SMOF News, volume 1, issue 5

How to be a panelist, and news in brief.

How to Convention: Program Participation (Part 1)

Every convention which puts fans on panels could use a little new blood. If you’ve ever wanted to take a stab at being a talking at your local con and haven’t been sure how, there are two approaches to it:

• Anime and other media-focused conventions typically have people apply with prepackaged ideas: the person submitting the idea plans to do the talk or otherwise run the item, recruits other panelists as necessary, and so forth.

• Broad-spectrum science fiction cons and some of their more literary offshoots collect a stack of panel ideas and a stack of prospective panelists, then do the work of matching them up.

If you go to both kinds of conventions, I recommend trying the second kind first. Not only is it much less work for you as a new panelist, but sf cons typically have a much higher ratio of programming to attendees, meaning that your local one is almost always looking for more people to add to the program list.

I’ll run through the application process for the first type in a later issue, but here’s how to get started with the sf con version.

First, write to the program contact address a few months before the con and say that you’re planning to attend and you’d like to volunteer as a panelist. Name a few general subjects you can talk about. These could be from your career, life experience, past education, or hobbies.

If the con is interested, they’ll send you a standardized program participant survey. Different cons have different timelines; these may go out anywhere from 2-6 months ahead of time.

Some standard questions on these surveys are:

• More detail on what you do and don’t want to talk about— sometimes a list of subject areas, sometimes the specific list of panel ideas.

• Times you’re available for programming each day, and any specific things you don’t want to be programmed against.

• How many items you’re willing to be on each day.

• People you don’t want to be on a panel with. Nobody will ask about the reasons, they just want the names.

• Whether you’re willing to be a moderator.

• Demographic information so the con can see how its diversification efforts are going.

2-4 weeks before the con, preliminary schedules go out. When you get one, the most important thing to remember is that it is preliminary. If you’ve been assigned to something you feel is a bad fit, speak up! Maybe you have a brand new personal feud with the assigned moderator, maybe you’re a devotee of a subgenre but not the specific author the panel is about, maybe someone screwed up and assigned you to a subject you just don’t know anything about. Whatever the reason, write back to the program contact and explain that you’d like to be removed. You won’t be branded as difficult and it won’t be held against you in the future. There is nothing the program department wants less than having a panelist announce that they don’t know why they’re on the panel in the first place.

As for things you should be doing once you’re there in front of the audience, that’ll have to be another installment.

In Brief

• RadCon (Pasco, Washington, USA) is the latest convention with a GoFundMe campaign to try to save it from a pandemic-induced shortfall.

• Readercon (Quincy, Massachusetts, USA) is skipping 2022 to revamp its processes and digest what it has learned from running a virtual convention.

• A New York Times article on Colorado governor Jared Polis and his new husband reveals that their first serious compatibility test was attending MileHiCon, Denver’s long-time science fiction convention.

Event Calendar

Weekend of October 1-3

• Octocon 2021 (Irish national science fiction convention), virtual

• MileHiCon 53, Denver, Colorado, USA

• Archon 44, Collinsville, Illinois, USA

• Fiasco iN3D, Romulus, Michigan, USA

• Capclave 2021/1632 Minicon (books/1632 series), Rockville, Maryland, USA

• Origins Game Fair 2021, Columbus, Ohio, USA

• Tennessee Game Days Fall 2021, Franklin, Tennessee, USA

• TringCon (gaming), Marsworth, UK

• 2021 Gaming Hoopla, Mundelein, Illinois, USA

• AppleCon 2 (tabletop games), Standish, Maine, USA

• Pittsburgh Gaming Expo (video games), Monroeville, Pennsylvania, USA

• FilkCONtinental (music), Wernigerode, Germany

• Trans/Inter/Cross: A Symposium on the Fantastic Between Genres, Media, and Cultures, Orlando, Florida, USA

• Gaslight Steampunk Expo, San Diego, California, USA

• Anime Oklahoma, Midwest City, Oklahoma, USA

• 26th Annual H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Portland, Oregon, USA

• New Orleans Comic Con, Kenner, Louisiana, USA

• Upper Valley Comic Expo, West Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA

• Unicon (media), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

• Edmonton Expo (media), Edmonton, Alberta, USA

• Cape Comic Con (media), Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA

• Twin Cities Con (media), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Mid-week convention:Geekway to the West (gaming), St. Charles, Missouri, USA (October 5-7)

Weekend of October 8-10

• Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, Sitges, Spain

• 7th Irish Discworld Convention, virtual (was to be Cork, Ireland)

• EstelCon 2021 (J. R. R. Tolkien), Orduña, Spain

• WPAFW 2021 (anthropomorphics), North Park, Pennsylvania, USA

• Motor City Furry Con, Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA

• Alamo City Furry Invasion: Fire and Furry, San Antonio, Texas, USA

• Lair Con (RPGs), Terrell, Texas, USA

• Too Many Games (video gaming), Oaks, Pennsylvania, USA

• Tsubasacon (anime), Charleston, West Virginia, USA

• Banzaicon (anime), Columbia, South Carolina, USA

• Anime Fiesta, McAllen, Texas, USA

• Animasia (anime), Bordeaux, France

• Made in Asia (anime), Brussels, Belgium

• UK PonyCon 2021 (My Little Pony), Nottingham, UK

• Fallcon XL (comics), St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

• Comiccon de Québec, Montréal, Québec, Canada

• Comic Con Scotland, Edinburgh, UK

• Alabama Comic Convention/My Hero Convention, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

• Powerhouse Comic Con, Pleasanton, California, USA

• Grit City Comic Show, Tacoma, Washington, USA

• Sci-Fi Valley Con (media), Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA

• Fantasy Basel (media), Basel, Switzerland

• Big Texas Comicon, San Antonio, Texas, USA

• The Tomb of Monsterama (retro media), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Weekend of October 15-17

• ICON 46, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA

• ArmadilloCon 43, Austin, Texas, USA

• VCon 2021, virtual (usually Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

• Can*Con 2021 (Canadian sf), virtual (usually Ottawa, Ontario)

• Anime Banzai, Davis, Utah, USA

• Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, Sitges, Spain

• Viking-Con 40 (gaming), Kastrup, Denmark

• Phantasm 30th (RPGs), Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

• BETACON 10 (gaming), Carbondale, Illinois, USA

• Effing-Con (gaming), Effingham, Illinois, USA

• Spiel ‘21 (boardgames), Essen, Germany

• Wauke-Con (comics), Waukegan, Illinois, USA

• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Kendal, UK

• J-Popcon (anime), Copenhagen, Denmark

• Chizu Con (anime), Madison, Wisconsin, USA

• Tokyo, OK (anime), Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

• WasabiCon (anime), Jacksonville, Florida, USA

• Heroes Made in Asia (anime), Gorinchem, Netherlands

• Geek Days Caen (media), Caen, France

• Motor City Comic Con, Novi, Michigan, USA

• MetaCon (media), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

• Indiana Comic Convention, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

• MagicCon 4 (fantasy media), Bonn, Germany

• Bedford Who Charity Con 6 (Doctor Who), Bedford, UK

Weekend of October 22-24

• BuchmesseCon, Dreieich, Germany

• Sirens (gender and fantasy), Denver, Colorado, USA

• Atlanta Game Fest 36, Alpharetta, Georgia, USA

• GaelCon (gaming), virtual (usually Dublin, Ireland)

• CincyCon 2021 (gaming), Hamilton, Ohio, USA

• LAN All Night: ZombieLAN (video games), Dallas, Texas, USA

• Biggest Little Fur Con (anthropomorphic), Reno, Nevada, USA

• Sci-Fi-London 21 (film festival), London, UK

• MEX (anime), Berlin, Germany

• Anime Nebraskon, Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA

• Anime Fusion, Plymouth, Minnesota, USA

• Another Anime Convention, Westford, Massachusetts, USA

• FedCon (media), Bonn, Germany

• Hal-Con (media), Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

• Baltimore Comic-Con, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

• FicZone 2021 (media/gaming), Grenada, Spain

• TR25 (Tomb Raider), Derby, UK

• TFcon Baltimore (Transformers), Baltimore, Maryland, USA

• VoltCon! 2021 (Voltron), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Weekend of October 29-31

• SpoCon: Revamped, Spokane, Washington, USA

• Astronomicon, Rochester, New York, USA

• BristolCon, Bristol, UK

• Les Utopiales, Nantes, France

• Hallowcon 2021: Gambler's Nightmare (fantasy/horror), Dalton, Georgia, USA

• The Surrey Steampunk Convivial, Epsom, UK

• Ohio Valley Filk Festival (music), Worthington, Ohio, USA

• Dragonflight 41 (gaming), Bellevue, Washington, USA

• EuroQuest 2021 (Eurogames), Pikesville, Maryland, USA

• Golden Leaves Con XI (anthropomorphic), Hasliberg, Switzerland

• Furry Blacklight 9: Space Travel, Tremblay-en-France, France

• Anime Halloween, Schaumberg, Illinois, USA

• Oni-Con XVII (anime), Galveston, Texas, USA

• SNAFU Con (anime), Reno, Nevada, USA

• LumiCon (anime), Tampa, Florida, USA

• Manga Barcelona (anime), Barcelona, Spain

• Destination Tokyo (anime), Monthey, Switzerland

• Anime Weekend Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• DerpyCon 2021 (anime), New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

• Yunicon 2021 (anime), Schwechat, Austria

• Youmacon 2021 (anime), Detroit, Michigan, USA

• SMASH! (anime), Sydney, Australia

• 31st Festival of Fantastic Films, Manchester, UK

• All-Con (media), Dallas, Texas, USA

• Soda City Comic Con, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

• Fan Expo Denver (media), Denver, Colorado, USA

• Fanboy Expo Knoxville (media), Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

• Cherry Capital Comic Con, Acme, Michigan, USA

• Music City Multi Con (media/video games), Lebanon, Tennessee, USA

Coda

Victorian Fad of False or Artificial Calves (hat tip: The Whippet)