As a costumer and conrunner I’m asked at least twice a year “how can my con get more costumers?” I’ve given it a lot of thought and watched a lot of cons succeed and fail at it, so I decided to work up tips. If your con is thinking about expanding their costuming to get more people you can do it in ten steps:
~Commit to expanding an area, now and in the future
These things don’t just happen overnight. If you aren’t willing to commit to at least two years of heavy work with little reward then you shouldn’t try it. You need to formulate a program that includes two (three would be much better) years of work before evaluating the program for success or failure. You also need the commitment of your organization. One person can inspire change, but if you don’t have the backing of the majority of your organization’s major workers then you will most likely fail. Get everyone on board and committed to not only this goal, but in being patient and giving it the long haul. This is especially important for organizations that change over leadership every year. If you have a successor make sure they are as enthusiastic about this as you are, and that they are involved in the long-term planning and goals session and have the support to implement it.
~Figure out where to concentrate
You will need to educate yourself about costuming and the types of costumers there are and which ones you want to attract specifically. Not all costumers will fit in at your convention. Social costumers are different from stage competition costumers, who are different from modeling costumers and construction costumers. Some people have skill and influence in multiple areas, but very rarely in all four. For example, if you don’t have the space to have a huge masquerade stage with tech and the time for rehearsals then maybe it would be best to not concentrate on competition (unless one of your goals is to work up to it). If you have small prefunction spaces and gathering spaces then social costumers may not be the best, since they will gather and clog up your hallways. Modeling costumers work best in hotels that have neat niches and places close by that work well for photo shoots as well as wide hallways and areas in the dealer’s room for them to sell photos. Construction costumers will need heavy programming for learning and events or competitions to show off their work.
~Get a featured guest
This is where you put your money where your mouth is. Find someone in costuming to reach out to other costumers. Someone they trust the opinion of and respect. In choosing a guest be sure to refer back to your area of concentration and choose someone that knows that area well and will also integrate into your existing convention population well. Have backups, because you should have a specialty guest for at least the first three years you’re working on integration, and again every two or three years to keep people involved and interested. Also, work hard to integrate your costume guest into your guest lineup. You don’t need to give your costume guest special favors that other guests don’t get, but make sure they aren’t treated like a second-tier burden. If your guests go to the art show dinner, speak at opening ceremonies, or have a closed party be sure to include your costuming guest just like the rest.
~Reach out to prominent concentration fans in your locale
One guest is not going to be enough to sustain even a small convention population. You’re going to need other panelists, staff members, people to help with brainstorming and point you to local resources, and enthusiasts to drum up interest. Find a core dozen or two that you can bring into your plan early and often to help refine it and make people interested and excited in it.
~Make it easy for newcomers
Figure out how best to integrate new people into your con. Make some way they can get information about what’s going on (Info Desk, Con Tours, Newcomer’s Handbook, Mentorship Program, Newbie Ambassadors, etc). Think about people new to cons altogether as well as people used to cons that are vastly different from yours. Test out and refine your information source before the con with people who can help evaluate its effectiveness and help you improve before the con starts.
~Program with intersectionality and integration
Getting into a new con environment is hard. Build in a social system by starting people small and letting them branch out as they feel comfortable. Find some way to localize your new program (Designated room? Special badges or badge ribbons? Targeted event/s?). Give them a safety zone and a small socialization circle with people who are friendly and welcoming. Then utilize those people to help the newcomers branch out of that comfort zone. Figure out how to utilize your costume guest at non-costuming panels and functions. Figure out who among your other guests and panelists are great at making friends and welcoming people and try to integrate them into costume programming. There can be awesome panels that attract both costumers and non-costumers on things like using clothing for worldbuilding, dressing and posing models for sketching and art, and the future of fashion and fabric technology and science. Brainstorm and think outside the box on program items and events that will draw costumers out to the larger convention as well as ones that will bring your regular con attendees into the track. Also, while we’re close to it, plan on a dealer or two that intersects with your new attendees’ interests.
~Utilize social media, and do it well
Your new program will fail if no one hears about it. Figure out where your new concentration hangs out, and commit to a social media program that utilizes those mediums. Use these with care, because it is much better to do one social media well than have twenty and fail at fifteen. Find someone to manage your social media as their only job. Encourage them to learn how to utilize your chosen system(s) well. There are tons of tutorials and blog posts out there on what, when, and how to gain attention on a specific system, and a few days on google will help immensely. Involve a larger group in planning the media campaign and give support to your social media person in implementing it. Be sure to include integration early in your social media. Talk up what you’ve always done well in a way that will start educating new people about how things work as well as talking about the exciting new things you’re doing. Don’t go too long (either time period or number of posts) without switching from one to the other or one group will feel that you’re forgetting them in favor of the other.
~Police an attitude shift
This one goes close in hand with the last, but it branches out so much I wanted to break it off. You need to commit from the beginning to welcoming new people with open arms. In any organization there will be at least one person who will not like that. If your organization has been around for a while you can probably already identify at least a few of your problem children. You know, the people who will be obnoxious about the ‘invasion’ of new people, will be insulted by the (perceived or real) shift of resources away from their idea of how things should be, and those who will not cope well with change and an expanding social circle. If you can identify these people early you can sometimes work to involve them somehow so they can feel a part of things (and thus win them over to your side). Sometimes, though, all that is to be done is to craft a harassment policy that clearly states that fan-police (statements of “you’re not a real fan” and “you don’t belong here”) will be considered harassing and be dealt with accordingly. This should extend to your online presence about the convention before and after as well as people at the convention. This is also a factor in cultivating your intersectional programming: be sure that the people you choose will work to draw people both new and established together and make friends, not divide them into factions readying for war. You should involve people who know costuming fandom in this, because some areas may surprise you (for instance: a slice of costumers and cosplayers have assumed names, so it’s probably best not to seat your costuming guest with an assumed name on a panel with someone who is going to rail that only frauds and phonies don’t put their real name on their badge at a convention).
~Set realistic, trackable goals, both long-term and short-term
Remember when I said that you need to be in this for the long haul? Most convention outreaches fail by evaluating too early. Year one, especially, needs to be a building year. People need to see that you’re going to put effort into the area in a way that justifies them spending money on it. Get a handful of satisfied fans in year one and they will bring in more people in year two, who will bring in even more people in year three. Give time for that web of buzz and good will to build up. That’s not to say wait forever, but at the very least two years to see how year one worked out. The worst thing you can do is build a program in year one to bring in people, do it well enough that they tell their friends to come next year, and then fail to sustain the program in year two. It not only disappoints the new people who aren’t getting what they thought they would, but it also makes your new fans and salesmen bitter because they feel like they lied to their friends. Also, be public about some of your goals. For instance: if we get thirty people to show up at the costumers’ dinner this year we’ll make it a dinner and ball next year! If we have ten entrants in the masquerade this year then next year we’ll get a spotlight! Involve your fans in helping you reach your goals by publicizing them and letting enthusiastic buzz carry to others. Keep your goal-setting upbeat (saying “we need to get ten people at the panel or we’re axing the whole program” seems less like a goal and more like a hostage situation; learn tone) and positive, and give it every chance to succeed.
~Find something to concentrate on
I’m mentioning this last, but it should probably be first. Think long and hard about your convention, its environment, and what you can support, both financially and socially. Is an extended costuming program really what you want? A lot of times when I hear people say “we want more costumers” what they really mean is “we want more people (or young people), and costuming is popular”. If you can’t do a costume program well and sustained then maybe this isn’t the tack you should take. Sad, I know, but there are others that will work. For instance, if your con is incredibly literary focused a costuming program is going to seem out of place. However, something else that new, young people are interested in is YA science fiction and fantasy. Instead of a costuming program try to develop a YA program. You can use all the same ideas above and concentrate on something that your existing fans can more easily cross over into. (Personal note: I’d be all over a dedicated fannish program about YA SF/F. The few cons that are doing it well seem to be mostly academic and paper-presentation based and/or hugely expensive. This is a much less saturated market than cons that do costuming/cosplay well.) How about integrating LARP, gaming, board games, game creation, fan art, fanfiction, US pop media, amvs, fan parodies, webcomics, the maker community, skeptics, or robotics clubs? How about becoming a place to learn conrunning and an annual social outlet for local conrunners from groups that run cons in your area but aren’t in your fandom group? They are all booming fandoms with young people that can be worked into your con. Do some research about your local area and what other conventions do well and then pick one that is underserved in your area and best integrates with your current group. And I do want to emphasize the "ONE" part in "pick one". Are there cons that do a great job of being big tents and integrating tons of groups at once? Yes. Of course. However, they've got reputation and tradition to build on. If you're looking to integrate you don't have that. It can happen, but you've got to build it, and you'll have a lot more success in building if you target instead of shotgunning a little of everyone and not satisfying anyone. Work your program for a few years, then ask the new people what you should add and implement a couple of suggestions a year. That way you can concentrate resources and creation energy in order to do things well. So pick one idea to start your foundation. It’d be cool if it was costuming, because I love costuming, but not every con needs a huge costuming focus. It takes all kinds to enrich our fandom mosaic.
~Commit to expanding an area, now and in the future
These things don’t just happen overnight. If you aren’t willing to commit to at least two years of heavy work with little reward then you shouldn’t try it. You need to formulate a program that includes two (three would be much better) years of work before evaluating the program for success or failure. You also need the commitment of your organization. One person can inspire change, but if you don’t have the backing of the majority of your organization’s major workers then you will most likely fail. Get everyone on board and committed to not only this goal, but in being patient and giving it the long haul. This is especially important for organizations that change over leadership every year. If you have a successor make sure they are as enthusiastic about this as you are, and that they are involved in the long-term planning and goals session and have the support to implement it.
~Figure out where to concentrate
You will need to educate yourself about costuming and the types of costumers there are and which ones you want to attract specifically. Not all costumers will fit in at your convention. Social costumers are different from stage competition costumers, who are different from modeling costumers and construction costumers. Some people have skill and influence in multiple areas, but very rarely in all four. For example, if you don’t have the space to have a huge masquerade stage with tech and the time for rehearsals then maybe it would be best to not concentrate on competition (unless one of your goals is to work up to it). If you have small prefunction spaces and gathering spaces then social costumers may not be the best, since they will gather and clog up your hallways. Modeling costumers work best in hotels that have neat niches and places close by that work well for photo shoots as well as wide hallways and areas in the dealer’s room for them to sell photos. Construction costumers will need heavy programming for learning and events or competitions to show off their work.
~Get a featured guest
This is where you put your money where your mouth is. Find someone in costuming to reach out to other costumers. Someone they trust the opinion of and respect. In choosing a guest be sure to refer back to your area of concentration and choose someone that knows that area well and will also integrate into your existing convention population well. Have backups, because you should have a specialty guest for at least the first three years you’re working on integration, and again every two or three years to keep people involved and interested. Also, work hard to integrate your costume guest into your guest lineup. You don’t need to give your costume guest special favors that other guests don’t get, but make sure they aren’t treated like a second-tier burden. If your guests go to the art show dinner, speak at opening ceremonies, or have a closed party be sure to include your costuming guest just like the rest.
~Reach out to prominent concentration fans in your locale
One guest is not going to be enough to sustain even a small convention population. You’re going to need other panelists, staff members, people to help with brainstorming and point you to local resources, and enthusiasts to drum up interest. Find a core dozen or two that you can bring into your plan early and often to help refine it and make people interested and excited in it.
~Make it easy for newcomers
Figure out how best to integrate new people into your con. Make some way they can get information about what’s going on (Info Desk, Con Tours, Newcomer’s Handbook, Mentorship Program, Newbie Ambassadors, etc). Think about people new to cons altogether as well as people used to cons that are vastly different from yours. Test out and refine your information source before the con with people who can help evaluate its effectiveness and help you improve before the con starts.
~Program with intersectionality and integration
Getting into a new con environment is hard. Build in a social system by starting people small and letting them branch out as they feel comfortable. Find some way to localize your new program (Designated room? Special badges or badge ribbons? Targeted event/s?). Give them a safety zone and a small socialization circle with people who are friendly and welcoming. Then utilize those people to help the newcomers branch out of that comfort zone. Figure out how to utilize your costume guest at non-costuming panels and functions. Figure out who among your other guests and panelists are great at making friends and welcoming people and try to integrate them into costume programming. There can be awesome panels that attract both costumers and non-costumers on things like using clothing for worldbuilding, dressing and posing models for sketching and art, and the future of fashion and fabric technology and science. Brainstorm and think outside the box on program items and events that will draw costumers out to the larger convention as well as ones that will bring your regular con attendees into the track. Also, while we’re close to it, plan on a dealer or two that intersects with your new attendees’ interests.
~Utilize social media, and do it well
Your new program will fail if no one hears about it. Figure out where your new concentration hangs out, and commit to a social media program that utilizes those mediums. Use these with care, because it is much better to do one social media well than have twenty and fail at fifteen. Find someone to manage your social media as their only job. Encourage them to learn how to utilize your chosen system(s) well. There are tons of tutorials and blog posts out there on what, when, and how to gain attention on a specific system, and a few days on google will help immensely. Involve a larger group in planning the media campaign and give support to your social media person in implementing it. Be sure to include integration early in your social media. Talk up what you’ve always done well in a way that will start educating new people about how things work as well as talking about the exciting new things you’re doing. Don’t go too long (either time period or number of posts) without switching from one to the other or one group will feel that you’re forgetting them in favor of the other.
~Police an attitude shift
This one goes close in hand with the last, but it branches out so much I wanted to break it off. You need to commit from the beginning to welcoming new people with open arms. In any organization there will be at least one person who will not like that. If your organization has been around for a while you can probably already identify at least a few of your problem children. You know, the people who will be obnoxious about the ‘invasion’ of new people, will be insulted by the (perceived or real) shift of resources away from their idea of how things should be, and those who will not cope well with change and an expanding social circle. If you can identify these people early you can sometimes work to involve them somehow so they can feel a part of things (and thus win them over to your side). Sometimes, though, all that is to be done is to craft a harassment policy that clearly states that fan-police (statements of “you’re not a real fan” and “you don’t belong here”) will be considered harassing and be dealt with accordingly. This should extend to your online presence about the convention before and after as well as people at the convention. This is also a factor in cultivating your intersectional programming: be sure that the people you choose will work to draw people both new and established together and make friends, not divide them into factions readying for war. You should involve people who know costuming fandom in this, because some areas may surprise you (for instance: a slice of costumers and cosplayers have assumed names, so it’s probably best not to seat your costuming guest with an assumed name on a panel with someone who is going to rail that only frauds and phonies don’t put their real name on their badge at a convention).
~Set realistic, trackable goals, both long-term and short-term
Remember when I said that you need to be in this for the long haul? Most convention outreaches fail by evaluating too early. Year one, especially, needs to be a building year. People need to see that you’re going to put effort into the area in a way that justifies them spending money on it. Get a handful of satisfied fans in year one and they will bring in more people in year two, who will bring in even more people in year three. Give time for that web of buzz and good will to build up. That’s not to say wait forever, but at the very least two years to see how year one worked out. The worst thing you can do is build a program in year one to bring in people, do it well enough that they tell their friends to come next year, and then fail to sustain the program in year two. It not only disappoints the new people who aren’t getting what they thought they would, but it also makes your new fans and salesmen bitter because they feel like they lied to their friends. Also, be public about some of your goals. For instance: if we get thirty people to show up at the costumers’ dinner this year we’ll make it a dinner and ball next year! If we have ten entrants in the masquerade this year then next year we’ll get a spotlight! Involve your fans in helping you reach your goals by publicizing them and letting enthusiastic buzz carry to others. Keep your goal-setting upbeat (saying “we need to get ten people at the panel or we’re axing the whole program” seems less like a goal and more like a hostage situation; learn tone) and positive, and give it every chance to succeed.
~Find something to concentrate on
I’m mentioning this last, but it should probably be first. Think long and hard about your convention, its environment, and what you can support, both financially and socially. Is an extended costuming program really what you want? A lot of times when I hear people say “we want more costumers” what they really mean is “we want more people (or young people), and costuming is popular”. If you can’t do a costume program well and sustained then maybe this isn’t the tack you should take. Sad, I know, but there are others that will work. For instance, if your con is incredibly literary focused a costuming program is going to seem out of place. However, something else that new, young people are interested in is YA science fiction and fantasy. Instead of a costuming program try to develop a YA program. You can use all the same ideas above and concentrate on something that your existing fans can more easily cross over into. (Personal note: I’d be all over a dedicated fannish program about YA SF/F. The few cons that are doing it well seem to be mostly academic and paper-presentation based and/or hugely expensive. This is a much less saturated market than cons that do costuming/cosplay well.) How about integrating LARP, gaming, board games, game creation, fan art, fanfiction, US pop media, amvs, fan parodies, webcomics, the maker community, skeptics, or robotics clubs? How about becoming a place to learn conrunning and an annual social outlet for local conrunners from groups that run cons in your area but aren’t in your fandom group? They are all booming fandoms with young people that can be worked into your con. Do some research about your local area and what other conventions do well and then pick one that is underserved in your area and best integrates with your current group. And I do want to emphasize the "ONE" part in "pick one". Are there cons that do a great job of being big tents and integrating tons of groups at once? Yes. Of course. However, they've got reputation and tradition to build on. If you're looking to integrate you don't have that. It can happen, but you've got to build it, and you'll have a lot more success in building if you target instead of shotgunning a little of everyone and not satisfying anyone. Work your program for a few years, then ask the new people what you should add and implement a couple of suggestions a year. That way you can concentrate resources and creation energy in order to do things well. So pick one idea to start your foundation. It’d be cool if it was costuming, because I love costuming, but not every con needs a huge costuming focus. It takes all kinds to enrich our fandom mosaic.
