Bart Bernhardt
Observer
Science CosPlay
So my takeaway for the expo is I would really encourage building up relationships and conversations with the people who participate in the con, the expo vendors, the cosplayers, and really step one is just really listening to what they think is a better, more engaging experience and really trying to imitate those qualities or find people in this community that you can empower to do stuff. I was looking at a lot of the merch and there's this process of taking objects or characters and really cute-ifying them and turning them into anime plushes or that sort of thing, and this is really popular and I'm like, "Why is there not a super adorable plush Mars rover, or satellite or something like that that trades on this enthusiasm for merch and collectibility that clearly is there. So I think the important take away there is looking at what the rest of the expo is all about and trying to capture some of that.