So You Want To Be A Panelist?

I may not be the most experienced panelist, but I’ve made leaps and bounds in improving what I’ve debuted at cons and I think even a novice like myself can convey my background to people, especially if you don’t know how to go about it.

You should only do something you’re passionate about, or at least very enthusiastic in discussing. If your panel is on something you’re only moderately familiar with or not excited about, critics will say you didn’t do enough research or seemed unprepared or even uninterested. But if it’s a fandom, a medium, an activity, or otherwise something you really enjoy, then it’s a good bet that it’s a good fit for you, especially if you fervently research it. This way, you can have a lot of content to choose from, though that’s for another article.

Don’t do panels that are mere imitations of those you’ve seen. You want to try and put your own spin on it, especially if the format you saw isn’t something you really like. If the person did more of a discussion type panel, while you want to do something rooted in a presentation, then do that. A lot of my inspiration for doing panels was from seeing other people present, but I always had my own ideas at heart. If I wanted to do a Bleach fan panel, for instance, I’d take a template that works, but throw in something that’d be a bit unexpected, or was a sort of homage to another presenter’s feature they had done.

If you’re not a hugely social person, except at cons, don’t worry about being a bit anxious. I was definitely nervous my first time (less than a year ago) and all I can say is that you shouldn’t be worried about being mocked, since these are (mostly) your peers, sharing the same interest as you do; your panel topic.

One of the most important things is taking criticism well. No panel is perfect, no panel will run absolutely perfectly and a lot of that has to do with the audience, but the presenter is by no means without flaws either. Changing the panel layout or the presentations in some way can improve a panel, but it can also disrupt the flow that you may have originally had. My first real critic was a panelist who’s been doing this for about 7 years. She strongly emphasized that you have to keep people interested, which she felt I wasn’t doing. And that was a fair point. Being objective for your own panel can be hard, because you put a lot of work into it and it can still fall short of people’s expectations or even your own.

Don’t do a panel halfheartedly. You’re providing content for a convention; you get a discount or a free ticket because you are doing a service. If you feel that the panel isn’t quite up to what you want, delay it until another con. Doing practice presentations is a good way to gauge the reaction, though if you’re like me, you don’t have a huge amount of friends to test as an audience comparable to, say, 20-30 people in a room, or even as few as 10. Just talking to an imaginary audience can work just as well, especially if you’re just calculating how much time a panel takes, which is important and I’ll discuss that eventually.

A problem I’ve had, and still wrestle with, is having too many panel ideas that are either prepared or nearly there. I’ve been lucky to have as many as 5 of my panels, which were all that I applied for, accepted for MTAC 13, but it doesn’t always go that way. Yamacon 2012, for instance, accepted 3 out of 4 panels, which was fine, since it was a new one and even if they were desperate for content, a convention doesn’t usually grant a lot of hours to someone, especially if they want a diversity of panelists. Don’t take it as an insult, but simply that your panel may not be the only one of its kind. That can create issues as well, since, if you’re not the only one with a panel in mind, you may have to collaborate with others, a skill that is invaluable as a panelist in general, even if most of your panels are solo.

Conventions do give benefits of sorts to panelists as well, though you shouldn’t try to get in for free if you’re doing panels that aren’t all equally polished in quality. If you can only manage 3 hours and 5 hours gets you the free badge, don’t be discouraged, you’re still getting in for less than you originally paid for.

Overall, doing panels isn’t something for everyone to do, especially if you have a lot of other obligations. Being a co host is a compromise, since you can still be into a fandom, but just not have the management skills to prepare a presentation or template for your panel. My best friend has this problem, but if she had the time, I bet she’d be an excellent main host for panels that she wants to do.

Try not to overload yourself with preparing too many panels at once. I’d recommend starting with a maximum of 3 for your first con, though in my case, I did 4, 2 of them with co host assistance. Be aware of other obligations you might have, like entering in the cosplay contest or other big events, because the programming staff has to know this in order to schedule you accordingly.

There’s a lot more I could talk about, but I think this is a good starting point and I’ll definitely cover these points I’ve brought up and many more in future articles. Remember, being a panelist is a job, but it won’t pay the bills at first. This should be a hobby, not an avocation, first and foremost. Wait until you become an expert and well known to try to make money at this.

If you have any specific questions, you can email me at jcowan@sewanee.edu or muichimotsu@facebook.com

Article Written by: Jared Cowan