Great question and we get this one a lot! There are a lot of misconceptions about why FWA uses wristbands and we appreciate your curiosity!
- As the fandom continues to grow conventions are challenged to register every attendee in a timely fashion (ever hear of line con?). We’re a volunteer organization, able to operate by the gracious donation of our volunteer and staff’s time. Our personnel resources are limited and the addition of wristbands has helped us deliver a fast and efficient check-in with a minimal burden to our staff and volunteers! Since we don’t have to print badges and call out names over everyone talking, in 2019, the average check-in time per person was less than 30 seconds!
- Technology! Year over year we plan to add more functionality that physical badges just can’t deliver. We admit the first year was rough. We’ve learned from that and in 2019 we shortened wait times at reg (the longest wait time ALL weekend was 30 minutes!). In 2023 FWA was the FIRST furry convention to offer a mailed registration option!
- Did you know that a common policy at Furry Conventions is that if you lose your badge, you have to buy a new registration? OUCH! Wristbands are uniquely tied to a specific person, we can activate and deactivate the wristband without the worry of inconveniencing the guest. That means that we’re happy to announce that we have sunset our policy of charging a full registration cost for lost badges. We’re happy to deactivate the old wristband (rendering it unusable) and activate a new one for you!
Oh, by the way, did you know that you can pick up a novelty badge at the convention? If you missed your chance last year, head over to constore.furryweekend.com to pick one up!