The seasons of programming

I didn't want to call this "the programming schedule", because that's a completely different thing.

How do you do programming through the year? What's the programming calendar like? Here's how I (Rachel) do it.

At con

• Go to panels. Make notes. Figure out what's good, what works and what doesn't. Pay attention to how panelists interact with each other. See which people are good on panels, and who they're good with. When someone says "But that's another panel...", write down what they said. Many new ideas for panels will come to you at the con itself. Listen to people's feedback.

Throughout the year

• Keep a list of programming ideas. They will come to you at the strangest times. If possible, put them up on the website for the coming con so people can see that ideas are brewing.
• Be receptive to other people's ideas. Make your e-mail address available somehow to people who have ideas for Minicon. Put those ideas up on the web, too.

About four months before the con

• Prepare a document with all the current ideas on it. Every programming item should have a title, description, space for people to write their names in and space for notes.
• Using the above document, start asking people what panels and programming they'd like to be on. The main function is to start getting people to be on panels, but it also serves to get people thinking about Minicon and Minicon programming.
• Write down who has volunteered to be on what, and who has turned down what. Make notes about scheduling requirements ("Bob can't do anything Saturday", "Mary doesn't like morning panels") and other requests ("Don't put Bob on a panel with Mary", "This is Mary's second choice", "Bob is interested in a tangential topic, but not exactly this one", etc.).
• As people give you new ideas, write them down. Put them up on the web as often as possible.

I usually do these things starting at the MnStf Halloween party.

About three months before the con

• Meet with your programming minions. Go over the complete list of programming ideas and think of who would be good for what items. Figure out general groups you want to write to (authors, musicians, the Lady Poetesses from Hell, etc.) and contact them with lists of specific programming items you think they'd be interested in. Divvy up who will contact whom. Yes, programming is primarily a management job.
• Continue taking in ideas. Keep the web-page updated as often as possible.
• Start the process of contacting everyone who's been recommended for anything. This is by far the largest part of the job. It will take many, many hours of writing back and forth: asking people to be on things, asking again, getting corrections, taking input on descriptions, etc. It start off at about five hours a week and ramps up to about 20 a week in the month before the con.
• Keep track of whom you've asked about programming, and who has said they'd be on what (and who has said they won't be on what).

About two months before the con

• Make sure you know what everyone's time requests are, to the greatest extent possible. Some people like to be on four panels back-to-back; others want to be on nothing before 2pm; others need a two-hour break for lunch on Saturday; others want to be on no more than three panels throughout the weekend; others need to be on airplanes by noon on Sunday; etc.
• Also keep track of who's volunteered to moderate, who doesn't want to moderate, and who would be good to moderate.

About a month before the con

• Start hashing out the final panel compositions. Determine, with your programming sub-heads, who will work best with whom.
• Decide who the moderator for each panel will be. Ideally, this should be a question of writing to the people who you think would be good and asking them if they'd like to moderate. Unfortunately, responding back and forth in a timely fashion can be hard at the best of times, and as the crunch starts coming, you may be tempted to just assign people as moderator (hopefully helped by having earlier asked who would be willing to moderate).
• Determine roughly how big a draw each programming item will be. Your best guess is as good as it gets; there will always be panels that end up more popular or less popular than you guessed. A couple rules of thumb, though: anything with a Guest of Honor on it will be much better attended than anything without; and things that lots of people wanted to be on will generally also be well attended.
• Start hashing out the final schedule (that is, what panels will go into what time-slots). This entails balancing everyone's scheduling requests, finding rooms of the correct size for each (as determined above) and making sure no one has conflicts. Don't schedule a person for two things at the same time, of course. Also try to avoid putting married couples on panels together, and if they have kids who need attention, avoid putting them opposite each other in the same time-slot (someone has to be available for childcare). Try not to schedule your Guests of Honor too tightly, and leave them time to eat meals.

About two weeks before the con

• Give the head of publishing the final (well, as final as you can make it) programming schedule and descriptions. They will use this for the Program Book and Pocket Program.
• Print up some BIG copies of the final schedule. One can go in the Green Room, and others can go up on the walls in the convention space. The pocket program should have the schedule in it, but huge versions are also very handy.
• Print up the badge labels. What are badge labels, you ask? They're little sticky labels that panelists can stick to the backs of their badges to remind them when their panels (and other programming) are. They should therefore include the following information: Who the label is for; which programming items they're on; when the programming items will happen. If there's space, you may also want to include the descriptions for the panels. How do you distribute the badge labels? Some people say you should just stick them directly on participants' badges during the registration packet-stuffing process; others say you should distribute them in the Green Room, so that participants can affix them how they like (or not at all, if they prefer).

About a week before the con

• E-mail every programming participant with their final schedule. Mention when and where each programming item they're scheduled for will be, and give the descriptions and final panel composition for each. Also ask them to be early if possible, and mention how you intend the Green Room to be used, where it is and what its hours are.

About three days before the con

• Panic. This is about the time that three people you desperately wanted to be on various panels will finally get back to you and say they'd like to be on all of them, but they all have to be Friday night. And you will inevitably find that you've scheduled Mary for three panels, simultaneously, on Sunday morning even though she's only going to be at the con on Friday.
• Print up table tents.
• Get together the other supplies you'll need.

At the con

• Be available for all the little emergencies that will crop up. Think on your feet.
• Do all the other stuff you should do at the con.