wiscon panels needing panelists

[boxofdelights]

http://account.wiscon.net/program/volunteer

The days of filling panels that need panelists are here! If you are willing to be on a panel, and confident that you're better than nothing, please go there^ and volunteer!

I always volunteer as a freelance moderator, so I always get the neediest panels, but this year is worse: two of my panels have one other panelist, which means they have exactly one person who has anything to say on the topic. I always prepare things to say, just in case, but I don't think I can prepare well enough to carry half the panel on two topics I know nothing about.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Hmm, I wish I could contribute something on the two where you're modding, but I've got nothing. I did put my name down for one.

[siderea]

Huh, I'm surprised. I've never been to Wiscon, so perhaps mistakenly developed the impression that it was a substantial, prominent con with a national or even international draw. As such I would be (and am) very surprised to hear they have "needy" panels and have to beg for panelists.

Arisia, which I think of as a reasonably large but fundamentally local con, just a couple of years ago had to let a goodly number of potential panelists go from their panelist pool, because they had too many panelists for the available number of panels, which had maxed out the time and space available to the con for panels. Getting on panels for Arisia is moving to be competitive, where applicants have to write something to explain why they would be the asset to the panel they are applying to be on.

Why is Wiscon hurting for panelists, do you know? I would have thought being a panelist at Wiscon would be very prestigious and desirable.

[boxofdelights]

Interesting question. I think Arisia and Wiscon must have different systems for staffing panels, because our panelist pool is everyone who attends. I don't want to get to the perfectly-distributed state of 1000 members, each of whom appears on one panel, because many people don't want to be on panels, and also some people are really interesting and funny and it would be disappointing to get only one chance to listen to them, but I do think that every step we take toward that state is a good step.

To get on a Wiscon panel, you have to volunteer for that panel. If more than five people volunteer, then the programming committee will choose five, and one of the things they base that decision on is the statement you can write about why you want to be on that panel. If fewer than five people volunteer, that panel goes on the list of panels in need of panelists.

During the first pass of volunteering, some panels get seventeen potential panelists and some get none, and there's no way for a potential panelist to see which is which. Then there is multidimensional jigsaw puzzle solving with people, panels, rooms, and time slots. Then there is a preliminary schedule, and there is another chance to volunteer for the panels that didn't get five panelists (and at that point, you can see when and where it is, and who is already on it.)

Both of the panels I got assigned to as a freelance moderator are niche topics: enough people wanted to attend that they made it onto the schedule, but zero or one person volunteered to be on the panel. Fortunately, one of them has acquired enough people interested in talking about the topic that I can drop out.

I don't know how people find out about panel sign-up; I started going to Wiscon at Wiscon 30, which was peak Livejournal, and I heard about it through my friendslist. Nowadays I know there is a Wiscon twitter presence, but I don't tweet so I don't know how effective it is.