Panel Selection and Scheduling Process Anime Boston 2019

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Crest144
AB Staff
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:58 am
Location: New York City

Panel Selection and Scheduling Process Anime Boston 2019

Post by Crest144 »

Hey Everyone,

This past year for feedback people had questions about the panel selection and scheduling process. I will do my best to answer any questions you have about the processes. The Panel FAQ on the Anime Boston website is there to answer common panel questions. Please read that first before e-mailing me.

Panel selections start right after applications close. Panels are organized in a Google document with duplicate submissions removed. The document is then sent out to a committee of Anime Boston staff to review. The committee routinely consists of members in programming, tech, and security. They have one week to read and rate all the panels. Panels are rated on a scale of 1 to 5. 1 being the panel does not follow Anime Boston mission or has a poor description of their panel. A 5 being this panel follows Anime Boston’s mission and has a detailed description of what topics will be covered. After the week, we hold the panel selection meeting. We average out the ratings and go though all the panel submissions, one by one.

Panels that are rated with a 4 or a 5 are generally accepted right away. Panels rated a 3 or below get put on the waitlist. Panelists will now receive email of their panel application; Accepted, Waitlisted, or Denied. This happens usually a week or two after panel appellations close. Guest Relations is consulted to determine how much time their need and what room they require, these times are set aside for them. During the process departments are consulted for what times they need on the schedule, including Guests, Industry, Workshops, Gameshows, Cosplay Games, etc. Anime Boston programming are placed first (this includes Guests, Industry, Workshops, Gameshows, Cosplay games etc) and then fan panels are added to the schedule.

Once we have all the major events we can start filling in the gaps with additional panels. Fan panels are added to the schedule by rating. Panelists that were waitlisted will start to receive emails that they were accepted. Now it’s just moving things around that need to be switched like guest panels, industry panels, etc that needs a time switch.

The schedule is now pretty much complete; the dropouts are replaced and the schedule is released to staff for a final review for any mistakes. Once Guest Relations and Programming are satisfied we will release the schedule to the public. Then it gets released, granted it has the approval. After more consulting is done with everyone to make adjustments; people wanting to switch time slots, panel drops, filling in those holes, etc. This step is repeated until Wednesday of the convention. Schedule changes can happen after the schedule is released, so it’s important that you double check even after the printed schedule is out.

So, tada! This is the basic process the schedule is made. I simplified it as much as possible, but if you have some questions I can do my best to answer them for you. On the bottom I have provided some links that can help with your panels. As I find more I will update the list.

List of Helpful Links/Tools:

Videos
Video on planning a Panel
Video on Submitting a Panel
Video on Panel Rejection and making the Panel better
Video on Panel Tech
Better Panel Titles and Descriptions NEW

Microsoft Power Point
Microsoft Power Point
Creating a Power Point Slide
Inserting videos into Power Point
Music in Power Point
Pictures into Power Point

Google Slides
Google Slides
Google slides Basics

LibreOffice
LibreOffice

Anime Boston Apps Link
Anime Boston Panel Applications Link

Thanks,
Nayan N.
Nayan J. Naidoo
Assistant Panels Manager Anime Boston 2019
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