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Judging from the panel email, I feel pretty good about this year.
Question though: When can we start advertising the times of our panels?

See above response to the other question. *chuckles* I think most things are locked down now. Just waiting on a few more confirmations.

Any word on when the website will be updated with the finished list?  ???

I can only go as fast as people get back to me to confirm their times. In an effort to speed this up, I just spent most of the last 3 hours on the phone calling people - but there are still a few people I was not able to get hold of. Hoping to get out the finalized schedule by Monday, but it depends on people getting back to me and me having time to get it out. :)

Well, unless the Powers That Be change things up, it looks like we're on for Fanime for 12am-2am Sunday morning. (Not the timeslot I would have chosen, but y'gotta take what you can get, I suppose! Even if, amusingly enough, the bulk of my writing tends to be done in the wee hours of the morning!) On the bright side, a late night panel probably means we don't have to be quite as careful about stuff not suited to the under-18 crowd. Since our application specifically said it's an all ages panel this year though, we're still not going to add much about adult fanfic.

My sister and I are probably going to run around Saturday with a bunch of anime mad-libs for people to goof off on to help promote the panel. Those should be random and various flavors of hilarious. Watch for the guy with the banner sticking up off his backpack. ;)

If you'd like to switch your panel to an 18+ panel, I have no objections. You just need to send an e-mail to the panels e-mail to request it.

-Rena

When will the official panel schedule be released? Or at least when will the panel leaders know how many hours are being allotted to them and when?

I just sent out the schedule a few minutes ago. :)

Appended list of approvals - because panelists are up late and replied super fast to that e-mail sent.
Still 1 two hour time slot left on the schedule.

For now, the following have been added:

Character Makeup
Pattern Alteration for Fit and Form
Con Survival - Cosplayer Style
Henshin! TokuSentai
Digital Makeover: Cosplay Edition
Manga Club
Guilty Pleasures
CosmicBreak Moe Mecha MMO
How Edward Elric Made His Own Boots

(I'm going to bed! More updates tomorrow!)

Wait, does that mean that people who get their panels approved after April 1st, will NOT get their panel descriptions in the program guide, and only have the name of their panel on the schedule?

The schedule will be full before the list of panels is sent to the program guide. Any panels approved after that, due to cancelations, will not appear in the program guide.

The current approval round is considered the round for the April 1st deadline. We simply can't send out word of everything ON the 1st, because it takes times to sort through the submissions and try to fit them into the schedule.

I hope that makes sense.

-Rena

[So if you're not in this list: Please check your e-mail!]

And... here is the new list of approved panels. Before I paste the list though, a note: All acceptable panels that are not listed here were e-mailed tonight. So if you're not in this list: Please check your e-mail! There are a few time slots still open on the schedule, and the first to reply claiming them will get them.

Here's the current list of newly approved panels (pro-tip: use ctrl+f to search):

Hetalia Q&A
Yugioh Fanpanel
Anime Let's Make a Deal
Creating Your Graphic Novels
Anime Name that Tune!
Binding for Self-Publishers
J-Pop K-Pop Nation
WoW For The Non-WoWed
Intro to Samurai Senshi
Convention Survival Tips
Reporting Anime Conventions
Weird Manga
Working Together: Photoshoots
STG 101: Intro to Shoot-Em-Ups
Staying in Character
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5DXAL
Cosplay Photography
Cosplay 101
Lolita Fashion Show Panel
Selecting The Perfect Fabric
The History of Lolis
Undressing Sherlock
University Anime Club
Deviant Art Meet-Up
Girls Like Boys Who Punch Boys
Your Body, Your Cosplay
Vocaloid: The Fan Phenomenon
Character Creation
Teaching Manga Class
An insider's view on Webcomics
How to make a webcomic in 1 hr
An Anime Look at you
Shira Oka: Second Chances
Character Creation
Girl's Guide to Gundam
Create That Anime!
Create That Hentai! (18+)
VIZ Media Panel


There are a few panel submissions that are not suitable for a panel room and are not currently approved, but might be approved, if details regarding their requirements can be worked out for other spaces available. These panelists should be hearing from us in the near future:

Rock Out Harujuku! (Pending - Karaoke room stage)
Shinkendo (Pending - Bushido Room)
Amtgard: A fantasy combat LARP (Pending - Bushido Room)
Yukie's Vocaloid LIVE (Pending - Stage Zero)
Mario Bro's Variety Show (Pending - Stage Zero)

[To answer the question that was was asked]

To answer the question that was was asked: The April 1st deadline is only for the program guide, not for the printed schedule. The schedule deadline is later. All panels approved prior to April 15th will be listed on the schedule. Panels approved after that (due to cancelations), may not be listed on the printed schedule. Any changes in programming to the printed schedule will be advertised via twitter, stage zero, all 4 info-desks at con, and possibly the website, as well as the printed daily schedules outside of the panel rooms.

Small update, for those waiting with bated breath:
We are working on getting the panels schedule filled up, and completed. We haven't finished this process yet. It's looking like it'll take us a couple more days. The last of the schedule is always more tricky to fill, as most time slots are already full, and we have to start juggling panels around to fit available times for the new panels we're trying to schedule.

This is definitely where being flexible in your times comes in handy - pretty soon our approval process will get down to: who can fill THIS time slot?

I'm not going to give you any panel titles yet - you'll have to wait a couple more days for that, but I wanted to leave a note here and let you know we haven't forgotten - we ARE working on it, it's just going to take us a few days to sort out this schedule. :)

-Rena

Hey everyone - just to let you know...

After a lot of consideration, we decided that at least for this year, we are not going to approve any dating panels (there were 2 or 3 submitted to us). The closest we've come is approving one panel that was offering up a single date as a prize. We are a little bit dubious as to whether or not people would actually enjoy being put to the test in some sort of dating thing in front of a large audience. We are certainly willing to reconsider the idea for next year, since it seems so popular, but for this year, we're going to hold off.

Please feel free to discuss here.

However, the General Programming division might still hold a speed dating event similar to last year's popular speed dating event. Last I heard, there was a space set aside for it to happen, but no one had been found to run the event. I've forwarded all panel submissions for dating panels to the head of General Programming for consideration. I haven't heard anything back yet, so that's all the information I can give you for now.

If you're interested in running the event outside of a panel room, and without an audience, you might want to come to the next Fanime General Meeting - which will be held on April 10th. You should be able to speak to the head of GP at that meeting, and ask any questions you might have on the subject.

This new system is very nerve racking  :'(

You would think that registering early shows dedication and effort. Can't complain if it's being done for the sake of quality control though.

Also gundam is misspelled  :'(

Sorry about that. It's new, and still needs fine-tuning. We're still trying to create a database to help us make selections, but we've had several snafus in getting the database created, so at the moment we're still doing things mostly manually. If you noticed a misspelling on the web listings on the website, please do drop an e-mail to the panels e-mail. We'll try to get it fixed.

I know the new system is.. well.. new, and we're still working out the details of it, and a lot of panelists are finding it confusing, so I really apologize for that!

We're trying to move to a system that allows us to accept late entries if they add more variety and/or high quality to our schedule. That, of necessity, requires us to not completely fill up the schedule as soon as we have enough submissions to do so, so we've been forced to pick and choose. Our selection process is by no means perfect, nor are we always able to tell from the submissions what will actually be a totally awesome panel and what won't, but we're certainly doing our best.

I really do appreciate y'all hanging with us this year through the growing pains. We'll try to make it less confusing for next year.

That's entirely up to you. :) However, after the April 1st deadline, we will definitely be on a waiting list - so if you're going to submit, get it submitted by Friday!

How long do you expect email confirmation for yay or nay to go out?
I'm extra antsy because it's mid March and Fanime is soooo close D:

I think I should have been more specific too...

Will we get a confirmation that the request was received?
I'm kinda worried I didn't send it right D:

My staff and I don't have the time these days to reply to every submission, unfortunately. When you submit a panel request, you receive an e-mail asking you to verify your e-mail address (this prevents spam submissions from getting through), and after you verify your e-mail address, the submission is sent to us.

If you think that something may have gone wrong with your submission, feel free to e-mail panels to ask about it.

-Rena

Guess I shoulda just re-submitted... I sent an email and got an email back saying I need to confirm my email but I never got the email to confirm my email @_@

Yeah, you should probably re-submit then. When you submit a form, it tells you that it's going to send you a verification e-mail. It sends you an e-mail with a link you need to click to prove you're not a spam bot. You should get it shortly after submitting the form, so if you don't see it in your inbox, check your junk mail folder perhaps?

-Rena

I think I applied for panel space.... but I don't remember now  ;D

Where can I find out if I applied? I don't want to clog up the system by applying twice XD

Send an e-mail to panelsATfanimeDOTcom. Include your name, the panel title, if you can remember it, and the name of any helper you listed on the panel form.

-Rena

You can find all the information you need to submit a panel request, including a link to the panel request form here: http://www.fanime.com/panelsinfo/

As a note though - we do already have 3 Hetalia panels that are approved. Have you checked the approval list and the current Panel listings to see if yours is one of the ones that has been approved?

-Rena

I'm sorry. I realize this is a change from previous years, but as I've already stated in my earlier post, my staff and I will not have time to individually e-mail each panelist this year. I will be sending out e-mails to all panelists after the first of next month.

-Rena

How long do you expect email confirmation for yay or nay to go out?
I'm extra antsy because it's mid March and Fanime is soooo close D:

I think I should have been more specific too...

Will we get a confirmation that the request was received?
I'm kinda worried I didn't send it right D:

My staff and I don't have the time these days to reply to every submission, unfortunately. When you submit a panel request, you receive an e-mail asking you to verify your e-mail address (this prevents spam submissions from getting through), and after you verify your e-mail address, the submission is sent to us.

If you think that something may have gone wrong with your submission, feel free to e-mail panels to ask about it.

-Rena

I see. Thank you very much for the information.

Can I bring food as a prop? Show how it should look/feel/smell when it's complete?

You can bring food in, so long as none of it is handed out to the audience. :)

[Hey Folks! Sorry for the two week delay. Without further ado, here are another 31 panels that have made it to the schedule thus far:]

Hey Folks! Sorry for the two week delay. Without further ado, here are another 31 panels that have made it to the schedule thus far:

Pop-Fiction
Hetalia After Hours
Hetalia Budget cooking
Translating Anime & Manga
Gaia Feedback Social
Johnny and Associates
What's Wrong with Res. Evil?
Wig Styling
3D Film Making with Monty Oum
TGWTG: JewWario/Psychotaku
The Comedy Club at Fanime
Graphic Design for Manga
How To: Amateur Voice Acting
Magikarp: A History
Aniplex of America Panel
Durarara!! Panel
Whose Line Is It? Anime!
Whose Line Is It? Anime! (16+)
Religion in Anime
Bodycasting 101
Armor: Plan it - Make it
Sewing Basics for Cosplay
Under-Cosplay-Wear
Cafe Verfuhren:BL Butler Cafe
Building Gundum Model 101
Bento 101
BJD After Dark
Storytime @ Fanime
Manime!
Let's Go Beat the Death Note


There'll be another approval round in two weeks - after the April 1st Program Guide submission deadline. I intend to fill the schedule at that time - after that we'll move to a waiting list.

At the moment, there are still about 50 possible hours free on the panels schedule - and we have already reserved time-slots for most of the GoH panels.

To give you an idea of how stiff the competition is this year - right now, there are still 45 submissions that have not yet been approved.

[March 19th]

Hey all - I apologize for this, but the second round of panel approvals is being delayed till March 19th.

My staff and I simply weren't able to e-mail everyone in between that we needed to contact, and it's unfair to expect them to respond on such short notices. A bunch of e-mails are going out tonight. I'm sorry for the delay, and thank you very much for your patience.

-Rena