At the start of the 2022 fall semester, University of Houston hosts a "Weeks of Welcome" where events are ran every single day to introduce freshmen to the university and campus, and get them acquainted with the organizations, facilities, and departments at UH.
I noticed that there wasn't anything offered for students with an interest in gaming, esports, anime, or anything in-between. Knowing that there was a sizeable (and growing) number of incoming freshmen every year who focus on these subjects, I decided that I wanted to try to change that.
I created the idea of UH's first convention, CougarCon! A place where freshmen and students can get introduced to student organizations with views and hobbies similar to their own.
Within 2 months, I had developed a budget, timeline, and a stack of volunteers who were pumped to make it happen. I collaborated with the UH Student Centers for funding, and with over 12 major student organizations to host a convention that featured: Multiple video game tournaments (thanks for MSI for sending me laptops last minute!), a cosplay contest, free food, LARP training, a student-driven artists alley, board games, card games, and more!
One major aspect of CougarCon that I was looking forward to, was the student-driven artist's alley. I designated approximately one-third of the convention for student artist's to sell their artwork, and moderated the interest form heavily in order to favor UH students who wanted a no-cost entry to tabling at conventions at a first-come first-serve basis. Many of my peers within the Digital Media program were interested in this, and it was a major success! I am proud to say that due to CougarCon, the UH Student Centers now has a database of student vendors that grows every week, and we are seeing a rise in student-created art being sold across campus as a whole. Since CougarCon, seven artist alleys have been ran using the infrastructure set in place by CougarCon.
CougarCon was such a major success, it was one of the top 3 events during Weeks of Welcome! We had an anticipated turnout of 300 students, and we came out with over 1,200! Here is a video showing the queue to enter the event hall.
Due to it's success, CougarCon has solidified it's place as a yearly UH event through a presentation I helped conduct to the Student Fees Advisory Committee at UH, netting us $35,000 for gaming & esports related funding for the 2023-2024 year!