My First Guest Appearance: Experience and Take-Aways
I'm gonna try and be more diligent about updating this blog, so hopefully this post is the start of something regular. Maybe over time y'all will see improvement in my coherency.
Anime Impulse 2016 marked my first ever guest appearance at a convention, and I gotta say, it's a ton of work! But, being able to connect with the community made the experience very enjoyable. Below are some of my highlights from the event with a few take-aways at the end.
My friends Jezzerzeus, Neil (more commonly known in the community as the Zordon cosplayer) and I looking over the booth setup for the day. I decided to move the table to the side vice the front and approach the booth with more of a walk-in/interactive style. Inside the booth, people could touch, hold, and take pictures with the props that I brought, and stay to chat, share knowledge, or just talk cosplay.
I suited up as Samus for this one. On the left side of the booth, I displayed the prototype for my next project, Wing, from Gundam Wing. I was delightfully surprise at the amount of traffic actually stopping by the booth. Ages ranged from little kids to the elderly.
One of the major highlights of my first guest appearance were my first panels. I did a panel on "competitive cosplay," outlining the various types of competitions and some tips and tricks to success in them. The same day I spoke on an armor-crafting panel with Vampybitme.
Vampy sportin' the mad hatter. I'm sportin' the helmet hair.
Always a pleasure workin' with you, Vampy!
And I even got to snap a pic of the Gosiengfiao sisters, Alodia and Ashley. Check-off two more from the list of superstars I've met!
When we first walked in to setup everything in the morning, my friends all shouted "you're hanging from the ceiling!" I looked up and wow! I was! d-slim way, it added a nice touch to the experience, I had to snap a pic under it!
I learned a lot from Anime Impulse, and of course have some experience and take-aways to pass on to those that will be or want to make guest appearances at conventions:
Arrange all the logistics ahead of time. This includes things like, getting a vehicle that can accommodate transportation of all the team and material. Also, knowing how the arrangement of the booth is going to look like. Training the team on how to approach visitors if your absent for a short-time for a panel, photo shoot, etc. Arranging for a photographer/videographer to capture all the moments. The list goes on. Cooking up these things ahead of time will smooth the setup and ensure the best execution during the event.
Prepare all the pitches. An easy way is to make PowerPoint presentations on all the topics of interest to brief out on. Dry-run them over and over again, make sure the duration is within the allotted time with a little buffer for a short Q&A. Get enough practice in before so that the comfortable level is high enough to add some comedy, and interaction with the audience.
Initiate conversation with visitors. This makes the booth experience less awkward for the visitors. As a visitor myself, sometimes I find myself a little starstruck and nervous to approach a booth. A way to alleviate that is to approach the visitor and engage in discussion. An example: when a visitor entered and looked at the props on the table, I approached and said "Hi, would you like to hold and try out some of these? I can snap a picture of you with 'em if you'd like." After that I would then give them my card and show them my website and how they can find full tutorials of how all my props are made. Approaching the visitor and engaging in conversation with them increases their comfortable level, and encourages conversation and interest to learn more.
You don't have to be a superstar to be a guest. Take it from me, I probably had the least amount of starpower of the entire roster of guests this con. This is the biggest take-away for me from this experience and i'm gonna go a little more in depth.
The criteria for being a guest really comes from is this: We all have our unique story of how we got into cosplay, what continues to motivate and inspire us, and a unique set of fandom. The key is to be able to tell that story, being true to yourself and emanate the inspirational things about your journey and the inspirational things you would like to resonate with others. Complement the storytelling with some nice visuals like photos and video. Combine your story, with those visuals capturing all the highlighted moments, and now you've got a pitch to sell to the community.
The last part is simply JUST ASK. A con is coming up and you would like to be a guest/exhibitor? Send an e-mail to the coordinators and express your interest, tell your story, reference your media. It is not too far off of submitting a resume for a job. The worst that could happen is they decline. Then you continue on your journey, gaining more experience, adding more to your story, and give it another shot!
Notice how I didn't say anything about Facebook or Instagram followings? That's because you don't necessarily need 'em. A good example are pictures 3 through 5 above. If social media numbers defined cosplayers, then I probably wouldn't be sitting next to Vampy talking to y'all.
To summarize, stay inspired to make great things, everything else will follow. Being a guest is simple, and I hope to see more people take the opportunity to do so.
Special thanks to Joyceanne, Peterson, Jezzer, Neil, Mylee, Ed, Danelle, Mike for the support, it was a weekend to remember, here's to many more !
And for everyone else, hope this was insightful to y'all! Stay humble, stay hungry #cosplayneverstop
d-slim (http://d-slimcosplay.com)
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