corbae: A close-up of raven feathers; blue and grey and purple and black. (Default)
[personal profile] corbae

We're excited to announce that the schedule of panels and activities for CON.TXT 2021 is available on Conline! Note that you won't be able to see details unless you're registered. You can also see the schedule as a Google Sheets spreadsheet and as a list on our website.

Thank you to all our fantastic panel mods; we wouldn't be able to run this con without you.

Panel titles and descriptions may undergo minor changes, but the times and panels themselves are final. UPDATE: There has been a small change to the panel schedule, with Show Us Your Kitties! moving to Saturday, 1:00 PM EDT instead of 10:00 AM EDT.

If your panel didn't make it in, we'll have DIY slots available throughout the weekend. You'll also be able to organize informal panels in the CON.TXT Discord server.

As a reminder, you need to register on Conline in order to attend the con. Learn more about registration. Moreover, if you're a panel mod but have not signed up on Conline, your name won't be listed on your panels until you have done so. Registration is still open and will be through noon EDT June 25th, so sign up if you're mulling it over!


Reminders

Vid suggestions are open through Sunday, May 30th, 2021
Vid premiere drafts are due Sunday, May 30th, 2021
Prerecorded content is due Saturday, June 5th, 2021
Volunteer signups are due Tuesday, June 8th, 2021
Apply for a scholarship by emailing registration@contxt.club by Friday, June 18th, 2021
Registration is open through midnight EDT, June 25th, 2021
Contact email: info@contxt.club
corbae: A close-up of raven feathers; blue and grey and purple and black. (Default)
[personal profile] corbae

We've been so happy to see so many people experience virtual CON.TXT who normally wouldn't be able to attend the con! We want to ensure that CON.TXT is a welcoming space for everyone. To that end, we have some guidelines for moderators as they create programming for the con.

PLANNING

  • Provide materials ahead of time. If you have slides or a document you'll be reading from, post it in your panel's Discord channel before your panel starts and ask @ConCom to pin it for you.
  • Provide captions or transcripts for pre-recorded audio. Vids should have lyric captions if possible (required for premiering vids). Other audio should have either captions or a transcript.
  • Use appropriate Content Notes. Vid shows are expected to follow our Content Notes Policy. Panelists are encouraged to send any content notes for their panel to panels@contxt.club so we can add them to the panel description.

CREATING SLIDES

  • Explain acronyms and terms. Consider starting off with a brief definition of your terms.
  • Make text big enough to read. A good guideline is to use a font size of 18 or larger for body text.
  • Use an easy-to-read font. Calibri and Arial may be plain, but they're easy to read! Avoid fonts that are ornate or very thin for the body of your slides.
  • Use high contrast colors. You should use either a light font on a dark background or a dark font on a light background. You can use the WebAIM color contrast checker to see whether two colors are high enough contrast; aim for the AA rating for the body (normal) text.
  • Limit use of animations in your slides. Some animations can be distracting or make people ill.

PRESENTING

  • Use a microphone or headset and do your best to limit background noise. This makes it easier for people to hear and understand you.
  • Don't speak too fast. This will give people following the captions time to catch up, and will make it easier for everyone to follow along.
  • Cover all the information on your slides. If you have text on your slides, make sure you cover it. You don't need to read things out verbatim, but you should cover all the information verbally.
  • Give people time to process information. Short pauses between topics or pieces of information give everyone time to process.
  • Describe visuals like images and video.
  • Repeat questions from the chat before answering them.
  • Ask participants to mention their name or handle each time they speak.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions about these guidelines, or if you would like to inform us of an accessibility need before or during the convention, please contact safety@contxt.club.

Adapted from Hosting Accessible Online Meetings, Making Your Presentation Accessible, and How to Make Your Presentations Accessible to All.

alpheratz: (Default)
[personal profile] alpheratz
There are a few planned panels that are looking for mods or additional co-mods. If you are interested in helping out with any of these, email panels@contxt.club ASAP (or by Saturday, May 22nd).

Panel title: Period Typical Homophobia (Meta)
Current mod: cuddyclothes
Description: Fandoms set In 19th & 20th C. England: How do you like your historical slash? Reflecting the dark realities of history or ignoring them or combining them? Fanfic in Sherlock Holmes, Jeeves and Wooster, Raffles, and other fandoms tackle these issues in many different ways. Let’s discuss queer literature of the time, fanfic tropes, AUs, and what needs historical slash fulfills in writers and readers.

Panel title: Putting the Trans in Transformative (Meta)
Current mod: Lanna
Description: AUs give us all the power. What do we do when we take our canon cis characters and make them trans? What changes do we make to them and to their lives when we do it? What comments are we making when we do it? How have trans AUs changed over the years?

Panel title: We Love to Hate the Ones We Love (Meta)
Current mod: queercore_curriculum
Description: From Pride and Prejudice to Harry/Draco, enemies-to-lovers is one of the greatest romance tropes of all time. Let's compare our favorite enemies-to-lovers ships and discuss why we find this trope so irresistible in fandom and beyond.

Panel title: The Trek Continues (Single fandom)
Current mod: none
Description: 55 years ago, a space adventure show popped onto the screen, and we’re still getting more from it. How do the new Star Trek shows, Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks reflect the eras in which they were made, and how are they in dialogue with each other/other Star Trek media?

Panel title: Women of the Expanse: Naomi, Avasarala, Drummer, Bobbie, Clarissa (aka Peaches) (Single fandom)
Current mod: krytella
Description: The Expanse has brought us a group of complex, competent women of color, with interesting storylines and the agency to make decisions that move the plot. IN SPACE. Did I mention the F/F shipping potential is extremely high? Whether you’ve seen all five seasons or this has piqued your interest and you just want to learn more, come talk about the badass ladies of Earth, Mars, and the Belt. Discussion about men limited to the last 10 minutes of the panel.


Reminders

Vid suggestions are open through Sunday, May 30th, 2021
Vid premiere drafts are due Sunday, May 30th, 2021
Prerecorded content is due Saturday, June 5th, 2021
Volunteer signups are due Tuesday, June 8th, 2021
Apply for a scholarship by emailing registration@contxt.club by Friday, June 18th, 2021
Registration is open through midnight EDT, June 25th, 2021
Contact email: info@contxt.club

alpheratz: (Default)
[personal profile] alpheratz
Panel voting is now open! This is your chance to vote for the panels you'd like to see at CON.TXT 2021! You may vote for as many or as few panels as you like. Voting closes on Friday, May 7, 2021, at midnight Eastern Daylight Time.

Panels which were only suggested as prerecorded panels or minipanels are not included in this survey. If you suggested such a panel, we will follow up with you soon.

You can also choose which of the Open panels—panels in need of mods—you would like to volunteer to moderate, by ranking up to five of your top choices. (Don’t worry—we won’t assign you to five panels!)

If you suggested or volunteered to mod a panel in the panel proposal post and see it listed in the poll as an Open panel, please select it as one of your mod choices in the poll if you are still interested!

If you suggested a panel and made arrangements in the panel proposal post to co-mod it with another person, you will still see it listed as an Open panel unless you specifically edited or commented on your post to mark it as Closed. We will contact you to find out if you still need additional co-mods before we assign any more people.

We strive to offer a well-balanced and wide range of panel topics. The voting tells us which panels are the most popular, but it also helps us choose among similar panels and decide which suggestions might be better combined. We don't use a strict numbers cut-off to determine our programming.

We're looking forward to seeing you all (virtually) at CON.TXT 2021! Vote now for your preferred panels.

__________________
Reminders
Panel voting is open through Friday, May 7, 2021
Vid suggestions are open through Sunday, May 30th, 2021
Vid premiere drafts are due Sunday, May 30th, 2021
Contact email: info@contxt.club
alpheratz: spock with his hand in a ta'al, with the words "be excellent to each other" (be excellent to each other)
[personal profile] alpheratz

We are now taking panel suggestions for CON.TXT 2021! Please read this post and comment with your suggestions using the template below.

We are making several changes to the panel proposal process this year:

  1. Open versus Closed panels. This year, you will have a choice between submitting a panel proposal as Open or Closed. A Closed panel is a panel for which you are submitting the idea as well as the full lineup of mods. If the panel is accepted, the panels committee will not find you any additional co-mods.

    An Open panel is a panel you are asking the panels committee to put together—you propose the idea, and we assemble a panel out of the potential mods who volunteer. Every mod selected will be able to opt in or out of the final panel, but no mod will have veto power over co-mod assignment.*

    If you would like to have control over the mod lineup of the panel you are proposing to mod, we invite you to use the comments on this post to find co-mods and submit your panel as Closed. (Feel free to edit your proposal post if you fill up a panel before the deadline!)

    (*Just to be clear—if we assign you to a panel with someone you do not trust to adhere to the Code of Conduct, please let us know! Our goal is to streamline the panel selection process and simplify communication with mods, not to force you to work with anyone you don’t feel safe around.)

  2. Prerecorded versus live content. While most panels will still be conducted live, we are offering two kinds of pre-recorded panels this year!

    1. Full-length prerecorded panels. What it says on the tin! This format is best-suited for How-to panels or other information-heavy panels involving a lot of screensharing, but we will consider proposals for prerecorded programming in all categories.

    2. Minipanels! We’re hoping to do at least one block of short (3–10 minute) prerecorded presentations—basically a big fannish knowledge party! This is a great place to pimp your fandom, share your favorite nifty facts, or rant about your pet peeve.

    Prerecorded panels and minipanels will be reviewed by the concom for usability and content in violation of the code of conduct, but they won’t go through the voting process. If you would like to submit a prerecorded panel or minipanel, please comment here to let us know. Then, submit your video to the programming committee by May 25. (We’ll make another post soon letting you know how!)

Also—not a change from last year, but a thing you may not have known—you can suggest vid shows! If you would like to VJ a vid show panel—or you think someone else should—suggest it here!

All attendees and those considering attending are welcome to suggest panels, regardless of whether or not you want to moderate. Most full-length panels are 50 minutes long but we have had panels run for a longer duration, so please note if you think your panel suggestion needs more time.

If you have an idea for a panel but don’t want to moderate it, no problem—suggest it as an Open panel! If you see an Open panel suggestion and would like to moderate it, drop a comment and volunteer.

Timeline
Now: Panel submissions are open!
Sunday, April 18 (11:59 pm EST): Panel submissions close.
Thursday, April 22: Panel voting opens!
Friday, May 7: Panel voting closes.
Early May: Notification of panel assignments.
May 25: Prerecorded panels and minipanels due.
Beginning of June: CON.TXT 2021 programming schedule posted on our website.
Mid-June: Virtual con instructions go out.
June 25-27: CON WEEKEND!

ExpandFAQ and content template )

Feel free to brainstorm away in the comments section!