Below you will find a list of all of the programming that has been submitted for Virtual CONfab 2023, in alphabetical order by submission title. They are also available in this spreadsheet, in the order in which they were submitted.
You can cast your vote for submissions you’d like to see, at this link.
Voting will run from Saturday, March 4 through Saturday, March 11 at 10PM Eastern.
Quick Links:
Single Fandoms
Title: C31 MDE in Macrodata Refinement: A Severance Panel
Fandom: Severance
Description: Change your wristwatch and step into the elevator so we can speculate on the what, how, and why of Severance.
Dylan: Okay, if our Outies are up there severing their brains, shit must have gotten pretty bad. Famine, plagues, etc. So, what is a desperate humanity to do?
Helly: Populate the sea?
Dylan: Populate the sea. But first, they gotta send probes down to the sea to clean up all the deadly eels and shit, ’cause we can’t cohabitate with that. So, we send the probes down, they send us the data coded, we sense what’s eels, and then we tell the probes what to blow up.
Title: F***ery Part Two: OFMD
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Description: Our Flag Means Death remains awesome and Season Two is getting closer on the horizon (or green screen). Let’s talk it through as a crew, and speculate (no spoilers) on what fuckeries the future may hold.
Title: Full of Woe: Wednesday and the Queer American Gothic Romance
Fandom: Wednesday
Description: With her signature pigtails, deadpan expression, and devotion to the macabre, the enigmatic Wednesday Addams is one of the most famous goth icons in the history of American pop culture. But the massive popularity of the remake starring Jenna Ortega has propelled Wednesday into the center of the zeitgeist like never before. By resurrecting this classic subversion of the “perfect” American daughter as a brilliant, iconoclastic, emotionally unavailable antiheroine—who’s forced to share a dorm with an effervescent blonde werewolf—Wednesday lays the groundwork for the queer American gothic romance that so many of us in femslash fandom have been waiting for. Come discuss everything we love about Wednesday, from the high camp goth aesthetic to WenClair and everything in between!
Multi-Fandom
Title: Book Lover’s Paradise: Recommend Your Favs Edition!
Fandom: no specific fandom
Description: Share all your favorite and latest reads!
Title: Cringe: The Art of Secondhand Embarrassment
Fandom: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, My Mad Fat Diary, audience suggestions
Description: Media often carries the purpose of turning a mirror on ourselves, but sometimes the secondhand embarrassment is so strong we cringe away and can’t bear to endure it. What do we watch despite it being cringy, and when does it go too far?
Title: Halloween Movie Marathon: Origins
Fandom: Horror and/or Halloween Movies & TV
Description: What movies and tv shows are essential viewing for the spookiest season of the year? What qualifies as spooky-enough? Join us as we discuss game plans for maximizing how many ghosts, goblins, and ghouls you can fit into the month of October!
Title: How RPF Writing Has Changed in the Last 10 Years
Fandom: RPF as a general genre
Description: How RPF writing has changed in the last 10 years – beyond it becoming more mainstream in fandom, there’s the rise of “reader/you” fics as a contemporary trend in newer platforms and communities.
Title: How to Find Great Tech Projects in Fandom
Fandom: no specific fandom
Description: There are digital literacy and excellent critical thinking skills we can learn as fans to determine the best online tools that will support and protect us. Together we’ll go over some key information to look up and think about when considering fandom spaces, software, and services. Then we’ll analyze some of our favorite fandom community projects.
Title: Un-written Works
Fandom: no specific fandom
Description: We all love fanfic, but what is there beyond the written word? Let’s talk about vids and podfics. What do you know/like/want to do about and with them? How do you push the envelope and produce out of the ordinary audio and video fan works?
Title: We Make Our Own Fun: Turn Anything Fannish
Fandom: Focus on Doctor Who, SPN, Sanders Sides, Young Hercules
Description: Let’s talk about how to turn anything fannish: ways to participate in fandom that isn’t Fanfic, Fanart, or Vidding. Whether or not you’re good at crafting (and whether or not you have to blend in with non-fannish folk) there’s lots of ways to celebrate fandom and turn anything in your life fannish!
Workshops
Title: Future of Fandom Communities
Fandom: No specific fandom in mind
Description: Fandom Communities can either be run by corporations or fans. Sometimes corporate-run projects receive more support from fans even though they don’t need it, and are frequently not fandom-friendly. Community projects created by fans cater to the unique needs of fans, but may not always receive the support they deserve. In some cases, this is due to a misunderstanding or being unfamiliar with how projects support fan’s needs. This panel will showcase some of the more interesting & novel fandom community projects you may have never heard about. Projects that may also benefit from your support, financial or otherwise.
Title: How to Find Excellent New Fics to Read (With Fic Clique Podcast)!
Fandom: We will be talking about fandom in general! No specific fandoms.
Description: Most of us know the basics of browsing within our fandoms to find new fics — sorting by kudos or bookmarks, trawling rec lists — but we also can end up in a place where we’re sure there are hidden gems out there, inside or outside of our primary fandoms, but we don’t know how to uncover them. What combination of tags might get us what we want? Where are people posting their recs nowadays?
Fic Clique podcast discusses three new fics in any fandom approximately every two weeks, come rain or shine. Now, in our fourth year, we’ve honed our seeking skills and want to share what we’ve learned along the way!
Make sure to bring your best tips if you have any to share, and join us for a lively presentation and discussion.
Title: If You Build It, They Will Come: How to Make Events, Part 2
Fandom: Not fandom-specific
Description: If you build it, they will come, but how do you build it, anyway? Bingos, bangs, exchanges, kink memes, prompt weeks, zines… there are so many different ways to make a fandom event, it can be hard to even know where to start! In this panel, mods with experience running all sorts of events will discuss how to design an event from start to finish, with tips for choosing the right event, setting up a healthy community, running the back-end logistics, and more!
Title: Knotting: How to Make Fandom Bracelets and Key Chains
Fandom: not specific
Description: In this workshop, you will…
1. learn the basic knot that all friendship bracelets are built on
2. discover a variety of tutorials, pattern websites, and other resources
3. discuss ways to make fandom bracelets and keychains from simple to complicated and from obvious to discreet
4. make a fandom bracelet or key chain of your very own!
Title: Law and Justice Systems in SFF
Fandom: SFF Worldbuilding with examples from Star Wars, Star Trek, Traveller TTRPG, others
Description: Join lawyers and authors to discuss how to make conscious choices for legal systems in SFF worlds.
Title: Raiders of the Lost Art
Fandom: No specific fandom in mind
Description: The phrase “the internet is forever” does not hold true when it comes to fan works. Imeem, YahooGroups, LJ, and dare we say, Twitter? Archiving is as relevant today as the next Indiana Jones movie coming out this year! This panel is a show and tell of the latest archiving projects that touch on AO3, You Tube, Twitter, Livejournal, as well as other new projects that are cataloging & honoring the rich cultural legacy of fan works. The value of our fandom nostalgia is as valuable as a Top Gun sequel in 2022. It’s as valuable as any works you’d find in a traditional museum. Come learn more about the archiving of valuable fan art and how you can contribute to, and/or provide support for their relevancy in fandom’s future.
Title: Rare Tag Squee
Fandom: no specific fandom
Description: This workshop reviews the concept that Your Kink Is Not My Kink (And That’s OK), aka Kinktomato, covering both sexual kinks and narrative kinks, e.g., tropes, themes, tags. In fact, it’s not just “ok” but awesome that you’re into something others might not be! In the second half of the workshop, participants will be invited to share their excitement on a rare tag and we’ll support them in squee. (Participants can opt-out of any topic.)