Go Farther: Cosplay Cons

Cosplay conventions.  If you've ever been to one – and you're not much of cosplayer – it's a surreal, wonderful world.  There's amazing craftsmanships, characters brought to life, characters remade in new genders and genres.  You're not only through the looking glass, but everyone in Wonderland looks fabulous.

Cosplay cons, with their specific focus, may not seem ideal for career events.  I, of course, beg to disagree, since I think any convention is good for a career event.  Obviously I have some suggestions for how you can add career events to Cosplay Cons  or this would be pretty short . . .



The core virtues of cosplay cons are the focus, the emphasis on craftsmanship, and the community.  This gives you some great opportunities to build career events.

First, Cosplay cons are focused – and this is great for coming up with panels for careers, etc.  Very simply you can focus on cosplay and cosplay-relevant jobs and careers (which seems obvious, but still).  Sure, researching them may take a bit more work, but you know exactly what the con is about and what the people are about.  That gives you the ability to determine what's relevant (constraints are often inspiring).

(And if you do step outside the cosplay bubble, you're very obviously aware of it.)

Secondly, Cosplay emphasizes a number of skills – craftsmanship, research, knowledge of tools and materials.  Any one of these is an excellent choice for a a career event – because you can focus on the career-relevance of any skillset.  This can tie in well with the focused career discussions.

Finally, community.  Cosplaying is it's own world, so build on that with career networking events.  If they seem to be a good idea but a bit alien to your audience, emphasize that – emphasizes you're using the cosplaycommunity to tie people together professionally.

Next time you sit their designing your next costume, design some career events for your cosplay con.  You've got a lot to work with.

Steven Savage