In the past, the Worldcon Programme teams have actively invited people to be panelists without necessarily hearing from them first. However, due to newly enacted international privacy laws, if you are interested in being on CoNZealand’s programme, you need to give us (the CoNZealand Programme team) your consent to communicate before we can invite you.
If you would like to be considered for CoNZealand’s programme, please fill out the brief Potential Programme Participant form to let us know. We will note your interest to be on Programme. Do not panic that the form is brief! We do not expect you to put your life story in this form. This form is intended to:
- Give us your consent for us to communicate to you.
- Let us know enough about you, particularly through links you provide, for us to get an idea of whether you will fit with CoNZealand’s programme.
After someone sends in their Potential Programme Participant survey form, here is what happens next:
- If we think we can offer you suitable programming, we will invite you to fill out a detailed interests survey form to tell us what you would like to do, give us programme ideas, etc. Because of limited resources, we invite people in batches, to make sure we can fit in everyone we invite. It is important to please pay attention to the deadlines in your e-mails. If we do not receive a response by the stated deadline, our default is to assume that you are not interested in participating in our programme.
- In early 2020, you will be sent an availability survey form, asking detailed questions about when you expect to arrive at CoNZealand, what time of day you’re available, time conflicts you would like to avoid, etc.We are aware that we have two groups of venues a short distance apart and we are designing the programme to try and avoid or minimise the need to rush between the two sites, so those with mobility constraints can fully participate.
- Based on input from programme participants, submitted suggestions, and our own ideas, we will put together a list of programme items and will assign participants to programme items.
- We will send out a draft schedule (late May/early June) to you, the participant. Participants can then say “yes/no” to the programme items we have asked them to be on and/or request modifications to their schedule.
- Once we receive your response, we revise the draft schedule and make schedule changes as necessary. By late June/early July, we will announce the final schedule.
As the Programme team receives confirmation of programme participants, we will post their names to the website. As we receive confirmation of programme items of broad interest, we will post those as well.
A Worldcon programme has myriad moving parts. At the moment, our rough estimate is that we will have upwards of 500 programme items. This includes debates, panels, interviews, presentations, quizzes, games, concerts, performances, workshops, portfolio reviews, demonstrations, kaffeklatsche, readings, autographings, literary beers and more. You might not see much activity on the outside but be assured we are working hard behind the scenes to make it as interesting and unique as possible. To the best of our ability, we want to offer programming that can’t be found anywhere else, including other Worldcons.
Please note: all programme participants must buy an attending membership in order to attend CoNZealand. With the exception of the Guests of Honour, all positions at CoNZealand are staffed by volunteers. There is no compensation for volunteers, inclusive of Programme Participants.
If you have suggestions for what you would like to see on the programme (whether this is something you could participate in or just something you would love to see), please send your ideas to the Programme team by completing this Suggested Programme Ideas form.
CoNZealand, like all Worldcons, is only as strong as its membership.
For more information on CoNZealand’s programme, visit our Programme page.
If you need documentation for institutional support, please e-mail us at programming@conzealand.nz