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Panel descriptions are starting to go up. Still accepting more panels! Looking for, at the moment, primarily panels that focus on Anime or Video Game topics (I have a lot of cosplay themed panels already), or panels that focus on Fanime's theme for this year, which is Feudal Japan!

There's just a little over a month left for panel submissions. ^^

[Whoo~ I'll be updating with a new thread in the near future to have a better organized listing of information for Panels for 2009. For now, this thread has information from 2008, which might be helpful for panelists wondering what they can expect.]

Whoo~ I'll be updating with a new thread in the near future to have a better organized listing of information for Panels for 2009. For now, this thread has information from 2008, which might be helpful for panelists wondering what they can expect. ~ Kava (August 6, 2008)

Deadline to submit a panel: April 15th

Deadline to submit a panel that will be listed in Fanime's Program Guide: March 25th

Please keep in mind when submitting forms that panel descriptions for the program guide should be included on your form if at all possible, and should be 300 characters in length, or less.

^-^ That's why there are two fields, one for an 'overview' of your panel to tell ME what your panel is about and one for a 'description' that is fit for public consumption on the website and in the program guide.

Tips for Advertising your panel to increase attendance:
We recommend telling friends and family about your panel, posting about it here on the Fanime forums or in any other forum where it would be appropriate. Additionally, some panelists have had good results from creating a short video clip to advertise their panel and uploading it on Youtube. (If you upload to Youtube, be sure to send me a link!)

Program Guide Listings Character Limits:
It says this on the panel submission form, but I'm noting as I put descriptions onto the website that many forms submitted did not adhere to the 300 character limit for the panel descriptions. While I'm willing to be lenient on the website, because additional text costs us nothing there, character limits will be strictly enforced for the program guide.

The program guide also has a firm limit of 40 characters for a panel title. Both of these limits include spaces. Ie: Title needs to be 40 characters or less with spaces, Description needs to be 300 characters or less with spaces.

I'll attempt to e-mail panelists whose descriptions or titles are too long, to give them a chance to truncate them, but when the deadline comes (again - March 25th), I'll be shortening them myself if no short versions have been provided by the panelists.

Notes on Panel lengths:
When considering how long you want your panel to be, don't panic thinking that you must have a panel that is exactly 1 hour or 2 hours long! The Fanime schedule runs in hourly time blocks - so it isn't possible to reserve a panel room for a half an hour. However, an ideal time for a panel that has reserved an hour in the room is actually about 50 minutes. That leaves 5 minutes at the start and end for set-up, breakdown, audience to leave and arrive, etc. Also, it is acceptable for a panel to end early.

A panel should be a minimum of about 40 minutes in length, and we appreciate it if you notify us ahead of time that your panel will not last the full length of time in a panel room. Panels that are about 90 minutes in length can reserve a 2 hour time slot, and simply notify us in their submission that the actual presentation will only last about 90 minutes.

Notes on Panel Badges:
I want to clarify first a couple of frequently asked questions.

If I already have a full weekend badge for the convention - do I need a panels badge in order to give my panel?
Answer: No, you don't. The badges that  panels is willing to provide are mainly there so that panelists who are coming to the convention for only the days of panels won't need to pay for attendance on those days. If you're giving one or two panels, but you want to be at the convention all weekend, you may want to just get yourself a pre-reg convention pass. Even with two day-passes, you're not saving much if you're going to pay for the other two days anyways. If you're giving an Industry panel - we usually recommend getting Industry badges for your company instead. I can only give two one-day passes for a single Industry panel, but you can get weekend passes through registering as an attending Industry. (Professional Reg is here: http://www.fanime.com/professional/professional-registration )

I already bought a convention pass, but it turns out I could get a free pass through giving more panels - can I get re-imbursed for my bought badge?
Answer: No, I'm sorry. If you need your qualifying badge(s) for others helping you with the panel instead of yourself, that can be arranged, but I don't give re-imbursements to those who have already pre-registered for regular member convention badges.

I only qualify for a day-pass through panels, but I plan to attend the convention all weekend. Can I get a discount on a weekend pass?
Answer: No, I'm sorry. There is no way to get a discount on a weekend pass through giving a single hour-long panel, or even two. If you're giving a minimum of three hour-long panels, you qualify for a weekend pass through your panels, and one additional weekend pass for an assistant.

So how does this work? When do we get the badges? How do we pick them up?
Answer: First, keep in mind the requirements. 1 panel = two one-day passes for the day of your panel. These are not general 'panelist' badges. They're convention badges with your name on them that are good for a particular day, and you must show a valid ID when you pick them up. Ie: Don't expect to be able to hand them off to someone else. To qualify for weekend passes rather than day passes, you must be hosting a minimum of 3 hour-long panels.

If you need badges - you'll need to send information to either [email protected] or [email protected] with the full real names of the individuals whose names will go on the passes. You can include a nick-name or con-name, but if you don't give me a real name either the badge will not be given or you won't be allowed to pick it up since your ID won't match the name the badge was processed for. Also keep in mind that if you're getting a badge for more than just yourself - whoever is getting the badge needs to be helping in your panel, and not merely a friend you wanted to give a free pass too. Make them earn it!

At-con you'll pick up your panels badges at Programming Ops this year. Programming Ops is located on the second floor of the Hilton hotel, right around the corner from two of the panel rooms. I'll post hours that Ops will be open later, as those haven't been determined quite yet. (Please don't confuse us with Con Ops... they're on the other end of the con center from us.)

So... what if I agreed to do three panels and they were approved, and then later one of them was canceled? Do I still get my weekend badges?
Answer: Yes, you do. If your panel or panels were approved and then the con needs to cancel one of them for any reason, you will still receive the badges for the panels that were previously approved. We feel that's only fair. However, that is only if the convention cancels a panel that was previously approved. If you cancel a panel, you will not receive the badges that you would have been eligible for had you given it.

For those wishing to utilize Stage Zero to advertise their panel, you have two options.
#1 You can prepare a video/audio presentation to advertise your panel which can be played on the Stage Zero screen. It should be no longer than 2 minutes in length, and must be approved by Stage Zero staff before they are shown. You'll need to present these to Programming Ops when you check-in at the convention, so that they can be displayed. If you want to hand them over prior to when Programming Ops opens up on Friday, (I'll give these hours later), you'll need to make special arrangements with the panels coordinator (that's me!).

#2 You can choose a day that you want to appear on stage zero personally to give props to your panel. Your live promo time will be limited to 5 minutes or less. Please plan to finish your live promo within the allotted time so that Stage Zero can get back to their other programming. ^-^

More Notes about Stage Zero:

• Video presentations for stage zero should be in the form of files (not .wmv, but most other things work) that SZ staff can put onto their computers, not DVD's that they'd be required to 'play'. A good idea is to put your panel title, day, time, and location into the file name. ie: DYI7pmSat24May2008VidMain.mpeg or VideoGripe4pmSun25May2008Panel3.avi  (those aren't real file names, just stuff I made up for examples)
• Your in-person and live 'promo' time will not be scheduled. You'll want to visit the stage during or slightly before one of the 'open programming' hours when none of the scheduled events are going on to get your promo time. Show up, introduce yourself, and show them your panelist badge - or let them know which panel is yours. Be prepared to wait a bit, and they'll get you on when they're able to. Remember that you're allotted a set amount of time, regardless of whether anything is specifically scheduled to go after you or not, and you should be prepared to relinquish the stage once your time is up.

Programming Ops Hours
Friday: 3:30pm - 10pm
Saturday: 9am - 10pm
Sunday: 9am - 10pm
Monday: 10am - 2pm

Important note: Weekend and Friday-Only passes will be available through Professional Registration on Thursday night from 5pm-8pm or Friday morning from 10am-12pmNoon. After this, all badges will be picked up through Programming Ops. Saturday or Sunday only passes cannot be picked up via professional registration.

That's it for the moment, but if anyone has any other questions or can think of any dates I haven't listed yet - feel free to reply here and ask. I'll update this post as needed.

[Updated list of panel Titles!]

Updated list of panel Titles!
Most of these are also on the website with full panel descriptions.

(Im)possible Cosplay Structure
3DCG for Anime Fanfilms
Advanced Prop Making: Casting
Aimee Major's "Japan Ai"
Animated Story and Scripting
Anime Fans Over 30 (Fan panel with possible Guest appearances!)
Anime Hell (Guest panel - Ryan Gavigan)
Anime Hell Lounge (Guest Panel - Ryan Gavigan)
Anime for Parents (Guest Panel - Gilles Poitras)
Bandai Entertainment (Industry Panel!)
Bandai Visual USA (Industry Panel!)
Banzai Arcade
Broccoli International USA (Industry Panel!)
Butler Cafe's - Exposed
Casual Kimono Interactive (Immortal Geisha panel #2)
Comedy Club at Fanime
Consoles and the Industry
Cosplay Posing
Cosplaying with BJD's (BJD stands for Ball Jointed Dolls!)
Create That Anime!
Cthulu for President
Damn You Internets: VIP or Die
Dansei Seiyuu 101
Dark Horse Manga (Guest Panel with Carl Horn)
Developing an Anime Con
eigoMANGA: How to Draw Manga
Fan Art Caption Contest
Fanime Forum Panel
Gaia Online Panel
Gaia Online Gathering
Gothic and Lolita (Gothic Garnet!)
How to be a Host Seminar (Ouran High School Host Club style Hosting!)
How to Dress as a Geisha (Immortal Geisha panel #3)
How to Talk to Girls
Interactive Yukata Dressing (Immortal Geisha panel #1)
Intro to Yuri and Shoujo-Ai
Japanese Culture in Anime and Manga (Guest Panel - Gilles Poitras)
Japanese Pop/Rock Party
Jpop (Panda Cubed)
JPop Express (Industry Panel)
Jrock (Panda Cubed)
Kiuchi Fan Appreciation Panel
Kiuchi Hidenobu Q&A Session
Learn How to Animate Anime!
Lost Anime Treasures (Panda Cubed)
MAD about Nico
Manga: More than Ninjas (Panda Cubed)
Older Titles for Newer Fans (Guest Panel - Gilles Poitras)
Project Phoenix - An Era Reborn
Resin Casting
Ric Shows You How to Break into Everything! (Guest panel - Ric Meyers)
Ric Shows You How to Write Good! (Guest panel - Ric Meyers)
Ric's Superhero KungFu Preview (Guest panel - Ric Meyers)
Script Reading with Jonathan Osborne (Guest panel... obviously!)
Share Anime Collections Online
Story Story Die
Super Smash Brothers Advanced
The Anime List
The Endless Evangelion Panel
The Rise of Kpop (Panda Cubed)
The World of Pangya
Visual Novel Fan Translations
Why Girls Love Sentai (Panda Cubed)
Your Anime Sucks (Panda Cubed)

I'll be putting some panels onto the website tonight, but not scheduled times. The schedule itself doesn't usually get finalized until shortly before the convention. ^^

^-^ We do have another thread here for someone who's planning to give a panel on male Seiyuu's... which is to say, male Japanese voice actors.

Ahhhh! I got so very behind. I know not everyone who submits panels watches this forum, but for any who do, I thought I'd give an update.

I still have a lot of submissions I haven't had a chance to reply to yet.
I believe I'm caught up on e-mails now (I was a month behind in some cases! Gomen!), so if anyone needed a reply and hasn't got one yet, please poke me again and I apologize for the delay.

Some panels should be listed on the website before the end of this weekend. Any submissions I haven't yet replied to should have replies by Sat. night or Sun. morning. I've been taking quick looks, just haven't had time to send out replies.

Yes! I'm still accepting panels.

Thanks everyone!

I know I personally tend to see Bootlegs as a larger problem than fansubs. If I watch an anime as a Fansub and I really like it, I'll probably go get the DVD when I can if it's available. Of the anime I have bought on DVD though, many times what I received didn't seem like a legit copy of the anime, but more like a bootleg someone threw together with half the subtitles missing.

Having come into anime fandom only in the last 6 years or so, I think there isn't enough emphasis for newer fans on how to tell if something is a bootleg or legitimate copy of something -before- they buy it. I don't want to spend $60 to buy a series after I've already spent $40 and what I got wasn't a legit copy, and it's only now that I'm so involved with an anime con that I'm learning some signs on how to tell the difference. My friends on Dealer staff give me pointers on what to look for.

Going back to the online theme though... I usually buy most of my anime DVD's online, because it's easier to find them there than to go hunt my local stores for what I want. So how can I, as a buyer, tell if something is officially liscenced or not before I buy it, when I'm going through online sources for my DVD's and I can't actually look at the packaging before I buy it? That's something I'd be interested in hearing about.

Hi. I've already PMed Batman about this. I will copy that PM to you if you like, or you can PM me here about this.

To clear up the confusion about the panel we had last year, it was called Console Wars, and it was a well-established game-show type panel that had been given previously at other conventions and for which the panelist had provided details as to the game, how it would be played, etc.

It was not simply a debate, and the panelists who give it put a lot of work into it to make it a good panel. I've invited them back this year, so I do hope they'll come.

Mikey - please don't answer questions for me that are directed at me. ^-^ Thanks. I really feel this is something best discussed privately and not on the forums, so I'm going to lock this topic now.

~Kava

kimono_hime: I'm definitely willing to schedule another Kimono panel if you want to give one. ^-^

Kazuhide: Your panel was wonderful last year. I'm sorry we had to schedule you on a Monday. Still, it IS a four day convention. Something has to be scheduled for Mondays. ^-^

Chiri: I think we have a cosplay photography panel that is about exactly that? I'll check again later. ^^

Batman77 - I'll PM you about your panel submissions.

[5/19: Gainax panels announced in the last post! ;D]

Hey everyone -

5/19: Gainax panels announced in the last post!  ;D

5/16: The schedule is live on the website now! Check the news on the home page or find links to it at the top of the main Events page.

Please check the 4/23 post for a preview of panels confirmed for Friday!
Update 4/24: Added panels confirmed for Monday to the same post.
Update 5/1: Added two more guest panels to Friday listing, one more to Monday listing, and put the full list of Saturday and Sunday panels in the same post.

These will be on the website with full descriptions hopefully not too long after they're listed here. I thought I'd give a preview here on the forums though, of the panels that are currently being added to the schedule. I'll update this first post as more get confirmed.

Please Check the second post and the 4/13 and 4/17 posts for panel titles. Thanks~!

Raymond is coming back with the Anime Fans Over 30 panel.
Paladin Cecil will be returning with Story Story Die and a couple of other game panels - these are really fun, if you didn't try them out last year, now you'll have another chance. The new ones will be The Anime List and the Fan Art Caption Contest (which will have prizes!).
The folks at the ImmortalGeisha.com plan to come and give us a slew of panels on traditional dress, and hopefully... a kimono fashion show. (We're still working the kinks out of that last one.)
Broccoli, Bandai Visual USA, and Bandai Entertainment should all be back with industry panels, as well as Gothic Garnet - who say they're planning some freebies at their panel.
Panda Cubed: http://www.pandacubed.com/ is coming to our con this year, and we hope to give them a chance to perform several panels.
We'll also be having a "How to be a Host" panel, sponsored by the Cosplay group OH!smeCK.
Then we have...
Cosplay Posing
Dansei  Seiyuu 101
And the Damn You Internets panel is back as well.

Oh yes. I almost forgot the Guest panels that I already know about. I have panels from Jonathan Osborne and Giles Poitras already. ^-^ I'll list them up here when I have a chance to check my records for the names of the panels.


Edited 4/13: The Panels Schedule is now nearly full. Any panels submitted in these last couple of days will probably need to be open to late-night programming.

-Kava

http://www.fanime.com/panels_files/panels.php

That's the link to the current location of the Fan Panel request form. (Transparently, since Heero gave it too.) The forms got moved, that's why the old link doesn't work right now.

I grew up in Alaska, which generally has more earthquakes than CA.  :P Usually, a lot of little quakes are a good thing, because they mean that the pressure is being released slowly and won't need to blow in a huge release all at once.

No earthquakes for a long time would be more likely to result in a huge one, methinks.

>>;; People in AK are much more blase about earthquakes than Californians though, I learned. Up there, generally when there's an earthquake, you wait a moment to see if it's going to get bad, and if not, you just go back to what you were doing. There's not even usually a rush for doorways or underneath tables unless it gets really strong. Down here, people tend to panic. ^^;;

Hmm. Probably not. If this ends up being a reality, the extra $$ I get will likely go to getting a new flat panel TV since I've just lost the 36" TV I was using previously (room mate it belonged to is moving out), and now have nothing on which to play my Wii.  :'(

If I have some left over, it's quite possible some will be spent in the dealer's room....  :D

Just for the record, we already had a weapons demo with live swords last year. It's possible we'll have another one this year. It does require special handling - I believe there were actual police that escorted those doing the demos to and from the demo - so basically, the entire time the swords were out.

Also, it -is- possible to get panels or demonstrations sometimes that are put on by groups who aren't terribly interested in Anime. Someone doesn't -have- to attend the con to put on a demonstration or a panel. Of course, it helps if they're attending, because then they're already there... but it's not necessary.

That still means you'd have to find someone who actually -wanted- to do it though. xD; Just noting that it's not impossible. ^^

Done. I'll drop you a note in the morning. Or tonight when I stop at home before running off to Taiko class!  :D

Giles, we'd love to have you back again! I'd especially love to schedule you for some panels.  ;) I shall have to poke someone about getting in touch with you.

That sounds great to me then! I'll be looking for the panel request form for this.

Oh, and don't worry about telling me I misunderstood something. There's a LOT that I don't know, and I'm well aware of it. I'm not offended when you tell me I didn't get something.

Thanks!

The Lolita panel wasn't on Monday last year, was it? We're getting a lot of submissions for various cosplay oriented panels, which is great! I'm not sure if I've seen a form for the Lolita panel yet, but once I catch up on replying to the forms already submitted, I'll be able to try and contact some of the panelists we had last year to see if they're interested in coming back again.

At the moment, we've got more cosplay panels submitted than anything else, so I'm hoping for more panels focusing on Anime and Video Games.

Also, if anyone has any ideas for panels focusing on the more academic subjects - like the one someone suggested here based on the Fanime theme and how that relates to current goings-on in the industries, etc.. or other discussions of an academic nature, I'd like to have a couple of those this year as well.

As always, thanks to everyone for your great ideas and for helping to make Fanime a great convention. ^--^

[Japanese For Anime Fans:]

I have a couple I'm considering putting on:

Japanese For Anime Fans: A friend of mine did this a few years back and it was a huge success. Basically a talk about the Japanese language, and what to expect if you're brave enough to try to learn it. During the weekend of the con I'll hopefully be graduating from SFSU with an M.A. in Japanese, and I actually have some stuff from the linguistics seminars I've taken that I can draw on.

Japanese Tabletop RPGs: I'm not sure how much interest there'd actually be, but I'd like to do a panel about the world of pen-and-paper RPGs from Japan. It's a teeny tiny niche hobby over there, but there are lots of really neat games. (Also, that new Night Wizard anime is based on an RPG of the same name).

If you haven't already, submit forms for these? They sound great and I'd love to have them. I'm still a little behind on catching up with the initial surge of panels submitted, but I'm hoping to catch up this weekend. ^-^

Para para is a cool game. I remember watching a friend's boyfriend get into this at a golf land arcade one day and he had us all in stitches because he was going at it like he was doing kung-fu, it was great.

The only thing I'd be concerned with is whether or not we'd be able to fulfill the technical requirements for such a panel, so be sure and consider what you'd need, and then let us know as early as you can, and we'll see if we can make it happen.

~Rena