Cosplay Meetups

Cosplay Meetups are a great way for cosplayers/attendees to come together over a shared love of their favorite piece of media. Meetups should be approved by staff and scheduled with Programming.

Tasks

• Determine what meetups to run
• Schedule meetups (Work with Programming to list a schedule/place for cosplay meetups)
• Determine who is running which meetups

Process

Determining Meetups:

• The cosplay staff proposes meetup ideas that fit popular anime/fandoms they think will draw interest
• Staff also puts out calls on social media asking attendees to suggest meetups they want to host or see
• These suggestions are compiled into a list of the most popular ones
• The staff vets the list to pick the final meetups that will be hosted, aiming for 1-2 per day

Setting Up Meetups:

• Once the meetup list is finalized, the list, schedule, and location information is sent to Programming to get them officially scheduled
  • Meetup locations are typically in a large open area like near the photo booth
• Cosplay staff recruit volunteers or interested attendees to host each meetup
• The meetup details are posted on the website, social media, and in the con program book

Managing Meetups:

• The assigned meetup host arrives early to the designated area
• They interact with attendees, introduce themselves, and explain the purpose
• For photo meetups, they coordinate participants for group photos
• For discussion meetups, they facilitate or moderate conversations
• Cosplay staff may periodically check in on meetups to ensure things are running smoothly
• If no one shows up, the meetup host informs staff and waits a short time before closing up

How to host a meetup

1. Make sure you have the time, area/room, character list, photo suggestions, and game suggestions beforehand.

2. Arrive at the area 5-10 minutes before it starts.

3. If the room is ready, wait for people to start arriving. If it is not ready, set up the room by moving chairs to the side leaving an open wall for cosplayers to stand in front of

4. After waiting 5-10 minutes from the start of the meetup go ahead and get everyone's attention, announce that you are hosting the meetup

5. Begin by separating the cosplayers and the photographers

6. Let the photographers set up in front of where the cosplayers will be posing

7. Pull out your list of photo suggestions and call out one i.e. family members, an idol group, or by season

8. Wait for the cosplayer called from that group to get in position

9. Tell them to pose and when they are finished signal the photographers

10. After 30 seconds stop the photographers and let the cosplayers change poses. Do this 2-3 times and move on to another group

11. Once you do all of the suggested groups ask the cosplayers/photographers for suggestions

12. If they have some do a few, If not then move on to the game suggestions

13. Announce that there are games everyone could play

14. If there are people interested, play a few games from the suggested list. If not then announce the start of mingle time until the end of the timeslot

15. Wait until the end of the timeslot to set the chairs back up for the next slot