The first look at the schedule...

Hi All,

You'll have to forgive me if this post is rather thinking aloud but I've just been having a first think about the programming for Alt.Fiction next year and I'm finding myself torn on a couple of issues...

Those of you who attended last year will remember that for most of the day we were actually working on a 4-room basis, with spaces designated for book launches, readings, discussions/panels and of course a workshop space. I can't pretend to anyone that the workshop space was ideal. so ensuring that those take place in a better space will be a priority for 2008. My current thinking is to move the workshops to the '45 suite, which was the home of the book launches last year. However this poses another issue because this room is in close proximity to the venue's Great hall and as such we can only have this till the end of the dinner break, which hopefully will again be 4:45pm-6pm.

So it looks like the most likely outcome will be 5 workshops in the '45 Suite, discussions/panels in the Reception suite (possibly with some launches thrown in) and then the reading/q+a sessions in the Darwin Suite. Someone please stop me if I'm overthinking this... :-0

The thing that's a shame in that layout, of course, is that the workshop schedule is pretty light and I've always felt that these are really beneficial for people who attend. It's also, in my opinion, an important aspect of the day. In an ideal world I'd love to have the three spaces all day but short of laying out a fortune to have the whole building to ourselves it's not going to be practiceable.

Basically it's looking like 21 sessions throughout the day with 5 of those being workshops, about 8 readings and about 8 panels. Hopefully we'll come up with something really exciting with plenty of good slots throughout the day.

The other reason for looking at the programme so early is also thinking who would be good to fill the spaces that are currently empty. I'll make no secret that I'm looking to be a lot tighter with the budget for '08, and as such I'll be thinking about the participants on the day very carefully before sending invites around. My reckoning is that I can pay for anything from 8-10 authors on the day, and that's a figure which is largely down to the great support so far from publishers (take a bow Orbit, Solaris and Hodder Headline...). Without going into specifics that's a lot less authors than we have invited and paid in the previous instances. I don't think this will be noticeable from an audience perspective but it does make it a pretty different experience to plan from the organising perspective!!

I did have a point at the start of all this, but I lost what it was somewhere in the midst of typing all this. I think it was to ask if anyone has any opinions on the types of sessions they'd like to see throughout the day- perhaps that would help me stop pondering over it so much...

I'll be checking in again soon, so keep popping back for a look.

Thanks a lot

Alex