Panel not accepted (waitlisted) feedback desired

[KairuPhotography]

Hello Fanime Con Staffers and attendees,

I am a Bay Area photographer and have been doing cosplay photography for the past 3 or 4 years. I haven't presented a panel before and submitted a panel for Fanime 2015. My submission was for Convention Cosplay Photography 101 and would go through the basics of con cosplay photography (gear, rights, respect, posing, etc.).

As of now I have not been accepted nor denied, so Fanime Panel's Twitter team said I am probably on the wait list (tbh, not sure what that means besides maybe being  accepted if someone drops out? I find that unlikely though)

So now I would, perhaps too late, like to ask what typically goes into the decisions to accept, deny, or wait list one panel over others? I recognize sponsors will usually get their panels, as well as guests of honor. Outside of that, do things such as repeated panels (ones from previous years), number of presenters, etc. play a factor? I planned on presenting myself but wasn't sure if that would be a mark against me. Any tips or info would be appreciated.

I am asking so that if I don't get accepted this year, I can set my panel up for success in the future.

Thanks for any feedback ! Look forward to hopefully seeing many of you at the con in May!

[Rurutie8]

How early did you submit your panel?

To give you an idea of how early you need to act, here is the timeline from my personal experience.
January 30:   I submitted my panel and Fanime acknowledged.
February 16:  Fanime contacted me to confirm my time slot requests.
April 11:        Fanime proposed satisfactory time slots which I gladly accepted.

Another issue you may have is that someone else may also be running a panel on a similar subject.

[KairuPhotography]

Thanks for the response, I submitted my panel January 30th, heard from staff that my panel has no questions or concerns in early February, and have not received a denial or acceptance notice as of April 20th. My understanding is all acceptance / scheduling notices have been sent, so I would probably be on the 'waitlist'.

I did see a Cosplay Posing panel but other than that nothing relating to cosplay photography.