Regarding cosplay at conventions, what are some improvements you’d like to see?
It would be great to see more people sharing skills at conventions rather than the usual “Cosplay 101” panels; of course that requires people who have those skills and are willing to do panels/demonstrations. I’d also like to see more emphasis on skillful masquerade presentations. At many cons, the need for an audience-pleasing skit becomes the primary focus, while the sci-fi masq model, which I’m more used to, highlights stage presentation as a way to effectively display your costume. Some cons hold a separate skit contest to feature performances while keeping the masq itself at least theoretically more about costumes and their display. I like that model, though I don’t know whether it works as intended. I used to be a huge proponent of making the International Costumers’ Guild guidelines apply to cosplay masquerades, but I’ve changed my opinion about that. I think that s-f/f masquerades and cosplay masquerades have evolved along tracks too separate to be able to make one fit the othe
