Some thoughts here:
1) Did Stage Zero actually screen any of the "videos" submitted for the Panel Promotion segments? I know I walked by on Friday a few times during the supposed time slot for that, but never saw anything of the sort happen.
2) Schedule thing really hurt some of the panels. After talking with some of the people after one of the panels, they all said they had no idea the panel was even going on, and only found it by walking by. I know many panels still were jam packed, but I think the schedule issue hurt many panels' attendance.
3) After doing panels at Fanime for 3 years straight now, I have to wonder will you ever move fan panels outright into the con and out of the Marriott? It honestly feels like we're pushed out of the way. Most other cons put video rooms in the hotels, and put the live programming in the con.
4) While I realize in retrospect I did a poor job naming/describing two of my panels this year, I also wondered about being more descriptive on the website. Yes, I know the programming guide is limited to X characters for the title and description, but maybe allowing a "longer" description on the web site? When we're forced to truncate our descriptions/titles down, we sometimes accidentally cut out good info.
5) One personal gripe, which I should have been more vocal about when I spoke with the staff ahead of the con, was scheduling two similar panels back-to-back. The What's Wrong with Resident Evil panel drew a packed audience, but we got to less than half for the following Zelda panel. Some of the people who left that I saw the next day simply said it was a combination of being so late (next point) and having too similar panels like that. So I guess maybe next year try to also consider spacing out certain types of panels so they're not so close, and not putting popular ones at the same time, either.
6) I'm not convinced panels beyond 12am will work out at Fanime. It really seems like Fanime is a large, spacious con, and people are running around all day and get really worn out by night. Most people want to go to bed or chill in a comfortable, laid-back environment like the video rooms by midnight. While the RE panel, and our neighboring Hetalia panel, were pretty packed at 12am, people in the audience afterwards asked why we selected to be so late at night. The 1am slot was just too late, too, for the other panel we did. I think either next year, panels should cut off at midnight, or allow 18+ panels to be a bit earlier ahead of the 10pm time Fanime wanted all the adult panels to take place after. Otherwise, probably going to give serious consideration to dropping the 18+ part of the "What's Wrong with" panel series we do (which we plan to do again next year).
7) Make sure panel tech stuff is setup properly between panels. When setting up for the RE panel, many of the cables were missing (under the table, disconnected) and the VGA chord was also hidden under some cloth. First time I ever encountered this. Granted, this was after an entire day's worth of panels, but it added a few mins to our setup time, and I almost made the staff run to panel ops to get tech support (which would have probably delayed the panel) before we discovered the chords.
Still looking forward to next year, but this year has taught me that I need to be more specific with requests on time spots and write better titles/descriptions to appeal to con goers (not Fanime's problem).
Thanks for your imput!
1) From what I am told, yes they do, but I am not sure if the time being given is the one being shown. But I know they are good about making announcements about panels and events going on at Stage Zero. We will work on improving that in the future.
2) Yes we know about the schedule snafus. Unfortunately, this was something we could not control at all. We will be forwarding this to other channels, and hopefully we can improve upon that.
3) So about moving, the funny thing is that three years ago, we actually were in the Hilton (I did my first panels there myself!) and we moved from the SUPER small rooms there, to the Marriott and the video rooms were formerly there and moved to add more video rooms and expand our Karaoke department as well. Now yes, we are starting to show growing pains with bigger panels, but on average, we still aren't maxing out to the point where it is feasible to move all the panels into the convention site. But our goal is to possibly move some special events into the bigger rooms as well, but we ask all to be patient, as this does take some time.
4) About descriptions, we are only allotted a certain amount of characters on both the website and the printed works as well. This is more or less because we have to manage over 100 panels over four days. So we highly doubt the character limits are going to change. Please take this into account for next year's submission.
5 and 6) I also spoke about scheduling as well for panelists in the last post, but as a reminder, we have to go with not only what you request time-wise, but also any other special issues. I know for Gannon-Banned, because it was an 18+ panel, we automatically have to put it into the late slot, otherwise we would not be allowed to host it. Also, we want to have some late night programing, for those who want to check out some late night fun. This is also our cushion as well for panels that we cannot necessarily put into a day slot due to maxed out schedule or time requests either.
If you wish to make your panel more family friendly, that's perfectly fine it will not hinder your approval's process. But please understand that we have quite a lot of people to fit, and sometimes, the luck of the draw comes to pass. I have also done back to back panels, and I understand the frustration because one is full and the other one isn't. But we will work on improving that as well.
7) We shall forward an email to panelists next year to remind them to keep the cords that ARE NOT their's on the table. That has happened to many other panelists as well, not just your organization. Also it keeps our tech department from hating us all weekend as well.
Thank you for your imput, we look forward to seeing you next year!
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Topic: Fanime Panel 2011 Feedback and Ideas For Next Year (Read 9728 times)