Assist the Programme

As explained in our introduction to the programme at Loncon 3, one of our aims for Loncon 3 is to have as diverse and interesting a programme as possible. To achieve this we need to have a wide variety of programme volunteers, recommendations and suggestions. We want to encourage people to sign up, especially if you feel you have a different angle, perspective or experience to offer. London is a diverse city, and we want to reflect that diversity in our programme. Of course, we are also a Worldcon, so we want to look beyond London, and we invite participants and programme ideas from all over the world.

Worldcons are very lucky that so many professionals attend who are willing to give up their time and volunteer for panels, but it is a misconception is that only experienced people or experts need apply, and the “best” participant in an item is not necessarily the professional or expert in a subject. Please do not disqualify yourself from participation before you’ve volunteered!

We plan to open our more detailed programme participation survey in the autumn of 2013. This will allow potential participants to select the general areas, themes, and subjects that they are interested in, as well as making specific suggestions, and this database of information will allow us to match participants with the most suitable panels. We can’t guarantee to place everyone on programme, but we’ll do our best to find you a match. (It is unlikely, though, that we will be able to reimburse panel participants.)

To volunteer now, and tell us about any particular experience, expertise and interests, please click through to this form and let us know.

We plan to open our more detailed programme participation survey later in 2013. This will allow potential participants to select the general areas, themes, and subjects that they are interested in, as well as making specific suggestions, and this database of information will allow us to match participants with the most suitable panels. We can’t guarantee to place everyone on programme, but we’ll do our best to find you a match. (It is unlikely, though, that we will be able to reimburse panel participants.)

We also want recommendations from you:
if you have seen someone or know someone you believe would be great on programme, please let us know with their details, and we will see if they’d like to get involved. And please use the same form to tell us about ideas you have for programme items or approaches you’d like to see us try at Loncon 3.

While we are aiming to have gender parity as well as diversity across our programme items, we accept that with six hundred items on a range of topics, and the complexities of scheduling them across five days, we are unlikely to achieve this on every single item. We feel that the best way to reach gender parity across our programming as a whole is to focus from the start on encouraging a wide range of diverse participants to volunteer and to suggest programme items and areas which interest them, and that this wider pool of participants will lead to a more gender-balanced programme.

Thanks in advance for your help.