Convention ideas.
I decided to go off on a different tangent today and talk about something extraordinary…convention ideas!
Having attended a bunch of cosplay conventions around the world for several years now, I’ve always appreciate how they’re run and the fun that comes out of them. At the same time, attending all thee cons have stimulated my imagination with all the potential cons that need to happen in our lifetimes!
For whatever reason, these potential cons haven’t happened yet. Whether it’s due to financial, logistical or even motivational reasons, I want these dream cons for me to take place one day.
So in this post, I’ll lay out 5 convention ideas I had in mind. You’ll find these ideas really cool and fun. And who knows, maybe this post will get the gears going for someone willing to do it, and it could be a reality one day.
Before we begin, I want to share a video showcasing the potential of a different type of convention. YetiCon is definitely my favorite. Here’s a video by mineralblu showing how amazing this con is!
Alright, let’s see what dreams are made of!
1. An Outdoor Anime/Otaku Festival
I’m surprised this hasn’t happened yet.
We all love our outdoor festivals like Lolapalooza, Coachella and Glastonbury. But why haven’t we had something similar for us Weebs? Like an outdoor festival for Anime conventions? That would be totally sick!
Out of any convention ideas I’d ever want to do, this would be the one I’d love to plan out and make it happen! There are tons of music festivals in Canada such as Osheaga in Montreal and Veld in Toronto. Someone should do an Anime/ Otaku edition similar to these festivals. Have music performers related to Anime and Otaku culture. Maybe some J-fashion/Harajuku shows as well.
On a side note, what makes Anime North so special is how much of the congoers are outside. Sure, there are events and activities happening in the convention centre and hotels. But the life and electricity of Anime North is happening outside of these buildings, in my opinion. AN is the closest we’ve ever gotten to an outdoor Anime festival. And maybe our cosplay beach party. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll jump in and setup an outdoor Weeb festival!
2. Geek Fashion Convention
When I’m talking about geek fashion, I’m talking about things like Goth, Lolita, Steampunk, Japanese and other alternate fashion styles that has become popular within the Otaku or geek community.
Rufflecon was a convention in Connecticut which was exactly about that. Unfortunately, it hasn’t taken place in a long time. But I believe a Geek Fashion Convention would be successful in Toronto. You see all these fashion styles at every con; an event dedicated to their styles would be very popular in my opinion.
Perhaps a geek fashion convention is too specific today? Probably wouldn’t be financially feasible. Like an Anime convention caters to a LOT of people, whereas just geek fashion may not attract enough attendees to justify its cost. So understandably, it’s probably why we haven’t seen such a thing just yet. But who knows, maybe one day we’ll see it happen!
3. YetiCon “West”
We all love our resort conventions and YetiCon is a treasured con that we all appreciate. Where else can we go up to Blue Mountain for a weekend and enjoy all the resort amenities like a swimming pool, gondola rides and panoramic views of Georgian Bay, all while in cosplay?
While Blue Mountain is nice, I’d love to see a YetiCon-like convention out in the West Coast where the real mountains are! Imagine a convention up in Aspen, Colorado. Or Whistler, British Columbia. Or Banff, Alberta! It would be so amazing to see something like that, and it would be totally fun like YetiCon.
The only issues I can see are similar to what YetiCon organizers may have to face. First of all, anything on a resort is going to be expensive. So that expense will end up being passed down to the attendee, which could make a resort not financially feasible.
Another issue is the whole integrating with normies. I’ve seen would-be attendees for YetiCon complain that they would feel out of place at a con at Blue Mountain, due to the amount of normies there and how they think you need a good body or love partying in order to enjoy a con up there. Those kinds of concern would only be magnified at a big resort town like Aspen or Banff.
With that said, I still want to see that happen.
I can always appreciate conventions that think outside the box such as YetiCon and back in the day, Atomic Lollipop. Here’s hoping to more conventions like that!
4. A “Super Photoshoot” weekend
What do cosplayers love doing? Getting their photos taken in pretty places of course! So why not make an entire convention catered towards providing the best settings and backgrounds for cosplayers to do this?
Rent out a convention center or a large building for one day, and have all sorts of different backgrounds and settings for cosplayers and photographers to take their photos in. Settings such as:
- Forestry
- Old relics and ruins
- Urban settings
- Waterfalls or anything with water
- Library
- Kitchen or home
Instead of having to travel to real-life locations, this convention would create the setting for them!
Imagine the HUGE portfolio of photos that a cosplayer and photographer would have if this was a thing. You wouldn’t need to consistently do photoshoots to keep your social media feed going. You would go to this convention and a bunch of photos done on this weekend!
Still, I can see some issues with this. There may not be enough demand or interest for a convention like this to happen. Instead of paying for a nice setting, I can imagine a lot of cosplayers settling for the cost-effective regular convention to get their photos, even if the background at a con is super ugly. I mean, lobby con is a thing for a reason!
Also, if everyone is getting their photos taken here, then it will be pretty obvious on social media when everyone has the same beautiful background and settings. So while it’s a step up from taking ugly parking lot photos at a con, it won’t be as unique as finding a place yourself and only you took photos there.
To sum this up, a cosplay photoshoot-centric convention has a lot of potential in my opinion. Perhaps we just need to start off small with a tiny building. And if interest builds, we can expand and have it at a big place like a convention center!
5. Cosplay convention cruise!
This one might sound wild as one of my convention ideas. But hey, cruises have been going on for hundreds of years! So why can’t we have one for cosplay? I can imagine it so well. We could have Masquerades right in the middle of the stage inside the ship. We could have panels inside the various rooms. Imagine all the cool photoshoots on the deck with a view of the ocean. It would be really fun!
As for where the cruise would stopover. Much like the photoshoot convention idea, the cruise would stop at very scenic locations, so that cosplayers can get their photos in.
Okay I admit that this convention idea is pretty wild and it would be a logistical nightmare! Making sure the cosplayers are safe and ensuring they don’t miss their boat would be such a hassle. And what happens if the cosplayer want to get off all of a sudden? Then that would be a hassle as well.
And of course, this convention wouldn’t be too big and it would be confined to the capacity limits of the ship.
But hey, one can dream of at least a small cosplay convention happening on a cruise. I’m sure one day it’ll happen!
Summary
To summarize, here are 5 convention ideas I had in my creative mind:
- An Outdoor Anime/Otaku Festival
- Geek Fashion Convention
- YetiCon “West”
- A “Super Photoshoot” weekend
- Cosplay convention cruise!
Hopefully these convention ideas will come true one day! One can dream. 🙂
What type of conventions would you like to see happen? Let me know in the comments below!
My name is Roger Senpai. I’m a cosplayer that’s been in the community for well over a decade now. I’ve traveled all over the world to Anime and Comic conventions and hosted my own cosplay events. Now I’m writing articles for new and experienced cosplayers like you to help inspire, save you money and improve your cosplays!
