The roundup of convention ideas is here.
There's a lot to be said for professional-themed panels. Voice acting. Game programming. Writing.
There's also a lot to be said for "peripheral" professional-themed panels. Networking. Making portfolios.
However, to these focused and peripheral panels, let me add one more suggestion to put in your convention event witch's brew. What about doing panels on must-use technologies like making webpages, podcasting, and so on?
For most geeky and fannish careers, technology is an indispensable part of what you do, how you find a job. Of course, as fandom is generally technical anyway, these technologies do double-duty in their usefulness – helping you out in your geeky endeavors and your career:
- Websites allow for "personal branding", to establish a common point of contact for professionals, and to display portfolios. Do people know how to make them easily enough?
- Podcasts can do everything from self-expression to establishing oneself as an expert to just building social skills – and a consistent podcast is a great testimony to passion and skill.
- Social media is . . . well everywhere. If you DON'T have some social media panel at a reasonably sized con, you're missing out.
- Smartphones are everywhere. What can fans get out of them professionally and personally?
- There's many, many other subjects like Apple versus Mac, best free software, etc. . .
Best of all you can find people able to speak on these subjects easily among your regular convention attendees and staff – since they're probably using them.
So next convention, don't forget fantech. You've got a lot you can cover – and a lot of resources to draw on.
– Steven Savage