CONfabulation

Submissions for programming for Virtual CONfabulation are officially open! They will run from July 1st through July 31st. Submit your ideas for the programming you want to see at the con; we can't wait to hear them! If you need help fleshing out ideas or want to find other fans to be part of your panel or group discussion, or help run your workshop, head on over to our brainstorming post! You don't need a Dreamwidth account to comment. You can also join our Discord to brainstorm or just chat!

Our submission form can be found here, along with some information on types of programming you can submit. You can submit a maximum of four topics in total! You can choose to run your programming alone or have up to four presenters in total.

If you're wondering if you have to be registered to submit programming, the answer is no, but you do need to be registered in order for your program to be chosen! Registration is now open, so why not register today?

You can find a list of all the programming that has been submitted here, in the order in which it was received. We will try to keep this list updated daily. If your submission has not appeared on this list and you haven't received a confirmation email within 48 hours of submitting, please contact us.

The con will work the same way as Virtual CONfab 2020, with programming hosted over Zoom and Discord. If you want some tips and tricks for running a virtual con program before submitting, check out this post on our website.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment on this post, or email the Programming team at programming@confabcon.com.

The votes are in and counted, and here is the list of programming that's been accepted for Virtual CONfab 2020! If your submission is listed below, you should have received an email from the programming team with some information we need from you to finalize stuff and get you on the schedule. If you have any questions, please reply to that email or just reach out to us at programming@confabcon.com. And if you're looking for people to help you run your program, check out our Discord! Now, without further ado, here's what we've got coming up:

Single Fandom:
Dragonfucking 2020
MCU: The Billion Dollar Elephant In The Room
Murder Family Through The Centuries [The Old Guard]
Queer Romance Book Club
Starfleet Legal Principles 201
The Untamed: All the hair and all the feels

Multi-Fandom:
An Incest Panel Is My Present This Year
Ask A Tag Wrangler!
Canon, Fanon, Fever Dream
Does Binge Kill Fandom?
Fandom History
Fanfic Trope Showdown
Fannish Pictionary
How to Fandom Discord
How Well Did ApocaFic Prepare Us For 2020?
Law in Science Fiction and Fantasy Worlds
Our Monster Boyfriends
Random Fandom Lightning Round!

Workshops:
Advanced Fic Finding
Crafting for Fandom
Playing D&D Online
Wheat Googling 201: Research for Fic

Keep an eye on our twitter for some more details on these programs in the next couple of weeks. The schedule will be going live in mid-October, so stay tuned for that as well. And while you're here, why not register for this year's con? It's free! We can't wait to see you all (virtually) on November 7th and 8th!

Ever thought, "I wish I could attend a panel about..." or, "I wish I could find other people who like..." Now's the time to make it happen! There's one more week to submit your programming ideas for Virtual CONfab 2020! Instructions on how to submit can be found here.

Have a panel idea but no title? Want to grab a copanelist or two? Need someone to help moderate? Or have a vague idea and need help fleshing it out? Come join our programming discussions on Discord or Dreamwidth for assistance!

Programming submissions are open through September 4th!

Programming submission time is here! We will be accepting submissions starting on Monday, August 3, 2020 and closing on Friday, September 4, 2020 for two tracks of programming. After the submission period ends, programming will be voted on and chosen by you, the attendees.

All programming will run in 45 minute time slots with 15 minute breaks in between. All programming can have multiple presenters, and the con will provide a volunteer to assist with modding, monitoring the chat, etc. Here's a handy guide to the types of programming we have to get you started:

• Multi-fandom Topics — Programming about a topic that applies to multiple fandoms (soulmate AUs, vintage fandoms, found families, diversity in genre TV, femslash, incest) or a more general fandom universe that has multiple smaller fandoms that fall under its umbrella (Video Games, Anime, K-Pop, Hockey, the MCU, DCEU/DC TV). Previous topics have included boy bands, queer animated shows, fandom history, Star Wars, and the apocalyptic media.


• Single-fandom Topics — Programming about a single fandom (like The Old Guard, The Untamed, Good Omens, or The Mandalorian), or a niche topic within fandom.


• Workshops — Programming where attendees get a chance to learn something new or hone their skills. Past workshop topics have included things like live beta reading, cross-stitch, fandom stitch 'n bitch, making fannish plushies, tabletop RPGs 101, and more, but they can be about anything you're interested in! If you submit a proposal for a workshop, you must be willing to run it. Workshop sessions also run for forty-five minutes, but if you feel like your workshop would benefit from more time, please let us know!

We look forward to hearing your amazing ideas for programming! Help make our first Virtual CONfab an awesome experience! We will be accepting submissions for all types of programming from everyone, whether you have registered for the con yet or not (but why not register, it's free!). This is your chance to get the programming you want by submitting your ideas. What are you excited about? Share it with the group!

Comment on this post with your programming ideas and questions. Find friends and strangers to help you flesh out your ideas, or offer assistance in planning your presentation, just make sure you get your submissions in before September 4th!

The comments on this post will be open throughout the submission period, so feel free to use it as a resource and a sounding board for new ideas that you want a second opinion on before submitting. We can't wait to see what you come up with. We also have a dedicated channel on our Discord to talk about programming ideas, so come join us there if you'd like!

If you have any questions, please leave a comment on this post, or email the Programming team at programming@confabcon.com. We’re happy to be a sounding board!

Today, our series on How to Run Programming comes to an end! Today's post will give you some actual examples of workshops run by our attendees and how they planned them. Because your mod has limited internet access today, we invite everyone to post their notes in the comments and the post will be edited with the links tomorrow.

If you've hosted a workshop at CONfab, Wincon, or any other fan cons, and you'd like to share any notes you put together to prepare or advice you have for people who are new to running programming, please link them in the comments!

As always, we're happy to answer any questions you may have, so leave us a comment on our DW post, or send an email to programming@confabcon.com.

And don't forget tomorrow's the last day to submit your programming ideas, which you can do at this link!

It's Day 4 of our series on how to run programming! Yesterday, we put up this post with some tips and tricks to help you with hosting a group discussion. For today's post, I've included the notes from a few of my own group discussions, since I've run a lot of them.

Group discussions generally focus on one single fandom (or trope or more narrowly focused topic). When I've run group discussions, I generally write down a few things that I want to discuss, as well as some leading questions to ask the group if we have time. Some examples for you:

Stranger Things (CONfab 2017):
(This discussion was held between S1 and S2)

• The Stephen King-esque vibe of the whole series. This show feels like it could be an adaptation of a King or similar book from that era.
• All of the 80s pop culture references and how spot on the 80s vibe was.
• Characters and relationships (how much do we love Hopper? *__* how great are all of those kids?)
• The ending!!
• #justiceforbarb
• Things to ask the group: what drew you to the show, what do you want to see in S2, favorite part of S1

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (CONfab 2017):

• Tone, setting, clothes, etc. Talk about the look of the show.
• Jack/Phryne y/y/mfy?? Their working relationship, possible romance, etc.
• Evolution of Dot's character over the three seasons
• Character relationships (Dot and Miss Fisher, Miss Fisher and Mac, Hugh and Dot, Miss Fisher and the police, etc.)
• The possible movie!!
• Things to ask the group: favorite episode/arc, favorite character, why you started watching the show

Podcasts (CONfab 2018):

• Types of podcasts you listen to
• How you got into listening to them
• Fiction vs. Non-Fiction
• Recommend some podcasts to the group

If any of you have your own examples, please leave them in the comments! We'd love both actual notes from a group discussion and advice/things you like to do for your own group discussions. I'll update this post later on with links to whatever we receive.

As always, we're happy to answer any questions you may have, so leave us a comment or send an email to programming@confabcon.com. :D

Welcome to Day 2 of our series on how to run programming! Yesterday, we put up this post with some tips and tricks to help you with modding a panel. Today's post is going to give you some actual examples of real panels run by our attendees and how much or how little pre-planning they put into them. Special thanks to the attendees who sent us their notes; we really appreciate it!

Panel Prep Notes:

• Fandom History: From Zines to AO3 (CONfab 2018 - via ifshehadwings)
• Horror/Genre Panel (Wincon 2010 - via clex_monkie89)
• Let them eat cake! Asexuality in Fandom (Wincon 2015 - via often adamanta)
• Marvel Cinematic Universe (CONfab 2017 - via chaneen)
• Various 2018 Panels Modded by countessmry (CONfab 2018 - via countessmry)

Everything has been uploaded to gdocs and should always be accessible to you if you want to reference anything. If you've run programming at CONfab, Wincon, or any other fan cons, before and would like to share any notes you put together to prepare, please link them in the comments of this post! Also, if you have any advice for people who are new to running panels that was helpful to you, feel free to comment with that as well.

As always, we're happy to answer any questions you may have, so leave us a comment or send an email to programming@confabcon.com. :D

Submissions for programming for our third CONfabulation are officially open! They will run from today, April 8th, through June 30th. Submit your ideas for the programming you want to see at the con; we can't wait to hear them! If you need help fleshing out ideas or want to find other fans to be part of your panel or group discussion, or help run your workshop, head on over to our brainstorming post! You don't need a Dreamwidth account to comment.

Our submission form can be found here, along with some information on types of programming you can submit. You can submit a maximum of four topics in total (multi-session or multi-hour workshops on the same topic count as one submission)! You and up to 3 other fans can be on a panel together (this includes a moderator, as panels cap out at 4 panelists), and if you would like CONfab to help you find a moderator, let us know on the form! We'd be happy to help.

If you're wondering if you have to be registered to submit programming, the answer is no. If you haven't had time to purchase your ticket yet, don't worry, you can still fill out the submission form. (Registration information is available here!)

You can find a list of all the programming that has been submitted here, in the order in which it was received. We will try to keep this list updated daily. If your submission has not appeared on this list and you haven't received a confirmation email within 48 hours of submitting, please contact us.

Stay tuned throughout the submission period for more posts from us, including some info on how panels, group discussions, and workshops work at CONfab, for those of you who are interested in doing some programming but haven't done so before.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment on this post, or email the Programming team at programming@confabcon.com.

Hello fellow fanpersons, your Programming Team here with some announcements!

Programming submission time is here! We will be running submissions starting on Friday, June 1st and closing on Sunday, July 15th. We will be accepting submissions for any of our three tracks of programming: one track of panels, one of group discussions, and one of workshops. After the submission period ends, programming will be voted on and chosen by you, the attendees.

Here's a handy guide to the types of programming we have to get you started:

• Panels — Programming about a topic that applies to multiple fandoms (AUs, tropes, kink, horror TV, the representation of women in canon, etc.) or a more general fandom universe that has multiple smaller fandoms that fall under its umbrella (Comics, Sports RPF, Video Games, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The CW's DC verse, etc.). Panels run for one hour, and can have up to 4 panelists, including a moderator, whose job is to keep discussion moving, and ensure that the panel stays within established time limits. If you don't want to mod your own panel, we can find someone to help you.
• Group Discussions — Programming about a single fandom (Yuri on Ice, Check Please!, Critical Role, Overwatch, Stranger Things, D&D, etc.), or a niche topic within fandom. Group Discussions can be run by one person, but can have up to 2 panelists. They run for one hour and are in a round table format.
• Workshops — Programming where attendees get a chance to learn something new or hone their skills. Workshop topics could include things like live beta reading, art tips and tricks, or making fannish plushies. If you submit a proposal for a workshop, you must be willing to run it. Workshop sessions run for one hour, but you may offer more than one session of your workshop across multiple days, or request a single day session of longer than one hour (in one hour blocks, only).

We look forward to hearing your amazing ideas for programming! Help make CONfab an awesome experience! We will be accepting submissions for all types of programming from everyone, whether you have registered for the con yet or not. This is your chance to get the programming you want by submitting your ideas. What are you excited about? Share it with the group!

Comment on this post with your programming ideas and questions. Find friends and strangers to help you out, and get ready to submit your proposals starting on June 1st! A new post will go up with submission instructions and a link to the submission form on Friday, June 1st.

The comments on this post will be open throughout the submission period, so feel free to use it as a resource and a sounding board for new ideas that you want a second opinion on before submitting. We can't wait to see what you come up with.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment on this post, or email the Programming team at programming@confabcon.com.