Programming ideas for Minicon 44

Current ideas for Minicon 44 programming.

This is a BRAINSTORM IN PROGRESS.

NOTE: this page is about to undergo a massive facelift, including lots more panel details! I backed up the old page here -- sharon

New Ideas (not yet categorized or even scanned for duplicates)

Ideas we talked about at New Years Party

• BOOZE AND SCI-FI

There are several directions that this could take: a workshop on creating (and more important, naming) new mixed drinks; serious discussion of single malt scotch (preferably with samples); or a panel of con bartenders sharing their favorite stories.

• THE LEGEND OF FORRY ACKERMAN

In memoriam for Forrest J. Ackerman, one of the founders of science fiction fandom.

Film Room

• Minicon Sarcasm Theater: let's get a bunch of fans in a room with a bad skiffy movie and encourage them to make sarcastic comments. (Note how well this meshes with the next item, not to mention with our limited film budget).
• 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.

Literature and skiffy concepts

• 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
• 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

Social Issues, Internet, Fandom

• 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.)
• I Am Not A Number (But I am a database entry) Living in a world where we are all data

Science

• 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 and publishing

• 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?

Media and comics

• THE MANY FACES OF BATMAN

Was there really any point in redoing The Joker with another actor after Jack Nicholson defined the character in the first Batman movie? Did Frank Miller go too far when he turned a beloved comics icon into a borderline psycho, or was it an improvement? Does the latest take on the Dark Knight pull its punches, or correct the balance?

• 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

Gaming and toys

• 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

Not exactly panels

• Arts vs. Crafts People who do both
• Knit Knacks Is there enough interest to do this again?
• Collage Workshop This item was always a hit; 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) - now we just need a topic!
• 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?
• Chess Tournament for Kids