Discussion Topics for CON.TXT 2014

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There is still time to put in a few more panel suggestions before the form closes on Friday! After that, it will be time for voting on which of them you want the most for this year's con.

Suggest A Panel

If you want to influence this decision, there's an even better method than ballot-stuffing (please don't go for ballot-stuffing): panels which already have moderators are a lot more likely to end up on the schedule. If there's a panel you really want to attend and it doesn't have anyone running it yet, in addition to rustling up votes you could ask around and see if there's someone in your fandom who would be interested in volunteering to do it -- or consider stepping in yourself! We aim to have at least two people moderating every panel, so you wouldn't be alone up there.

Moderate A Panel

Here are some excerpts from the tips we offer to moderators which may help you get a sense of what it's like to lead a panel, if you're on the fence about it:

First things first -- these generally aren't professors lecturing or panels with presentations like you might see at a professional conference, but more like friendly discussions with a lot of audience participation. Even if you are giving a presentation, allow a lot of time for discussion.

You might want to prepare a short "opening statement" to describe why this topic was suggested and to relate any recent relevant activity online or on screen to put everyone on the same page.

Have a list of "starter" questions to get discussion going. You might want to start by polling the room; ask things like Y/N on a meta question, who has a favorite character or OTP, how many have written a drabble, and so on. This helps you know your audience, and gets people interacting with you. In a smaller panel, you may want to go around and have everyone introduce themselves and give their reason for attending.

Think about splitting the time up into 3 or 4 subtopics. For each, prepare a list of 3 or 4 open-ended questions to start discussion. If discussion lags, go on to the next topic; if discussion is lively, feel free to stay with it. Having a few backup questions that you don't get to is better than running out of things to talk about.

While it's not appropriate for all panels, you are encouraged to write up notes, how-to, resources, links, etc, and print them to hand out. This is also darned useful to hand to a trusty scribe in the panel to mark up and then post as your panel notes later...