Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

This forum is for discussion about Anime Boston's panel and workshop programming.
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tehscribbles
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Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by tehscribbles »

Hi everyone!

Post your feedback for panels here. I already have a list going but more ideas can't hurt. If you are looking for personal feedback about your panels that you presented please feel free, you can make new topics if you wish. I have some feed back for this year already.

-Have resources for panelists that include room capacity
-Which rooms will have VGA only or HDMI hook ups
-More candy in goody bags!!!
-A post about what panels AB is looking for
-More active on the forums/social for answering questions
-Video snip bits about panels and how the process happens
-More options for adapters to buy

Updates from last year
-Provided a panelists meet up room
-A goody bag for checking in
-Fast pass for panelists to make it to their panel on time
-Post about the panel process
-Thread of panel resources
-General thread about panel questions

If you have ideas and constructive feedback, please post here!
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Hentai69 »

While this is solely my opinion and can obviously vary from person to person, I found a massive majority of the panels to be incredibly unfulfilling this year. compared to the previous and feel that this will lead to a continued decrease in quality. From the fan panels to the featured panels, all the way to the special guest panels.

Examples include panelists showing up 30 minutes to their panel immediately followed by playing an entire episode of an anime for whatever reason. A specific instance of tardiness was the PuffyAmiYumi panel beginning 25 minutes late and ending 10 minutes early which left little to be desired no matter how great they are in person. There were unstructured and/or unprepared presentations reminiscent of those high school powerpoints you do just to get by and read off of the slides without looking towards the audience. Panels describing themself as an "exploration/introduction" to a topic/subject yet become the panelist describing their own personal reasons why they like something feel incredibly misleading and felt stale as they provided no depth for why they like it.

I propose a more stricter screening process for panels that maybe requires a large sample of the powerpoint or other display they will be using. Perhaps require a fairly in depth outline of their panel as well. A way to gather feedback could be to have the tech person in each specific panel room review the panels as they happen and provide notes about how they believed it lived up to themself and the audience. While this won't solve the problem of poor panels ahead of time this can prepare ahead for next year's con if the panelist decides to reapply. One last consideration should be to have laptops available for panelists to use so that they do not have to bring their own and can just bring their materials on something like a usb drive. While I'm sure many people own a laptop there's also a great deal who don't which may be holding back potential future panelists.

All in all while we should definitely appreciate fans giving their time and effort to provide panels at the convention, albeit they do receive a fairly large reimbursement for their hour-ish panel including the badge cost refund, fast pass, etc; there should definitely be some more effort being put in by fan panelists if they're going to commit to hosting one, which I believe can be remedied by a stronger screening process.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Aurabolt »

Hentai69 wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 12:09 am While this is solely my opinion and can obviously vary from person to person, I found a massive majority of the panels to be incredibly unfulfilling this year. compared to the previous and feel that this will lead to a continued decrease in quality. From the fan panels to the featured panels, all the way to the special guest panels.

Examples include panelists showing up 30 minutes to their panel immediately followed by playing an entire episode of an anime for whatever reason. A specific instance of tardiness was the PuffyAmiYumi panel beginning 25 minutes late and ending 10 minutes early which left little to be desired no matter how great they are in person. There were unstructured and/or unprepared presentations reminiscent of those high school powerpoints you do just to get by and read off of the slides without looking towards the audience. Panels describing themself as an "exploration/introduction" to a topic/subject yet become the panelist describing their own personal reasons why they like something feel incredibly misleading and felt stale as they provided no depth for why they like it.

I propose a more stricter screening process for panels that maybe requires a large sample of the powerpoint or other display they will be using. Perhaps require a fairly in depth outline of their panel as well. A way to gather feedback could be to have the tech person in each specific panel room review the panels as they happen and provide notes about how they believed it lived up to themself and the audience. While this won't solve the problem of poor panels ahead of time this can prepare ahead for next year's con if the panelist decides to reapply. One last consideration should be to have laptops available for panelists to use so that they do not have to bring their own and can just bring their materials on something like a usb drive. While I'm sure many people own a laptop there's also a great deal who don't which may be holding back potential future panelists.

All in all while we should definitely appreciate fans giving their time and effort to provide panels at the convention, albeit they do receive a fairly large reimbursement for their hour-ish panel including the badge cost refund, fast pass, etc; there should definitely be some more effort being put in by fan panelists if they're going to commit to hosting one, which I believe can be remedied by a stronger screening process.
...You raise alot of good points, which is all the more reason I will more aggressively apply for a staff position next year. The most effective way to make change is to step up. I've said this before but this time I will be much more persistent. You gave several suggestions that are specific and well within reason. The question is weather or not AB would be willing to put in the time for this.

My opinion on this aside, there were two panels I attended that I felt were clearly misleading. One was the Indie Music Panel I attended Friday. It was basically indie music videos the hour preceeded by an introduction. Anyone walking in mid-panel might have been mistaken it for a video room. Last I checked, there is a hard cap on how much of non-Industry panels can be video. Playing full episodes is a huge problem and should not be happening in Fan Panels. At the same time, the guidelines should be updated to so Fan Panels are not basically an hour's worth of video content. That's prettymuch what happened in this particular panel.

While yes, I played videos in some of my panels in the past but they were never full episodes. I do wonder if the AV Staff in the room are briefed on particulars on this. The other was The Velvet Room Panel Saturday night. which I felt got a bit too carried away with the Fandom discussion. I felt like they skimmed over the factual info to focus on Fandoms and ships.

I get AB gets over a hundred panel applications each year. Most are rejected on sight in fact. Even so, what I saw this year reminded me of exactly why I decided to become a panelist 5 years ago: I attended a panel on Fan Fiction in which the presenter was clearly unprepared. I was angry, felt like I wasted my time and said as much at Convention Feedback that year. Then I said I'd be back to "show how it's done" and that's exactly what I did. I made my debut at a panelist at AB2011. I did two panels that year: Clannad: The Place Where Wishes Come True and Fan Fiction: Because Writing it Can Be Fun. Of course, both panels were highly successful. I went on to do the Clannad Panel for 5 straight years.

Last week, I made a thread offering my services to anyone interested in doing a panel next year. I also have an Anime Boston Panels Facebook Group as well (currently being managed by a friend of mine). I don't suggest things I'm not prepared to do myself so...yeah.

Your suggestion about AB providing Laptops for Fan Panels would be AWESOME but raises the obvious question of where will AB get the money for these laptops? Honestly, not having the bring my own laptop is the main reason I chose not to do panels this year and I live in Boston. Even so, I would not want to see an increase in convention rates just for that.

Make no mistake I do agree a stronger pre-screening process needs to happen next year. Fan Panelists only get the registration cost reimbursed just so you know and only the lead panelist if there are multiple panelists. There is no Fast Pass for Panelists so I'm not sure what you mean by that. I had a problem getting to one of my panels on time last year and even with help from Con Staff I couldn't be rushed through security. So, yeah.

Two specific pre-screening ideas that come to mind in addition to yours is panelists are required to send an overview of what they plan to do to the Programming Department for review. Pictures, Powerpoint slides and so on. I also feel like panelists who either bait and switch or show up unprepared should be penalized. Especially those who advertise one thing and do another. One thing I'm deeply concerned about are panelists endorsing piracy of any kind ("Everyone I know does it because reasons." and "Go to this site if you wanna watch/download anime for free."). Folks need to keep in mind people from the industry DO attend fan panels. That's a problem and it makes AB look bad to their business partners.

Finally: There wasn't much of a problem on this topic this year but I do feel like AB should keep some extra panels on standy going into the weekend of the con. Mostly Experienced Panelists. It rarely happens at AB but in the event of a no-show or last-minute cancel, a panel on standby could be activated by texting the panelist on standby so they know to be ready.

Before I forget, the Tech Staff member in the room does take notes during the panel. Kate can explain the specifics but that data is used should the panelist decide to reapply next year.
Last edited by Aurabolt on Mon Apr 03, 2017 3:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Painted_Outlaw »

Aurabolt wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:02 amThere is no Fast Pass for Panelists so I'm not sure what you mean by that
I believe he's referring to this (from the Panel schedule email):
You must still buy a badge for Anime Boston 2017. After picking up your badge, please stop by Registration customer service to receive a fast pass sticker. This sticker will allow you to head to the fast pass lanes for security when entering the Hynes convention center. There will be stickers for the panel organizer and up to six panel associates that were submitted with the panel application.
I didn't need to use it myself but the option seemed to be there.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by H. Guderian »

Painted_Outlaw wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:25 am
Aurabolt wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:02 amThere is no Fast Pass for Panelists so I'm not sure what you mean by that
I believe he's referring to this (from the Panel schedule email):
You must still buy a badge for Anime Boston 2017. After picking up your badge, please stop by Registration customer service to receive a fast pass sticker. This sticker will allow you to head to the fast pass lanes for security when entering the Hynes convention center. There will be stickers for the panel organizer and up to six panel associates that were submitted with the panel application.
I didn't need to use it myself but the option seemed to be there.
It was there. I used it once and felt all guilty since the lines were actually really great this year. I had a panelist ally convince me to just do it to make sure it worked. You asked one of the orange shirts and they escorted you right up to the tables. Though carrying all my equipment it looked rather weird as here I was now dropped off by security at the front of the no-bag line with my big ol' bag.

Screening, itself is hard. My more academic leaning panels I would have been able to submit you a minute-by-minute breakdown of the topics and slides months ago. It was in fact a repeat to try and meet the time slot better, which I ran over the year before. Yet it was still one of my weaker panels out of the 5 I lead and 1 I assisted on. Might be because I couldn't concentrate on my thoughts. The fire alarm surely kept me distracted. But yeah, screening isn't going to be assuring quality. And even the best people can still slip up. Also if you have just a couple of slides but most of a speech that relies on delivery? Are we going to ask amateurs to start providing full video rehearsals? I will gladly accept a few bad panels if they can gain experience and learn from it. The last thing I'd like to see is a lockdown of Old Guard elites keeping out the fresh blood.

We can't get good new panelists if we don't give them some room to fail and grow. Every ear I try new ways of organizing and presenting and this is the first year I think I had full on good enjoyable panels sometimes. (I might just be harsh on myself!)

But yeah, if you put on blinders and try to chase "Only the Best Panels" I feel you will actually hurt the longterm quality of them.

On a side note, glad the Foundation Block is still there. Party Panels in the Hynes, Quiet Panels in the Sheraton. Though that elevator to get up there. Ouch!
Updates from last year
-Provided a panelists meet up room
I would have adored to see this. There's often just too many people coming up to other panelists to have time to talk to them to suddenly want to discuss shop. My unlimited jealousy that the AMV creators had a Meet-up dinner and the panelists are yet to be united! In fact we panelists know so little about our panelist sempai on staff.

I would like to throw a bunch of praise to the technical officers manning the panel rooms. I mean they were good last year. But this year I would actually say they were 110%.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by jamesawolf@comcast.net »

Hentai69 wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 12:09 am I propose a more stricter screening process for panels that maybe requires a large sample of the powerpoint or other display they will be using. Perhaps require a fairly in depth outline of their panel as well.
You're not wrong, but I did two panels this year. The first I used an outline (and maybe it could have used a PowerPoint presentation, but never mind). But I did not start it until I knew the panel had been selected. The second (Get off my lawn) I have always conducted as a conversation with the audience. I have a beginning spiel, but after that I make sure the whole thing is free-wheeling.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Xias »

Aurabolt wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:02 amMy opinion on this aside, there were two panels I attended that I felt were clearly misleading. One was the Indie Music Panel I attended Friday. It was basically indie music videos for an hour. Last I checked, there is a hard cap on how much of non-Industry panels can be video. Playing full episodes is a huge problem and should not be happening in Fan Panels. Yes, I played videos in some of my panels in the past but they were never full episodes. I do wonder if the AV Staff in the room are briefed on particulars on this. Feels like too many assumptions are being made on the part of the director of panels and programming.
Okay pal, let's talk about this.

First of all, I've been doing Indie Music panels at AB for 4 years now (this was my fourth), so if they don't know what it's going to entail by now I would be pretty surprised. Second of all, two other people did Indie Music panels at AB before I did, and both did it the exact same way. The only difference was one of the people had an accompanying PowerPoint, which I did too my first year I did it. But in feedback from talking to attendees of the panel, they thought it was mostly superfluous and wasted valuable time switching back and forth between the PP and the videos, so I got rid of it. The other person who did an Indie Music panel at AB never had a PP, they did it exactly like I did.

Saying it was "basically just playing music videos for an hour" is INCREDIBLY misleading. I played 11 3-to-4 minute clips. How does that add up to an hour? I talked extensively about many of the bands, including providing facts about their history, their names, their albums, etc. I went into great detail about what it's like to attend a concert in Japan for the first time and how the ticketing system works. In fact, I talked for so long I actually had to cut one of the videos I planned to show, which you would know because you were there. So thank you for completely misrepresenting my panel with your post here, I really appreciate it.

You make it sound like this was an act of laziness on my part; on the contrary, I presented five panels this year, three of which had extensive PP presentations. I was specifically told by a staffer after one of my panels that he was giving me the highest marks possible to ensure I was brought back. The fact that, when it comes to this one panel, I prefer to speak on the bands rather than make a presentation is not an act of laziness on my part. It is simply the best method I've found to introduce as many Japanese musical artists to the attendees as possible, which last I checked is the entire point of this panel. A panel people come to year after year, by the way. I always have the most repeat attendees for my Indie Music panel, and this year was no different.

Finally, your comparison of playing 11 3-to-4 minute clips to a full anime episode is ludicrous on its face. The entire point of my panel is, again, to introduce people to a wide variety of artists. There is almost no other way to do that (certainly no other effective way) than letting people listen to the music for themselves. Playing an entire episode of an anime during a panel is not a good comparison at all; a better comparison would be going to a panel called something like "Hidden Anime Gems of the 80s" where they play 3-to-4 minute clips from a bunch of different anime. Hey, guess what? I've been to panels exactly like that! For me to do the equivalent of play an entire 30-minute anime episode would have been more like playing a 30-minute clip from one band's concert, which I would never in a million years do.

On a personal note by the way, I hope you are not made staff quite frankly. The fact that you were nice to my face after the panel only to turn around here and trash it (in a self-serving way, since you're clearly still frustrated that you were told years ago that playing an entire anime episode during your Pokemon panel was not allowed) shows me exactly what kind of person you are. We spoke after my panel, you had ample opportunity to tell me to my face you had an issue with it.

I will give my own feedback on what the panel process was like this year later, but first I wanted to respond to this attack on my panel that I felt was completely unfair. Thank you.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by basharoftheages »

Aurabolt wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:02 amThe current system of one person basically deciding most of the programming schedule needs to change.
This statement is factually incorrect. The process for panel selections is spelled out in a sticked post at the top of the forum as well as in a lengthy panel FAQ. I would kindly ask you stop this blatant spreading of misinformation.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Aurabolt »

BasharOfTheAges wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 2:30 pm
Aurabolt wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:02 amThe current system of one person basically deciding most of the programming schedule needs to change.
This statement is factually incorrect. The process for panel selections is spelled out in a sticked post at the top of the forum as well as in a lengthy panel FAQ. I would kindly ask you stop this blatant spreading of misinformation.
...I stand corrected.

I won't make excuses for why I didn't know that thread existed until just now but I have edited my post. Not just for that reason but to clarify something I've talking to Xias about via text.

I will say this though: I can take as well as I dish out and I have no problem acknowledging mistakes. When I make statements that are factually inaccurate then by all means do correct me. That said, I meant what I said before about my intentions of applying for a staff position next year. This has simply strengthened my resolve further to do so.

Am I arrogant? Absolutely not. My problem is sometimes I care too much.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by coolforever »

Wow, this escalated quickly.

The only thing I'm going to say about running my panels is that everything went VERY well, but I want to point out something that happened on Friday night. I was having problems with the audio and video working on my laptop (brand new very expensive laptop that has Windows 10) and one of the higher ups came in to help fix the problem. The HDMI to VGA adapter that we initally tried to use was faulty and they had to replace it entirely, but after they replaced the adapter with another one, the video ended up working properly. Then we tried adjusting the audio options a bit, but we were having no luck. The guy then said to me "Well, next time you should install the proper audio drivers on the laptop!" and he said this in front of like 3 other staff members that were there, which made me feel embarassed a bit. We were able to fix the problem because the HDMI/VGA adapter had an audio out jack that let me play the audio through that.

I then found out that it was a simple setting on my computer where I just had to click on the proper device to output the sound from, which fixed the whole problem for the other panels that I ran on Saturday and Sunday.

I'm a bit surprised that none of the panel rooms that I was in had any direct HDMI plug ins for laptops, and I also had to use my own adapter on Sunday for my final panel.

In the end though, my panels went very well, and I thank you guys for letting me bring them to Anime Boston once again. :)
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AB 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011: Kiba. AB 2007: Shin'ichi Kudo. AB 2012: Kiba the Eurobeat Lover.
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AB 2015: Kaitou Kid the Sonic Fan. AB 2016: Kaitou Kid the Wolfman. AB 2017: Kaitou Kid the Rocketeer.

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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by jamesawolf@comcast.net »

One minor complaint. The support staff needs to give 15 minute warnings. Granted in one of my panels, she would have had to chuck a book at my head to gain attention, but I had a bit of ground to cover before time ran out.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by tehscribbles »

So much feedback! :D
Hentai69 wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 12:09 am I propose a more stricter screening process for panels that maybe requires a large sample of the powerpoint or other display they will be using. Perhaps require a fairly in depth outline of their panel as well. A way to gather feedback could be to have the tech person in each specific panel room review the panels as they happen and provide notes about how they believed it lived up to themself and the audience. While this won't solve the problem of poor panels ahead of time this can prepare ahead for next year's con if the panelist decides to reapply. One last consideration should be to have laptops available for panelists to use so that they do not have to bring their own and can just bring their materials on something like a usb drive. While I'm sure many people own a laptop there's also a great deal who don't which may be holding back potential future panelists.
Here is the topic on how our screening process works for panels at Anime Boston. Only fan panels go though the screening process, guest and industry panels do not. The tech in each room already collect notes on panels and turns them into prog ops. I take this data and analyze it for next year panels and for room arrangements. While I do my best to provide panelists with the information they need to buy the correct adapters, I don't think laptops in every room is going to happen anytime soon.
Aurabolt wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:02 am I get AB gets over a hundred panel applications each year. Most are rejected on sight in fact.
We actually get over 100. Since I started working on fan panels for the past three years applications have been increasing and this year we had over 350 panel submissions, with over 200 fan panels scheduled for this year.
Aurabolt wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:02 am Make no mistake I do agree a stronger pre-screening process needs to happen next year. Fan Panelists only get the registration cost reimbursed just so you know and only the lead panelist if there are multiple panelists. There is no Fast Pass for Panelists so I'm not sure what you mean by that. I had a problem getting to one of my panels on time last year and even with help from Con Staff I couldn't be rushed through security. So, yeah.
Fan panelists this year received the following
-Badge Reimbursement
-1 Month of free Crunchy Roll
- Bag of candy
-A T-shirt (Until I ran out)
-A fast pass sticker to move though security quickly to get in to present the panel
Aurabolt wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:02 amTwo specific pre-screening ideas that come to mind in addition to yours is panelists are required to send an overview of what they plan to do to the Programming Department for review. Pictures, Powerpoint slides and so on. I also feel like panelists who either bait and switch or show up unprepared should be penalized. Especially those who advertise one thing and do another. One thing I'm deeply concerned about are panelists endorsing piracy of any kind ("Everyone I know does it because reasons." and "Go to this site if you wanna watch/download anime for free."). Folks need to keep in mind people from the industry DO attend fan panels. That's a problem and it makes AB look bad to their business partners.
I don't really plan on going though everyone slides for their panel, while I'm happy to offer advice if anyone has a questions about the content of their slides, I don't think I can make a web system for everyone to upload over 350 power point slides and have enough time to go though all of them. I can create a thread here and have you guys seek out peer editors for your panels. I know the AMV people do something similar where they give feedback to each other before they submit their AMV's to the contest. If there is any sort of sketchy acts going on in a panel, often the tech staff will bring it up right away and I take note not to have the panelists back for next year.
Aurabolt wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:02 am Finally: There wasn't much of a problem on this topic this year but I do feel like AB should keep some extra panels on standy going into the weekend of the con. Mostly Experienced Panelists. It rarely happens at AB but in the event of a no-show or last-minute cancel, a panel on standby could be activated by texting the panelist on standby so they know to be ready.
I actually had a new staffer this year added to the team just for this, he brought all of his panels and even presented a few. When I did have someone drop he was ready to go and it was great.
H. Guderian wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:54 am We can't get good new panelists if we don't give them some room to fail and grow. Every ear I try new ways of organizing and presenting and this is the first year I think I had full on good enjoyable panels sometimes. (I might just be harsh on myself!)

But yeah, if you put on blinders and try to chase "Only the Best Panels" I feel you will actually hurt the longterm quality of them.
The number of slots currently out number the number of regular panelists that submit. So we had a lot of new panelists this year. While this is my third year, I'm starting to see and remember alot of the same panelists year after year. Which helps alot when scheduling panels. Everyone has to start somewhere, as long as new panelists learn and improve then I'm okay with giving them chances to learn how to present.
H. Guderian wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:54 am
Updates from last year
-Provided a panelists meet up room
I would have adored to see this. There's often just too many people coming up to other panelists to have time to talk to them to suddenly want to discuss shop. My unlimited jealousy that the AMV creators had a Meet-up dinner and the panelists are yet to be united! In fact we panelists know so little about our panelist sempai on staff.
I can have a bigger push for it next year, but I did mange to get a room for panelists to discuss their slides and what not with one another. I am so for this idea! While I can't organize a dinner meet up, if someone else organized a panelists dinner/meet up I'd make every effort I could to attend or pop in to meet everyone.
Rossum wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:33 pm One minor complaint. The support staff needs to give 15 minute warnings. Granted in one of my panels, she would have had to chuck a book at my head to gain attention, but I had a bit of ground to cover before time ran out.
This can be looked into, however tech staff are not panel mods. They just run the AV equipment and take notes. If there is a more call for panel mods I can look into adding that task to prog ops desk.
coolforever wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:02 pm I'm a bit surprised that none of the panel rooms that I was in had any direct HDMI plug ins for laptops, and I also had to use my own adapter on Sunday for my final panel.

In the end though, my panels went very well, and I thank you guys for letting me bring them to Anime Boston once again. :)

It's a slow work in progress from change equipment over from VGA to HDMI, to help curve this I do plan on letting people know about which rooms have VGA vs HDMI and room caps so you can better plan panels. I also plan on making a list of affordable adapters for panelists to buy and post it on the forums.

Great feedback everyone, keep it up! :)
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by H. Guderian »

coolforever wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:02 pm We were able to fix the problem because the HDMI/VGA adapter had an audio out jack that let me play the audio through that.

I then found out that it was a simple setting on my computer where I just had to click on the proper device to output the sound from, which fixed the whole problem for the other panels that I ran on Saturday and Sunday.
That was weird. I did a whole pile of panels this weekend, and I think I had to use different audio setups. Sometimes it was the audio-out on the VGA adapter, sometimes it was the headphones, and one room really refused to work unless I used the USB audio. And on one it was when I had to do the device output switch via the menu as well. I'm often terrified by technology due to how complicated and random it seems. Last year there was a point where we never got the audio to work at all! If only I knew then all the tricks I picked up this year.

As for the Dinner idea, I was a bit inflexible this year, as I build my weekend around being able to pick up a panelist from the train station and we spend the evening hammering out details on things we're cooperating on. So after I saw how much Jolly Cooperation was amongst other departments there wasn't enough time to shake loose our panels to suggest it. Maybe next year. Thursday or Sunday would likely be best since amongst panelists there's a high chance someone might actually be putting in their work on one of the other nights and that'd be unfair to them. But that's a year away so I won't think too hard on it for now.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Xias »

Kate the dinner idea is a really great one, I would love to be a part of that. I was thinking about that myself when I saw the post about the AMV dinner last week. I would love to volunteer myself to organize this next year, as a veteran panelist who also already has a number of friends who were current AB panelists this year as well.

Other panelists: first of all, would you like to do this next year? Have a dinner for panelists and our friends on Thursday evening before the convention, similar to how the AMV folks do it? Secondly, where do you want to do it? There's two restaurants in the Prudential that I like, Wagamama and Haru, and both take reservations (Wagamama typically doesn't but they do if you have a group of at least 6 or more, which I imagine won't be a problem for this). Obviously we could talk more about this closer to next year's convention, but if this is an idea people would really be interested in, I think we should do it!
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by H. Guderian »

I got taken to the Haru this year and they had us in and out rather fast and I had some great mackrel sushi. And their plum wine was good. The two tings I love most. I'd lean on Haru, but I can do either one fine.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Xias »

H. Guderian wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:55 pm I got taken to the Haru this year and they had us in and out rather fast and I had some great mackrel sushi. And their plum wine was good. The two tings I love most. I'd lean on Haru, but I can do either one fine.
I actually like Haru quite a bit better too, but Wagamama is undoubtedly cheaper and given the AB target audience I thought cheaper might be better for this. There's plenty of time to pick one or the other, but I agree with you that Haru's food and drink selection is better!
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by EliahNebb »

"Screening, itself is hard. My more academic leaning panels I would have been able to submit you a minute-by-minute breakdown of the topics and slides months ago. It was in fact a repeat to try and meet the time slot better, which I ran over the year before. Yet it was still one of my weaker panels out of the 5 I lead and 1 I assisted on. Might be because I couldn't concentrate on my thoughts. The fire alarm surely kept me distracted. But yeah, screening isn't going to be assuring quality. And even the best people can still slip up. Also if you have just a couple of slides but most of a speech that relies on delivery? Are we going to ask amateurs to start providing full video rehearsals? I will gladly accept a few bad panels if they can gain experience and learn from it. The last thing I'd like to see is a lockdown of Old Guard elites keeping out the fresh blood."

Pretty much how I feel about this topic. If you want advanced screening, what exactly do you suggest? I'd be worried about shutting out new or low-tech panels. The industry panels were pretty fun and informative, in my opinion.

For the record, the Indie Music panel is always one of the best. The description says that it plays and discusses indie music. The panelist plays music videos and gives background info on the artists and scene at large. Exactly as advertised. What did you expect? I've seen other panels follow this format, usually with good results.

I, too, found some boring panels. I left them and went to better ones. Maybe I just don't know other people's situations, but I don't see how an experienced con-goer would have this problem. You're at one of the biggest anime cons in the country. I can find something exciting happening 5 minutes away in any direction. Was that much of the programming really that disappointing?

This con treats panelists really well, by the way! I loved the gifts and the staffers were very helpful. A panel dinner would be cool. Not sure if I could make it, but it would be cool.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by EliahNebb »

Also, can someone please explain how the fast pass system worked? I never really needed it, but I also never quite understood it.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by coolforever »

What was the deal with the whole fast pass thing? I never got one nor was I informed about it. Luckily I had no problems getting into the con early enough when I needed to, so that didn't really matter anyway.
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Previous Anime Boston Badge Names:

AB 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011: Kiba. AB 2007: Shin'ichi Kudo. AB 2012: Kiba the Eurobeat Lover.
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Wolf's Rain will always be my #1 favorite Anime of all time. :)
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by H. Guderian »

After picking up your badge you could shuffle sideways over to another table for when you checked in as a panelist. They'd check you off, and then apply a green sticker to the back of your badge. At the front of the security line you could tap an orange shirt and they'd escort you pretty much to the front of the No Bag line. Which felt a bit weird. It wasn't really explained well, but at least some of the orange shirts knew enough about it to make it work. The time we tested it, the line was pretty short anyways so at best it shaved 1-2 minutes off a line that had only a dozen folks in it.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Hentai69 »

tehscribbles wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:19 pm While I do my best to provide panelists with the information they need to buy the correct adapters, I don't think laptops in every room is going to happen anytime soon.
By no means do I mean a laptop in every room. But to have just a few (think 3 to 5) available in the tech room to use for those who do not have a laptop or do not want to bring one.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by peachy »

This was my second time doing a panel for AB and the process has always been smooth. There are some things that I had missed out on, sadly. (The goody bag and panelist room. Where was this information announced so I can see if I did skip it over?) The fast pass was great, and thankfully not needed much this year due to the well-managed lines. The registration customer service didn't know how it worked when I asked, but I was able to get that information on Friday.
I also want to input the tech guy in my room was very helpful with setting up the VGA with me. (I typically work with HDMI.) Thank you!
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Rick »

As a first-time panelist at Anime Boston, I have to admit, wow! I was pleasantly surprised at all the little perks, gifts, and treatment that I got just for being a panelist! I expected nothing in return (being able to talk freely about NES games is enough for me! XD), so all these perks were splendid! Thank you so much!

The techs were very helpful in making sure I got everything set up and were really great to work with. The staff was really interested in my panel content too and I was really pleased about that! Everything worked out well and I felt my panel went great!

I didn't realize I was having notes taken on me, though. I hope I got good marks. o.o;;
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Mike Toole »

Since this thread seems to be all about feedback from panelists, here's a a couple of technical suggestions from me after 5 fantastic program hours at AB:

-Confidence monitors and audio monitors in any room that seats more than 100, please. Doesn't need to be fancy-- a small LCD monitor and PC speakers on the head table would be fine. But the lack of confidence monitor meant that I couldn't really stand up and walk around the stage, lest I lose sight of my slide deck-- and for one panel, I led a discussion with two of the guests of honor, and essentially had to hand over my laptop to them just so they could see the slides. The audio monitor thing is just a 'it's hard to tell if my stuff is loud enough' issue. In the larger rooms, that's really tricky!

-Everything was wonderfully high tech in the Sheraton, but Hynes 207 still had an old XGA projector and 6' x 8' screen. Please shake off the last of your 4:3 displays - it's the only way to move forward. As it was, I had to recompose my 16:9 slides for 4:3 in the ten minutes I had during setup time, which was a little frenzied...! All went well just the same.

Loved the goodie bag at panel check-in. I didn't see the panelist room, but that sounds like a great idea. If I may suggest, it'd be great if that room had plenty of power strips and a private wifi network, so anyone with slides and/or rich media could make some last-minute changes if needed. I had no luck with the public wifi in the Hynes at all, so the few times I needed to answer emails and grab stuff off the net required me to hustle over to the Sheraton. If the room already had those things, you can ignore me ;)

Finally: the line skip pass is a good idea!! I never used it-- forgot to get it at check-in, and generally the line moved quickly enough that I didn't feel like I needed it. The one time that I was trapped outside of the Hynes on Saturday just half an hour before my 10:30am panel, I was lucky enough to stumble across Victor (con chair), who agreed to walk me in. What a guy!!

Other than those remarks, I want to say that the AB staff room proctors and engineers were on point. They were always eager to check me in, help me get set up, and get those doors open so attendees could get seated. I got good, enthusiastic crowds for most of my talks, too! Thanks for another great year.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Xias »

Mike Toole wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2017 11:30 am-Everything was wonderfully high tech in the Sheraton, but Hynes 207 still had an old XGA projector and 6' x 8' screen. Please shake off the last of your 4:3 displays - it's the only way to move forward. As it was, I had to recompose my 16:9 slides for 4:3 in the ten minutes I had during setup time, which was a little frenzied...! All went well just the same.
I had this problem too with a coupe of my panels which were also at the Hynes, in panel rooms 202 & 206. In both cases the projectors were not set up to handle widescreen so part of my screen would be cut off, and I had way too many slides to be able to adjust them into 4:3 for Japanese Pro Wrestling at the last second like that. Would like to see next year have all rooms upgraded to widescreen projectors like in the Sheraton (where my Powerpoint for Tokyo Travel fit the screen perfectly fine) or, at the very least, get some kind of reminder/notice before the con that a panel room I'm scheduled to be in only has 4:3 projection available. That way I could at least adjust my slides ahead of time and be ready so I don't end up with part of my slide cut off, as happened in the Pro Wrestling panel this year.

With that said though, attendees were very understanding about that issue and I'd still say the Japanese Pro Wrestling panel went better than any other year I did it (from both the number of people who were there and how long they stayed), so it wasn't a dealbreaker or anything. Overall, I thought the entire panel staff did a fantastic job this year, as they do pretty much every year. AB is my favorite con to do panels for a reason.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Rosabelle3344 »

Rick wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2017 9:46 am As a first-time panelist at Anime Boston, I have to admit, wow! I was pleasantly surprised at all the little perks, gifts, and treatment that I got just for being a panelist! I expected nothing in return (being able to talk freely about NES games is enough for me! XD), so all these perks were splendid! Thank you so much!
Agreed! I wasn't expecting badge reimbursement, goodies, or a fast pass sticker, so these perks really made a difference. I'm motivated to submit more panels next year, and make sure that my recurring panel (Lolita 101) is improved even more.

I agree that access to a wireless network would be great. Since my panel was in the Sheraton, I wasn't able to connect to the Hynes wifi. We had to download something last minute and my iphone hotspot wasn't strong enough, so the tech guy let us use his wifi code, but it'd be great to have one available to panelists.

My computer went to sleep during my panel, which caused the screen to disconnect.That was my own fault, but maybe a "how to work with technology" 101 guide for panelists who are less tech saavy?

In terms of some of the suggestions that people have for panelists being more rigorously screened, I agree with Kate that it's impractical to do that type of screening. My panelists and I don't work on the panel in earnest until we are definitely presenting, so that would make things much more difficult for us. The screening process is already pretty rigorous, with a rating system. I actually also didn't know about that before submitting, and just wrote "description TBA" on the application which probably knocked me down a few points!

The only complaint we had was that one of my co-panelists tried to enter the Sheraton from the Prudential at around 9:30am Saturday morning to get to the panel and was denied entry. She had to go outside through the rain to the front of the Sheraton to get to the panel room to begin setting up the panel, and was pissed and also soaking wet. I wasn't there in person so I don't know the exact situation, but that entrance should be available to panelists who need to get through.

Overall, I think that the panel process is excellent, and I feel that my time, hard work, and knowledge is respected and valued at Anime Boston.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by KaiGuyLove »

Well this was my first year running a panel anywhere, and to be honest I had a blast. Everything was easy and the staff in the panel rooms helped me set up everything I needed before hand. Having staff willing to help if you had technical issues in the room relieved a lot of my stress.

But I'm sort of hoping that maybe we can get a panelist only bag check? I know it would of helped me a lot with my laptop and CD's and I needed for my panel. I was staying pretty far from the convention center so it wasn't logical for me to leave it in the hotel room. It just would not of worked. I was going to do bag check, but the lines were also wicked long for that. I would of hated to store the stuff I needed and then not be able to get it back in time. I think if you did that it could make it a lot easier for panelists to store what they need.

All in all I really enjoyed being able to talk about something I loved. I was surprised I got so many people! And I hope I have the chance to present my panel again so I can make it bigger and better.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by off_kilter »

Hi everyone. I just wanted to say thank you to the AB staff for picking me and my panels again this year. I feel like I really hit my stride this year and managed to really deliver some panels that were both highly informative and highly entertaining. It seemed like I was doing something right when I noticed a good chunk of people decided to make it a point of attending all the panels I hosted this weekend. I think the best comment I have ever received came after my Air Combat panel from a group from the west coast that said they would make it a point to return to AB if I continued to do panels. That really blew my mind and made my day! :)

I also wanted to say thanks for the little goodies panelists were given when they checked in. It was a completely welcome surprise! I never really expected anything like it.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by jamesawolf@comcast.net »

A few thoughts:

1) At my next AB, I will have PowerPoint presentations for my history based panels.
2) There seems to be a demand for history based. I will have to redo Jews and Japan, but after that, I have other ideas for panels (which I am keeping to myself, because MWAHAHAHAHA!!!)
3) That does not mean I can't do sill fanboy panels, though.
4) Unless the topic demands it, 90 minutes is too long for a some panels- one case lose steam
5) After Passover (night of 4/18) maybe a bunch of panelsts can have a pizza based meeting- even at my place, if need be. Anyone interested?
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by H. Guderian »

My Tuesday nights for the near future might be obstructed. Also if they are history panels I plan to do other topics. I had a hefty topic this year and ran it over, but it isn't fun enough to repeat frequently so I hope to hit a different history topic next year, or so I intend. Overlapping would be dreadful. Location would also be important.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Master of NERV »

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but here goes... :?

Can anyone provide contact info on the folks who ran the "Bootlegged Merchandise: Who Allowed This Edition" on Saturday night?

Please PM me with any info.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by tetsujin »

I feel like the projectors were under-utilized at the panels I attended: For instance in "Foam and Plastics for Cosplay" it was mostly used for a slide presentation of bullet points. The projector gives us the opportunity to see the things the panelist is talking about, through illustrations, photos, and videos. It takes more work to prepare those kinds of visuals (I've been there and I didn't find it easy) but it can make a huge difference in how well the information is conveyed.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by dstnyskr »

I do hope that I am posting my concern in the right place here.

I have a concern in particular with the panel "Anime Hell", that was going on Saturday night of the con.

Background:
So I went to this panel last year and loved it! The presenter had a great flow of topics in his presentation from beginning to end. There was comparing on how American animation was not to par with Japanese animation from the start of animation shown on TV in world. There were a few funny foreign media shows (non animation) that were kind of a nice change thrown in and even animation that wasn't quite anime.



This years experience:

I had waited 3 hrs for this panel (the scheduling this year seemed a bit dry this year) before I had to rush to catch the last train home.

It started with some funny foreign media (not animated) shows and clips. Some that I had seen before from the previous year. I was waiting for something of anime to be mentioned or shown but my hopes were running dry, 30 minutes in. I saw people leaving and other whispering in their chairs "where's the anime?!" as the minutes passed by.
I was starting to lose hope.
Then the presenter says "Looks like I have I text here saying that people are complaining that there is no anime. Let me tell you guys this isn't just 'anime' this is 'HEELLLL'"
He then presented one funny clip video about Akira and went right back into the same clips of foreign media shows and clips.

I couldn't take it any longer. After sitting there for 1hr., I left. S
o maybe the presenter was victorious of making this panel "HELLL", but definitely not Anime.

I hope that the group of people that do consider this panel next year to be more strenuous on the programming/content.
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by reaper527 »

it would be useful if there was more information given to those who didn't end up making the cut for a panel.

my panel ended up being waitlisted (and never came off), and it would be cool if everyone in that situation got some kind of post convention followup saying what caused the panel to end up on the wait list and what can be done to avoid it in the future. (i'm sure this would have to be done on a case by case basis, as i'm sure for some it could be asking for too much time, for others it could be a result of when they said they aren't available, for some it could be panel content, perhaps when the panel got submitted could be relevant if there was any kind of "early submissions get priority", etc.). i just got the email saying "waitlisted", and then never heard back again.

i plan to submit again next year, but knowing what exactly caused it to not make the cut this year could be helpful. (i'm sure i didn't do myself any favors requesting not to be schedule against anime unscripted/amv contest on friday and masq on saturday, but i can only speculate that's why i was stuck on waitlist and don't really know anything definitively)
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Re: Anime Boston 2017 Panel Feedback

Post by Mike Toole »

dstnyskr wrote: Fri Apr 07, 2017 12:46 am Anime Hell stuff
Hey, thanks for the feedback! Your Hell host was me. Bender. I've been doing Hell since 2008 or so - so it's a pretty long-running deal at AB. "Why isn't there more anime at Hell??" is a perennial observation by newcomers. The answer can be summed up by the description at the offical site:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=us

(yep, it's a google cache, because blogspot is bein goofy. But the text is there.)

For me, the "where's the anime??" thing is part of the fun, which is why I jumped on it. I also found it particularly funny because I showed more anime than usual this year, it just happened to be weirder, less obvious stuff like Golden Eggs and Usavich.

Last year's Hell was programmed and hosted by Dave Merrill, who does the Hells at Anime North and Anime Weekend Atlanta. (I was in Japan and couldn't go to the con.) I don't know what he showed, which is why there was some overlap, but he invented the whole idea of Anime Hell and is the best at it. I will absolutely cop to having a down year this year, in terms of energy level/punchiness - partly because I'd done several panels that day and was running low on gas, partly because it's gotten tougher to find truly weird stuff since my co-host died in 2015, and partly because I mix Hell live and it's different every year. I've also noticed in recent years that the audience starts to get fatigued and drift away during the second hour, so I'm considering making it a shorter show next time. I'll see where things stand in December when it's time to start planning for AB18.

In any case, thanks for stopping by, and I hope your stay in Hell wasn't a long one. Come back and visit next year!! XD
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