Lauren Kennedy, best known as Hexi or Shark Mum has been a part of the furry fandom for over 15 years. Easy to spot with her sleeve of tattoos, shouting her love for punk rock music and her obsession with football, you can find her at the convention with a beer in one hand and a huge smile on her face. She is a positive force in promoting trans inclusivity in sports and helping to give safe spaces to those who need advice or a shoulder to lean on.

Lauren has been a part of the Manchester fur scene for many years, including previously being a meet organizer for over 10 years. She has been a part of the Confuzzled staff for the last few years, helping within Welfare and other departments with a smile on her face and a can of Monster on standby.

During ConFuzzled 2024, Hexi started the Transgender Clothes Rumble with the goal of giving people within the fandom gender affirming clothes for free from with donations from across the fandom, businesses, and LGBTQ+ community projects, and giving everyone a safe space to find their smile and be their true selves. And with an amazing team with her, it was a huge success. Her aim is to help others find their smile and be their true selves.

Outside of the fandom, Lauren is a goalkeeper for women’s football teams in the Manchester AF and Women’s Flexi League, including Manchester Laces. Over the last year, she has coached a newly formed Laces team, helping new players find their passion for the game. During the recent media controversy over trans women in sports, she has promoted inclusivity, supporting transgender players in feeling welcomed. She volunteers at Ball Together Now, a trans and non-binary inclusive football tournament, and has played in tournaments across England and Europe with Laces and Union Manchester FC, an all-abilities LGBTQ+ football club where she is also a coach. This year, her hard work has been recognised in a documentary series on sports inclusivity, and was a storyteller at Goal Click at the Manchester Football Museum, talking about her experience with transitioning, health, finding football and inspiring others.

The furry fandom has been a huge part of Hexi’s life that she has made some incredible friends and memories and feels honoured being your Community Guest for 2025. She has dedicated herself to helping others find the love and support that she has felt in the fandom that she got over the years. It’s a special feeling to have you all a part of her life, you helped her find her smile. If you see her around the con this year, she will always make time to say hello and chat when she can.

We’ve also heard rumours she’s a lover of IPA beers, just saying.

Hiyu is a VR world & avatar artist, composer, and game developer from Stockholm, Sweden.

He currently works as a World Builder at Furality Creative, assisting the team in designing the imaginative places the convention is held in, as well as composing the music for each year’s theme.

Growing up as a choir singer in Cornwall, England, he had a passion for creating virtual worlds that imbue emotion since childhood – having been strongly inspired by the unique places and soundtracks in games like Ori, Ōkami, and Mirror’s Edge.

He’s since crafted environments and lighting for games like The Stanley Parable (Galactic Café) and It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios), and was an early adopter of VR technology, having experimented with it since 2014.

Hiyu’s also very passionate about spaceflight and astronomy. Starting in 2017, he filmed videos in his Pine Marten fursuit explaining the basics of rocket science and orbital mechanics, all while appearing to float aboard the International Space Station – a wooden DIY film set he made in his apartment, laid sideways on a green-screen floor and filmed top-down from a ceiling-mounted camera.

At the start of the pandemic, Hiyu had built-up the necessary skills to help pioneer the VR furry fandom, and worked alongside other artists to create & host social spaces & events for communities and conventions during a very challenging and uncertain time. His work on virtual conventions continues at Furality Creative.

In 2022 Hiyu was diagnosed with kidney failure and had to undergo regular dialysis, but was then offered a kidney from a fellow VR furry. The first-ever organ transplant between two people who’d met on VR took place on March 6th, 2024, and both are doing well.