[amtrak-official]

if I am able to go to Dashcon 2 and host a panel, what should the topic be

trolleys and their various forms within American Cities (Philly, Toronto,Boston)

transit infrastructure and why it's needed

a brief summary of American Rail Infrastructure history and why it matters today

the new potential for the north American Rail network and where it lacks

Local Advocacy and how to get involved

the history of the subway system

what makes a city livable, an open discussion

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[prismatic-bell]

Okay legitimately tho, not to be all "I'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR FIFTEEN YEARS" but...I've been doing this for 15 years. I literally teach other people how to run panels. And my genuine suggestion would be:

Multiple of these, in four roughly-15-minute-long segments. (If one is 12 and one is 17 nobody's got a stopwatch, but measuring it out to roughly-this will allow you to fill your hour without running over.)

I'd go, in order:

--a brief history of American Rail Infrastructure and why it matters today

--the new potential for the NA rail network and where it lacks

--local advocacy and how to get involved

--what makes a city livable/open discussion


I'd strongly recommend doing a brief Q&A/"pop quiz" before hitting the history of the infrastructure; I like to use them as a way to gauge what my audience already knows, but also it gets them invested. Ask for some examples of major infrastructure projects; throw out hints if necessary. It only takes a minute or two, but it gets people thinking and in the panel's headspace. As you close, suggest that people write their representatives or look up local advocacy groups when they're done with con for the evening, and that if they submit their action to your blog (e.g., say someone writes a physical letter to their representative and takes a photo of it), you'll share it. It gives them a piece of the panel to take away with them and also ties it back to Tumblr, which is the point of the con.

[amtrak-official]

That actually makes a ton of sense, and would help to make sure people wouldn’t get bored of the panel due to too much talking about one topic