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[Tiffyspiffy]

I think you should have a Konoha Corner(Naruto Podcast) panel! They're are amazing! I think they will bring in a large amount of people!

[Kava]

Okay! Time for some belated replies... apologies for the lateness.

We do sometimes have panels in the Main Video Room, but this is not always possible. We'll try to keep this in mind.

Our largest panel room holds about 300 people (iirc), and we do not at this time have any larger venue available to offer to panels which might exceed this capacity. Trust me - if and when we do, we'll offer it. Video main has roughly the same capacity as Panels 3.

-Rena

GoH and other popular Panels

Is it possible to have some panels at the main video room?
Panels with a lot of girls screaming (like the Yuya Matsushita panel) made a lot of noise and panelists in the room next door have a hard time holding a panel because of all the noise.

And the PACKED panels (I think it was the Gaia Online panels?) could perhaps use a bigger room.

GAINAX GoH has a panel in the main video room from time to time, so I think it could be arranged...

Sorry if I'm making an impossible suggestion!

Satsuki Yamashita

[Kava]

On the panel request form, at the top of the section on scheduling preferences, it does actually say, "Please note that we do not schedule panels over an hour in length between noon and 5pm on Saturday or Sunday." If there is another place that this could be repeated to be more noticeable, I'm certainly open to suggestions. I believe this was there last year as well, but I won't say my memory is 100%. Please note that even if you're submitting 1 hour panels, a single panelist is not likely to get more than 1 primetime hour slot approved. Since these are THE MOST REQUESTED time slots, we try to spread them around as much as possible.

We are changing the approval system again this year, and early submissions will always make it more likely to get an earlier approval, but it will not guarantee approval. We try to have as wide a variety of panels, and as high quality panels as we can manage, and we cannot approve too many panels too early.

For instance: I have right now already received 69 panel submissions since the panel form went live (less than two weeks ago?). My staff and I will start trying to send out some approvals next month, but there is no possibility that all 69 of these will get approved within the next month. Some will have to wait until later in the year. We often do not have information on GoH panels, MF panels, etc. until a bit later in the year, and have to wait on filling up our schedule until we have that information.

I can try to add something to the panel form for future years possibly which encourages people to let us know if they have a deadline by which they need to know whether or not their panel is approved. This way, if we can't approve by that date, we can let them know. Would that be helpful?

-Rena

It'd be most helpful to newcomer panelists if the panel registration stuff mentions you can't get a 2 hour panel during the day. If we'd known that, we would have broken the fanfic workshop up into different 1 hour sessions instead! 

As for the panel registrations, I can understand why things were done the way they were this year with the gradual panel confirmations, but could we please next year give some priority to those who submit requests first? It was more than a little nerve-wracking putting in the request almost as soon as it opened and then not finding anything out until April as to whether or not we had a panel at all; we weren't planning on going if we didn't get the panel this year, and the hotel we had our eyes on had a discount rate that was non-refundable, so we couldn't make the reservations until we knew for sure we'd be going. This isn't going to be an issue for us personally next year- we will most definitely be coming back, but it could be a real headache for other newcomers.

[Kava]

Room allocations for various events are not always in complete control of the department who is utilizing the rooms. Trust me though, if you think you feel pushed out of the way with us in the Marriott, be glad you missed the years we were tucked away in the Hilton. If I get the opportunity to take over space in the convention center, I surely will, but this is something that has to be agreed upon by several departments, and also partially involves traffic flow, etc.

I have considered allowing separate web descriptions, and rejected it for two reasons, which I'm happy to share:

• 1. This forces more work for my staff, since we would have separate description lists to send out to the web team and the program guide team.
• 2. Some panels would take advantage of this, and others would not. Some panels have very short descriptions to begin with. It's a much more equal system if all panel descriptions on the same page are 'roughly' the same length, rather than some being several paragraphs and others being two sentences. If I allowed longer descriptions, it would still have to have a character limitation. No matter how long it was, some panelists would want to go over, and some would want to go WAY over. Keeping it to the 300 characters keeps it streamlined and equal.

Until I'm able to get a 4th panel room... or more time slots in other rooms around the con, I'll make the late night slots available. If no one wants to give panels in those time slots, then they'll be cut from the schedule. My aim is generally to have two rooms hosting 18+ panels after 10PM (18+ panels are almost never scheduled to start BEFORE 10pm), and 1 room with non18+ for younger crowds which might still be awake. However, I can only schedule panels when panelists are willing to give them. Sometimes I don't meet this goal because there are not enough 18+ submissions to fill the late night slots.

18+ panels typically do better at night than regular panels do.

Tech stuff - if there's ever an issue with this, let panel staff know, and they'll radio it in so that tech can be fetched for your room. However, this isn't something we have complete control over. There is not enough tech staff to have 3 tech staff on hand for 15 minutes every hour on the hour to check that the previous panelist left everything tidy after their panel was over in each room. Sorry that whoever gave a panel before you left it untidy!

-Rena

Some thoughts here:

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.

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.

[Kava]

Trust me, we aren't particularly happy when things like that happen, either. Sometimes, with GoH panels, it is more difficult to 'kick the panelist out when their time is up' if they are going overtime, and Momoi is extremely popular. We do generally try to keep things moving, and we do recommend to all panelists to have a presentation that is 50 minutes long, not 60 - since there should be a minimum of 5 minutes on either end of the panel for set-up and break-down.

-Rena

I know one of the panelists was really upset about his panel being cut short because of the delay from the Momoi Q&A. I don't remember who it was though. I just want you guys to keep that in mind that when a panel is significantly shortened in time than what was promised to them, some people will feel cheated out of what they opted for. I do not speak on behalf of any panelists, but I can understand how it would feel if that ever happened to me.

[Kava]

Just a couple of extra notes for last year's panelists.

1. I noticed that many of you created feedback threads for your panels the same day you gave the panel, or the day after. While I commend the idea, I think the timing may have been off. Most people attending Fanime don't have much time to be on their computer or on the forums during the convention, and are faced with travelling back home and unpacking, etc. once Con is over. It isn't a guarantee, but you may get better feedback if you wait until a week or two after con to post your querying threads.

2. I know that a lot of panelists would like to know what was put onto their feedback forms each year. Someday, we would like to make this available, possibly even publicly. The difficulty lies in getting someone onto our staff who knows something about databases and is willing to help build and maintain a database that houses the information. If you know anyone, or are interested yourself, drop us an e-mail.

[Cosplay Circus]

Something I noticed between a couple panels I went to... they were not well planned out, rambled a big chunk of the time, and had organizers who didn't control their crowd well. Personally I'd like when panels are submitting to submit a physical outline of what they plan to do instead of just stating an idea and assuming they have something more planned behind it when being accepted, at least then it's more assured they have a general idea of what they are talking about at the panel. I'd go as far to maybe even submitting a short video (when possible) of their panel, such as if someone is planning a panel to teach about making a costume they can submit a minute or so video of 1 part of their choice that would be in the panel.

I understand that might be a bit much to ask (you get the general idea of what that was going towards), but I'd rather panels be more structured after seeing some of them last year.. ^^;

[MikeTSA]

Well, it's on the panelists to be prepared and such. The fields you have to fill out are pretty comprehensive, too, so just writing an idea for a panel is something I think wouldn't cut it for getting approved over some of the more well thought out submissions. If I recall, there was a bit of a line on the wait list last year, so FanimeCon isn't hurting for panel submissions. Basically, I would suspect with FanimeCon's growing popularity, the panel submissions will increase and force everyone to submit their best stuff to get in, and also give their best during the panel so the staff are more likely to accept them back when they look those panelists up the next year.

Ultimately, it's just an application, and like any resume, CV, or application, you can make it look as good as you want (like a video submission), but it's how that person will perform that matters. You have to look for clues in what you have - did they take the time to use proper grammar and spelling, did they articulate their points well, etc. But again, people can put on an act just to get in the door, so raising the bar for what people need to submit could weed out those not serious, but also be limiting in some unforeseen way at the same time.

Again, in the end, it's up the panelist perform on their end come con time. Feedback is also an important part, and I know FanimeCon wants to eventually offer panelists a way to see their feedback. That would greatly help everyone so they could see the criticism and take that into consideration for future panels.

[BenihimeSama]

Something I noticed between a couple panels I went to... they were not well planned out, rambled a big chunk of the time, and had organizers who didn't control their crowd well. Personally I'd like when panels are submitting to submit a physical outline of what they plan to do instead of just stating an idea and assuming they have something more planned behind it when being accepted, at least then it's more assured they have a general idea of what they are talking about at the panel. I'd go as far to maybe even submitting a short video (when possible) of their panel, such as if someone is planning a panel to teach about making a costume they can submit a minute or so video of 1 part of their choice that would be in the panel.

I understand that might be a bit much to ask (you get the general idea of what that was going towards), but I'd rather panels be more structured after seeing some of them last year.. ^^;

We do the best we can about having panelists with structured panels,  but only a few times is it not the case. Some of the reasons being, that they are new panels, they may be long winded, or if it's their first time they may have never dealt with crowd control or other issues. I remember running a OHSHC panel two years ago, and although I had been doing panels for years at this point, it was really hard to keep the fangirl squeals down to a minimum.

You also have to keep in mind, that many panels are open forum, where everyone can come together and get just chat for an hour about something they all love. Which yes, may seem a little boring, but if you stick around you are always bound to learn something new. You gotta go into a panel with an open mind and willingness to learn something. If you just walk into the room, sit there for ten minutes and then leave, what's the point?

[Kava]

Just to chime in... though others have already said most of what I could say...

We definitely look to improve the quality of the panels that are given each year. Below are some things to keep in mind.

• Anytime we approve a panel from a new panelist, it's hit or miss as to how well they perform as a panelist. This does not at all deter us from giving new people a chance to give panels if their topic is good and their submission form seems well thought out.
• Sometimes, the subject and content are enough to make the panel popular, despite a bit of lack of polish on the part of the presenter. When this is the case, it's certainly possible that the panel will continue to appear on the schedule in future years.
• As submissions continue to increase, more and more emphasis has been placed on quality - this is, in fact, the reason for our change in the panel approval process, as of last year.
• We can only approve panels that have been submitted. Really awesome panels submitted late sometimes don't make it onto the schedule, while less awesome panels that were submitted earlier do. We can't wait till the last minute to fill the schedule.
• We can also only approve panels that are willing to present within the open time slots on the schedule. Sometimes once the schedule fills up, if the 'better' panels have requested time slots that we cannot accomodate, another panel will be offered the time slot that exists.

Hope that helps give some clarity to the process.

[squarebubblex]

Oh that's wonderful!  There IS interest.  I'm pleased to let you know that I've been planning a Japanese-language panel for nearly two years now, but I've been wavering on my decision to do it because I fear a lack of interest.  Feel free to message me any time if you have specific requests or suggestions!

YES PLEASE ^^ If this is still being planned, it'd definitely be on my list of ones I wanna see ^^

I want more Japanese culture related panels, esp. ones about food

The only panel I could go to last year was the J-Pop vs. K-Pop panel because I was super busy staffing or being too tired from staffing to browse ^^; but it was really fun! More K-Pop panels please, maybe even a panel about the K-Pop and J-Pop collision and the Japanese reaction to Korean artists singing JP songs, with all the K-Pop artists moving into Japan ^^