Pageant Hosting Tips
Pageant Themes
If it's your first time hosting a pageant - or even your hundredth! - it can be hard sometimes to think of a theme. Sometimes it feels like everything has already been done a million times. That's because it has - and that's by design!
Because babyz are constantly rotating in and out of BCRS, whether they're retiring or newly enrolled, it's totally okay to post a pageant theme that was just hosted last month, or even last week! There will always be new pictures and new babyz to enter them, so you'll never wind up with the same exact pageant twice.
The ideal Pageant Hall at any given time is comprised of a beautiful variety of pageants:
- Lots of pageants with classic themes that are quick & easy to enter. As babyz build up their pageant portfolio, it's nice sometimes to be able to reuse a really good pageant picture.
- A handful of pageants with new or slightly uncommon themes that might require a new photo session.
- A good, even mix of standard, advanced, and elite format pageants to satisfy both our newbie and veteran pageanters. It may feel intimidating at times to host a higher-level pageant, but as long as you have a few gem tiers under your belt, judging these should be no trouble for you.
- And finally, 1-2 anything goes style pageants, for fun photos that members don't get to use as often or newbies who haven't quite perfected standard posing yet.
So, if you're not sure what kind of pageant to pose, take a peek through the Pageant Hall and see what's lacking!
Hosting Tips
- Be sure to read all of the pageant rules, information, and tips in this info section to familiarize yourself with the way each pageant type works before hosting a pageant.
- If you yourself are not able to get a high placement in a certain pose, you may want to avoid hosting a pageant themed around that pose. While it will help you to see the pose in action, it's difficult to judge something that you haven't quite mastered yourself! Remember, there are always anything goes style pageants or other poses you can use as themes instead while you're learning.
- If you really can't think of a theme for your pageant, check the Judged Pageants board for some inspiration! It's 100% okay to copy a theme someone has done before - they've all been done before!
Judging Best Practices
Judging is one of the most fun parts of pageant hosting, but it can also be a little bit intimidating at first! The most important resource for pageant judging is our Pageant Posing Guide.
While pageants are subjective to a certain point, pageant hosts should do their very best to keep their judging in line with the posing guide standards, even if you personally disagree with them, as these are the BCRS pageant standards. Regardless of personal opinion, photos that are more in line with the pageant pose guide standards should always place higher than those less in line with them. Subjectivity can then come into play in situations where you are trying to select between multiple photos of the same quality.
Standard Pageants
Standard pageants are designed to be our most gentle "standard pose" style pageant. These are ideal for pageant newbies who are just getting the hang of posing! They are also currently the most common type of pageant.
In a standard pageant, you are allowed to try to place a baby from as many members as possible (up to 8 placements) if you want to, to prioritize participation & reward over strictly photo quality.
That said, you should never place photos with very poor or incorrect poses, even in a standard pageant (unless it is an "anything goes" style pageant with purposefully non-standard photos). If you have to place those photos (whether due to limited entries or avoiding hurt feelings), you should not place them higher than HM. Pageants are meant to be fun, of course, but at the end of the day they are also a skill test. Trying different things and seeing what poses work and don't work is the most tried and true way for a member to learn and improve.
Advanced & Elite Pageants
Advanced & elite format pageants are our two higher-level pageants, designed for intermediate and advanced/veteran pageanters. They do not allow for stand-ins as they are intended to demonstrate a BCRS baby's skills and let them earn their own high-level points for their pageant careers.
To host an advanced pageant, you just need to have had a baby reach sapphire tier (that's 4 BIS placements) ever during your whole time doing pageants. As soon as you've done that once, you are clear to host them at any time, forever! This restriction is in place just so that you have enough experience to accurately discern the best photos, since these pageants award higher points.
Similarly, in order to host an elite pageant, you need to have had a baby reach emerald tier (that's 6 BIS placements). Like advanced pageants, once you have accomplished that one time, you are allowed to host elite pageants at any time.
Advanced and elite pageants are designed to be especially strict with posing, so when judging them, you should make EXTRA certain that you are basing your placements off of the pageant posing guide and standards. you should never place a baby who is not posing correctly. babyz on their knees, wide eyes, and mouth corners are super important in these high-level pageants!
Additionally, you are expected to place babyz with "member blindness" - in other words, with no regard to who submitted them or how many of one person's babyz you are placing over another's. Some judges like to save every photo to a folder so they can't even see who has posted them, and then arrange the photos from best to worst in a graphic editing program in order to arrange them in the most unbiased way possible.
Anything Goes Pageants
"Anything goes" style pageants are the only type of standard pageant that is allowed to be themed for non-pageant photos. For example, babyz crawling, babyz building with blocks, babyz holding toys. These are fun breaks from the usual pageant and can lead to some funny, adorable themes and photos! There is no true standard for judging these. "Anything goes" style pageants are the only pageants that are allowed to be 100% subjective and do not need to adhere to our posing standards. That means you can just pick whichever photos you think are the cutest/funniest or just the ones you like the best, without having to worry about rules or standards. If you're trying to familiarize yourself with hosting pageants, an "anything goes" style pageant is a perfect first pageant to host!
That said, since the point of anything goes is to subvert the standard rules, photos that would place normally in a regular pageant should generally not be entered or placed in an anything goes pageant. That includes big smiles and the common non-standard poses as well. There should always be something about an anything goes entry that would make it unplaceable in a regular pageant. Wildcard poses are perfect for an anything goes pageant!