Panel Scheduling at SF conventions:

[jeffreyab]

Prompted by a friend's post I had this thought about scheduling panels at conventions:

I think 1 hour panels with half hour breaks might work.

IE 9 to 10

10:30 to 11:30

12 to 1

1:30 to 2:30

Etc.

This gives panelists time between back to back panels.

Allows for over runs

Gives people time to go shopping or get something to drink and eat.

Comments

[encorecrazay.livejournal.com]

I still think 15 minutes is enough and I am also thinking 1 1/2 hour break at noon and 2 hours at 6PM for meals. Like that you would start programming at 9AM, most won't start until 10. Got to get back to my flight scheduling for January; may switch to come in on Wednesday to see the non-fan friends who are spread out over SE Michigan.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I agree on the supper break at 6 PM.

Huxters like having free time for fans to shop, Ontario Library Association does it this way at their annual convention.

Lunch I don't worry about so much as people can always find something to skip.

WFC needs a longer break for business lunches for sure.

[twoofdtm.livejournal.com]

I think I actually like the 30 minute breaks in between.

And, as encorecrazay said, the 1 and a half hour break for lunch and dinner is good.

Though, why can't we just ask what the guests would prefer? See if they like earlier lunches/dinner or later? How much time between each panel they'd like?

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

We usually try to give guests an hour for lunch around lunch time although not all at the same time. Also we try not to book them back to back because they tend to do more panels then anyone else.

You can't be TOO flexible, it leads to chaos.

[twoofdtm.livejournal.com]

Ahs, I can understand that.

*hugs for you*

[encorecrazay.livejournal.com]

But chaos is *fun*!

[twoofdtm.livejournal.com]

Chaos?!?!?! Chaos!?!?!?

I shall partake in this thing called chaos!!

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

Most conventions aren't close enough to shopping for a half-hour break to be able to get anywhere useful.

Nothing forces people to attend the program, and some people like programming to be available when they can go to panels. I think a half-hour break would kill the momentum of the convention; a bunch of people would just be standing around waiting for the next panel to start, and some of them would wander off to find something else to do.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Shopping in the dealers room and the art show/print shop was what I meant.

[elizilla]

A 15 or 30 minute break between panels, is too short to do anything much. If people do want to do something else, they'll just skip a panel. All that inserting these breaks into the schedule would do, is vastly reduce the number of panels you can hold during those magic hours between 11am and 5pm on Saturday when everyone wants to have their panel.

Who are you going to push to early morning / Friday / Sunday to make room for these breaks on Saturday? How will they feel about the attendance fall-off associated with these lesser timeslots?

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

If you reduce the number of panelists per panel, things should even out.

Don't dealers complain about no shoppers?

On the other hand there is much to be said for the 50 minute panel.

[albogdan.livejournal.com]

Marcon had 75 minute panels with 15 minutes between each. This worked out really well. It gave you time to get from one to the next and the extra 15 minutes of discussion was great in most panels.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

So nobody got confused by panels starting on the hour and the half hour?

[albogdan.livejournal.com]

I was surprised when I saw it in the program guide, but certainly not confused. I rather liked it.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I don't go to panels much. But, unless your panel space is wildly scattered accross the hotel, I don't think extra time between panesl buys you anything, and it definitely reduces the number, and therefor the variety, of panels you can offer.

If you do want to go with longer time slots, then 75/15 would probably be the way to go. Panels starting on the 1.5 hour should be well within the brain capacity of almost all fen.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Half an hour between panels isn't enough time to eat or hit the dealers' room. Unless panels are really far apart and people need the time to get there, a half-hour break means that people will be sitting around waiting for the next panel to start. Except they won't; they'll go away and find something else to do.

Lunch and dinner breaks are worse. You don't want to have large blocks of time with nothing for people to do. People don't all want to eat at the same hour, and if they did, the restaurant would be overcrowded at meal times and emptier the rest of the time; better for people to stagger their mealtimes.

Most people don't want to see something in every single timeslot, so it's easy to find time to eat or do other things.

[kgkofmel.livejournal.com]

I've seen both the half-hour break between 1 hour panels and the 1.25 hour panel with .25 hour break used here in Texas, with mixed success. If the con does not rigorously monitor and eject panels, the trend is to the panels expanding to fill the time "available" i.e., the time the room would be unoccupied. Net result: fewer panels, longer gaps for attendees when a timeslot has nothing of interest, no clearly visible benefit to dealers, unintended greater burden on panelists (what is supposed to be 2 one hour-panels with 30 minutes between turns into 2 1.5 hour panels back to back, and increased pressure on programming in implementing strong, diverse programming.

Do not take what professional or academic conferences do in their scheduling as directly applicable to SF cons. The purpose of the conference, the way the speakers are recruited and used, the fundamental difference in the nature of some of the presentations... these aspects and others strongly affect how program items are developed, scheduled, and attended.