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Sitting in the lobby, now all packed up and looking back the very first year of @tailsofsummer.com and words utterly fail me. We brought 752 furries together and made something truly magical! I know every chair waxes poetically about their convention but I truly believe in what we did here.

Over the weekend I saw strangers become a community. I saw new friendships formed and I saw people lookout for one another. I cannot express what joy that brings me to see people find their tribe. This community is something special and it’s been such a joy to see Tails become a part of that.

I could not have done any of this without #TeamTails behind me. I will say this was not an easy road and we had some hard challenges to overcome. We had three months to pull this event from shuttering to success. I drove hard, asked a lot of my staff and asked for their faith in my leadership.

And I watched all of them grow and pull together into a found family that truly accomplished the impossible. A special thanks to @shadowsmyst.bsky.social who fiercely had my back, listened to my thousands of questions. I would not be the woman or leader I am today without her guidance and wisdom.

Another shoutout to @shakaar.bsky.social for being a mentor and friend when I needed one most. I still remain convinced hotel math is witchcraft … but he might be the grand wizard.

@havok4890.bsky.social has and will always be the person I know I can call in any crisis and will show up. I cannot express how much this man has anchored and had both mine and the conventions back. Truly the unsung hero of operations and the big brother to all our convention goers.

@astraether.bsky.social has my thanks for keeping me sane and never letting me give up even when I questioned my own capabilities. He stepped in for the con both literally and figuratively when we needed and is the squid we needed and deserved.

@beekin.bsky.social has taught me so much over the years - and knowing he always has my back in AV has always let all our events shine. I could not have done this without him and look forward to working together in the future.

@tonakuma.bsky.social was my non-binary knight in shining armour from socials to DJ’s they did it all. Truly someone I could not have pulled this off without.

@wildelementstudios.com for stepping in and being the comms person we could not operate without. Your energy is infectious and truly inspiring to me.

@sniffum.bsky.social you are truly someone who means more to this community and to this con than I could ever put into words. Your kindness and warmth is a credit to furries everywhere.

@vanillaskunk.ca for being our multi-capacity skunk who did everything from HR to rocking our network access.