Cosplay Networking Night returns for a second year
JCI Kuala Lumpur and fellow JCI local organisations bring back the networking night where a costume does the icebreaking, on 8 August.
Most networking events in Kuala Lumpur follow the same script: name tags, a short pitch, a stack of business cards. Cosplay Networking Night rewrites it. Guests come in costume, and the outfit becomes the first conversation, which makes the second, more useful one much easier.
After a first edition in 2025, the event returns on 8 August 2026 at the Andaman Grand Ballroom in Kuala Lumpur. JCI Kuala Lumpur is organising it with fellow JCI local organisations and support from KL Wellness City, whose executive director, Dato’ Sri Dr Vincent Tiew, attended the 2025 edition as a special guest.
Show Up, Glow Up, Link Up
The night is built on a philosophy its founder, Alexx Chor, sums up as “Show Up, Glow Up, Link Up”. In the pre-event announcement he described costume as a way to lower professional barriers, so people show more of their personality and build relationships that go further than a swapped card.
For 2026, organising chairman Lee Haozhe and his team are adding interactive networking games, live stage performances, entertainment segments and lucky draws, aimed at entrepreneurs, young professionals, business leaders and creatives.
Why a leadership organisation runs a cosplay night
JCI KL President Kong Yue Ning described the event as a challenge to conventional networking culture, and a route to cross-industry collaboration, strategic partnerships and entrepreneurial growth.
For the members running it, it is also a complete leadership brief: a venue, a programme, sponsors, ticketing, co-organisers from other chapters, and a ballroom full of guests to look after on the night. That is the JCI model in one evening. The guests get a better night out. The organising team gets experience no course can give them.
