near max when a noise graced over a mic. The resulting sonic blast sent a couple people back a few feet.

It would be great to have the only complaint be that the music was too loud... but unfortunately the noise that was most deafening was the silence. LaserPon3 was supposed to have a show, but it didn't go off too well. Again, BronyCon PR:

"LaserPon3's setup was on top of the stage at ground level. Unfortunately one person tripped over a cable that was connecting to all of his gear. As a result, his controller stopped sending signals to the laser and we had to identify the problem before proceeding."

Someone tripped, huh?.... THANKS, M. A. LARSON!

That doesn't sound too bad, but we did get complaints at the improv effort that took place during the repairs, and it did take a while. Not to mention, LaserPon3's whole preformance, was still kinda meant for a smaller room, not a room as massive as Mane Hall. Remember that the room is massive, EFN has a perfect view of just the stage, but not the two massive screens on both sides, When you look at their youtube video of the stage, remember that it's not even 25% of the volume of that room.

Source:BronyCon's Facebook,  If you need a fish-eye lens to get a picture of the room, it's MASSIVE.
Furthermore, thoes things hanging from the ceiling are the SPEAKERS.
That misshapen thing with the white top and blue bottom? That is a normal sized HUMAN.

Speaking of which, check out the vids below.

From Laser Pon3's tumblr

The performances were by general conscientious good, decent, or well enough. I personally like the idea of DustyKatt being up on stage and bellowing out classic rock tunes, because that's how I roll. The only criticism here, was that there were a lot of performances. At first you might think that sounds great. Until you start to realize that there were a lot of preformers doing only a couple songs and getting off stage. Most of the time, a rave will operate for well over an hour with the same DJ, specifically because the DJ is actively using the music to time the ebb and flow of the crowds energy level. They will know how long to keep the crowd going, and will adjust on the fly if they see people getting burned out, and will tone down the music to keep the party going in the long run. Unfortunately, because of the way that Bronypalooza was set up, no one person was managing the crowd. Instead the intensity usually was just 100% on, or was just 100% (like when the piano's came out.)

Now that's not even to say that this was an unintentional consequence of a bad decision. BronyCon was specifically TRYING to get as many acts out there as possible, so by it's very nature, Bronypalooza was never really going to have great crowd control. The question is whether or not this is something we want to see in the future. I'll get into my suggestions for the next day.

For your leisure: here is the entire First Night from EFN:

Friday, Parts One, Two, and Three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA6uYiUeEZk  (DustyKatt's cover was at about 2:00:00, which is when we walked in from the first video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fON0s94R8Uw (0:36:16 is the very second when shit went horribly awry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fON0s94R8Uw (1:25:00 is probably the moment the building started to wave)




BronyPalooza: Second Night


"Due to Friday's issues and just overall better understanding of who was backstage, backstage security was increased for the second night so that people wouldn't be able to unintentionally mess up any musicians' gear. We also removed half the speakers from the trusses on Saturday in order to make sure there would be no potential danger issues to our attendees, musicians, or staff with the truss. They were placed with the subs so we did not get any sound loss."

The Second Night had two things that became immediately clear: security was beefed up, and the sound was turned down. Major Tom and I were under the impression that press was allowed backstage, like the first night. Instead, we were greeted by 2 layers of people checking badges, and BronyCon Staff blocking the side entrances. I'm not sure if everyone was clear on their orders of who had clearance to go where, because Tom and I had to do a bit of running back and forth just to get near the front of the stage. I asked a BronyCon Security staff who was allowed backstage and I was told it was: "Guest Stars, Everfree Network, Celestia Radio, and Equestria Daily."... Mmmm.... At first I feel a tiny bit insulted and think, "What, ya don't like the little guys?" and it seemed like the staff basically said: "If you don't have a reason to be here, and aren't the biggest Brony Press organization in the fandom, GTFO."

UNTIL, I talked with the head of security. Basically, there was no list, and any press could have been allowed back stage, not to mention that list was missing people with backstage passes anyway. Apparently, who was being allowed backstage, and who wasn't, was changing due to people not getting the correct badges in the first place. I've seen this kind of systemic communication problem before. It works like this: a crisis arises, new orders are given, actions are taken, then more new problems arise, new orders and counter orders are given, the response from the lowest level is confused... then people start interpreting things. I can EASILY see: "Press are allowed backstage. Everfree doesn't have backstage passes, but let them back there anyway." turning into "Make sure Everfree is allowed backstage, they don't have backstage badges." turning into "Everfree is allowed backstage, everyone else has to have a backstage badge." into "Sorry FOB, no ticky no washy."

An accurate description of events

As for the performances, they all hit... eventually. Once again, there were a ton of performances, and they seemed to be received well enough. The problem was the crowd, especially by 1:00 AM looked dead. Even with Eurobeat Brony preforming "Discord". Listen to what I mean for a moment:



-when you check out EFN's recording, note that you can't hear really any of the crowd noise

Just listening to it, it sounds great! It sounds like the crowd is really into it, and they are. They are just into it, on the floor. The crowd has heard the song, memorized the lyrics, and can sing it back to Eurobeat, but they seem to be too tired to do anything BUT sing. I realize that the in the EFN recording, you can't hear ANYTHING from the crowd, but this is because most of their mic's are set up for the performances, not the audience. Also, you might check out the crowd moving about  in the video, but again, this is a MASSIVE room, that is the absolute center of it, and activity. From further back, the crowd is both singing and still somehow dead. This weird environment of not jumping, a massive room, and general fatigue prevents a real strong rave from starting until the final two acts. One of which is, presumably, Alex S.'s last concert for Bronies.That's quite a bit of pressure to get people up and moving. I'll explain why this happened in the Attendee section.

Here's my recommendation: don't put all of the acts you can on two nights and make it last until the early morning. Diversify the location and timing a little bit more and start earlier. Here's an example, one DJ set up his own little gig on the second floor, and had a little dance party going on through the day. There were some musicians just wandering the halls. Some of the lesser known bands might not mind being relegated to a secondary stage where they can play during the latter part of the day, but play for longer than one or two songs. You could steal space from some of the convention rooms, and cut down on panels, that's a more difficult programming decision, but one that might have to be made. However, seeing the size of the convention centers wide open areas, makes me think that you could set up a little stage for some of the smaller acts to grab people's attention and hold onto it, all while keeping your rave more controlled, and your audience less exhausted.

For your viewing pleasure, here is the second night's BronyPalooza, Parts One, Two, and Three:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yxQj5nf5xY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BWVWNglyXk (contains the acoustic section, including piano!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeOK_My3Okg (1:15:10 is when Eurobeat Brony did Discord)



The Military Brony Luncheon

So the Military Brony Luncheon was a little break that all of the guests could take for a free lunch without worrying about being hassled for interviews and the like. You all didn't hear about it because we also wanted to avoid bringing in the general population so that the guests could actually, you know, eat.

How is it, that Black Gryphon was able to photobomb his OWN PHOTO.

Laurent Malquits, Nicole Oliver, and |some dude?|

The Guests

Lee Tockar

Lee Tockar wasn't messing around during BronyCon. By which I mean he was constantly messing around, but with a seirous point. Unfortunately we missed Mr. Tockar's interview in the press conference, but EFN was able to record his Voice Acting 101 class, which is shown below.

Oh yeah, I forgot:

Lee says if you have any sort of creative ability whatsoever, in any way/shape/form, sign up to www.fanbuilt.com so you can help be part of a creative process for both yourself and others.

No, really: http://fanbuilt.com

Yeah, no, I'm not kidding. LET ME INTRODUCE YOU, EVEN HARDER

HTTP://FANBUILT.COM

Brenda Crichlow

Brenda Crichlow was being a wonderful person at the convention, and she was genuinely surprised with her adoration by the fans. She did mention explicitly to bring up her first brony interview with EFN to find out her reaction to the brony fandom, specifically to me... so I made sure to embed that interview below as well. It's rather entertaining to listen to Final Draft explain to her that her character is so famous enough to have songs written about her. Anyways, during the press interview, she went into a lot of detail by how she created the Zecora character with the help of her Ugandan hair dresser and formed the accent during the interview process, and explain how she balances the rhyme, emotion, emphasis, and connotation with Zecora's script. At around the 30 minute mark she has a very good explanation how some of the most important part of her speaking role involves the unsaid context and agenda of the character before they speak. I'd really recommend you check it out.

Pretty Good cosplay right?      Source

Here's the link to the Everfree interview she's talking about: http://youtu.be/Z4bPrVVDb5g


M. A. Larson

Mr. Larson's interview is very entertaining, to the point that it is rather ridiculous. It's even funnier than the Andie/Katie/Heather interview. Mr. Larson covers his Luna, Trixie, Twilycorn, and even his own meme "Thanks, M A Larson!". He is usually very surprised that jokes he wrote in as a kind of 'page filler' late at night, just hours before the script is due, are being made into t-shirts. He is also extremely disturbed at why all you bronies are so concerned that all of Twilight's friends are going to die, while Twilight Sparkle is cursed with immortality.

Source: M A Larson's twitter account.

Amy Keating Rogers

Amy is an awesome human being, who decided to play the Ukelele for everyone! EVERYONE. At this point she's had enough practice to be a professional Ukelele...ist... ? Yeah, that's close enough. Anyways, she had a long panel by herself and gave the audience a few songs, including a new favorite of mine: "Derpy" which is a remix of "Amie" by Pure Prairie League.

Michelle Creber & Madeleine Peters

Michelle and Madeleine discuss how they do work as voice actors, also Michelle laments the fact that the CMC are really oblivious to what their cutie marks are, and Madeline loves her fans.




Nicole Oliver

The voice of our fearless leader Princess Celestia   Mitch Larson  Nicole Oliver who is sitting in front of what is basically her flag. She also goes into detail explaining how she handles Celestia as a teacher/mother/authority figure to Twilgiht Sparkle, and the ideas and morality behind bronydom.



Andy Price, Katie Cook, Heather Breckel


I don't care if you didn't read the comic books. Watch the damn thing, it's a comedy gold plus an informative discussion. We start out with how much they like cat poop and everything goes downhill from there. For example, they will not take your sh*t when it comes to Alicorn Twilight, Andy celebrates Batman's birthday, Katie suggests that if you get into writing comic books; you should probably just marry someone with good dental coverage, "women don't like comic books" is a stupid myth, Katie admits she is a dick, and quit posting their work online without buying it ya bastards, and don't say you can't get it because Andy doesn't buy it. Also, Lauren Faust, is and was still a hugely important contribution to the show, Katie can see up Jim Henson's skirt, and if you think the Chrysalis story arc is too dark, "god damn you".




Cathy Weseluck

Cathy Weseluck. Okay kids, buckle up, because at first we are going to go over a little bit of Cathy's life story, and then it's straight to serious business in philosophy town about gender roles, the meaning of bronydom, and a whole mess of other things you could write a paper on. Spike is best Philosoraptor.






The Attendees

The attendees overall were ONCE AGAIN, first time con-goers. From the informal survey we were doing, most people had never or only once even been to a con before, even some of the cosplayers had never even been to cons before. Most of the attendees were young adult Caucasian males under the age of 30 and over the age of 15. That being said, there were plenty of kids and parents there too. Most of whom were surprised how much stuff was going on. Although, the Rarity's Dad cosplayer, who was also a 'real' Dad was probably the most fantastic parents of them all. He'd never been to a convention before either. Would your dad go to ComicCon with you and dress up as Deadpool? No, but this father of the year probably would!

Anyways, this large amount of attendees that are absolutely new to conventions are going to be in very unfamiliar territory, and are going to make a bunch of rookie mistakes. So we did see instances of hurt feet, dehydration, discomfort at long lines, and general fatigue. Sure enough all those things happened, and I'll explain more in the con-ops section.

I want to bring up Bronypalooza, and understanding the audience. Let's try to remember that according to the herd survey, Brony's are generally very introverted. These people are not familiar with the club scene, or raves, and have just attended their first convention. This convention had no large food court, so by the end of the first or second day, your attendees are going to be tired, sore, thirsty, social wallpaper, and over stimulated. So the plan was to push them into a rave? Now, yes, this is going to be a new experience for them, and they will try. They will dance badly, but no one's judging anybody since we're all at a Brony convention anyway. However, asking them to hang around for several hours for this rave when it's, and I'm being serious here, probably past their bed time? That's pushing the limit's of what your audience can do. So, when the audience sang along to discord, their hearts were in it, but their eyelids and feet just weren't. Know your audience and work to fit them.

By the way, I'd like to bring up a cool guy I met, he went by Chuck Cherry: It turns out he is a US Navy vet who served on the USS Samuel Walker (AE-37), and learned about friendship from the show. He did a wonderful rendition of the national anthem (improv) with his 3/4 Bass, and also gave us his Applebloom Rant sound-check. Check out the video below:

He's behind Vinyl, and that is his 3/4 Bass

Vinyl plays Chuck Cherry's 3/4 Bass

The Cosplayers

Before you get to the pictures, I'll remind you, that pony suiting is an extremely difficult thing to do on a hot day. Mad respect. I spoke to some of the Pony-suiters in the gala outfits, and walking down the street in Baltimore they got stopped with enough people taking pictures to make a 5 minute walk last 20 minutes.

Also here's a word or two from BronyCon:

The convention had a per-designated cosplay room that refused non-cosplayers and recording devices entry. Was that a good idea? How do you think future conventions could help to assist cosplayers in the future?

"We feel it was important to have a Cosplayers Lounge\Headless Fur suiters room for those people to take a break from the Con in peace, maybe touch up their Cosplay with our repair station, or just cool off with our fans, ice and cold water. Many Cosplayers do not like to break character while on the Con floor. This gave them a chance to de-stress, take a few minutes and hit the floor again. I think this is something all larger Cons who expect high level of Fursuiters should consider" 

- Obsidian Winter, Head of Programming

In addition to that, the BronyCon head of security wanted to mention that dehydration calls could be seriously reduced when cosplayers are given a proper place to relax. Good recommendation to future cons.

Even BlackGryph0n wants a piece of that corndog...

Celestia has a fantastic watch

THY DID NOT GET THE BELLS RIGHT

Guess!...Did you guess?... ... ... .... Modern Warfare Changeling

Vinyl has TONS of cosplayers.

I'm not lying about the number of Vinyl cosplayers

Source: I forgot, please let me know if it looks familiar

Source: Derpy Hooves News,  Luna here was what I think was the best cosplay of the convention

We did two quick little interviews with two cosplayers inside of the vendor hall. You'll note that the suits are expensive, not totally designed by the wearers, and the cosplayers are kinda newbies.

Didn't get a picture of TheBlindFreak who was dressed up as Applejack

The Vendors

Ahh the vendors, and their swag. It was everywhere.But I know what your saying to yourself right now. "I had no money for all that good swag. I don't remember who sold it either!" Good news. I got a bunch of pictures and most of their business cards! See something you like, you now have all of their contact information. Take a look:

Page 1-Fronts

Page 1-Backs

Page 2 - Fronts

Page 2 - Backs

Page 3 No backs

Page 4 No Backs

Page 5 No Backs

Page 6 Front and Back

Garrett Gilchrist

Starlight Twinkle

Starlight Twinkle

No, that's the name. "Hey Look! A SIGN!!!" is the name. No, I didn't make it up: http://heylookasign.deviantart.com/

Hey Look! A SIGN!!!

Hey Look! A SIGN!!!

Hey Look! A SIGN!!!

Studio A.R.C.: Featuring: Rattlecat Mandelbrott, Shrineheart, AF40K

Shrineheart

AF40K

An example of AF40K

My Little Ties

My Little Ties

My Little Ties

Detail picture of the far left tie, My Little Ties

Screwloose

Screwloose

Screwloose (probably better than the guy on your base that does this)

CutieCorral

Sigil

Akamaru Kiba's Sublima

Akamaru Kiba's Sublima

Partyware Inc.

Partyware Inc.

Cutie Mark Kersplodeface

Cutie Mark Kersplodeface

Empty10 Arts

Empty10 Arts

Get seduced by a real life brony sales pitch while you look over swag!

 The Con

Operations / Organization:

From our perspective the operation and organization seemed good, except for some of the initial delays mentioned earlier. Nothing seemed wildly out of place or confused. A steady rhythm of schedule seemed to keep everything mostly balanced. The show talent didn't seem to have many issues, and most of the attendees (for what I could tell) didn't either.

Do you believe the staff was sufficiently prepared and trained for this con?

“I have said it before and will say it again: I am proud of my security staff this year. Many of them had never worked for a convention before, and for some of them it was their first convention. While there are always ways we can improve our training, and this year has taught us what we need to train more specifically on, they did a fantastic job over this hectic whirlwind weekend.”

 - Rabbi, Head of Security

"On behalf of the entire team at BronyCon, I would have to say yes. There were a few lapses in knowledge, but nothing more than you would expect. Our team was unfortunately smaller than planned this year, and yet the individuals we had alongside us worked and pulled off their jobs with aplomb. I couldn't be happier with those individuals that we had with us this year on the BronyCon team, and would hope to see almost all rejoin us next year."

 - Haybuck, Head of Convention Operations

Did the staff experience any significant problems or struggles during the event?

It takes a lot of work to get ready for up to 9000 attendees, and we spent countless hours between Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and even Friday getting 100% prepared. Many of our staff bonded over unloading our storage units, organizing badges, stuffing swag bags, and other more-or-less monotonous but vital needs to getting BronyCon prepared. It was a tiring experience, but one I think we all strived through.

Do you think you addressed the guest stars issues sufficiently?

Please see answer to “Can you comment on the rumor about Hasbro refusing to allow some of it's voice talent to appear in your con?”

Okay, I will:

Can you comment on the rumor about Hasbro refusing to allow some of it's voice talent to appear in your con?

First we’re hearing about it. We’ve worked with all of the agents of the voice talent behind My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and they have nothing but positive things to say about us. In addition, our guests across the board always tell us how much they are excited to come, how much fun they had, and how much they hope to come back to BronyCon.

Do you believe that the attendees were treated well?

Well, over 8000 cheering bronies seem to agree: our attendees were treated considerably well.

What was the most common attendee issues you needed to attend?

"I would have to say that the most common issue that I saw was born of a miscommunication on the Lost and Found infrastructure. Three separate entities (The Hilton, BCC, and Convention Operations team) were operating on three separate sets of information. Thankfully we worked out these communication issues quickly, but by this time attendees didn't know where to go. As such, we have a sizable amount of lost and found boxes currently in our storage unit that we will be inventorying shortly."

 - Haybuck, Head of Convention Operations

This last one, I can personally attest to. King Harald and I both lost valuable items, either by theft or people simply taking them to the lost and found, but we never really found out which one the items could have been taken too, and the staff members I asked didn't know either. I did find one of the lost and founds but my video camera was nowhere to be seen. I accept responsibility for not keeping it on my at all times, but I think the lost and found issue was not handled in the best way. Perhaps communication down the chain of command was not clear. Perhaps also communication to people looking to return items was not clear either.

Security/Emergency Response:

Again, I'm calling this one, good to go. There were medical, security, and Baltimore PD ready and available at any given time, and I was able to even talk to some of the Baltimore police officers. I found the conversation rather hilarious.

Brony conventions tend to be very well behaved. The police officer, just the one, in Canterlot Gardens, actually said he enjoyed it since there was really no trouble at all, and it was rather entertaining to him to watch all of us go by. This one was no different. I stopped two of Baltimore's finest and asked them about their experience at the con so far. This was on the evening of the 2nd day. The officer's told me very diplomatically that they just wanted to make sure everyone was safe and had fun. Although, the officer's partner had a VERY confused look on his face and did want to know why bronies were so intersted in the show.

Pretty much exactly this look.

You know me, of course. I told him about the show's story lines, the animation, the artwork, the music, the morality lessons, and that I was representing an organization for military bronies. Overall, he seemed to appreciate it, but I don't know if he was any less confused. I asked them how the security situation had been at the con and they'd told me everything had been pretty quiet except one drunken disorderly incident, but that was it.

The police stated there was a drunk and disorderly incident with an "Englishman" during the con, do you know anything about it?

“I am aware of the incident, and I am glad to say it is the only of the kind we had during the convention. Though I was not involved directly, I have read our reports and was briefed on it, and I am proud to say that my team handled it swiftly and professionally.”

 - Rabbi, Head of Security 

I'll tell you guys I found out more information about the incident in my research. Overall, it's pretty petty, and not worth really going on about, and it doesn't contribute to a meaningful conversation.

What does contribute to a meaningfull conversation is the number of fainting spells I witnessed. I saw at least 3 people go down due to fainting. I found out that there were plenty more, and even one incident that the BronyCon staff was involved in.

The EMT's were busy running around during the con responding to several incidents, including to one involving a BronyCon Staff member. What seemed to be the common issue amongst the general population? Would you like to comment on the status of your staff member?

“Our big medical issues this year were definitely dehydration and exhaustion, as we expected. Our medics were also called out to help with some anxiety and panic attacks, as they are trained to help with those, and they are not unexpected at a large convention that was many people's first convention. As for the staff member, we actually had a few who required varied medical treatment throughout the weekend. The most common medical need for staff was ankle and foot wraps, followed closely by instructions to stop working, get something to eat, and take a nap! (I myself made it all the way to Friday night without needing my feet wrapped.)

“As far as I am aware, the only medical conditions our staff members are currently suffering from are post-convention depression and boredom. We're working on treatments for both. We also have a few security staffers, including my dad, who suffered from bruised knuckles due to the volume of bro-hoofing experienced during the convention.” - Rabbi, Head of Security

Alright, so listen, you have to be careful about this kinda stuff. It's the same thing they told you at boot camp.

- Drink Water

- Don't lock your knees

- Eat food

- Sleep

Don't be "that guy" who gets put in a hospital from falling down the escalator due to fainting. Then I have to have an interview with a blood soaked Vinyl Scratch cosplayer who dragged you to a medical team.

Human Traffic

Did you experience any crowd control or human traffic issues?

“With a convention this large, there are going to be lines. Of all of the conventions I have worked in the last 10 years, the attendees at BronyCon are by far the most cooperative. If we had a trouble spot, it would be the lines that cropped up in the vendor hall. While we wish the lines weren't as long as they were - and we're working toward shortening them next year - all our traffic and crowd control issues were few and short-lived this year.”

 - Rabbi, Head of Security

This was for the main stage

[EDIT: This is actually a picture outside the main hall]This was for Vendor's Hall

Overall, they didn't look like the above pictures very often, usually there was plenty of room to work with. If you go to a convention and don't expect lines, you haven't been to conventions before. You can look through our photo gallery, and you'll see more often than not that the convention hall was never really too crowded, except at peak times, in peak places.

The Others

The Non-Brony Press

For the the most part the news about BronyCon was generally positive. Local news groups didn't seem to have a problem with people comming to Baltimore to spend money. (No way!) 

Here's the official response from BronyCon PR:

How did you feel about the reporting by local press syndicates?

We received such outstanding support and desire to know more by nearly all local press and media syndicates. They played by the rules, and in my eyes are more than welcome to come back again next year. - Head of PR

“Never has a convention I have worked received so much loving press from the local media” 

- Rabbi, Head of Security

WBAL -TV





Vocativ




WTTG Washington DC:

WUSA - 9

http://darkroom.baltimoresun.com/2013/08/bronycon-2013-my-little-pony-fans-baltimore/#14

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-08-02/entertainment/bs-ae-brony-culture-20130730_1_little-pony-bronycon-2013-tv-show/2

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/bronycon-2013_n_3702916.html

http://www.channel4.com/news/bronycon-2013-the-men-who-love-my-little-pony


Now here's a little secret for you, one of my sources let me know that there was one local news affiliate who thought the idea of a Brony convention was a VERY bad thing, and made sure to express that, before actually getting their press badges. Seems like they had a change of heart after their press badges were denied and their local competitors didn't complain about us.


That being said, there was some ... "Not news" outlets that did post rather disparaging things about Bronies. We've made an editorial decision to not feature them, mainly because we don't want them to gain attention or revenue from curious clicks that we would be responsible for. So we shall leave it at that.




The Brony Press

The Brony Press were mostly all in attendance, what with this being BronyCon and all. Also, was a french brony website, I forgot their name, they should have a bunch of good video and audio recordings. I'd say, everyone seemed to get the shots and info they wanted

However, there was a bit of a spat between EFN, BronyCon, and PLV. It was a pretty heated topic and I don't want to misquote anyone so I'll let you read the blog post below so you understand the incident:

On second thought, maybe I wont....

Okay, well there was a bit of a hot blooded article, and it did have some accusations in it. I sent emails to BronyCon, EFN, and PVL, and all I got back (in an official capacity) was a statement from BronyCon about the blog post that no longer exists, but it seems like it would be moot to post a response to something that isn't there. Well, in that case:

From what I've had expressed to me, there has been a large amount of stress, drama, and chaos, that has been involved in this 3-way orgy of discontent, I have to ask: "Was it worth it?". There have been long running issues that were not worked out, and for all intents and purposes, no one expects them to be worked out. Of all the personal suffering that was caused, nothing has come of it. The Live Streams got their streams, and the public record of these private incidents doesn't exist. So, everyone pretty much got what they wanted, but went about it in the worst way possible. You all could have gotten to this same place with NO drama. Do you guys all understand that the drama that happened was LITERALLY for nothing?

I mentioned this in the Military Bronies Panel, and I'll say it again. The worst thing in the known universe, to me, is 'Brony Politics.' There is nothing more hypocritical (anti-friendship) and pointless(about ponies?!). I still remember the day at Canterlot Gardens when some of the FOB staff met with EFN, CR, and several other media outlets to create an official press room where guests could be interviewed all in the same place at the same time, so long as we worked together, and shared our schedules. I remember my suggestion being met with stunned silence. That told me just how silly divisiveness would be commonplace in a fandom DEDICATED TO FRIENDSHIP.

What do any of you know anyway! I demand antagonism!

Life lesson: stop being jerkfaces to each other.

Lesson over.

The Local Community:

From all that I saw, downtown Baltimore handles gatherings like ours with some regularity, whether it be related to Baseball games, marathons, or conventions, they seem pretty used to it all. Crime on the street didn't seem to occur, and most of the merchant community seemed generally accepting of our presence, then again, if I lived in Baltimore, I'd do a little happy dance every time random people paid big money to hang around downtown for whatever reason.

There was a TON of things to do and see outside of just the convention. Fort McHenry was down the road, a portion of the World Trade Center was on display, there were some museum ships you could visit, and a half-dozen other things to check out, so there was plenty of available attractions.

Overall, the community wasn't overly concerned about us as much as Otacon which was coming up soon. As big as we were, we were just the appetizer for the convention staff, hotels, and restaurants. Otacon had around 35,000 people show up, just a week later. They were 3 and a half times our size. So I suspect that most of the business were just using us for practice for the real deal.

Do you believe that the city, it's population, and nearby businesses received the con well?

"Speaking on behalf of local hotels which we were working with, they absolutely adored our attendees and were quite happy with our event. We sold out many hotels, and they truly want to see us return next year." - Haybuck, Head of Convention Operations

Businesses were in constant contact with us wanting to help us help out attendees, whether it be good, parking, shopping, etc. We worked specifically with Charm City Cakes, Crawl Baltimore, and Charm City Food Tours to provide our attendees some extra activity to take part in with other bronies on the Thursday prior to BronyCon. After speaking with all of them, they were very happy with how the events went and would like us to do it again next year.

“Work Printing, which did a significant portion of our printing this year, did nothing short of heroic work for us. For example, they turned around a double batch of VIP headshots for us in underneath a half hour with no hassle.” - Rabbi, Head of Design

Do you know if the Hotel staff received the con, and it's attendees well?

"In response to my earlier response regarding nearby businesses, yes. We had been called by multiple hotel and convention center staff the "kindest and most cooperative convention they've ever seen"." - Haybuck, Head of Convention Operations

Did you eat food during the con, if so, was there a place that you would recommend other people check out?

"As busy as we were, we did find time to eat! To name a few; J Paul's, whose staff worked harder than they needed to help arrange our staff dinner. Kona Grill, the delicious ale house across from the Pratt St. entrance to the Baltimore Convention Center. The Diamond Grill in the Hilton, which is slightly overpriced but has really good food."

The Furries

Furries?!

Yes, there were furries. Yes, they were harmless. No, they were not dressed up as foxes, they were cosplaying as either a rat or a mouse. They did have a vendor booth set up for Anthrocoon 2013. I don't know, to me, furries always seem out of place at pony conventions when they are cosplaying... pony pony pony pony pony pony pony pony pony pony RAT pony pony pony pony pony pony pony pony. You get the idea. I did get the chance to talk to "Giza" who is both working with AnthroCon at the vendor booth, and was Lee Tockar's handler. He was able to answer this question:

How do you feel the bronies reacted to furries at the con?

"I saw no issues whatsoever.  When I met other attendees, I would let slip that I was a furry, and no one seemed to mind much.  My perspective from attending my first ever MLP convention was that furries and bronies have much in common.  I've seen MLP cosplayers at Anthrocon and fursuiters at BronyCon.  I hope there will be more "cross convention attendance" at future brony and furry conventions because it adds to both fandoms."


4chan

Yes, 4chan and /MLP in their infinite wisdom decided to show up and... well, okay this is going to take a bit of explaining, because this jazz is kinda dumb. So try and follow me on this. Some of the guys on 4chan decided that cringe worthy "spaghetti moments" were hilarious, and bronies were prone to them. Thusly, in order to... upstage, or maybe, make fun of / disassociate bronies from spaghetti moments, they decided to go ahead and literally create them at BronyCon, with actual spaghetti. Or maybe they did it because they thought it would be hilarious. Which if you call "hilarious" driving hundreds of miles to Maryland to drop cans of spaghetti... You probably think Adam Sandler's comedy is "too cerebral". Anyways, the plan here was to film each other going up to people, events, places, or things and dropping cans of spaghetti. In what was dubbed "SpaghettiCon 2013". First, BronyCon's response:

"Are you familiar with 4chan and /mlp/ 's "SpaghettiCon 2013"? Did it have an impact on the con itself, or other convention goers?"

“We were aware of it and took appropriate precautions. Fortunately, it had no impact on our convention's proceedings or on any attendees to my knowledge.” - Rabbi, Head of Security 

And from what we saw, that wasn't bull. I remember seeing a guy with spaghetti, and some strange dudes in horse heads, but seriously, I'm at a pony convention. That's not the weird stuff. It was only later that I learned that there was an actual... 'thing' going on. No one seemed to really notice except for /mlp/, the BronyCon staff, an aforementioned Brony press organization, and DustyKatt. Who did not appreciate the idea of being used as a comedic prop for some internet lolz.

Now, I could post a link to his displeasure, but first: I don't want to give ad revenue or views to people who are doing silly and inconsiderate things. And at this point, the issue is rather moot anyway. I saw the incident in question. What it looks like to me, is the big guy giving an ass-chewing to some pranksters. Much hullabaloo was made about it at the time, but frankly, I've gotten worse for being late to formation.

In conclusion, 4chan contributed nothing, except drama... as is the norm.

The Food

The food was great, if you left the convention center to get it. There was some horribly over priced food you could get at the convention center, but with all the pubs and restaurants near by, why in gods name would you? I asked the staff if they had any reccomendations, but they did not get the chance to actually eat. One place we went to was:

The food there was not the cheapest, but it was absolutely great. Everyone enjoyed it, and it had the best Penne Pasta I've ever eaten! We will probably go back there again, the staff didn't seem to mind our rendition song of "What Would You Do With A Drunken Sailor" and no one got thrown out. Good times. Good times. See aforementioned good times below:

Before we left we also stopped at a Sushi place:

The fobbits, at a Japanese sushi restaurant we found, because of course.

The Oddballs

Ice Cold Water dude, selling water for $1. Which is actually a pretty good deal if you ask me.

From Laser Pon3's Tublr. Yeah, this was totally a thing...

Well, of course this was made. It HAD to be made.

So this happened.

The Take Away

What was done right:

I admit, BronyCon worked pretty well for a lot of people, and some major issues were done right. Security seemed very firm, lines and congestion seemed very reasonable. There weren't any major disturbances to speak of, and the surrounding area seemed safe for bronies to travel in, even Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash in their gala costumes can really surprise the heck out of people. Additionally, a profit was made, no one has to be bankrupt, that's great news. Also, despite a couple bits of negative press, there were no serious incidents of real ugly mudslinging. No, 4chan's little spaghetti thing was not ugly enough to be considered, and was both fairly harmless and not universally malicious. I'm talking bout angry protests, disturbances requiring police enforcement, and large scale defamation campaigns.


What you need to learn:

THE ATTENDEES ARE NEW AT THIS.

This sounds obvious, and it is. That's the problem. It's so obvious, it might be getting overlooked. It's not fair to say that BronyCon didn't respond well in this matter, but their planning around Bronypalooza could have been better and I'll critique that in a bit.

There was a second group of people who didn't know that the attendees were new at this. And that was THE ATTENDEES. Rookie mistakes people. Rookie mistakes.

Let's focus on this: You need to sleep, eat, drink water, and rest. It's not an option. WAY to many people had fainting problems, and were constantly exhausted. If I didn't see a face that wasn't excited beyond imagination, it was a face of utter fatigue, or if they were staff a face of fake optimism concealing panic and despair (those are extra familiar). No matter what, you have to plan your time and energy out accordingly. Have a plan of when your going to eat, when your going to sleep, and carry a bit of water around with you.  Wear comfortable clothes and shoes, and be prepared for changes in weather. Especially if your a cosplayer.

Oh man. You cosplayers. Again, newbies, but this time your in a wool suit that doesn't breath. Remember Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash I mentioned earlier. I walked with them back to their hotel. They got stopped at least 13 times on the way, and several times by people not even attending the convention, just walking down the street. Oh, Twilight Sparkle cosplayer. I will always remember the look of sheer disgust and sorrow as you slowly put your head back on, one last time for some random woman and her kids, knowing exactly how hot, stuffy, and smelly that head had to be. If you can, I'd suggest investing in a Camelbak to attach under your suit, nobody would ever notice, and you'll have a straw to drink ice cold water out of.

Now back to the BronyCon Staff:

Everything I just said goes for you as a well. Eat, drink water, camel bak, ect. But lets go over the cosplayer issues: I absolutely applaud your decision to create a confined cosplayer room with no photography allowed. It's a great idea and I think the cosplayers probably appreciated it. However, the problem is that some of them are struggling to get there, and get out of there. If the three ponysuiters I mentioned earlier could have taken off their outfits in the room and walked back with dufflebags, they wouldn't had to have been exposed to the weather, nor consistently stopped while just trying to go home. Perhaps you should institute a changing or equipment room as part of the deal.

Secondly, Bronypalooza. There was a bunch of stuff about Bronypalooza that I didn't like, and it's mainly because I'm not sure you knew where you were going with it yourselves. So what was it, a rave? A stage show? A fan demonstration of musical talents? I asked some of you, and you told me the later. Let me tell you why that isn't a good plan. Music is not the most popular part of this fandom, as such, very few people knew who they were going to listen to besides the head liners. So it became a giant cluster of varying styles and music, with each part of the audience trying to decide wheather they like it or not. This chaotic atmosphere is not a party at the end of a long day of convention going where everyone looses their freaking minds. It becomes an museum of music where each person is analysing instead of partying. Not to mention that your audience has never been to a convention before and might not have ever even been to a concert. The big names they want to listen to are in the dead of night, and let me tell you something... Do you know what Bronypalooza looked like when you weren't staring at the center mass of the crowd?

This:

UR DOIN IT WRONG!

Your crowd is not losing their minds, they are slightly bemused. When Eurobeat was going nuts on stage, the crowd sang along with him and wanted to dance, but most of them sang... while sitting on the floor. Now, I know that things were different backstage. Things were crazy backstage! But that's not where your real fun is supposed to be had. The breakdowns in the sound system only made a bad situation worse, and the crowd more lackadaisical.

Now, I understand that you want to have a display of the communities musical talent, but just outside the main hall, was exactly that. A random DJ set up his own little speaker system and spent several hours just having people dance around his turntables. I have no idea who he was, I'm not sure any of the bronies did, but he did get the exposure he was longing for in the first place, and it had nothing to do with you guys.

So here is what you do to fix this: There were a bunch of panels (especially the improv ones) you could have cut from the schedule. Turn one of the panel rooms, or even just an area outside in the one of the large open spaces of the convention center, and set up a running live music stage. The hall is more than big enough to accommodate at least one without hurting your human traffic too much. This will allow the community musicians to demonstrate their talent directly to the attendees without taking away from the rave/concert at the end. In fact, if you wanted to, you might be able to work out an agreement with a nearby restuarant that does live music.

And yes, the rave / concert at the end of the night MUST happen. Get a DJ. Specifically DJ Tatseuo. He's a military brony so of course I'm gonna plug him. He BECAME a military brony at Canterlot Gardens, where he led a real rave, and it was amazing, and Spangle made a fool out of himself and we got it on camera. Let me explain why you want a DJ, and why you want him to work with the live musicians, and the specific musicians you schedule. DJ's control the mood. They understand the flow of the crowd and actively understand when to give the crowd time to rest, and when to drive them over the edge. Someone needs to bring order to the chaos you established, and that is the best way to do it. The fact that you had competent and highly skilled DJ's in a different room from where your concert was at is just plain wrong. Again, I know you wanted to show case the community's musical talent. But this was not the time to do it. There were plenty of people who left the convention for hours because they didn't feel interested in the panels that were there, or they decided to leave instead of wait for another panel that they might be interested in. That would have been the perfect time for them to walk down the hall and listened to some good brony music played by a group of musicians they'd never previously heard of.

Lastly, and yes, I know this isn't a problem your gonna REALLY solve. However, you MUST make information run smoothly down your chain of command, and you must account that information to your attendees accurately. I've seen "telephone" get played before, and I know it will happen again. But communication is everything. Clear up those lines of communication, and make sure people have their orders and areas of responsibility straight. This is important to ensure, not to prevent things from going wrong, but in order to function when they DO go wrong. Trust me. I'm a comm bubba.

OVERALL: Good show guys, always a few ways you can improve. As for the rest of you bronies, drink more water.

I'll see you all next year!

-SEMPER FILLY