If you are scheduled to participate in a panel, information about how to participate will come directly from our Panel Programming team!
- contact: panels@wiscon.net
- Deadline to submit a program idea: January 7
- Deadline to complete panel interest survey: March 10
- Deadline to accept/decline panel assignments: April 8
WisCon is famous for panel programming that’s full of great conversation, that covers a spectrum including the hilarious and the intensely political — far more than you’ll be able to fit in during one weekend (sorry!). Our panels celebrate our Guests of Honor, delve into discussions of gender, race, disability, and class, and explore every aspect of science fiction from current books and film to transformative works to fandom itself.
We are committed to being flexible and accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that there may be fewer panels than is usual for this upcoming 2022 con, though still a multitrack schedule of the kind familiar from WisCons past. We are also planning online panels, and organizing many ways that WisCon will be just as fun, if not as overwhelmingly scheduled, this year.
Who’s on our panels? You are — the members of the convention, including professional authors, detail-loving academics, and attentive fans.
Programming Timeline
WisCon programming is developed in stages, all heavily influenced by our participants and attendees.
Idea Collection: We collect ideas throughout the year and close idea submission in mid-January. We receive many hundreds of ideas, so we’re forced to cut, combine, or postpone some because we simply don’t have the space to run them all.
Participant Signup: In February we open up the list of potential panels as a survey so members can let us know their interest in ideas and so they can volunteer to be panelists or moderators.
Scheduling and Program Assignments: Using the participant sign-up information, we determine which items will be scheduled, who will be assigned to them and when, and in what room they will happen. Participants receive an email confirming the details of their assignments A first cut at the schedule generally goes out to program participants in early April.
Program Assignments: By late April we’re able to publicly reveal the full program schedule. Minor adjustments will continue to be made even into the convention itself (e.g., a panelist may need to leave a panel), but the schedule we reveal in late April is 99% final!
How Long Do These Programs Last?
The standard program time slot is one hour and 15 minutes (75 minutes), followed by a 15-minute break until the next program. No one is going to actually kick anyone out of a program room during the 15-minute break, but remember that break is your chance to use the restroom or run up to the Con Suite! Continuing our tradition of supporting our convention attendees’ need to eat meals without missing programming, lunch and dinner breaks are scheduled at 11:30am-1pm and 5:30-7pm.