** Tentative Topic list — subject to change without notice **

FAN001  Budget Tips For Con-Goers

How to get bang for your buck.  Save money while having loads of fun.

FAN002  Trivia For Chocolate

Panelists host a trivia contest with chocolate for the various winners.

FAN003  Science Fiction On Social Networking Sites

Whats out there besides the obvious? (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.)

FAN004  The Match Game

This has been done before in other cons and is always very fun and funny.  Audience members are selected as contestants and can win prizes by matching the answers that a panel has previously made.  Questions like Captain Kirk has the biggest ________ in Starfleet.

FAN005  Zen Scavenger Hunt

Panelists each bring 10 items.  Audience members ask for an item that one might ask for in a scavenger hunt.  Each panelist shows his/her object and explains why that object is what the audience is really looking for.

FAN006  Legendary Fan Parties

Panel members share their favorites (if they can remember them).

FAN007  When I Was First Going To Conventions…

Learn from some long time fans how things have changed over the years.

FAN008  So You Want To Run A Con…

A discussion of the different problems one runs into by being on a convention committee (ConCom).

FAN009  Ethics In Fandom

The fannish community accepts different values than the mundane world and this can also be seen in the material which is sold and traded throughout fandom. A discussion of the difference in the acceptance of fans and the business world.

FAN010  The Worst Programming Ever

How bad can bad be?  The panel will try to show using examples from far too many awful convention incidents.  Have fun, join the chaos, and learn something about what convention programmers and panel participants have to deal with during a con.

FAN011  This Is My First NASFiC

Panelists will introduce NASFiC and Worldcon to fans who havent been to one or both of these conventions.

FAN012  Why Are There Different Types Of Conventions?

Worldcon started out as a literature oriented event. Many regional and local conventions followed suit. Then came along specialty conventions for Star Trek, Star Wars, costuming, gaming, Japanese Animation / Anime, etc. Why did this happen? How have the new events affected the older ones?

FAN013  Why Do SF Fans Love The Legion Of Super-Heroes?

Theres lots of cross over between comics and science fiction / fantasy. Why is this true? Whats so special about the Legion?

FAN014  Blogs And E-Fanzines

Fans have written to each other for decades. As technology has improved fans have moved into the electronic versions of keeping in touch. How do they use these tools and what do they discuss?

FAN015  Myths Of Fandom

New fans hear these myths, so do non-fans (aka mundanes). What are these myths? Why do they perpetuate through society?

FAN016  Star Trek Fandom Today

The world of Star Trek Fandom is different today than it was in the ’60s and ’70s. What’s out there? What don’t I know about? How can I get more involved?

FAN017  Health And Todays Fandom

Because fans have such active inner, mental lives we sometimes neglect the physical bodies which encapsulate them. There’s a joke where someone sees a group of fans in a hotel and asks if it’s a convention for fat people. That’s not so funny but why are fans so out of shape? What are the psychological issues and how can we talk about things like the future or immortality, if we might not even make it to our next birthday? What can we do to take control over our health issues?

FAN018  Regional Fandom

What is fandom like in North Carolina and other states in the American South? How do they differ from other areas of North America (Canada, West Coast, Midwest, etc.)?

FAN019  Conventions: Butchering The Sacred Cows

Are Masquerades, Art Shows, Dealers Rooms, etc. really worth their cost in money and manpower? Or are they just so habitual that cons never think about getting rid of them? What would happen if a con did get rid of them? What would we replace them with?

FAN020  Whats New In Fanzines?

Panelists survey and review some of the best recent efforts.

FAN021 Revive Fandom’s Relevance To The 21st Century

This, in function and in form, should not be a panel but rather a town hall meeting. ALL members of the con are welcome.  Time scheduling for this should be flexible, as people will be coming in and out.  There should be a very strong moderator and a recording secretary to guide and control the room.  A paper should be complied of the proceedings by the Con Committee and should be sent out in the final con report. I envision people submitting their ideas on the subject, sustaining a few questions and then a move on to the next person.  Perhaps we lost our relevance sometime around the early nineties and stopped contributing to society or to the future.  Maybe all that Fandom offers to the 21st Century is wizards, elves, superheroes and vampires.  Have we become sickeningly introspective and are now accomplishing our demise by internal fragmentation?

FAN022 Heicon + 40 Reunion Panel

This panel can be billed as both a program item and an event.  It is important because it is history (West Germany
does not exist anymore) and Fan history.  There are many in Fandom who would like to know the story of Heicon antics first hand.  The panel should be made up of people who where there.  Many, but nowhere near a lot, are still with us.  Five panel members are needed but six would be better. Getting at least one non-American Heicon member would be great.  The scheduling should be Friday night or Saturday afternoon in a medium/large room. This will give the
audience and the fans a chance to get together after the program and talk.

FAN023 Says You SF

A fan-esque version of NPR’s greatest word game. Would need two teams of 3 to compete against each other.

FAN024 Fanzine in an Hour or So

A gathering of people to put out a ?zine in more or less one hour. Could easily be run in the Fanzine Lounge.

FAN025 Schmoozing

How to Network at a Con. Cons are exciting places to socialize. How do you talk to celebrities? Authors? Editors? How to avoid awkward?

FAN026 Why NASFiCs Matter

A discussion of the history of NASFiCs and how they relate to Worldcons and regional fandom.

FAN027 Upping Your Con-running Game

Learning more about running conventions. How to get more people involved in your committee. What SmofCon and other
con-running conferences can do for you.