As much as the thought of doing this more than once a year terrifies me I'd love to hear your ideas for other costume contests.
I also love this idea and think it would be great for the hobby!
Having contests in different genre would be interesting or type of material/media used - since it is difficult for people to judge between a HUGE armor costume compared to a hand made spiderman where they guy literally painted on every little design. Both are impressive for different reasons.
Also, since my 12 year old is going to age out of the kids contest, but he wants to work on his own and won't be competitive for many years unless I help him significantly. So, it might be nice to have, instead of a 'new to the board' a 'young costumer' contest to encourage the younger generations to get involved. like 13-14, 15-16, 17-18.
Then you'd have to have them prove age and all...
Another idea would be a fan film short contest, maybe just 2-3 minutes in costume. As controversial as the last contest was on the Heroes of Cosplay, the idea of bring theater into costuming really, really appeals to me.
And yeah, it wouldn't need to be a $$ prize, but something that would give recognition and give a platform for more people to see their work.