Event Spotlight: TeddyCon
[CWIS’S NOTE] Up today I have the second in a series focusing on those who make up leadership roles within the ABDL community. Today’s spotlight focuses TeddyCon, one of our community’s main gathering places, which is hoping to celebrate its eighth iteration in 2021 - organizers were forced to cancel due to COVID-19 this year. Those of you who followed my Blogger blog through the years may remember that the grand prize in my photo contest in 2016 was donated by TeddyCon. In addition to a prize pack, the winning entry received two tickets and a hotel room for TeddyCon weekend that year. (That was very much appreciated, both by me and by the contest winners).
Have ABDL community spotlight suggestions for me? Email Cwis at abysitter@gmail.com.
CWIS: Can you tell us a bit about the history of TeddyCon?
TC: After having attended a small hotel event, Philly met Zorro Daddy and because of this several local munches were started. Philly was asked to provide the little’s areas for an event called Brimstone. The highchair, original ball pit and the first tricycle were all built and enjoyed by many! After being involved in a larger scale event, Philly was inspired to want to do something bigger! Phone calls were made and plans were hatched and the first TeddyCon was born.
CWIS: Who comprises the organizing committee for the event, currently? And what, if anything, do you all do when you’re not creating age-play conventions? (Be as specific or vague here if you like; you may also skip this part if necessary).
TC: The Leadership team has grown over the years and is currently comprised of: Little Philly, Mommy Kuri, Zorro Daddy, Razamataz, His Minx, Daddy Hugs A lot, Baby Hugs A lot, Boy Sprout, AB Bear, Mrs Bear.
While TeddyCon takes up large portions of our time, we do all find time to engage in lots of varying interests!!
CWIS: How many days do event organizers have to arrive in town before the event to begin set-up? How many days afterward do you have to stay to take care of loose ends?
TC: Staff starts arriving as early as the Sunday before the event to begin preparations. We are usually all gone by Monday afternoon.
CWIS: If you had to pick just one thing, what would you say the biggest challenge to putting on a fetish event is?
TC: The biggest challenge is finding a home to host the event! We were very lucky to be able to stay in our first hotel for seven wonderful years!! When first starting out, the Hotel Manager, Taylor, became TeddyCon’s very first friend! She opened the doors and welcomed us in and we loved every moment that we had with her!! She was always sure to steal a few moments in the ball pit with Kuri before the event started! Taylor tragically passed away and when we unveiled a new ball pit, it was dedicated in her memory. Without her, TeddyCon might never have happened!
We are excited to be looking forward to 2021 and A NEW home for TeddyCon. It has taken us a long time to find the right facility to host us. The space is much larger, offers increased amenities and the management there is just as excited as Taylor was! We are hoping to have this new home for years to come!
CWIS: How has the event grown year over year?
TC: Every year, the event sells out faster than the one before it! We try very hard to grow in a manner that is manageable and not lose the feeling of intimacy and family that so many of our attendees have grown to love! With every TeddyCon, something new has been added: playground equipment, the carnival, and everyone’s favorite: Build A Buddy (our version of Build A Bear). Last year we even had a petting zoo in our outdoor area!! We love to challenge ourselves to use every inch of space we have!
CWIS: Have you ever done a survey to figure out the demographics of your con? Where your attendees hail from… whether they’re AB or DL, or a mix… age… littles, middles, furries, pups… anything like that?
TC: While we don’t collect specifics as far as subcommunities, most recently we were asking big or little. We found that about ¼ of our attendees were self-identified as “bigs”. We have also had about 10 different countries represented in attendance and all 50 states.
CWIS: People who love CAPCON often cite the event’s size as their reason for favoring it - likely due in part to its location smack dab in the middle of the US. People who love TeddyCon usually cite the event’s smaller size for their reason for going back again and again - I’ve heard it described as “intimate” a number of times. Besides size, what other differences between your event and the other ABDL conventions are there?
TC: We love the intimacy of our event!! We don’t like to compare ourselves to other events. Each event is unique and special in its own ways!
CWIS: There were a number of people who were disappointed by your canceling this year’s event, even though I’m sure the vast majority of would-be attendees expected and understood the decision. Now that what would have been event weekend has passed, could you have held it from a legal standpoint - would the state of PA, and the city of Allentown, have allowed the event if you’d decided to go through with it? And how do you see COVID-19 playing out for cons in the future?
TC: At the time that the event was scheduled to happen, we could have “legally” held the event. However, we would have had to cut it down to 50% capacity and follow many social distancing guidelines. This would have very much limited much of what makes the event special. It would not have been TeddyCon!
For future, no one knows! We are monitoring all guidelines, but it is still changing almost daily. With a year before the next event, we hoping this will all be just a memory. As always we will do what is safest for our attendees.
CWIS: Next year the event will move - it plans to stay within Pennsylvania, but will relocate to a new city. What was the rationale behind that decision? What do you hope that the new city/venue will offer that was unavailable in the old?
TC: After seven years at our previous location, we outgrew it! We needed to find a larger event space that would give us the ability to have the event we had been dreaming about. That space did not exist in the Allentown area. To accommodate a group our size, we expanded our search and landed in Scranton! It is a larger hotel, with bigger event space and wonderful amenities. Scranton is also a delightful city with LOTS of attractions to entertain everyone! There is an aquarium and lots of trains, and of course, the birthplace of The Office!!
CWIS: Your host hotel always seemed to sell out quickly - will the new hotel offer more in the way of accommodations, or did you opt to stay with a host hotel that is similar (or smaller) in room count?
TC: Our new home has more rooms than our previous hotel. Additionally we have an over flow hotel directly across the street! The event space is more than 4 times what we have previously had. You will never have to leave the event space as there will be food concessions right there as well!
CWIS: Where does all of the furniture from that amazing play space come from?
TC: The majority of the play space has been built by LittlePhilly and Arcadian X: ball pit, high chair, crib, tricycle, play ground equipment, sit and spin, carnival games, sand pit. Even the Build A Buddy machine was built by them! We build as much as we can in house because our build team is so awesome!
We are lucky to have met some amazing people over the years that have helped to add to the space. ABMichael and ABEeyore are the creators of the TeddyCon blocks, Rocky the Elephant and our cradle.
CWIS: Besides furniture, who else contributes to making the convention what it has become?
TC: We are thankful to have had the support of our main sponsor ABUniverse over the years!! They always bring a lot of fun and surprises every year… anyone see that dunk tank?!?!
CWIS: Every event makes mistakes - and with fetish cons, those often play out across communities and various fetish platforms. If you could go back and have a do-over or two, is there anything that you can immediately point to as something that you would change?
TC: Mistakes are a part of the learning process. There is no manual for what we do!
CWIS: You sometimes hear critics of events - and I’ve certainly been one of those in the past - get told by the die-hard fans “if don’t like [insert just about anything here]… go start your own convention”. So… how about it? Just how easy is that to do? Is hosting a con a big money-maker? Have you ever lost money in a particular year?
TC: Running an event is NOT easy! There are hundreds of hours worked before the event can start. It also takes a large amount of money before tickets can even be sold. At the event itself, the army of volunteers work hard to make sure that everything happens, and we couldn’t do it without them! TeddyCon is all about the love of the community! We consider ourselves very lucky if we break even. We can not speak for other events, but TeddyCon is not put on every year for monetary gain. 100% of ticket sales goes back into the event. The cancellation of the 2020 event cost over $6000 that was covered personally.
CWIS: Any special shoutouts you want to give to folks who have been invaluable to the growth of the event?
TC: One of our very favorite attendees and presenters every year is Dr. Rhoda Lipscomb. She bring so much to the educational programming at TeddyCon and is always willing to take time to speak to as many people as she can individually during the event.
We couldn’t do this without our volunteer corps!! 24 hours a day for 4 days the volunteers are giving their all to make this event happen!! So much goes on behind the scenes that the attendees never see! Preparing stuffing for the Build-A-Buddy machine, keeping the fire pit stoked, security and registration, crafts and the never-ending piles of trash!! It all happens magically because of the love and hard work of the volunteers. Countless hours are worked and miles walked all in the name of putting on TeddyCon! WE LOVE OUR VOLUNTEERS!!
CWIS: What is the most challenging part of running TeddyCon each weekend?
TC: There are a lot of moving parts!! The biggest challenge is lack of sleep and keeping up with the over packed schedule.
CWIS: What has your most rewarding moment been?
TC: Philly’s most rewarding moment is seeing how happy the attendees are and giving them the place where they can totally be themselves.
Kuri’s most rewarding moment is watching some many littles come in scared and by themselves and leaving the event with new friends and so many amazing memories!
CWIS’S NOTE: Interested in keeping up with TeddyCon? You can find them on Twitter, Fetlife (profile or group), or visit their official website, TeddyCon.org. Thanks again for being my first ‘grand prize’ sponsor, y’all!
I’ll be featuring a number of different ABDL conventions and events, both in the United States and Canada as well as abroad. I’ll be reaching out to event organizers over time, but any event organizers are welcome to contact me at abysitter@gmail.com.