Hi friends!
The Panels Department, would like some general feedback as to what you guys thought about our panels this year! Please keep in mind that this will be moderated and read by staff members, so please keep things clean and respectful. But let us know what you think worked and what you think we can improve on in the future!Also please keep in mind that we did have some panels cancel, so we were unable to control those panels that didn't make it.
NOTE: We know about not having the printed schedules. This was beyond our control, and we are sorry for the inconvenience.
Please also follow this format:[Event Name: Description]
i.e.
Gothic Lolita/Fashion Show: Needs more lolitas (although I doubt that.)
Panels: More panels about such and such.. (fill in the blanks here)
Thank you very much!!
The Awesomeness That is Fanime Panels 2011!
Comedy Show, Dub Show, Whose Line, (all comedy panels): more of them!
Hetalia Cooking with America and England: Brilliantly executed!
Hetalia After Hours (18+) : Hilarious!
Make that Hentai: Was hilarious, should've been longer.
Magikarp: Was both informative and funny.
Armor Crafting: Informative and the host told more than a few humorous what not to do stories.
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
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! :D
And seconded about the big noisy panels being next door to smaller, quieter ones. We had Banzai Arcade going next door to us for part of our panel, and it got a little annoying having to wait or try to talk over 300 people all yelling "MAXIMUM! BRIEFCASE! PUNCH!" repeatedly. (The fire alarm going off was more annoying, but I imagine the antics of stupid drunk idiots is well beyond the jurisdiction of the Panels Dept. ;) )
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.
Whining and suggestions aside, things were run really well, and my group really doesn't have anything to complain about; you guys were great. (And thanks again for letting us stash the fanfic workshop stuff at the panelist lounge Sunday evening; that helped us out a lot!)
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).
Quote from: Sakippoy on May 31, 2011, 02:54:49 PM
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
Thanks for your imput!
So about moving some panels to the bigger rooms, we will looking into taking over a few other rooms, there are a few issues which will take us some time to work on. Mainly because panels doesn't run the video programing room, so in order for us to take over the room, we have to get permission from them, then we have to staff it on top of the three rooms we already have, and our staff is not even HALF as big as Rovers, so we have to seriously stretch ourselves to make it work out. Again we don't mind doing the work, it's going to take us some time. So please bear with us.
Quote from: Firefury Amahira on May 31, 2011, 06:42:47 PM
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! :D
And seconded about the big noisy panels being next door to smaller, quieter ones. We had Banzai Arcade going next door to us for part of our panel, and it got a little annoying having to wait or try to talk over 300 people all yelling "MAXIMUM! BRIEFCASE! PUNCH!" repeatedly. (The fire alarm going off was more annoying, but I imagine the antics of stupid drunk idiots is well beyond the jurisdiction of the Panels Dept. ;) )
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.
Whining and suggestions aside, things were run really well, and my group really doesn't have anything to complain about; you guys were great. (And thanks again for letting us stash the fanfic workshop stuff at the panelist lounge Sunday evening; that helped us out a lot!)
Thanks for your imput!!
1) So here's the thing, being a panelist myself, I have done 2 hour panels during the day! But this year we had a very tight schedule to the point where we had an insanely long wait list. So we had to get in as much as possible. A lot two hour slots had to go into the PM so we could get them in, but we admit, nothing is perfect and we will work on it going forward.
2) We will also work on separating loud from quiet panels. We try to do the best we can, but scheduling sometimes leaves us very little room to adjust and compensate for noise. But we will try much harder! (And yes, the Fire Alarm was not our fault. Sorry.)
3) Concerning your hotel issue, I would HIGHLY recommend going though the Fanime hotel blocks. Mainly since you do not have to put any money down until you check in. If you need to cancel, you have time to do so without a penalty. (up to 72 hours before con) And if you can't go, you can always transfer the room to another person and still win. We will also recommend this for next year's panelists as well.
4) Concerning the panel approvals, we actually do, take priority in timely submissions into approvals. But it's not just whether you can get in or not, we also have to take the times you request, what kind of turn out you have had in the past, and what other types of panels we also receive as well (GOH, repeat events, similiar topics, etc.). So there is a little more than just submitting on time, that we take into account when going through the approval process. We are however continuing on improving the process so please understand that it does take some time for us to go through everything and make a decision.
Hope that helps, thanks again for coming, and we look forward to seeing you next year!
MANime!: It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed "Guess that Chest!" and all the facts about manliness in anime. More video footage would have been nice.
An Intro to Memes: This was awesome. I even learned about a few new memes I didn't know about before! The two girls running the panel were full of energy and made it all the more fun. My only request is to have it be an extra hour. It was that much fun and there are so many different memes to cover.
Awesomely Bad J-Music Videos: Went to this last year and came again this year because I love watching bad j-music videos. There were several new (and hilarious) videos I didn't see last year, so that was a plus since I thought the majority would be repeats from last year.
J-Pop Vs K-Pop Battle Royale: We only stayed for a half hour because some of the videos were on the long side. The K-Pop ones were definitely more entertaining and seemed to be getting the most votes. Wish I could have stayed longer.
WOWOWTF?! Filipino Cinema: My boyfriend and I REALLY wanted to see this (my boyfriend being Filipino and a fan of bad movies), but we went to the room at the scheduled times on Friday and Saturday and nobody was there except a few people. We waited around and nobody came. I'm guessing they never showed up? Can someone confirm this?
Anime Name That Tune!: This got rescheduled at the last minute, it seems (it was originally scheduled for Sunday, but got moved to Saturday). I enjoyed it, even though I didn't know 3/4 of the songs, haha. It was fun guessing, though. My only suggestion is for the panel host to repeat the song name/series/artist after someone correctly guesses since it's very hard to hear with the music blasting. He did this a few times, but not for every song.
My requests for panels for next year: More Vocaloid (I missed the Vocaloid: The Fan Phenomenon panel because I was waiting in line with my friend for registration... perhaps have it later in the evening next year?), Japanese-language panel (maybe basic Japanese in anime or just Japanese culture in anime), and more video game-related panels.
All in all, great panel selection this year. :)
Quote from: MikeTSA on May 31, 2011, 07:42:59 PM
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!
Thanks for taking the time to reply to all that. I know you guys work hard on scheduling the panels and such, and I appreciate the time and effort that takes. I felt bad that only one of the three panels this year drew in the crowd we were expecting, but it just means we'll work harder on our end here to come up with better panel ideas next year.
Quote from: nemuneko on June 02, 2011, 12:41:00 AM
MANime!: It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed "Guess that Chest!" and all the facts about manliness in anime. More video footage would have been nice.
Greetings nemuneko!
Thank you very much for attending MANime! This was our first year hosting MANime, and we did not expect such a great turn out. As you can imagine we had a lot of fun just trying to find the chestees for the "Guess that Chest!" I agree there should have been more footage. We were trying to balance footage, games, the sections and all and I felt while we did do a pretty good job, more footage would have been nice. So if we decided to do another panel next year, we will definitely take that into consideration.
-Bananarama
Quote from: nemuneko on June 02, 2011, 12:41:00 AMAn Intro to Memes: This was awesome. I even learned about a few new memes I didn't know about before! The two girls running the panel were full of energy and made it all the more fun. My only request is to have it be an extra hour. It was that much fun and there are so many different memes to cover.
Hey! Thanks for attending, I'm glad you enjoyed it! :3 (I was the co-host in the Miku cosplay.) We are considering doing An Intro to Memes 2.0 next year with a longer time slot, but we'll have to wait and see.
Quote from: nemuneko on June 02, 2011, 12:41:00 AM
My requests for panels for next year: More Vocaloid (I missed the Vocaloid: The Fan Phenomenon panel because I was waiting in line with my friend for registration... perhaps have it later in the evening next year?), Japanese-language panel (maybe basic Japanese in anime or just Japanese culture in anime), and more video game-related panels.
All in all, great panel selection this year. :)
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!
Although I think the lack of schedules took a toll on the out-come of my panel, I was also competing with a line for the Yoshiki signing (haha, there goes half my audience XD!) and a popular Hetalia panel. That, and I've been doing to same panel for three years now, so it's about time I move on! I thought the Panels department was awesome. They were super sweet to me, and the people in front of my room were really helpful and kind. The scheduling of the panels went over well, at least for me, and I love the semi-first come first serve technique of scheduling. I love working with this department, and I can't wait for next year.
My requests for panels for next year is bringing back restricted rock paper scissors. I was disappointed it wasn't there this year.
I don't really have anything else to say since I didn't go to any panels this year. Lack of schedule made me forget to go check what times panels were.
Quote from: nemuneko on June 02, 2011, 12:41:00 AM
WOWOWTF?! Filipino Cinema: My boyfriend and I REALLY wanted to see this (my boyfriend being Filipino and a fan of bad movies), but we went to the room at the scheduled times on Friday and Saturday and nobody was there except a few people. We waited around and nobody came. I'm guessing they never showed up? Can someone confirm this?
I ran the WOWOWTF panel this year. We were told we were scheduled in for Saturday evening. In addition, we also were given Video Main. We were there at the scheduled time on Saturday (7PM to 9PM). Unfortunately, the set up for the room was different from the panel room. We had to the panel from the back of the room. The projector did not sync with what was on my laptop. I would have preferred the panel be in a room like Panels 3 where I could be at a table and sit with my partner. My partner had to sit in the aisle to use the microphone. I had to sit in the back to handle the media.
There was a logistics problem with WOWOWTF. I was hoping it would have had a better reception and audience (we were packed at PMX). Next year, we would request a normal panel room, an announcement at stage zero, and not to be at the same time as the FLOW concert.
I apologize if you could not find the panel. I'll try and bring it back for next year. There is interest in bringing it back in 2012. Hopefully by then, we can have a better set up and the schedule being consistent and readily available to all attendees.
I am surprised I got through my panel fast. Mine was Cosplay Cosmetology
Mamoru Yokota: Really funny panel. I loved it.
Comedy Club: Overall very funny.
Fanfic Panel: Very educational, especially with the handouts.
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.
Quote from: Shi_Musouka on June 02, 2011, 08:46:47 PM
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.
Thanks for your imput!
To clarify, yes this specific panel was indeed cut short, but we allowed the panelist an additional 15 minutes going into another panelist's panel to compensate. And the next panel was actually a Guest of Honor's panel as well. So the fact that he even allowed the panel to go over, was quite a surprise to us. Although we wished we could have avoided that, it was one of those situations that was out of our control.
We do like to remind our panelists and future panelists, that in your presentations, there should always be a little buffer time to compensate for setup and breakdown, and in the event of any technical difficulties. If your presentation is going to be an hour EXACTLY, please consider shortening your panel to 45-50 minutes so that you can accommodate any issues that may arise. Although I completely understand how frustrating that would be, but if the panelist was that upset, they are more than happy to speak with our department heads and we can do what we can to accommodate the request.
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!
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
Quote from: Sakippoy on May 31, 2011, 02:54:49 PM
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
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
Quote from: Firefury Amahira on May 31, 2011, 06:42:47 PM
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! :D
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.
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
Quote from: MikeTSA on May 31, 2011, 07:42:59 PM
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.
:) 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
Quote from: Shi_Musouka on June 02, 2011, 08:46:47 PM
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.
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. ;)
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.. ^^;
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.
Quote from: Wolftale on February 16, 2012, 10:18:42 PM
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?
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. :)
QuoteOh 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 :P
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 ^^