Panels

Colorado Anime Fest features dozens of panels hosted by guests, industry representatives, cultural groups, and attendees. Panel topics and formats vary widely, ranging from anime to cosplay to video games to dancing to game shows.

After 9 PM, some of our panel rooms become 18+ rooms (ID required) where run panels that are only appropriate for adults. These 18+ panels can—within reason—explore themes of violence and sexual content with an age-appropriate audience. And sometimes they’re just a bit of bawdy fun.

If you’re interested in running a panel, you can find more information at our panel guidelines page.

Culture Track

Colorado Anime Fest has a dedicated Culture Track, presented by the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival. Our Culture Track exclusively features panels about Japan’s history and culture, plus an ever-growing list of local cultural groups. It’s the largest selection of cultural panels you’ll find anywhere in Colorado.

The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival was started in 2001 to bring together Denver’s diverse Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities and educate the public about our many cultures. Held at Sloan’s Lake Park, CDBF features over 100 performances on five stages including a hip-hop stage, two Taste of Asia food courts, an Asian Marketplace and of course, two full days of exciting Dragon Boat Races!

Running Panels

You must be at least 18 years old to submit a panel. If you’re under 18, you’ll need a co-panelist who’s at least 18 years old to submit the panel.

Allowed Content

We run panels from morning to late night. As such, we accept a wide variety of panel types, including those targeted toward children and those targeted toward adults. Panels will be scheduled at times appropriate for their content and target audience.

After 9 PM, we allow panelists to run panels that are only appropriate for adults. We’ll card attendees at the door to ensure only those 18 years or older get in, so panels can—within reason—explore themes of violence and sexual content with an age-appropriate audience.

No bootleg content. Unless you’re talking about how to spot and avoid them, we don’t permit any bootleg content of any form at Colorado Anime Fest.

Important note: We do not accept submissions for “Q&A” or “Ask {Character}” panels where panelists simply answer questions while in character. If you want to perform a panel in-character, you must present the panel with some form of planned, structured content.

Scheduling

Once you submit your panel, it will be reviewed and considered for acceptance. We’ll notify you by e-mail whether your panel was accepted, rejected, or added to our waitlist. If your panel is accepted and scheduled, you’ll be expected to run your panel. If you can’t make it, please notify us ahead of time. Failure to notify us ahead of time may result in your future panel submissions being rejected.

Panels can be between 45 minutes and 90 minutes in length, in 15 minute increments. We schedule at least a 15 minute buffer between panels so panelists have time to set up before their panels and to tear down after their panels.

Our attendee panels will be scheduled during the following timeframes:

Because all 18+ panels are scheduled for 9 PM or later and we have a limited number of slots available, if you’re submitting an 18+ panel, please be prepared to go late. We can’t guarantee that your panel will start before 1 AM. If you specify a preference for an earlier timeslot, we’ll do our best to accommodate the request, but we can’t make any promises.

Equipment

Every panel room is equipped with a projector and a sound system. We provide HDMI and 1/8” stereo mini-jack (i.e. headphone/aux) cables for input. Every panel room will have at least two microphones for panelists to use.

Laptops will not be provided. Please bring any adapters you need to connect your equipment to the equipment listed above. If you’re unsure what you might need, please contact panels@coanimefest.com with your questions and we’ll help you out as best we can.

If you’re not sure how to use an external display with your laptop, try hooking it up via HDMI to a TV or monitor before the convention. Connecting to our projectors will require the same process as connecting to a TV or monitor, so by testing it out beforehand, you’ll be able to figure out how to make it work at your leisure, rather than struggling while a roomful of attendees is waiting for you to start your panel.

Rewards

If you run one panel, you get a badge for one day of Colorado Anime Fest. Running two panels will get you a full weekend badge. Already pre-registered? You can give the badge to a friend, or get a pre-reg badge for the next year. Want to give two friends badges for one day each instead of taking one weekend badge? Fine by us. You choose how to redeem your badges.

Up to three badges may be claimed per panel, one for each listed panelist. If there are more than three panelists in a given panel, they must decide among them how to distribute the three badges.

If a panelist runs one panel but wants to attend the convention all weekend, they can upgrade their one-day badge to a weekend badge for the difference between that day's badge price and the weekend badge price. Because each day's badge costs a different amount, we encourage any panelist wanting to attend the convention for the entire weekend to choose a Saturday badge (the most expensive day) to minimize the upgrade cost. Upgrading from a Saturday badge to a weekend badge will cost $25 and panelists can pay that upgrade cost at the Programming Desk when they check in to receive their panelist badges.