The UW Cosplay Expo was held in the SLC on July 4. The event was hosted by Joshua Hardy, a first-year environmental engineering student and the Mental Health Commissioner for the Engineering Society.
“I wanted to try something different, I suppose,” Hardy said when asked why he decided to host the event.
The idea for the expo came from Jane Jia, a first-year environmental studies student.
When asked about the event, Hardy described it as “a mini Comic-Con.”
“The UW Expo event is like a mini Comic-Con,” he said. “The event featured multiple activities where people could interact with each other through cosplay and other interests. We also had an Artist Alley, where local artists could sell their merchandise.”
The expo partnered with several campus clubs to offer many different activities. The UW Fighting Game Club hosted a video game section, the Pokémon Club introduced attendees to the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and the Waterloo Magic taught participants how to play Magic: The Gathering.
When asked about the possibility of similar events in the future, Hardy said, “My goal with this event was to create a crossover between the Engineering Society and other clubs around campus so that more people could get involved with the Engineering Society.”
Hardy added that he hoped Engineering Society members would use the event as an opportunity to discover other campus clubs.
“Since the Engineering Society has a larger reach than many other clubs, it can help bring attention to organizations that otherwise only get exposure during the campus club fair,” he said.
Reflecting on the event’s success, Hardy said he was pleased with the turnout despite the challenges of organizing it during the spring term.
“The event went very well considering it was the spring term. We didn’t get a massive number of people, and we didn’t have a lot of time to plan,” he said.
Hardy expressed interest in bringing the event back in the future.
“Maybe not in the fall term because that’s really close now, but I’d definitely like to run it again,” he said.
The Engineering Society’s Vice President also expressed interest in holding the event during the winter term, noting that the spring term schedule is already packed with events.
