were_duck and I had an amazing time running a vid party at this year's Wiscon and we're looking forward to doing it again. We started having ideas for it almost as soon as we got back to our rooms after the party, and we've got enough thoughts together now that we wanted to post them and get some feedback. So here are some of our ideas for Vid Party 2011.

Early evening vid show-and-tell

This year we did an "intro to vidding" at 9pm, which ran about 90 minutes. Since this was the first ever vid party at Wiscon, we thought it would be a good idea to introduce people who weren't so familiar with vids to the genre, show off some different styles of vids, and help people understand the genre conventions and how to "read" a vid. This seemed to work pretty well, but we would soon get bored of doing the same intro every year. So next year we were thinking about having a sort of theme to it. We were thinking of using "Vids with something to say", and talking about how vids convey different kinds of messages. We might also propose a companion panel for later in the weekend, to discuss the subject in more depth.

Premieres

We're enormously excited by this idea, and we hope you will be too. Wiscon is special because it's not just a science fiction convention, but a feminist science fiction convention. We would love to invite vidders to submit vids specially for the Wiscon vid party that relate to Wiscon's focus on feminism, anti-oppression, and SF, and show them in a special premiere show. We'd also like to encourage people who may never have premiered a vid at a convention, or who might be newer to vidding, to be a part of this, and we're discussing ways to make it easier to premiere your vid at Wiscon (for example, not needing to upload in a special format).

Singalong

One of the best parts of the vid party in 2010 (in my opinion) was everyone singing along with certain vids. ("Another Sunday", "Don't Stop Believin'", and "End of the world as we know it" are three that come easily to mind.) It was so much fun that we want to do it again, only this time with subtitles! We'll be looking for good singalong vids, and then either asking vidders to submit subtitles, or creating them ourselves, so that everyone can sing along more easily. As an added bonus, we hope that this will increase the number of vids that are more accessible to those with hearing impairments.

In between these "special" playlists (which will be shown at set, pre-announced times in the evening), and in the latter part of the evening, we'll do what we did in 2010 and show a bunch of vids that we like. Once again, we'll be seeking recommendations for your favourite vids, though this time round we'll probably prioritise vids which have been released in the year leading up to the party.

So, we'd like to know... how does this sound to you? Do you have any feedback or suggestions for other things you'd like to see at the 2011 vid party?

If you are interested in being part of the ongoing planning for next year's vid party, or would like to volunteer to help out either pre-con or at Wiscon, you can join wiscon_vidparty where we are doing all the organisational stuff. Any questions/comments can also be sent to [email protected].