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Panels at cons
So I can hear all of your opinions, below is a post I just made to the Otakon 2007 Boards.
Would there be any way to have some sort of quality-control regarding panel selection for the next Otakon?
In the very least, I'd like to see panelists be required to submit a reasonable overview (more than a few sentences), a basic breakdown of the panel itself (rough times for different segments, broad topics), a draft version of any presentation slides they may be planning on using, and at least some sort of pitch as to why the panel should be picked up.
The important part isn't so much to evaluate the content, but instead to weed out panelists who, quite frankly, aren't willing to put forth the minimal effort required to run a worthwhile panel. If someone isn't willing or able to provide at least that minimal amount of work ahead of time, odds are they aren't really fit to run a panel in the first place.
I'm not saying that every panel has to be a professional production, or that only experts and industry should have them. I just would like to see at least a high-school level of presentation skills and a modicrum of planning/preparation.
Too many panels this year seemed to me to be completely unplanned. Panelists would set up late, start late, ramble to the crowd a bit, go off on tangents entirely unrelated to the topic at hand, make inside jokes to one another, or just talk to a few people in the front row. Several of the panels I attended featured panelists who didn't appear to actually know very much about the topic they had chosen or else lacked any measure of presentation ability. Many speakers didn't do much more than read their powerpoint slides. A couple couldn't even keep their audiences under any sort of control.
I won't mention specific panels here, as I don't wish to offend (though we did in our con report, as did Anime World Order and Fast Karate for the Gentleman, who seem to agree with us on this), but in general this is a problem that seems to be getting worse and worse with each passing year.
What can we do to make the panels at Otakon worthwhile? Is there any way to reasonably screen out poor panelists without creating too high of a barrier to entry?
Would there be any way to have some sort of quality-control regarding panel selection for the next Otakon?
In the very least, I'd like to see panelists be required to submit a reasonable overview (more than a few sentences), a basic breakdown of the panel itself (rough times for different segments, broad topics), a draft version of any presentation slides they may be planning on using, and at least some sort of pitch as to why the panel should be picked up.
The important part isn't so much to evaluate the content, but instead to weed out panelists who, quite frankly, aren't willing to put forth the minimal effort required to run a worthwhile panel. If someone isn't willing or able to provide at least that minimal amount of work ahead of time, odds are they aren't really fit to run a panel in the first place.
I'm not saying that every panel has to be a professional production, or that only experts and industry should have them. I just would like to see at least a high-school level of presentation skills and a modicrum of planning/preparation.
Too many panels this year seemed to me to be completely unplanned. Panelists would set up late, start late, ramble to the crowd a bit, go off on tangents entirely unrelated to the topic at hand, make inside jokes to one another, or just talk to a few people in the front row. Several of the panels I attended featured panelists who didn't appear to actually know very much about the topic they had chosen or else lacked any measure of presentation ability. Many speakers didn't do much more than read their powerpoint slides. A couple couldn't even keep their audiences under any sort of control.
I won't mention specific panels here, as I don't wish to offend (though we did in our con report, as did Anime World Order and Fast Karate for the Gentleman, who seem to agree with us on this), but in general this is a problem that seems to be getting worse and worse with each passing year.
What can we do to make the panels at Otakon worthwhile? Is there any way to reasonably screen out poor panelists without creating too high of a barrier to entry?
Comments
Also a good idea would be a checkin for panelists say a day before/ half day to make sure they are there or a check in an hour or so before the panel. Otherwise your late you lose your slot and that room could be opened up for other purposes.
Ill think on it more but thats what im thinking right off.
Also arriving an hour early thing sounds great, but all of these panels are back to back. Unless you can space them out, I don't see how one can prepare for their panel.
Will have to work on moving the panel along though. Damn industry people kept getting asked all the questions at a Anime Club summit!
Also at Otakon this year almost all of the panels that I was at had technical difficulty with getting the picture to display on the projector. I'm not sure what setup they were using but every laptop that was hooked up was having trouble.
The Silent Hill panel was very well put together by some very passionate fans of the series who knew what they were talking about, it went very smoothly. The fan parody panel wasn't that great, the guys that hosted it explianed very briefly (in less than five minutes) how they make fan parodies and spent the rest of the time picking people out of the audience to record voices to be used in a fan parody, very boring in my opinion. As for the podcasting one, it was very well put together and presented, and the panelists definetly knew what they were talking about. So for me the panels were a mixed bag, but I agree that it helps to have a person/people involved that have a plan, and are knowledgeable on the topic the panel will be on.
Mecha Trivia Show: Titanic Mess. Gerald of AWO won. Ask Katsu about the Zerg rush at the end.
Transformers: A unorganized mess of a panel. No direction or point.
You'r Favorite Anime Sucks: Off the wall funny. Insulting and joy full at the same time.
Podcasting: Most informative panel ever! Though poor Rym's voice.
Shiatsu Massage: *right click, rename* How NOT to Touch People