About CFC

The original inception of CFC and selection of location was quite straight-forward. The convention director simply wanted to host a convention after enjoying several of the larger conventions in a major metropolitan area that is currently lacking a major large-scale convention (5000+ attendees). Washington D.C. provides a wide variety of attractions, many travel options and is located on the I-95 corridor. In addition, there are two excellent convention locations which are not hosting furry conventions that would be ideal. These two locations are the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and the Gaylord at National Harbor.

For this convention, we are looking at hosting at the National Harbor, as the area is within reasonable distance from three airports, has several major hotels, a vibrant and safe downtown area, plenty of entertainment and food options, and is within two miles of the National Mall for attendees who are interested in conducting some tourism.

When we as an organization were discussing hosting a convention we focused in on two key points. First, we want to grow our convention in a larger event on par with other premier conventions without major overlap. This presented us with two time frames that we generally felt comfortable with. Late Feb - Mid March and Mid Sept - Mid November were the two time frames we felt would work best. Ideally we’d prefer going with the Fall time frame as October has ideal weather for the area, but we need to be a larger event to secure a venue during this time of year due to competition. If CFC is able to grow into a con that makes reserving this time slot possible, we might move to being a fall convention after our first few years. For now we are going to stick with our current setup until we’re able to change.

Second, we’re looking to cater to fursuiters as colder weather makes wearing suits more comfortable. Many on our staff suit, so we can heavily relate to the heat difficulties of suiting associated with the larger summer conventions when you attempt to go outside of your hotel.

CFC is going to be initially reserving enough space for 2,400 attendees in our event areas per room capacity for our event rooms. For our room block, we will have 300 mixed single king and double queens hotel rooms available immediately upon the block opening. Additionally, we plan on having 15-25 suites available via suite lotteries to all who have pre-registered for the event.

We will be able to scale up both our hotel space and room block as needed. Currently we are working with minimum numbers required to make this convention successful. We hope that we are able to smash our minimum goals and have a greater than expected turn out!

The convention director and organization board chair, McChaffee, is a former paralegal specializing in contract law and currently works in the public sector as a financial analyst. In addition, two of the associate convention directors and board members, Aurora and Night, have experience staffing smaller conventions. The current convention departments are managed by volunteers with varying levels of prior experience from other conventions.

CFC also has consultants and contacts providing advice and insight from members of other convention staff teams, including FWA and Further Confusion. (Please note that we are not officially affiliated with these conventions and we appreciate the crazy amount of work they have to do for their conventions.)