The most challenging / frustrating facet for a Program Chair is the people who are sometimes Interesting (even fascinating) and sometimes Annoying (or at least Boring). You are always tossing the dice and / or guessing at which twin shows up. And it has to frustrate the audience members who go to see a panel in part because Person X has been terrific in the past, but on this topic they're either blowhardly or disengaged and unhelpful.
So the problem is even more complicated that simply putting the often Annoying people where they might actually not be Annoying (find the right topic and make sure the moderator is strong). Those folks are usually easier to read, e.g., the problem with some Annoyers is self-promotion / absorption, so you look for panels that don't relate to their own work but instead to one of their outside interests. The bipolar types can just be plain inexplicable, but it boils down to a lack of their own self-knowledge (in the Arisia / Readercon program model where folks sign up for the panels that interest them). They say "I'd kill to be on this panel" and sometimes it means they've got a wealth of insight to impart and sometimes, like John Stewart often admits, they've got nothing.
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Date: 2009-07-18 04:28 am (UTC)So the problem is even more complicated that simply putting the often Annoying people where they might actually not be Annoying (find the right topic and make sure the moderator is strong). Those folks are usually easier to read, e.g., the problem with some Annoyers is self-promotion / absorption, so you look for panels that don't relate to their own work but instead to one of their outside interests. The bipolar types can just be plain inexplicable, but it boils down to a lack of their own self-knowledge (in the Arisia / Readercon program model where folks sign up for the panels that interest them). They say "I'd kill to be on this panel" and sometimes it means they've got a wealth of insight to impart and sometimes, like John Stewart often admits, they've got nothing.