Can we please just stop having guests of honor from now on?

[nemorathwald]

I am successfully resisting the urge to chew out a Guest of Honor. "I forgot about you and wouldn't answer your emails until today. But can I put a couple of talks on the schedule?" Fuck yes you can get on the schedule, and justify the UTTERLY WASTED money we are spending to fly you out. Never mind that the book is due to the printer in two hours. FUCK YOU, CELEBRITY BIG-SHOT. I DO NOT HONOR YOU.

Comments

[plasmonicgrid.livejournal.com]

Should have said "nope, we didn't hear from you or your agent for many months.. perhaps Mr Wheaton would be sympathetic to your plight."

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

[blue-duck.livejournal.com]

:-)

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

That sounds to me like the track head and the GOH liaison need to step up their game.

Did they try media other than email?

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

A big part of this is that those positions consistenly fall down.

[twoofdtm.livejournal.com]

Suck and ouch.

Sorry I wound up being no help with the program book. Time kept getting away from me.

[etain.livejournal.com]

I am sorry> That sucks.

That *Does* Suck

[shawnp0wers.livejournal.com]

Sorry man. I'm usually late, but not THAT late. Sheesh.

Re: That *Does* Suck

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Let me float something out there and see what you think. What if we made the schedule in the last month, when people actually pay attention? In order to do that, one thing we would need to do is get rid of the paper schedule book, due to the time it takes to manufacture a physical artifact. We would just have an electronic version, a printed table-format schedule brochure, and the master wall schedule. And, nobody would know what is happening at Penguicon until a few weeks out. (Kind of like now, except with less anger.)

Is that worth it?

Re: That *Does* Suck

[shawnp0wers.livejournal.com]

That sounds perfectly acceptable to me. It seems most conferences end up with an inaccurate printed book, sadly. The laser-printer "just printed this morning" sheets are usually what I look for personally. Either that or an online copy (PDF or google calendar type thing).

The only problem might be if sponsors pay to be in the book, and I can't recall if the Penguicon booklet has sponsors in it or not. Which may actually speak to its usefulness, if I can't remember what the booklet looks like...

-Shawn

Re: That *Does* Suck

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Well, that's the great thing. For the past few years I've separated it into a Schedule Book that has the schedule, and a Souvenir Book with ads and other non-late-breaking stuff.

Re: That *Does* Suck

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Is it really that hard to get a schedule done before the last month?

Something is wrong because for ConFusion I used to be able to get a schedule done by the end of October about three months out.

It was my goal for last year until a couple of medical emergencies got in the way.

Re: That *Does* Suck

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Jeffrey, this is due to the radically different structure between Penguicon and ConFusion. Since Penguicon is more diverse (and has vastly more programming), it uses a team of track heads to assemble unrelated tracks. With ConFusion, it's normal for there to exist one available person who possesses sufficient knowledge of the main topic-- science fiction and fantasy literature. There exists almost no one who can assemble literature, technology, comedy music concerts, board/card/roleplaying games, science, Do-It-Yourself, costuming (not just masquerade, but a panel/workshop track), anime, webcomics, movies/comics/TV, ecology, cooking demos, and even discussion panels about video gaming. We even have one guy whose only job is to work on the miscellaneous category.

Re: That *Does* Suck

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

What we used to do and Polaris a big multi-track media SF con in Toronto also did was gather all the tracks heads and related concom in one room to hammer out the schedule using a blank wall and lots of post its. Its allows a big picture view of the schedule that you cannot get from a spreadsheet. This is done well before the convention happens, with pizza.

It also helps to have a modular approach tracking as many panels on the same theme in the same room through the day.

Re: That *Does* Suck

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Several heads of programming have done that in the past for Penguicon. It worked.

This year, there were no programming team meetings at all, to my knowledge. No one took ownership.

Re: That *Does* Suck

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

That had better change for next year when Penguicon moves to the Big House in Dearborn.