Further Confusion 2010

Further Confusion 2010 was the 12th annual Further Confusion furry convention held January 21 - 25, 2010, at the Fairmont San Jose hotel in San Jose, California.


 * Theme: Gold Rush
 * Guests of Honor: cartoonist Michael Fry, artist T. Lewis, Publisher Company Sofawolf Press, and freelance writer Ursula Vernon.
 * Attendance: 2,770 (including 73 patrons, 223 sponsors and 111 dealers )
 * Fursuiters in the Parade: 479
 * Artshow sales: $40,502

Staff

 * Convention chairman: Loran
 * Hotel liaison:: SmilingWolf
 * Business Director: Saelyc
 * IT Director: Berg Polarbear
 * Operations: Vandrav, Minion (2nd)

Charities
Money will be raised for TherapyPets, Guide Dogs for the Blind, and NARF Animal Rescue.

About the Guests of Honor

 * Michael Fry is an American cartoonist. He is known for his work in comic strips, including Committed and Over the Hedge, the latter of which is a collaboration with T. Lewis. Fry has also made an online animation called RingTales, which was nominated for a Webby Award in 2008. Fry was also the editorial cartoonist for the Houston Post in the 1990s.
 * Thomas Leslie Lewis III, mostly known as T. Lewis, is an American artist who has worked as a book illustrator. He received the National Cartoonist Society Book Illustration Award for 1999. He illustrates the comic strip Over the Hedge. Lewis worked for Disney on the Mickey Mouse comic books in the early '90s, where he met Mike Fry, his future collaborator on Over the Hedge.
 * Sofawolf Press is a privately owned and operated small press publisher creating and marketing a range of graphic arts and fiction publications, with a focus on animals both real and imagined. The products that they publish include full length novels, comic collections, short fiction anthologies and periodicals, and their "Artistic Visions" line of featured-artist sketch and commentary collections.
 * Ursula Vernon is a freelance writer, artist and illustrator. She is best known for the webcomic Digger and the children's book "Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew". Other works include a fantasy novel entitled Black Dogs, and the upcoming children's book Dragonbreath. Ursula is also the creator of the Biting Pear of Salamanca, a work which became an internet meme in the form of the "LOL WUT" pear. Ursula's cover for Best in Show won the 2003 Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration. She was nominated for the 2006 Eisner Awards in the category Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition for her work on Digger. She was also a guest of honor at Midwest FurFest 2004.

Hotel Deposit Jumble
In November 2009, several attendees found themselves struck with unexpected charges by the Fairmont hotel. A one-night charge was noted in the hotel FAQ (under the title "Is there any penalty for cancellation of rooms?" ), but this policy was not clearly communicated to attendees, convention hotel liaison staff, or the hotel's own front desk, and there was significant confusion about whether a deposit would be taken, or merely a charge in the event of a cancellation. In some cases the entire stay was charged,  though many additional charges were refunded. Some reported being hit with overdraft fees as a result of the charges.