Anime Boston 2013 - GeekNights Live!

MrPeriod

We are performing FIVE shows at Anime Boston 2013!

How to Recommend Anime
Friday 1:15pm
Panel 208

How to Run an Anime Club
Friday 2:15pm
Panel 208

All Anime are the Same Show
Friday 5:15pm
Panel 309

Anime Openers from Around the World
Friday 8:30pm
Panel 306

Judge an Anime by its Cover
Saturday 4:15pm
Panel 208

See the full schedule! Also download the Guidebook version, add our panels to your personal schedule, and rate them. Doing that actually helps us book bigger rooms and more conventions in the future!

Source Link

Axel

These all sound really good.

Too bad Otakon doesn't want your panels anymore, as I would love to see this BEFORE Rym decides to one day edit them onto Youtube.

Rym

It's hard to get our anime panels onto youtube.

1. Clip shows get copyright notices
2. Anime cons rarely give us enough time to set up video/audio equipment

We'll try to get some of these, but Anime Openers from Around the World and All Anime are the Same Show are unlikely to ever be on Youtube.

Axel

That's too bad, the latter is what I'm interested in seeing.

And I was mostly joking, as I understand getting these up must be difficult. Just wish Otakon wasn't a bunch of immature children.

Greg

You could come to Connecticon.

EDIT: There was originally a ":D" at the end of that, but the juxtaposition between it and my avatar irked me too much, so I deleted it. It was sacrilege. I needed to repent.

Axel

I will eventually. But right now, though I will be splurging on conventions in the next year or so, Connecticon is not worth spending on when I'm saving for Otakon, MAGFest, PAX East, and MAYBE GDC.

Dragonmaster Lou

How much time do you need to set up A/V stuff for future reference? Is 15 minutes enough? What about 30 minutes? Since I'm doing 15-30 minute gaps anyway, in the future I can make sure you will have the time you need to set up A/V stuff.

Rym

30 full minutes is best. Anime cons (not really talking about AB here) tend to have short gaps coupled with unclear room clearing policies and/or previous panelists who won't GTFO.

Ideally, rooms are cleared and closed for the full 30 minute interval, then re-opened for the next one. But, while PAX does that awesomely, we don't even do it at ConnectiCon (yet). ;^)

From a scheduling perspective (video aside), I'm amazed you allow 15 minute gaps. We tried that once at ConnectiCon, and decided to have a strict 30-minute gap policy between all panels and workshops. It cut down on the number of panels we could schedule, but GREATLY simplified the schedule itself and saved us staff/headache.

Really, a 15 minute gap would be fine if the previous panelists stopped EXACTLY on time and got right the fuck out. That basically never happens at anime cons. Even with 30 minutes, we've had issues getting things set up that stem almost entirely from other events going over their time and the staff being uninterested in stopping them.

Cremlian

I usually run 15 minutes for normal low impact panels and 30 if it's complex. Haven't really had any trouble or complaints. I think it's because the only people who have recorded had someone from their group recording it.

Rym

The problem with 15 minute gaps is that your schedule is almost impossible to draw elegantly, and the times things start and end becomes very confusing for attendees.

Also, we usually set up three cameras, plus audio, in addition to our laptop and printout stuff. It takes time to get them all recording and synced.

At PAX, with a cleared room and a 30 minute gap, our procedure is.

1. Set up laptop/projector/sound, and test
2. Don the microphones (if they're wireless) and test.
3. Set up cameras, confirm boundaries for what's "on screen"
4. Set up audio, test levels.
5. Splay out printouts and other assorted aides on stage.
6. Review slides one final time
7. Start recording, sync devices
8. Start playing music/preshow
9. Ask the staff to bring the crowd in
10. If there's time, entertain until the official start time. Otherwise, start.

Rym

TL;DR: PAX spoils us. ;^)

Cremlian

Still you'd be better served if you had someone to do the camera work for you :-p

Also maybe someday PAX will let you lecture in a room with more than 100 seats again :-p

You'll really like the Zenkaikon Panel rooms if you end up attending this coming year ^_^

Rym

Still you'd be better served if you had someone to do the camera work for you :-p

If the con will give us a badge for them, then happily. ;^) Even then, it takes time to set it up, and many of the tests can't be done if the other panelists are still there. There's a bunch of "walk to the left, now to the right, stand there while we focus, etc..."

Even then, it's a professionalism issue. Part of the point is to not show the attendees the mic checks, etc... Ideally, they walk in to find us on stage ready to go, and we immediately start when everyone is seated.

Cremlian

Granted, if they were planning to use a camera they should mention that in their application and request more then 15 minutes :-p

Dragonmaster Lou

Typically, when I schedule stuff, here's what I try to aim for ever since I started doing gaps:

• 30 minute gaps between most panels. In the case of 18+ stuff, this is mandatory anyway as we need those gaps to clear the room and perform ID checks
• 15 minute gaps where I can't do 30 minutes. Typically this has to do with some random schedule constraints, having to squeeze in oddly-sized panels, etc., and so on. I'm not a big fan of the 15 minute gap mostly because, as you said, it makes the schedule look odd. However, sometimes 15 minutes does work better than 30.
• No gaps, but only in the case where two panels are run by the same people and will attract the same or a similar crowd back-to-back. The best example I have are AB's two AMV panels, 101 and 201.

Part of the reason why I started doing the gaps was that a year or two ago we had many, many more panel rooms than in prior years. In fact, the number of available back-to-back timeslots was high enough that even if I accepted every panel submitted, I still wouldn't fill all the slots. Add that to panelists complaining about lack of setup/teardown time and panel attendees complaining about having to miss half the panel due to waiting in line and I figured that putting the gaps in would solve all the problems. Fortunately, it seems to have gone well with staff, panelists, and attendees, so everyone's happy *knocks on wood*.

Rym

I took a hard line in the sand and basically forced the other departments to work around the 30 minute gaps and the rule that panels must start and end at 30 minute intervals.

But on the videoing thing, here are the factors that decrease the odds of us ever publishing video online:

1. Clip-driven event (e.g., Anime Openers)
2. Less than 30 minutes setup time
3. Overly loud room
4. Nowhere safe/stable to place camera(s) and their tripods
5. No power outlet available for main camera
6. No stage at front of room
7. Panel is in any way interactive
8. Bad lighting in room
9. Crowding or difficulty getting to room early with equipment

The more of these are present, the less likely we are to bother. A loud room makes it not worth the effort to clean up the audio. No stage means difficulty getting a clean shot. Clips present copyright concerns. Many room layouts preclude tripods in the aisles.

Anthony Heman

I went to an anime con not too long ago. They committed all of Rym's sins he was listing on twitter.

Neito

My favorite "Bad panelist moment" was a perfect juxtoposition. I had just gone to Rym and Scott's "How to run a Panel" panel to see if I could pick up any pointers that I didn't already have (I didn't. You really need to do a "Beyond How To Run a Panel" panel, or just let me monopolize you for like half an hour sometime this weekend). Literally the next panel was 12 people on stage, in cosplay, chatting with the audience. It was a very "Don't do what Donny Don't Does" moment.