For the first time ever, I organized a panel! The Superheroesque team (myself and Liz) invited a few of our friends, Starman from My Geeky Geeky Ways and Camille from Samurai Pizza Kitten Cosplay, to talk about confidence in cosplay! You can watch the full panel (minus Q&A) below.
Putting the panel together was a learning experience. I had never tried to organize people in multiple cities for something like this before. Everyone was super flexible, but there was definitely a learning curve. It can be a little difficult to make sure everyone knows what's happening.
With Anime Fest, you have to submit your panel, badge holders can vote for it, then it may or may not get approved. While voting can help your panel, it doesn't mean that the panel will get approved. I was definitely surprised when we got way more votes than expected and then we were approved!
I was nervous that nobody would come to the panel... and I was nervous that lots of people would come to the panel. We noticed a line forming before we set up, and I was totally shocked. We ended up mostly filling up the room we were in -- which wasn't huge, but still totally unexpected! I feel like we had a really good reception to the panel, too. We had lots of people come up to us after to ask questions and get more information. I definitely want to do another panel in the future!
Liz and I wore our Archer costumes for the panel and did a shoot with Aperture Ashley too. That was easily one of the most fun photoshoots I've ever done! The absurdity of Archer lends itself to a lot of silliness, like arm wrestling, choking, fighting, and dolphin shenanigans. I can't wait to share the photos with you all - I'll probably post them on my Facebook page first!
With Anime Fest, you have to submit your panel, badge holders can vote for it, then it may or may not get approved. While voting can help your panel, it doesn't mean that the panel will get approved. I was definitely surprised when we got way more votes than expected and then we were approved!
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| Camille always has the cutest cosplays! |
Liz and I wore our Archer costumes for the panel and did a shoot with Aperture Ashley too. That was easily one of the most fun photoshoots I've ever done! The absurdity of Archer lends itself to a lot of silliness, like arm wrestling, choking, fighting, and dolphin shenanigans. I can't wait to share the photos with you all - I'll probably post them on my Facebook page first!
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| Making ugly faces with Kat and Matt! |
With the panel over, I didn't have any other big commitments (besides cosplay). I brought my Luna Lovegood costume to wear with Kat's Ginny Weasley! We did a shoot with Cosplay With Me and met up with Matt later, who basically looks exactly like Ron Weasley. It's always surprisingly fun to bring Harry Potter costumes to conventions, everyone always gets a kick out of it!
We hung out in the hotel room a lot and made friends with our neighbors. Through a series of coincidences, one of our neighbors knew someone working at the hotel, but they hadn't seen each other in years. They ended up taking us up to see the rooftop of the hotel, which was awesome! Photos couldn't really capture how high up we were and how much of Dallas you could see.
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| Wearing kigurumis with Liz! |
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| Hangin' out with Leia and Kimmie from Sub Cultured! |
One thing we do almost every year at A-Fest is the art auction! I love seeing anime characters re-imagined in different art styles, and there's always lots of creative work at A-Fest. If you get the chance, you should definitely check it out.
I also brought Ramona, as usual, and took a few photos with Liz as my photographer. The last day of the convention was rainy - combined with the skywalk, it made the perfect Toronto-esque background.
Overall, the convention itself was great this year! Last year, the con moved to a new hotel, resulting in a lot of growing pains. This year, a lot of those issues were fixed. I wish that a few things had been different - the cosplay contest was Sunday night, for example, making it difficult for most people to participate, and the hall cosplay contest was way too early in the con - but I still had a great time.
Have you ever been to a four-day con?
