[penguicon-general] A couple of thoughts about programming

[Catherine Olanich Raymond]

This year's Penguicon had a boat load of program items of a bunch of different 
kinds. Some cons refer to similar types of items as program "tracks."  I was 
thinking today about the "tracks" we had, and a few we *might* want to 
consider adding for 6.0.  

By my count (which could easily be wrong) these are tracks we had:

*  Technical Track (items about Linux, or computer/technological issues);

*  SF Track (items about fannish stuff);

*  Martial Arts Track (courtesy of Aegis, mostly, but I thought I saw at least 
one Tai Chi workshop, so that adds to the variety);

*   Food Track  (impressively successful; the Dark Chocolate Tasting ended 
after about 40 minutes because 9 of the 12 varieties of chocolate I brought 
to sample were already all gone);

*   Gaming Track --i.e., special events associated with gaming.  This 
included, impressively, not only Celebrity Munchkin and the slate of GMed 
games but also the miniatures workshops.  It might, or might not, be 
interesting to add a few gaming-related panels to the schedule too.  (E.g., 
a "new developments" or "upcoming products" panel, which maybe some game 
manufacturers would want to do).

And here are a few tracks it might be worth adding:

*  A costuming track.  We had, I think, two costuming panels.  Possibly there 
isn't more demand for more, but it may be worth checking out.

*  A science track.  Neat developments in the world of science.  A good number 
of the General Technics folk are professional scientists (Bill Higgins, 
Jordan Kare, Charles Lane, Brother Guy, to give a few examples off the top of 
my head) and have given panels/talks at SF conventions in the past.  

*  An anime track.  Since the anime room was so dead this really may not be 
worth doing.  If we feature an anime GOH next year, we may want to consider 
supporting him/her with some related panel items.

*  A music track?  This should, I think, include filking, but could include 
performances by pro and semipro musicians (not just The Great Luke Ski, 
please!) or even panels about things like the history of filking or 
music/technology crossover issues (e.g., DRM).

We already have a bunch of workshops (writing, belly dance, martial arts, 
minatures) and I think this is a trend to continue, though I think it would 
be inappropriate to consider them a "track" per se.  

May as well do some brainstorming while everybody's still high on the sucess 
of the con....

-- 
Cathy Raymond <cathy at thyrsus.com>

"You've got to have the proper amount of disrespect for what you do."  
-- George Mabry