As folks noticed on Thursday morning when we opened hotels, the website displayed errors for 5-10 minutes starting at 9 AM EST due to the rush of traffic that came in.  This was due to a few factors, which I'd like to go into in technical detail below.

First, some raw stats:

Peak bandwidth: approx 3.6 Megabits/sec

Peak connections: 1,060 concurrent connections

Number of users logged into the site: 100+

Here are some graphs that show just how big those numbers are, compared to normal traffic levels:

For those who saw last year's post about the load on the webserver when we opened up hotels, this year's traffic was about twice what last year's traffic was.  I didn't see that coming.

As is plainly visible in the traffic graph, the machine that this website runs on is capabale of much higher bandwidth throughput.  So, what happened?

In a word: caching.  Or rather, the lack thereof in certain cases.

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First off a big thank you to the city of Pittsburgh for once again having us there and for the extra hotel space.  Good luck with the NHL draft!

Well once again we are closing in on another Anthrocon. We of the logistical department are already gearing up for another great con and its sure to not disappoint. The first thing that I would like to share is our more organized storage locker at Etna. Everything is labled and packed in such a way that it should make unloading the truck at the con a lot easier. This does bring up some new hurdles however at the close of the con as we would like everything to be placed back exactly as we unloaded it. This will take a team effort not only from the whole logistics dept but also from the other staff as well. We know your up to it though.

Secondly, the logistics staff will be sporting some new attire to help in identifing us should any one need to find us and can tell us apart on site. Security seemed to like the shirts we had last year and I was told it did alliviate some confusion so thats a plus. For those wondering what we have this year...you will find out.

For those of you who want to volunteer in the department we need most of your help during setup and takedown. Not only are these our most active times all your volunteer time is doubled at these peek times as well! Either see Con Ops or one of the logistical staff and we will be happy to install shock coll...er set you up with volunteer forms.

Thats it for me here. Lets make Anthrocon 2012 the best ever...we may not be around much more anyway if that darn Mayan calender has its way...

Our friends at the Doubletree have made more suites available. They are quite a bargain at $169, and they can once more be reserved online by clicking here and checking the box that says "Suites."

If you already made your reservation at the Doubletree and would like to upgrade your room to a suite, you can do that by calling the hotel directly and asking to speak to Ms. Judy Costello. We have quite a few suites ready to go but not an infinite supply, so don't delay!

If you had website issues with us or the hotels, or phone issues with the hotels, we would like to know about it.

I set up a survey to gather more data, which will be passed onto hotel management in the event of issues directly with the hotels.  It can be found here:

http://www.anthrocon.org/node/7580/survey-your-hotel-reservation-experience

Please fill it out, and go into as much detail as you like in the comments section.

Thanks!

Hotel reservations open up in approximately 25 minutes, and I've already received a few questions about the actual process.  In an effort to avoid any confusion at 9 AM, follow these instructions:

Step 1) Go to http://www.time.gov/ and click on "Eastern Time Zone".  That's the official US time.

Step 2) Get some coffee.

Step 3) At 9 AM, go to http://www.anthrocon.org/hotel and continue on from there to get a hotel room.

The only flaw in this awesome plan might be my ability to publish the pages promptly at 9 AM due to server load.  If that happens (and you see our "DON'T PANIC" page), be assured that I'll try my darndest to publish them as quickly as I can.

In the event that anything goes wrong, I will post updates to Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, in that order.

Good luck!

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When hotel reservations open on Thursday morning, it is going to be interesting from a systems perspective.  After all, that is our highest traffic day of the year!  Last year, we had over 300 concurrent connections to our webserver and chances are that number will be even higher this year.

"So what happens if the site goes down from the load?"

Good question!  Thanks to social media, there are a number of other ways we can communicate with our membership.  If you have any problems accessing the website on Thursday morning, watch these other places for announcements and possibly direct links to the hotel reservation pages themselves:

• Our Twitter feed
• Our Facebook page
• Our Google Plus page

While I hope the load doesn't utterly crush our webserver and cause a service outage, I also want to be prepared in case it does happen.

If there are any questions, feel free to send me a PM or leave a comment on this post.

Our hotels will all begin to accept reservations starting at 9:00 AM EST on February 2, 2012.  Here is the information that you have been waiting for.  Note that all rates are per-night for up to 4 people and do not include 14% state and local tax, and all require a non-refundable pre-payment of 1 night's room and tax at time of reservation.  All hotels are within a 5-minute walk of the front door of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, while the Westin itself is connected.

WE URGE YOU TO READ THIS IMPORTANT REMINDER AND THIS FAQ ENTRY BEFORE MAKING YOUR TRAVEL PLANS!

ANTHROCON'S FLEET OF HOTELS FOR 2012:

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Want to be one of the people who make Anthrocon happen? We rely on the generosity of our sponsors and supersponsors to help pay the bills, so we have always offered gifts and other humble little incentives to those selfless individuals. If you already have a membership and would like to upgrade your membership safely and securely online, just click on one of the links in the following table. 

Anthrocon has selected Hello Bully to be our beneficiary for 2012. Their mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and repair the reputation of the American Pit Bull Terrier. They will be at the Charity Auction and will have a table in the Dealers' Room where you can meet them and peruse information about their organization.

More information about Hello Bully can be found at their website, hellobully.com. If you have any questions regarging Hello Bully, they can be reached at 412-235-1997 or at hello(at)hellobully.com.

This year we are pleased to welcome as guests of honor Mr. Mike Kazaleh and Mr. Dev Madan, as well as Japan's amazing furry acrobat Sardyuon. 

More information can be found at our Guest of Honor page.

Hi all,

There have been some questions about the process for submitting panels and hosting events at Anthrocon, so I'd like to provide you with the "how to" process for hosting a panel or event in Anthrocon spaces.

First, let's say that you have this really keen idea for a panel.  It's not your field of expertise, but you think it would be something people would REALLY anjoy.  Or maybe you have an idea for a panel that you want to host, but really are not sure about exactly what to do...you just have the basic idea.  Well, we have an online form for suggestions like that.  You can go to https://www.anthrocon.org/suggest-a-panel and suggest the panel.  When programming receives this suggestion, it's reviewed and if it's something that may be doable, but does not have a person that has agreed to host the event (not a suggested host,,,but someone actually saying that they will host it), then the form will forwarded to the track leads, and we will see if it's something that we can find a host for.  If the suggestion has a viable host, and it is a panel that we can host, then we would move on to the next step.

If you are volunteering to host a panel, you can either enter the information on the panel suggestion page, or send a note directly to programming.  Once a host has been identified, that person (as the primary contact for the event) will be sent a detailed "Programming Request Form".  This form (which is not posted on the website, and must be received directly from programming) will allow you to enter all of the information needed to schedule an event.  It will request a lot of information about what will be put in the programming guide, time restrictions, equipment, and other necessary informaton that programming needs to get the panel scheduled and prepared for Anthrocon.

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Hi all,

This is a friendly reminder about Anthrocon programming on Thursday evening.  Anthrocon has begun hosting minimal programming (mostly with the art track and the dances) on Thursday evenings.  This is mainly due to the artists wanting to contribute to the convention when the dealer room is not open.  

In order to attend these events by really stellar artists from the furry community, you MUST have your membership badge.  So in order to attend Thursday evening panels, you must be registered.

Pre-registering saves you money, and you don't have to wait in the longer on-site registration lines.  Most people who pre register are in and out of the registration area in less than 15 minutes.  Plus, for those that care about their badge number, it does give you a lower badge number.  (This does not impact your membership at all, but some people like having a lower number.)

So you get to attend Thursday events, save money, save time in the pre-reg lines, and can be ready for all the events on Friday morning....all by pre-registering. How cool is that?!?  So what are you waiting for?  Be sure you pre-register for the convention!

KP

*Edited to reflect the opening time of Reg on Thursday.  Yo still want to pre-reg to avoid standing in a long on-site eg line.

Hi all,

The preparations for this year's convention are well underway.  The Masquerade for 2012 will have a few small changes, so I'd like to get our performers some basic information ahead of time.

First, we are going to be expanding the Masquerade staff.  The program is developing and we want to have people on hand to facilitate the operations of the show, as well as help with it's material.  I will be introducing our new Masquerade staffers a bit later in the year.

In 2011, we had more acts than we actually had time for.  This craeted a bit of a scheduling dilemma with the following acts in the main ballroom.  Anthrocon does pride itself on trying to run as close to schedule as we can.  So to prevent this from happening in the future, we will be limiting the number of acts in the show.  Dress reheasals on Saturday morning wiill, as always, serve as an audition.  However, if there are an excess of acts, we will be limiting the performances to no more than 2 hours of performance.  The determination will be made by the Masquerade staff (which is being expanded this year).  There is not a way to give guidelines as to what would be cut and what would not, but some healthy advice for performers would be:

* make certain your audio tracks are clear and play well over the audio system.  If the track is difficult to hear in rehearsals, we would probably not allow the act 

* try to make certain that the act is clear and all actions are visible to the audience

* acts which do not register well with the Masquerade staff, or are felt to not have sufficient entertainment value, might not be allowed

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We are proud to announce the list of confirmed dealers for Anthrocon 2012!  So far we have more than 170 dealerships signed up.  You can find the list and a map of where you can find your favorite dealer in our colossal 2012 Dealers' Room by clicking here.  Don't see your favorite dealer listed?  Never fear!  We still have room left, although you might want to give someone a nudge.  Any questions or comments can be directed by email to dealers-2012(at)anthrocon.org.

Anthrocon's hotel rooms are not yet available for reservations!  On February 2, 2012, at 9:00 AM EST, we will throw open the doors for people to make reservations at the Westin Convention Center (our flagship hotel), as well as our all-within-easy-walking-distance satellite hotels, the Doubletree, Courtyard, Hampton Inn and Omni William Penn. 

Reservations for Westin Hotel suites (and ONLY SUITES) can be made starting...now! Suites are deluxe rooms as described below and are more expensive than regular hotel rooms, which this year will be about $140 ($160 with tax) per night. We make these available early because of the high demand.  Remember, only suite reservations at the Westin are being accepted at this time.  Regular room reservations begin on February 2.

In order to secure a suite, you must send an email to ceo(at)anthrocon.org with the phrase WESTIN SUITE REQUEST in the subject line. Once again: send an email, not a private message.  Include the full (real) name that the reservation will be under, and – very important – include your Anthrocon 2012 membership number which was sent to you by email when you submitted your registration. We will send you back an email with instructions on how to go about reserving a suite through our special contact at the Westin. 

If you did not receive or have misplaced your registration confirmation email, you can email us at registration-2012(at)anthrocon.org and we will tell you. If you have not registered for Anthrocon 2012 yet...well, what are you waiting for? Get to it! Just click here!

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We will begin accepting reservations for suites in the Westin starting on January 4, 2012.  Remember, suites are very large rooms that are more expensive than regular hotel rooms.

General hotel registrations will be open starting on February 2, 2012.

Information on Anthrocon's 2012 Artists' Alley is now posted.  Click here to learn more.

PLEASE NOTE IMPORTANT CHANGES FOR THIS YEAR:

• Signups will now take place online between May 7 and June 1!
• Only pre-registered Anthrocon members may sign up online!
• New constraints on space usage in the Alley!
• New rules for "standby" artists!

You can reserve your dealer table for Anthrocon 2012 online! Click here for more information.  Remember, you will need a Pennsylvania state sales tax license in hand prior to submitting the application.

We will begin accepting applications for Dealer Tables for Anthrocon 2012 at 6:00 PM EST on Tuesday, November 22, 2011. A link will be activated on our Dealers' Room Information page at that time (you may need to refresh your browser. Dealers, please be certain to read the Dealer Information Packet and note some important changes, such as new locations of tables with access to electrical power, updated rules, and most importantly, the sheer colossal size of the room. We are stretching the aisles from 15 to 20-22 feet all around.  With the whole of Hall B available to us, we are confident that we have all of the room that we will ever conceivably need!

A mail-in application is available for those who do not wish to use the online registration system.  That application must be postmarked no earlier than November 22, and will be processed according to its postmark date.