As time has chugged on by since my last post about panel submissions I figured I’d pop back in here and give you all an update. Right now our roster is filling out nicely with all kinds of fun panels for you to check out during the conventions. However some panels are in need of additional panelists.
Ellen McLain and John Patrick Lowrie
Many of you have submitted great ideas, and we love the passion we have seen and some of you have been asking for help on finding panelists. This is perfectly fine! That’s the reason the Panel Advisory Board was made, to help make sure that panels are the best they can possibly be.
So if you would like to be a panelist but don’t have an idea to submit or just haven’t gotten around to it yet take a look at the subjects below that we are currently looking for experts in!
- Kickstarter and/or Patreon
- Mental health
- Game Design
- Comics/Webcomics
- Story Writing
- Game Production
If any of these subjects catch your eye and you’d like to be a panelists please send an email to with the 
subject heading “Submitting Panelist for [Topic]”. And even if you don’t see a subject you’d like to be a panelist on and still don’t know what panel you’d like to submit, drop us an email with your background and credentials and we will work to find you a place!
This year we are working really hard to both ensure the panels submitted are the best they can be as well as to create some fun ones just for you so panelists are always needed. We will make sure every panel-less panelist finds a loving table to reside at.
While we are on the subject of finding people I’d also like to put out a call for any and all art professionals out there in the internet ether. We are setting up a table for portfolio reviews and would like to get as many art professionals as possible to volunteer to go over portfolios. Each art professional wouldn’t have to review for more then a 2-3 hour block at a time and with enough art professionals you might not even have to do it more than once a day! If you’d be interested in volunteering for such a thing please send an email to with the subject heading “Volunteer Art Professional” along with a little bit of your background and credentials.
To nicely wrap things up I’ll remind everyone that the deadline for panel submissions closes September 1st. So if you do have an idea you want to get in there for review please remember to do so before then as no late submissions will be accepted. If you have any questions involving panels please don’t hesitate to email that to !
On the look out for panelists in need!
~Kayla
Every year MAVEN runs a tech camp that this year I had the great pleasure of helping out with as a presenter. I can tell you that these kids are super eager to learn and ready to try anything. By no means am I great at teaching people, I’ve only been out of college myself for a few years, but these kids made the experience downright enjoyable. It is with this same inexhaustible enthusiasm that these kids are tackling their next challenge: getting to Washington for the 2015 White House LGBTQ Tech & Innovation Summit. Something I can’t wait to see happen as I believe these kids will not only provide an enlightening experience to those attending the summit this year, but because they will come back full to the bursting with ideas and drive. That more then anything is something we need to make sure that we keep in the youth of our community.
