We know this has been a long time in coming, but we have secured our dates for the Hotel we will be back at the Hyatt Regency Houston Intercontinental Airport for our second year as we cruse through the stars! Can’t wait to see you on the station!

June 10-12 2022

StratosFur Staff

The post Cruising through the Stars! appeared first on StratosFur.

StratosFur is happy to announce its charity for its first year. We have chosen Give Us Paws.

Give Us Paws is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation in Houston. They focus on training dogs for veterans suffering from PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury, and limited mobility. Veterans are their priority, but also help people that are disabled according to the Americans with Disabilities act. Give Us Paws works with handlers and their dog so they learn to work as a team, and it also helps the handler learn how to train their dog.

StratosFur is excited to have Give Us Paws as our charity and shine a spotlight on this local nonprofit organization. Be sure to visit their page and also visit their Facebook page.

The post Our Charity appeared first on StratosFur.

Hola everyone,

StratosFur has an important announcement, we have been evaluating the reception we have received from the community and we are completely blown away by the support and enthusiasm for this con. Unfortunately, we will have to limit our attendance levels or we feel like we will run into issues as we try to put on an amazing con for the fandom.

StratosFur is in its first year and we originally planned for StratosFur to be a small con its first year because of COVID restrictions. We evaluated the space we have, our staffing levels, and we felt that our staff might be overwhelmed and also we would be too large for our space to offer a safe event during COVID.

We look forward to putting on an amazing con for the furs attending and hope next year we can grow and see more furs. We are very excited to have this con in Houston and also to highlight this diverse city.

Nite Shep

Con-Chair

Special Registration FAQs

• Is registration closed?
  • Yes. As of June 13th, 2021 registration has been closed. We have reached our limit of attendees.
• Will there be on-site registration?
  • There will be no on-site registration.
• Will StratosFur open for more registration?
  • There are no plans to expand our attendance numbers this year.
• If I already registered and paid for admission, do I need to worry?
  • There is nothing to worry about. See you at the con!
• I’m not sure if I paid for my ticket yet. How can I find out?
  • Please e-mail registration@stratosfur.org from the e-mail address you would have registered with and ask us to verify for you.

The post An Important Message from our Con Chair appeared first on StratosFur.

Pre-Registration for StratosFur 2021 is open from now until Wednesday, June 30, 2021.

Please be sure to also check out our COVID-19 Statement:

Here at StratosFur, we want to take all precautions to make sure your “journey” is both safe and enjoyable.  Please check back our website as well as our social media to get the latest updates.

The post Houston, We Have Open Reg! appeared first on StratosFur.

Greetings, visitors!  We at StratosFur are excited to announce our Guest of Honor for this year’s event–DeadBomb. We went through a careful selection of many candidates for Guest of Honor and we think she is the best person for it. Instead of us speaking for DeadBomb, why don’t we let her introduce herself in her own words?

DeadBomb

My online name is DeadBombArt and my fursona is a bat raccoon hybrid named Cray (like a crayon!).

I discovered and joined the Fandom in 2016 after making furry friends while attending art school.

As a professional artist, I’ve worked on comic books, cover artwork, and custom commissions. Currently, I am a part time artist and full time teacher showing high school students how to advance their art and find their own unique style.

More about DeadBomb

If you’d like to find out more about our Guest of Honor, please visit her website and social media.

The post Three… Two… One… We Have a Guest of Honor! appeared first on StratosFur.

We hope you are all well. The events over the past year have left us caught between the tension of keeping safe and living our lives to the fullest. We have all had to stay home when we might rather go out. At the time of writing, a surge in COVID-19 cases has us, in Houston, staying home to help prevent the spread of this virus. While our convention is many months away, we understand the concerns you may have about safety during the event.

Recent news has been positive concerning the effectiveness of multiple new vaccines and when they are expected to roll out to the general public. Official timelines currently indicate that everyone should have access to the vaccine before our event’s starting date. This is great news—however, we recognize that these projections may be optimistic and that it is in the interest of our attendees and staff not to assume everything will go as planned.

Measures

We, the staff at StratosFur, understand the need for both safety of our guests, and the need to unwind and enjoy the cons and company that have enriched so many of our lives. We expect that, even if the vaccine is not fully distributed, we will be able to hold the event with some additional precautions. At present, we are planning for the following:

• Sanitation stations will be placed in registration line, the ballroom, panel rooms, the game room, headless lounge, artist alley, dealers den and staff rooms.
• Masks will be worn outside of personal rooms and in all public areas.
• StratosFur has secured a proportionally large space for a first year con, and we encourage social distancing. Event and panel rooms may be subject to occupancy limits.
• Disposable masks will be available for sale in our con store. However, supplies will be limited and we suggest you bring your own.
• A laser thermometer will be used on everyone accompanying a badge check.
• The privacy of individual rooms will be respected, however if you are bringing a guest to your room, please consider wearing a mask.

Assessing any Possible Changes

In the event that efforts to curb COVID-19’s spread have proven less successful than hoped, we will evaluate what options we have and come to a solution that is in the best interests of all our guests, volunteers, and staff. We will be paying close attention to the recommendations of county officials and their guidelines, especially as they relate to the size of gatherings.

Everyone here at StratosFur is working hard to provide a fun, safe experience for all. We will need your help to make sure we have an enjoyable event. Your safety is a priority, and we will supply what we can for our guests’ well-being and ask they consider those around them.

We look forward to seeing you all at launch date.

Best wishes from us all,

The Staff at StratosFur

The post StratosFur and COVID-19 Safety appeared first on StratosFur.

As a New Year’s resolution, don’t forget to check out our home page for when we open for registration for this year’s event.

The post Onwards to 2021! appeared first on StratosFur.

Launch

StratosFur, Texas’s newest furry con, will take place on August 14-15, 2021 at the Hyatt Regency Houston Intercontinental Airport in Houston, TX expecting to give a stellar experience to members of the furry community.  Home to NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston is ready to host its very first furry con and join other Texas furcons such as ACFI in San Antonio and TFF in Dallas to form a “furry” triangle in Texas.

Challenges

Several members of the Houston furry community have been working since 2019 to make StratosFur a reality. There had been previous attempts to create a Houston furry con, but they all failed. These previous attempts did not deter many Houston furs such as Intaglio Whitegraven to launch another “mission.” As Intaglio explained, “Back in April 2019, only a few weeks after TFF was held, six people (myself included) responded to an invitation on Facebook to gather and discuss the possibility of launching a fur convention in Houston. We were armed with tips given to us by the con chair of ACFI, as well as preliminary research into other cons who were planning their first event soon.”  Not long after an announcement was made to start a new con, many local furs joined including Hellfyre, former co-chair at Califur 6.

Furry Bowling in Katy, TX (January 2020)

Success      

            Thanks to a team of Houston furs, the process of making StratosFur a reality has been smooth for the most part. However, as Fox Piacenti, CEO of Artconomy.com and Head of Public Outreach for StratosFur, said that the most challenging part has been finding and securing a venue because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Nonetheless, the StratosFur team has secured a venue and a date for the event.

            With the growing number of furry cons, how will StratosFur be different from any other con? Fox responded that,

   “StratosFur will be different from other cons in its focus on individual

contributions and creativity. StratosFur means to organize its event

around celebrating what makes each of us who we are and helping

define that further. Houston is a city that is a federation in itself–

smaller communities working in tandem to create the larger community.

StratosFur intends to reflect this in its structure and approach, celebrating

both what unites us and what defines each of us.”

 Will you join other furs in this mission to go on an exhilarating galactic journey through the stars and beyond? Stay tuned for the latest updates for StratosFur!

“Space Shuttle Endeavour over Moffett Field” by arnolddeleon is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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