Volunteers/suggestions for Sinpoz activities

[erilyn]

It's that time - Sinpozium 2011 is only 10 weeks away, and plans need to be made about what we'll actually be doing, so we need your input. We need people to lead discussions, pimp fandoms and more – so, what do you wanna do at Sinpozium?

** Fandom pimps will probably be limited to a maximum of half an hour (though if you want to do less, that's fine, and they don’t need to be fancy). We strongly recommend keeping video portions of pimps to only about 15-20 minutes - this should be enough to give a feel for the fandom, anything longer and interest can really start to lag (always leave 'em wanting more!). If you can get a friend/beta to look over a presentation, a second pair of eyes really helps, particularly if you’re having problems trimming it.

** Presentations/videos/slideshows will be shown via a laptop hooked up to a data projector, so will need to be brought on disc/USB stick/external hard drive (we don't want to be switching laptops around if we can avoid it). A variety of file formats will be acceptable, more info to come (but if it can be played by VLC, that's a good indication it will be ok).

** One thing alasen and I are hoping to include is a session for pimping book fandoms. Given that we can't really put together pimp reels for them, people would only need a few minutes each to talk about the book(s), and since these are often small fandoms, it can be a great way to lure more people in, or at least introduce them to a new author. Please let us know if you want to participate, and what book you'd like to talk about. PS - Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are not eligible.

** Suggestions for games are welcome (slash pictionary is already pencilled in, naturally), but from experience, they need to be simple and interactive.

** New or old, doesn't matter - some of the most interesting fandom pimps I've seen at past Sinpoziums were for shows from before I was born, or introduce us to the hot new thing.

** Discussion topics that are multi-fandom are particularly good (as they're inclusive). Topics might range from serious discussions of writing or fannish trends, to which characters look the best in tight jeans. Lengths will be 30-60 minutes, depending on topics, number of suggestions and structure of final timetable.

** Suggestions for discussions/panels are more than welcome, even if you don't feel like leading the discussion yourself. If you're having a complete mental blank, I find perusing timetables from other events can help me think about stuff I'd like to participate in.

** meelie will be planning/co-ordinating a vidshow during the weekend (more info to come), but you're of course free to also use vids during fandom pimps etc.

For example, I'm gonna pimp Glee (the gayest show on tv), and alasen is thinking about trying to make everyone fall for Hawaii 5-0.

And remember, if you don't volunteer and/or suggest, you don't get to complain afterwards! :) We'll try and incorporate as much as possible from all the volunteers/suggestions, but the final timetable will be based on what we have found has worked at previous events and think is the best possible mix of everyone's interests. If there’s something you’d like to do that doesn’t seem like it’d fit with these guidelines, talk to us about it, and we’ll see what we can figure out.

We'd like to keep all the volunteering/suggestions/discussion in one place, so please comment at the livejournal post.