Programming ideas for Minicon 44: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:26, 12 December 2008

Current ideas for Minicon 44 programming.

This is a BRAINSTORM IN PROGRESS. Nothing here is finalized. Nothing here is guaranteed.

B-List Movies: Cinema Obscura Ideas: Twilight Zone episodes, small indie sf films -- Is Metropolis public domain? The Thief of Bagdad -- the old silent one with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.

Futurists -- Are they still out there?
Empowerment of Children During War/Stressful Times Chronicles of Narnia, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, recent Dr. Who, others?
Adventures of Young Women Girls' adventures stories seem to be fantasy, rather than sci-fi or “normal” fiction (Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, Golden Compass)
New Interest in Old Tech Is this another way of saying “steampunk”?
The Future of Fashion: Fashion in the 31st Century Our idea of future fashion, or past ideas of future fashion; BladeRunner kind of broke that trend (that might be an interesting idea in and of itself)
The Future of Food Astronaut food, high-tech foodies, genetically modified food, vat-grown meat [Laramie]
Just Borges Just about Borges and his works
Genocide Narratives in SF and Fantasy
Let's Create a World Perhaps silly, perhaps serious (maybe do two different versions of the same panel?) -- Design it from basic geology, to chemistry, to biology, to intelligence, to civilization

Getting Back Into It - getting back into fandoms you've been absent from
Polyamory 101 The basics of open relationships, polyamory, etc.
What Do You Mean You Don't Know? I Posted it on LJ Navigating the social complexities of LiveJournal and toher social networking sites.
Emily Post for the LJ Set Unfortunately, she doesn't exist, so maybe we can hammer out a few rules of etiquette for livejournaling.
Drowning in Data Too much info at our fingertips
Time to Go Back to Typewriters? What About the Paperless Office?
Privacy in a World Full of Cameras Security cameras, satellite mapping, micro-cameras you can buy on the Internet.
Seniors on the Internet
Internet Vigilantes Scammer-baiters, but also hoax-spotters like Snopes, security activists
Non-English Fandom What fandom's like in countries where the main language isn't English. (And no, not just Japan, either.)

Secret Underground Physics Labs Something on Soudan? Other underground neutrino detectors/experiments
LHC First Light The first collisions there may well be during Minicon
Current Trends in Science If you had $700 billion, what would you put it into?
SETI in SF
Portrayal of Science/Scientists in Popular Media
The Future of Batteries or How Can I Ever Get a Multi-Shot Laser Weapon? Energy storage in the future
First Contact What else might we use beside radio waves? a message other than primes?
Intelligent Balloons Seems like one long-term fannish meme is intelligent jellyfish-like creatures living in the atmosphere of a Jovian planet. How plausible are such creatures, and why are they such a fixture of xenology?

Writing Historical Detail Getting your thread counts, cannonball weights and , Yes, it takes research. What else?
What Negative Emotions is it Okay to Evoke in Your Readers? What about making past memories come back painfully?
How Much of Social Contract Do Writers Have with Their Readers?
How To Not Get Depressed When You Work Alone
Balancing Writing and Family
Writers' Day Jobs
Harlequin Science Fiction panel You got your romance in my SF; no, you got your sf in my Romance
What It's Like to Have Your First Book Remaindered
Is There a Secret Handshake? Getting Your manuscript read and ready
Wikis as Literature There's a long history of wonderful worlds presented in a reference or non-fiction format -- Pure setting, no plot -- One logical extension of this is for authors to create beautiful multimedia wikis (perhaps by a single author, perhaps by collaborative effort) that people can explore, and maybe even expand, without the encumbrance of a plot or main characters -- would people pay for this? What examples already exist?

This Year in Film
Here Comes the Watchmen Movie! Maybe, if the lawsuits don't get in the way...
Minicon Sarcastic Theater Audience participation encouraged ala MSTK3000.
What’s Happening in Comics? Online comics, republished in trade paperbacks, graphic novels go mainstream.
SF Films Without SFX

The Secret RPG Gamer People who play RPGs but don't admit it
Board Games: What's new and cool (aka the Richard panel)
Info-dumping in RPGs How to do it right, how not to do it
Publishing your RPG How to go from basic idea to holding it in your hands to being a rich and famous RPG author. Okay, maybe not the last part.
The State of Lego What's new and cool in Lego bricks

Arts vs. Crafts People who do both
Knit Knacks Is there enough to do this again?
Collage Workshop This was popular in the past; is it still on sabbatical?
Blimp Races
Costuming How to get started, or some kind of workshop; working on historical detail in costume (or “future historical” detail)
Prep for Anticipation? Sci-Fi French, or useful French, etc.?
Texting Competition YA programming (or texting vs. Morse code)
There and Back Again Sci-fi quotes run through machine translation as a game show
Reading from Favorite Pulps
Dueling Roombas or Roomba Obstacle Course (Maze)
Some kind of game show or EPYC tournament or something
The Traveling Panel (same panel at Minicon, Convergence, Marscon, maybe Diversicon)
Opposable Thumbs Appreciation Part panel, part “workshop” on what it’s like not having opposable thumbs. Tentacles vs. thumbs -- how would society be different? Crossover appeal to children. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Guindon cartoons (huh?).
Storm-Chasing with Shauna Lecture, maybe slide show?

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 * '''Seniors on the Internet'''
 * '''Internet Vigilantes''' Scammer-baiters, but also hoax-spotters like Snopes, security activists
+* '''Non-English Fandom''' What fandom's like in countries where the main language isn't English. (And no, not just Japan, either.)
 ==Science==