The biggest thing in the fandom, the Convention

The convention is the biggest, and the best place to find out about all the furry. Why? because of how much it is an integral part of the fandom, besides the internet. Nearly all of the scientific research done about the furry fandom is done through the conventions, which range all over the US. A particular study which I'll be referencing follows the Rainfurrest Convention, prior to 2015's shameful display,(More on that later) in Oregon.
The Essay: digital.lib.uidaho.edu/cdm/ref/collection/etd/id/1046.
“You Take My Paw and I'll Take Your Hand: An Exploration of the Furry Community.”
The sixth chapter of this essay is dedicated to the convention and i'll give you the base idea of how a furry convention goes before bringing up the more interesting stories and controversies.

The beginning of your time at a convention is marked with the registration/check-in, during this check-in process you may be approached by researchers asking your opinion or input on the fandom as what became common during Rainfurrest as long as the researcher in the essay has been collecting information.
The next step during your time at the convention involves you exploring the Dealer's Den, a place of art and commerce, like any number of shops on a promenade. You can get the taste for what makes the furry fandom so unique here.
The third step would be the panels or completions, which I'm going to pull from our own Rocky Mountain Fur Con for examples. The theme that would be the last ever convention of the Rocky Mountain Fur Con, was "B-list Movies" which is only a guideline if any person wanted to theme themselves. There is not much information about the panels, but here's some of them that I found;
Write Now!; Writing with Technology; Adult Furry writing; and a Dutch Angel Dragon workshop.

Now that you know how the convention works, we'll discuss some of the interesting controversies of some conventions, The Midwest Furfest Gas Incident, The Rainfurrest 2015 Disaster, and the Rock Mountain Fur Con cancelling over the "Furry Raiders."

The Gas Incident:
At the Midwest Furfest in Illinois, an accident had occurred in one of the hotel stairways which released chlorine gas and forced an evacuation in the late night. There isn't much controversy currently as the police have ruled it as an accident, but during the first few hours of the incident there were many concerns that it was a directed attack against furries or as a terrorist act. There are still people who don't like the police's answer and believe that there was an ulterior motive behind the incident.
The Rocky Mountain Fur Con Collapse:
The Rocky Mountain Fur Con has had a bag time this year, first off there was on twitter.
A politically enshrined individual threatened to assault anyone who she considered a "Nazi," to which another twitter user stated, "it's going to be entertaining to watch you get shot because of unprovoked assault," to which the other user assumed, "You gonna bring a gun to a con?" there was no further conversation. The first user who started the thread, proceeded to file a threat with Denver Police and the Hotel Security, which in turn caused the Hotel Marriot to demand an increase in security through Denver Police for a price of a new car at $22,000, which the Fur Con could not provide, so in turn the Board of the furcon formed a lawsuit against the twitter user to try a recomensate the value of the security. The lawsuit did not make any progress, and to counter the costs of the security the Convention Board decided that it would not be worth the cost of security and decided to cancel the convention and dissolve the Rock Mountain Fur Con.
A perfect video that covers the incident is from Colorado's own furry comedian,

RainFurrest 2015 Disaster:
The most violate disaster to hit the furry community sense the CSI Episode and Dr. Phil, the Rainfurrest Con was once a respectable convention which focused on writing workshops and writers skills, took a turn for the worst and "opened the doors," for the furry fringes, which include the fetishists.
I think a Video about what happened would help you understand this better than I can and want to write.

But in short, individual/s people decided to ruin a convention and cancel it much like RMFC.
Questionaire
Would you say that furry individual is responsible for the communities image?
If given the chance to visit a furry convention, acknowledging that the examples that I've shown are fringe examples of controversy, would you? Explain your reasoning?