Sinpozium - slash con in Sydney

(this post is environmentally friendly and signficantly recycled from last year)

It is only two months until Sinpozium 2012 \o/ Registrations are ticking along nicely (but keep them coming please!) and it's time to think about what we'll actually be doing. 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 (if you wish to include them) 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 (but if it can be played by VLC, that's a good indication it will be ok).

** Suggestions for games are welcome, but from experience, they need to be simple and interactive.

** New or old, it 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. If someone wants to give a workshop on Tumblr and how the fuck you're supposed to use it, I would support this. Just sayin'.

** 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 reading about other fannish events and cons can really get me thinking about what 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.

** One thing alasen and I were hoping to include last year but didn't end up with 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.

Please don't be nervous if you've never done something like this before, it's not gonna be a HUGE group of people (and no one is allowed to bite without permission), and we're happy to help if you want to do a pimp but aren't sure how to go about it. Just ask!

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.