I thought it might be worth it to take a bit of a retrospective on the TSSSF panel Saturday night and kind of analyze what worked, what didn't, and how it might be improved. Now, far be it from me to make any calls on that last one since I didn't have a hand in organizing it, but I figured I'd take some initiative in at least drumming up some discussion.
What Worked
With N. A. Larson, Sky, and Brony Brewer there, I felt it there was a nice distribution of instructors to players. Plus, Sky killed it with the initial explanation of the game. Having a nice amount of players already familiar with the game helped too, being able to take some of the load as different people stepped up to clarify things for the newbies.
I think the simple fact players kept going until midnight when it was planned to end at 10 marks it as a resounding success.
What Didn't
As I said in person, most of the problems the panel had came down to the room and thus were really out of your control. The thin square tables in the room weren't great for grid construction. There was also the unfortunate fact that the video games that had been set up next door had to be moved into the same room, which was on top of the Ponyfinder game that... I think was running long? A bit too much hullabaloo in the background, but again I don't think any of it could have been avoided.
What Was Learned
Location location location?
Again, the panel itself seemed like a runaway success, although only one person ended up registering here since then. At the very least, more people were brought into the Shipfic community, and that's always great. If possible, I think getting a dedicated room for the panel would get things going more smoothly next time, although I have no idea if that's even a feasible request.
Going by what happened at my own table, I wonder if getting a bit more organization when splitting people off into groups would make things run smoother? The group I was in only had one newbie, and she was actually playing with someone who was familiar with the game but sitting out, so that he could kind of guide her, and so most everyone in that game knew what they were doing. Point being, perhaps if a conscious effort was made to mix newbies with those familiar with the game it could ease pressure off of the newbies and lessen the responsibilities of the organizers?
Take all this with a grain of salt, of course (I mean, I know most of my attention at the time was on the game I was playing), but what do you all think?
