Cosplay Arabia - January 2021
We start off the new year with our first of four editions! Gracing the cover is Kuwait based cosplayer Hadeel AKA Hadoolalk. Picture by Nasser Jamal Nasser. Featured interviews: Batman_dxb, Phil @cospixcreation, Baraa Abdullah, Kes_Cosplay and Marcel, Sakuraflor, Rosemagpie. How to guide by iCosplay11z Exclusive coverage of CAMEC 2020 and community feedback by Suad Majid.
We start off the new year with our first of four editions!
Gracing the cover is Kuwait based cosplayer Hadeel AKA Hadoolalk.
Picture by Nasser Jamal Nasser.
Featured interviews:
Batman_dxb, Phil @cospixcreation, Baraa Abdullah, Kes_Cosplay and Marcel, Sakuraflor, Rosemagpie.
How to guide by iCosplay11z
Exclusive coverage of CAMEC 2020 and community feedback by Suad Majid.
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<strong>Cosplay</strong> <strong>Arabia</strong> • january <strong>2021</strong><br />
Pictured: Baraa Abdulla<br />
Photo: @mia.shot<br />
Event: Batcon Bahrain<br />
<strong>Cosplay</strong> <strong>Arabia</strong> • january <strong>2021</strong><br />
41<br />
What we’re seeing is a fundamental shift in the psyche of<br />
parties on both sides of the aisle. By the time the current<br />
COVID restrictions ease off, consumers or visitors of these<br />
events will take another 2 or 3 months to cope with the<br />
fact that its now okay to go back to these events. I don’t see<br />
a full return this year but I may be wrong.<br />
Things get even more messier on the other side of the aisle,<br />
sponsors who are the lifeline of any event have realized<br />
that Pop Culture events may not have been their best<br />
return on investment (some of them, not all) and now see<br />
social media and digital platforms a better return on<br />
investment.<br />
Companies are now focused on social media influencers,<br />
digital platforms and content creators; whereas earlier<br />
they saw the importance of a live stage<br />
as being a matter of prestige, having<br />
face time with their customers and<br />
networking on the floor as they<br />
thought it was the right thing to do.<br />
But now that they’ve gone digital, they<br />
can measure success by actual<br />
numbers provided by the platform along with valuable<br />
insights.<br />
All this leads me to believe we won’t see a pre-pandemic<br />
scale Pop Culture event anytime soon. Those who organize<br />
it, would probably turn to e-sports or music events to reach<br />
their intended audience.<br />
Only the biggest & most established of pop culture events<br />
in the region will continue moving forward.<br />
That creates a bit of a void for content creators, artists and<br />
even cosplayers. With events moving to a digital platform,<br />
I’d recommend they invest in their online presence as well.<br />
The top 3 platforms right now are Youtube, Tiktok and the<br />
3rd is a toss between Instagram and other social platforms.<br />
If you are a gamer or into e-sports, twitch and Youtube are<br />
the future.<br />
As for me, I’m focusing on content creation and getting<br />
myself out there. I’m trying to meet as many people as I<br />
can, learn from their mistakes as well as my own and get<br />
involved in a rich variety of projects apart from gaming<br />
and pop culture.<br />
“ALL THIS LEADS ME TO BELIEVE WE WON’T<br />
SEE A PRE-PANDEMIC SCALE POP CULTURE<br />
EVENT ANYTIME SOON”<br />
If there is a chance for me to host at a Pop Culture event<br />
again, I’d go for it in a heartbeat. But for the time being, it’s<br />
not my primary focus. Right now, the best thing for me to<br />
do, and I’d recommend this for all the creatives out there, is<br />
experiment and team up with different kinds of people to<br />
explore your possibilities.
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