Anthrocon 2005

Anthrocon 2005 was held July 7-10 at the Wyndham (now Sheraton) Philadelphia, a hotel in the heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The guests of honor were Peter Laird, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Timothy Albee, ("Kaze: Ghost Warrior")

Theme
The convention's theme was "Heroes". It was a nod to police officers, firemen, EMTs, and all kinds of everyday people who did something to become heroes in others' eyes. Among planned events were the Dealers' Room and Artists' Alley, gaming room, and especially Uncle Kage's Story Hour.

Change of venue


Following the demolition announcement of the Adam's Mark hotel to occur in the first quarter of 2005, the Anthrocon staff scrambled to find an alternate venue to hold the convention for their 2005 program. Dozens of hotels and convention centers offered to be the new location of the convention, but the Wyndham hotel was the closest and cheapest available location. After a long duration, the official announcement was made that the Wyndham Philadelphia would serve as their venue for 2005. As it was explained shortly thereafter, the hotel would be their venue only for 2005 as they were looking into a new permanent home for the convention. This would later turn out to be in Pittsburgh. To date, the Wyndham is the only hotel Anthrocon has used for only one year.



Due to space limitations the internet room was set up in the second floor of the lobby, and the convention could not offer The Zoo to the attendees (the large main lobby more than made up for it). They could not hold as many artists and dealers selling their services and products as the previous year. Despite the space limitations and a slight decrease in attendance (this is the only Anthrocon to date that experienced a dip in attendance), the convention proved to be a success.