Escapade friends, the deadline to suggest panel topics for Escapade 2018 is fast approaching!  You have until 12/22 (just over two weeks away) to submit your ideas for fandom-specific, meta, and tech, and alternative programming.

New to Escapade and unsure how this whole panel thing works?  This post will help:

Escapade 2018 Panel Suggestions Are Open!

And check out the panel programming page on the Escapade website for more info, including video of a panel filmed during Escapade 2016:

Panels

Click the “Suggest a Panel” link on that page to submit your ideas.  On the panel submission form page, click on the “List of Panel Suggestion” tab to see what your fellow Escapade members have already suggested.

This is your chance to make sure Escapade 2018 includes the conversations YOU want to have!

Did you know that you can already start submitting your ideas for Escapade 2018 panels?  The submission form is open and waiting for your meta, your squee, your outrage, your knowledge, your skills, and your questions.  Is there a panel you wanted to submit last year or at another con, but you missed your chance?  Have that conversation with your Escapade friends this year!  Is there a panel at last year's Escapade that you just haven't been able to stop thinking about, and you want to continue that conversation, or rebut it, or take it in a new direction? Now is your chance! Been following a conversation online that you know some Escapade members are missing?  Bring it to it Escapade!  Have you discovered a new technology or learned a new skill that would be useful for fandom?  Submit a panel and teach us all about it! 

Escapade has long been known as a meta-oriented con, with a reputation for thinky and sometimes controversial panels. There is always room for fannish squee, for panels that provide a space for wallowing in our shared enthusiasm, and we love skill-sharing and knowledge-sharing panels and fans helping fans.  But we don't shy away from difficult topics and we really welcome panels that get people's brains engaged and fannish blood pumping.

Escapade panels are also not like "panels" as they occur at traditional literary science-fiction and fantasy cons, or larger industry-oriented cons like ComicCon or DragonCon.  At Escapade, a panel is a moderated discussion.  The moderator's role is to frame a discussion, to facilitate it and make sure the attendees get to engage and participate, and to document it in whatever way seems appropriate.  The moderator(s) are up front taking notes on a flip chart, but often they speak less than anybody else in the room! In an Escapade panel, the attendees engage with each other, with the topic, and with the mods, and everybody creates the conversation together.

For a taste of what an Escapade panel feels like, check out the Escapade YouTube channel to view an Escapade panel filmed in 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbP7x4SSk84jGvsNslklg8Q

So what's on your minds, Escapade friends?  What do you want to talk about at this year's Escapade?  Which shows or showrunners have made you the most excited this year and why?  Which have pissed you off and made you want to write all the fic and vid all the vids and create all the art to fix their ridiculous mistakes and terrible choices?  Which fandoms are doing something new, saying something new, making something new?  Which fandoms are toxic dumpster fires of wank that need some panel therapy or a panel cage match to fight it out?  Still having Deep Fannish Thoughts about that fandom you've loved since 1985? Submit a panel and see who else might still be thinking about it, too!  Now is the time to start making Escapade 2018 the con experience you want to have!

Check out the panel programming page on the Escapade website:

https://escapadecon.net/panels/

Submit your panels (and toggle the tab to view topics already submitted):

https://escapadecon.net/panels/suggestions/?target=suggest-a-panel

It’s up!  The panel schedule, that is.  Go check it out and make your plans now on where you want to be and what you want to talk about!!

https://escapadecon.net/schedule/

It’s voting time!  The Escapade panel ballot is open now and will close at midnight PST on Friday, February 3.

https://escapadecon.net/panels/

Tell us which conversations you’d like to see on the schedule!  You can also volunteer to moderate panels when you vote, and remember:  panels with moderators are more likely to make the final cut.

Have a hot topic you weren’t able to submit before the suggestion deadline?  Just now struck by inspiration? You have one last chance to submit a panel using the “Write In Panel Suggestion” tab.

Vote now and help make Escapade the convention YOU want to attend!

Art Show 2016 Call for Entries!

Escapade Art Show registration is now open!
https://escapadecon.net/programming/art-show/

The Escapade Art Show wants YOU to submit something this year! The 
people who attend the convention are a talented group with a wide 
variety of interests - let's celebrate our talents and fannish loves!

On-line registration is open until Monday, February 22, 2016.  Please 
help us test out the new system!  For those last-minute inspirations, 
walk-in submissions will be accepted Friday afternoon during art check-in.

Need some ideas?
* Artistic abilities peaked in elementary school? Glitter and 
construction paper are an under-rated medium! If you had a good time 
making it, then it belongs in the show!
* Are you a crafter? Clay sculpture, jewelry, dolls - you name it, we 
want to see it!  All art is valued!
* Are you a cook? Baked goods and preserves with a fannish connection 
are welcome!
* Not willing to part with the fabulous thing you just made? That's OK! 
The art show welcomes art for display only.
* Not enough time before the con? Offer your services to make something 
for the highest bidder! Just give us a piece of paper explaining what 
sort of commissions you're willing to offer (art, vid, gif, etc).  We 
would be ecstatic to auction off a vidder, er, I mean auction off a 
vidder's services.

~~~~~

Panels, panels everywhere!
Now we need more mods!

We have collated the initial list of panels, based on voting by members 
like you. Several of the most popular panels need one or more mods to 
sign on, in order to make it on to the final schedule. Check out the 
panel cut here, and then email us to let us know which you'd like to 
moderate or co-moderate.

Panel cut link:
https://escapadecon.net/programming/panels/panel-cut/

~~~~~

Vid Show Deadline

Just to give all the vidders a little breathing room, the deadline has 
been extended to February 6, midnight PST. Remember that the vidshow 
details can be found here: https://escapadecon.net/programming/songvid-show/

~~~~~

The Escapade Scholarship Drive

1. Contribute to the Scholarship Fund
The Escapade scholarship works because it's like the rest of Escapade: 
you make it work. Your contributions have supported many attendees over 
the years, from maintainers of fannish archives, lists, and communities 
to fanfic writers and vidders. Scholarships introduce new fans to 
Escapade, and bring back long-time attendees who may have fallen on hard 
times.

Please donate to the fund. You can contribute by Paypal (to 
info@escapadecon.net), by check (made out to Escapade; send to 264 Santa 
Monica Way, Santa Barbara, CA 93109), or by pledge via email to 
info@escapadecon.net  (You must be an attendee to pledge; you can pay 
when you arrive at registration.)

Any amount you can give, from $10 to $10,000, helps tremendously. It 
helps attendees who couldn't otherwise make it; it helps programming, 
because scholarship recipients volunteer and co-moderate panels; it 
helps your karma. As always, 100% of your contributions go directly to 
recipient expenses like airfare, hotel, and food expenses, if needed.

2. Nominate a Potential Scholarship Recipient
Now it's time to check the registration list at the web site, and 
consider who isn't on it. Are they skipping due to unforeseen financial 
stresses? It's time to think about a fan who has never been to Escapade 
but who you know might love it.

In the same way you create the scholarship fund through donations, you 
create the scholarship recipients through nominating people. Go to the 
Escapade website: https://escapadecon.net/programming/escapade-scholarship/
and share a little about the scholarship nominee. We will do the rest, 
and announce scholarship recipients at the con.

Escapade panel voting results: https://escapadecon.net/programming/panels/panel-voting-results/

Check out the voting results so far and the write-in panels that have been suggested, then use the button at the bottom of that page to submit your own write-in suggestions.

And don’t forget to vote before midnight PST, January 25!

Hi Escapade Members!

A few new tidbits of information on alternate programming:

1. Alternate programming has been added to the online schedule. List below. There are still a few spots “available” on the schedule. They’re up for grabs!


2. Orphan Panel: We need some stuff… (aka the lube panel) We are very sad that the original mod is not able to attend. She’s willing to share her notes if someone will adopt this panel. Time: Sunday 11 AM (after the art auction)

The Escapade Genius Lounge is open for sign-ups. As in years past, people who Know Things volunteer to show people who Don’t Know Things how to use social media tools, e-readers, and computer technology.

Are you a mistress of Pinterest? Tumblr? Are you a vidder willing to share your tricks of the trade? Do you know other new social media platform(s) or tools like mention.com to find out where your fandom is playing? This is your opportunity for you to share what you know with other fans who really want to learn. You will be able to select the hour(s) you’d like to volunteer after you have seen the panel schedule, so you won’t miss any con event you want to attend.

If you would like to volunteer, please email Ellie at ellie@escapadecon.net and tell her what you feel proficient at. (Remember, many fans are Luddites and will be grateful if you show them where the “login” button is. You’re probably more of a genius than you think.)

Ellie will contact you after the panel schedule is posted, and help you decide what sign-up hours to choose.