Unofficial Feedback Sheet For Any and All Panels Ever

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You arrive wide-eyed and ready. This panel is going to be awesome! You’re going to get to hear experts and practicing creators speak intelligently about the craft and the industry. You’re going to get to sit a mere 50 feet away from the star of that show you love and maybe, just maybe, you’ll get to ask a question and the star will answer it and you’ll be so excited that you may leak a drop of fluid from one or more orifices. It’s going to be great you say as you walk into the room.

And, then, an hour later, you emerge a somewhat different person. You seen things (mostly the back of someone’s head); you’ve heard things (garbled things). But besides tweeting, texting, and IG, you’re not sure what to do with these feelings. You want someone to do something. Instead, you wander around the vendors’ booths looking for some of your lost innocence.

We’re here to help. We polled some folks post-panel and post-conference, crunched the numbers, compiled the data and came up with a feedback sheet that will help you express your feelings (and maybe, if we’re all lucky, be a force for positive change)

[title type=”h6″]At this panel, I felt (circle one or more):[/title][check_list]

• Seen
• Validated
• Sad
• Angry
• Invisible
• Marginalized
• Ignored

[/check_list]

[title type=”h6″]Things that could improve this panel should you decide to offer it in the future
(circle one or more):[/title]
[check_list]

• Coffee
• Working microphones
• Visual aids
• Panelist who arrive on time
• Discouraging rambling train of thought questions from the audience that just might be fiction noir performance art featuring an unreliable narrator

[/check_list]

[title type=”h6″]The panel was awesome in the following way(s):[/title]
[check_list]

• I learned something.
• I was able to ask a coherent question and have it answered.
• I heard about the future of a project I’m interested in.
• I was inspired and/or thought about the topics under discussion n a new way
• The atmosphere was so Black I felt like I was playing spades in my Uncle’s backyard (and all of the above is absolutely still true)

[/check_list]

[title type=”h6″]The panel was problematic in the following way(s):[/title]

[check_list]

• Panel addressed social issues without actually having representation from/by anyone whose life is impacted by those social issues. 1
• Audience was more knowledgable/ prepared than the panelists.
• Audience was NOT more knowledgable/ prepared than the panelists but the moderator aint put a stop to the bullshit.
• Panel was a thinly disguised infomercial for your website/content. Note that this is different than you standard plug; everybody gotta eat, but it was entirely possible that the Shazam dude was about to bust out on stage at any moment.
• One or more of the panelists was visibly under the influence of alcohol/drugs
• Title of panel was lightyears away from actual content of panel.

[/check_list]

I’ll go to panels at every con I go to because that’s my brand of nerdery, but there’s always room for improvement. We can start here.

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