On October 3, 2020, KEMO CLUB teamed up with "VR JMoF Prologue," the virtual edition of Japan's largest furry convention. Behind this night was an extreme experiment in running everything solo.
1. The Alt-Tab Battle Royale
To prevent staff burnout ahead of our next event in two weeks, organizer SORAMI decided to handle all technical operations (lighting, audio, streaming, and server monitoring) entirely alone. The result was a relentless 2-hour battle of rapid multitasking, constantly switching windows to keep the show running.
2. Technical Hack: Lightweight VJ & Audio Design
Operating both lighting and VJing alone was a physical impossibility. To solve this, we hacked OBS using window capture cropping and transparency to extract color data from video assets and sync it directly with the venue's lighting. This allowed us to run a responsive, color-coordinated visual show with minimal effort. We also integrated Ableton Live to compress and polish the audio, ensuring clean, punchy sound through VR headsets.
3. Rediscovering the Value of Teamwork
While the solo run proved that a single operator could technically run the event, what it really taught was just how much the team matters. Experiencing the sheer weight of running the show alone made it impossible to ignore how much our designers, VJs, audio engineers, and DJs carry this event. "Being able to delegate and collaborate is true happiness." That feeling stuck, and it shaped how KEMO CLUB runs as a team from that point on. That said, I still end up doing a lot of things solo. Operations I haven't been able to fully put into words, or tasks where different people's judgment calls would drastically change how things run, I keep those to myself. As an organizer, I know it starts with trusting people. But I also have to ask whether I've earned enough trust from them in return.
Running an online event with everyone physically scattered is tough. Ideally, I'd rent a studio and a dedicated line if the budget allowed. When there's noticeable lag, figuring out whether it's an infrastructure issue, a hardware issue, or a software issue requires serious technical skill from the operator too. This kind of production would honestly be more stable and efficient if everyone were in the same room.
On top of that, networking, CPU and GPU specs, software configurations, internet connection types, hardware quirks, Unity troubleshooting, third-party Unity components... keeping track of all of that for every single person and giving the right instructions every time something breaks? Sometimes I just want to say, "I don't know, just figure it out," and honestly, I want to scream.
When I don't have a full grasp of something, I don't hand it off. I'm only human, and when things go wrong, I feel anger like anyone would. But people's emotional capacity is finite. If I lash out, I'll burn through that finite reserve too fast. So I don't delegate what I shouldn't delegate. And I have to understand, by contrast, that delegating to someone else also requires confidence in myself.
