SLOTHCORE: COSPLAY AT LOW SPEED
  • home
  • Blog
    • Tutorials
  • Costumes
  • Crafts & Accessories
  • Videos
  • About Jen
    • Instagram
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • ko-fi

KCC Con Report

13/3/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
Cosplay group shot at the close of the con. © CosplayersCanada
So much (and yet also so little) to say about the inaugural Kitchener Conic Con. 

Part 1: The Con Itself
I had a good time. I hung out with friends, got to know the KW geek community a little better, and saw a lot of people (especially families) being excited about comics. 

I went with KW Iron Man, doing our Pepperony thing. Since he was a guest of honour and was doing most (or all?) of the cosplay programming, I spent almost all of the con sitting behind his table in the market place (an experience that all partners of "professional cosplayers" know all too well LOL). We weren't selling anything, but it was a convenient place to have all the extra armour pieces that we brought for the "props and armour" panel out on display promoting his work (especially since he was doing so many events that he was barely at the table). I was thrilled that Ragz Cosplay showed up since he kept me company at the table all day while Mr Stark was off doing his thing. I did have the opportunity to leave a couple of times for lunch and a little walk around the building, and was fortunate to be able to squeeze in some photos/video with Trillance, Everage, and Yo Napper while doing that. And when the con wrapped up, Mr Stark and I had a fun dinner out with a bunch of our cosplay friends ^_^

Picture
So far the only couple photo to surface! © Peter Wang Photography
Picture
Preview from my first little shoot with Trillance/Rocky!
Picture
Totally guarding all this armor. Guess Spidey had stepped away from the table for a moment! © Wild Wicked World
Picture
From my mini shoot with Tom, photo ©Everage
Picture
From my mini shoot with Tom, photo ©Everage
Picture
1/2 photos I took all con! Featuring Judge Dread, Cloudbreak Cosplay as Nightwing, KW Iron Man as ... Iron Man
Picture
2/2 photos I took all con! Featuring Elicia the caffienator and Ragz Cosplay as Spidey
Part 2: The Con's Online Presence
Unfortunately, as much fun as I had at the convention, I feel I should at least acknowledge the issues surrounding KCC's disastrous PR. If you're part of the Southern Ontario con-goer community, especially if you know staffers from any of the other cons in the area, you probably saw at least a little of the drama being played out in the days immediately following the event. 
I watch the event's Facebook page, and in the lead-up to KCC I was a little surprised at some of the comments that were being posted by the Con Com*. While the posts weren't outright rude, they were often written in a way which was casual, joking, or not actually answering the question which could easily be read as being rude, condescending, or elitist due to the loss of meaning in text communication. But I gave them the benefit of the doubt. That is until, the day after KCC, I saw the abusive post by the Con Chair directed towards an attendee who was unhappy about the con's parking situation... and the next couple of days of fallout and escalation and bullying and other people's experiences with the Chair which came through my facebook feed. The behavior went so far beyond unprofessional that they no longer have my benefit of the doubt.

The bottom line being that even though I had a great time at KCC itself and I would like to support the awesome artists, craftspeople, vendors, and friends I have made in the region, the aftermath left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. Since the con chair seems to be unable to treat all their attendees and prospective future attendees with respect, I would have a difficult time choosing to attend another one of their events.

If you read my blog regularly, you'll know I rarely get into the gossipy stuff that goes on at conventions. Most of the time it's not worth mentioning, especially since it rarely or never affects me directly, nor does it affect the experience of the average attendee. But the KCC statements have created a LOT of ill-will in the community, and when put together with the very poor treatment that Mr Stark and a few other friends received earlier this year from KW Tri-Con organizers, I'm pretty disappointed in Kitchener-Waterloo's  ability to host events which are welcoming places for everyone to feel comfortable sharing our geeky interests.

*for those not involved in convention staffing "con com" refers to the convention committee, and the " con chair" is the convention chairperson aka the boss.
1 Comment
Mike Night
14/3/2015 08:35:06 am


Help me to understand....

As i read over your post, you come across as a beautiful, understanding, creative and very smart person, an individual who does not fall prey to online shenanigans or drama for that matter. So as I am reading here, on one hand your saying that the KCC staff hosted a fantastic event, and with the same hand your backslapping them for someting that was unprofessional or disrespectful with out talking to them?

I have been keeping an eye on this tempest storm in a teacup for sometime now and to keep things aboveboard, I find your report to be extremely one-sided. You have not mention the amount of disrespectfulness that this event team was receiving prior to the show OR the comment that was posted by the public figure/community member that started this unfortunate ball to get rolling in the first place. You also have not mention that the head comp person has apologized publicly before your article was posted.

I also find your statement in your 'disappointment' "in Kitchener-Waterloo's ability to host events.

Really? I feel that statement into itself takes things way too far and i think this just hurts this out of control situation. As I agree the members of KCC may not of taken the best approach with their online difficulties, I feel that events that happened with KCC online in pales in comparison of what tri-con did, by a lot! KCC lived up to the things that they said that they would do and went beyond. Thus my most humble opinion Kitchener Comicon most certainly made a welcoming place for those who share their geeky interests with, and taking things a step further I think that even Jarvis would agree with this statement in one part or another.

Just reading here, maybe you should have stuck with the first part of your post and leave it that at, because it sounded like you really had a good time. Here is what I have posted in another message thread that can easily be applied to this one:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, we have a popular cosplayer (probably not taking the best stance on this ) that initiates negativity to a group of over stressed convention organizers "to get their shit together." and then we have the head organizer (...again, probably not taking the best stance on this ) telling her to "EAT A DICK" and now we have everyone within the Facebook universe coming out of the woodwork and saying how bad this guy is, what about Jessicat? As a community, should we not encourage the two of them to be better people ?

I think they're both good people that have made bad decisions , and all of you taking one side over the other, is also wrong and i have to ask; when things get to a low point is this how we setup and keep-up/build a community? And now this has spun out of control. Here is a group of people that jump all over Ron regardless of what he does, and just look at that, here they all are, just adding their 2 cents to the conversation of what happened back 4 years ago? Here's something to add to all of this, with a lot of these instances that toke place, I was there in the background and I saw what happend, and it's not half as bad as these individuals make it out to be, and to them I send to the following

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MK7qz13bU

As we have other people still beating up on Ron regardless of what he says or what he does, I know that a lot of you are still going to hammer the guy to the ground, and from that I am seeing that some people are wishing physical harm on the guy which I don't think is right regardless of what is going on from all of this. Did Ron fuck up? YES. Did Jessicat fuck up aswell ? YES. I'm pretty sure that a lot of this could have been solved with a private message ahead of time between the two of them, but did any of our online combatants take that path? No they didn't and just looking at this posting and and others, and the vast majority of comments here they are not helping the situation, they're just making things worse.

I find the cosplay community to be a really cool and creative environment, but I find things like this to be, well you know...

We're all better people, aren't we?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As mentioned in my opening statement I find you a beautiful, understanding, creative and very smart person, an individual who does not fall prey to online shenanigans or drama for that matter, and with all of the promotional advertising that I saw with kW Ironman and KCC, and the good will that is going on, have you emailed/message the staff/ con chair, OR has this become another beatdown session? Which I find to be extremely unbecoming of an individual of your talent and insight AND I think we all can become better people if we help each other in understanding with the other person is coming from, instead of pushing them down, throwing them under the bus and just walking all over them regardless if it is Tricon or KCC.

I hope you understand in where I'm coming from with all of this.

Thank

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2020
    August 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    12 Days Of Xmas 2013
    Ad Astra
    Ain't No Pretty Princess
    Alice In Wonderland
    Anime North
    Atomic Lollipop
    Atomic Robo
    Avatar
    C2e2
    Captain Marvel
    Colossal Con
    Conbravo
    Con G
    Convention Photos
    Convention Report
    Costume Con
    Costume Exhibits
    Costume Quest
    Crystal Entropy
    Fan Expo Canada
    Features & Links
    Fluttershy
    Forest City Comicon
    Frost Con
    Gabriel
    Game Of Thrones
    G Anime
    Ghostbusters
    Gravity Falls
    GTA And Toy Con
    Halloween
    Hawkeye
    Image
    Katamari Damacy
    Kim Pine
    Kitchener Comic Con
    Marvel
    Masquerade
    Midna
    Mrs Impossible
    Niagara Falls Comic Con
    Niagara Wine Parade
    Nycc
    Ottawa Comic Con
    Pax East
    Pepper Potts
    Pokemon
    Progress Post
    Rat Queens
    Riverdale
    Saga
    Sin City
    Sloth
    Spirited Away
    Tag Sale
    The Rusty Gear
    The Wicked And The Divine
    Toronto Comicon
    Triana Orpheus
    Tri Con
    Tutorial Tuesday
    Undertale
    Unplugged Expo
    Veda 2013
    Video Project
    Warm Bodies
    Welcome To Night Vale
    Year In Review
    Yeticon

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • home
  • Blog
    • Tutorials
  • Costumes
  • Crafts & Accessories
  • Videos
  • About Jen
    • Instagram
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • ko-fi