March 3, 2010
News for Kawaii Kon 2010:
Kawaii Kon announces partnership with Cosplay.com
Honolulu, HI, March 2, 2010- Kawaii Kon is proud to announce Cosplay.com as our first mythril-level sponsor! Founded in 2002, Cosplay.com has grown into the world's most active website dedicated to the cosplay hobby, with over 210,000 members and over 2 million user-submitted photos! President Kyle Johnsen, as well as staff members Jia Jem and Ginny McQueen will be in attendance.
As a mythril-level sponsor, Cosplay.com is the named sponsor of our Main Events room. As such, they will be heavily involved in our Cosplay Showcase, our premier "masquerade" event. Judges for the event will include veteran cosplayers Ginny McQueen and Jia Jem. In addition to the trophies Kawaii Kon provides to our showcase winners, Cosplay.com will also be contributing:
Winner, Best in Show- A $500.00 CosWorx gift certificate, and a feature photoshoot to be showcased on Cosplay.com
Winner, Best Overall Craftmanship- A $200.00 CosWorx gift certificate
Winner, Best Overall Presentation- A $200.00 CosWorx gift certificate
Winner, Best Master, Novice and Youth categories- A $100.00 CosWorx gift certificate to the winner in each category
Winner, Judges' Choice- A $25.00 CosWorx gift certificate for each of the three (3) winners
Contestants- Each contestant will receive a $5.00 CosWorx gift certificate
As a bonus, we are adding a "Sponsor's Choice Award", that gets a special prize- Kyle Johnsen, president of Cosplay.com and its official photographer, will choose an individual or group to photograph, in a photoshoot which will be featured on Cosplay.com.
Photographs from our showcase will be submitted to Cosmode Magazine.
We are also excited to announce that Cosplay.com will be featured in a panel during the convention. See you there!
About Kawaii Kon
Kawaii Kon 2010 will be held April 16-18th, 2010 at the Hawaii Convention Center.
Kawaii Kon is a three-day convention event dedicated to creating a broader awareness of, and appreciation for Japanese animation by celebrating the richness of this artform. Through cooperation with the community, Kawaii Kon hopes to facilitate growth of the anime, manga and related industries in Hawaii and beyond. In addition to providing a central event for fans and enthusiasts, Kawaii Kon seeks to become a vehicle for sharing and disseminating industry information. Kawaii Kon also provides the community and related industries the opportunity to network and conduct business.
Thanks to the support of organizations like Bandai Entertainment, Manga Entertainment, The Honolulu Festival, The Hawaii International Film Festival and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, Kawaii Kon has grown in just five years to include thousands of annual attendees. Fans, artists and industry guests gather from all over the world for the 3-Day extravaganza.
For more information please visit: www.kawaiikon.org
About Kyle Johnsen and Cosplay.com
Kyle Johnsen is the president and founder of Cosplay.com, LLC, as well as one of the most recognized names in cosplay photography worldwide.
Mr. Johnsen founded Cosplay.com in 2002, and since then has acted as its principle web programmer and site administrator. In 2004, he moved Cosplay.com to Las Vegas, Nevada where he currently oversees its day-to-day business functions. Since then, Cosplay.com has grown into the world's most active website dedicated to the cosplay hobby, with over 210,000 members and over 2 million user-submitted photos.
Aside from running the website, he is Cosplay.com's official photographer. While his main focus is photography for the website, his photos have been featured in dozens of magazines and showcased in other media. Throughout the years, he has attended over 100 events around the world and has maintained a continued working relationship with many of the biggest names in international cosplay.
Mr. Johnsen is also a staff photographer for COSMODE magazine in Japan, the most popular cosplay magazine in the world. His photoshoots are currently the only cosplay feature photoshoots in COSMODE of cosplayers outside of Asia.
When not working with Cosplay.com, Mr. Johnsen is also a partner of CosWorx LLC, a popular online cosplay store. Some of his advisory work is as Chairman of Studio Red Rock, a Tokyo-based company specializing in international cosplay brand management.
