Cons and Programming

[sartorias]

The call for programming, and promise of a scholarship for programmers for Sirens 2011 makes me think about the whole programming thing. Well, 'think' is probably too strong a word for two hours of sleep

Comments

[amberdine]

I have learned to pick panels by weighing who is on them far more than the subject matter. Great panelists can be interesting about anything, but it's really, really easy to ruin even the most interesting subject with boring people.

Mostly, I skip panels (no real intent, just no sense of time and too disorganized) but I like a lot of the WisCon panels. WisCon doesn't filter panelists by some arbitrary "are you famous enough" criteria, and I think it helps.

[sartorias]

I've avoided some panels if I knew that someone who has a tendency to hijack it and talk on about themselves is there, unless I know a deft moderator is in charge. Moderating sometimes reminds me of chariot racing.

[amberdine]

Moderating sometimes reminds me of chariot racing.

Ack, yeah. Going to try my hand at moderating for the first time next month. Meep.

[anghara]

There is a certain person with whom I've started to be very leery when included on the same panel - to the point of actively asking NOT to be if that's possible. This particular author somehow manages to turn EVERY SINGLE TINY POINT that is made on a panel into a sentence that starts, "Well, in MY book..." which is starting to REALLY set my teeth on edge.

If the author in question has something pertinent to contribute, please, chime right in - but can we keep the context a little broader than THOSE books and those books alone?. This - this is just shilling for sales from a privileged position on the podium. And I just don't think it ought to be done.

[alecaustin]

So I've been thinking a lot about programming lately, and while I need to run off to a meeting in a few minutes here, I think that your points about both panelists and the phrasing of topics are well taken - while I think that you can get a good panel without a well-phrased topic, that only generally happens if a high-quality moderator and panelists basically agree on and adopt a better phrasing of the topic on their own.

Anyway. Generalized agreement, specifics forthcoming. (Though concrete specifics are also vital for panels to be good, I feel - lots of vague hand-waving and mouthing of platitudes does no one any good.)

[sartorias]

Looking forward to your thoughts.

[alecaustin]

If you're still interested, I just posted them on my journal.

[sartorias]

Thanks! Linked and because my comment would have been obnoxiously long, put thoughts on the linky post.

[rosefox]

FWIW, this year we added 80 names to Readercon's invitation list; we're definitely trying to get away from that "always the same people" vibe.

(Edited to give the exact number, since I realized our contact management software made that easy to look up.)

[kate_nepveu]

Kewl.

That reminds me, I need to sort out whether we will be coming this year.

[sartorias]

Awesome.

[whswhs]

I'm glad you enjoy Jim's work. I used to do programming for ConDor, and I'm one of a small group who get together every year to brainstorm panel topics; so we have an ongoing turnover of new topics, which I gather not all cons do. I'm pleased to think that I've been one of the contributors to your enjoyment, in a small way.

[sartorias]

Most definitely. I've thoroughly enjoyed panels that you moderate, too.

[green_knight]

I've just had a look at the UK Eastercon panel, and found not a great amount I'd be interested in or that I'd pick up for Bittercon

[sartorias]

One panel entitled 'why are women invisible' is scheduled opposite Peter Hamilton's GOH slot: your answer, let me give you it.)

Oh dear oh dear. (Well, maybe they think that Hamilton's fans wouldn't attend the invisibility one anyway? Sometimes you have to have two tracks, in which case I think it a good idea that the subjects be as divergent as possible. One thing that really bites the big balloon is when two interesting panels are slotted at the same time--and their subjects are related. Argh!)

Re your second point, well, there are all kinds of approaches to these questions, and decisions have to be made by con committees. However, speaking for myself, I would rather hear Jane Unpublished if she's got some good stuff to offer on the topic than three Blockbuster Sellers who are often on these things, but then other attendees might be there to see the blockbusters.

[green_knight]

I recognise that scheduling is a nightmare - I very much prefer to have several tracks to pick from; it makes it easier to sit out panels because you can't attend all the interesting ones anyway - but that was particularly bad scheduling.

other attendees might be there to see the blockbusters

I think once you get into that, you have a whole _different_ set of dynamics. You invite Names, they promise to turn up and do work, you advertise them to other congoers. This can work in getting people to attend. At the same time, it means that the pros in question won't see themselves as _congoers_ - they're not there for fun, they're working. One of the attraction of cons for me is that you get to mingle freely with other fans - some of whom might have fans of their own. Separate the two, and you have a different event.

[3rdragon]

I worked with a college convention for four years, and we didn't have the funds to actually compensate professional guests (or even to bring in too many guests from the West Coast, unfortunately), which I think forced us into a position that actually worked really well: we would have invited guests, who would have travel and housing and free admission to the con -- these were general professionals -- and other panelists, who got free admission on days they were on panels (or for the whole con if they were doing lots of things on one day but not on others). People who weren't officially invited guests tended to be locals, and thus didn't need transportation or housing, and I felt like we usually had an excellent mixture on most of our panels.

This did mean that there have been people we would've liked to invite but didn't because they only make paid appearances, but we've generally had excellent professional guests in addition to very popular panels run by college students.