What happens at a Touhou panel?

[Imosa]

So recently it began looking like I'd actually have to answer this question myself and I'm rather stumped.
I've only been to one Touhou panel and it was pretty much an hour long introduction to Touhou. Is that all people do? Post your experiences.

[LadyScarlet]

I went to a Touhou panel last year (specifically, Kumoricon's. I was dressed as SWR Reisen). Yeah, it pretty much was just an hour long intro to Touhou. At least I got to see some people play PCB. One person cleared Stage 6 Lunatic and another got to Chen's last spell in Extra. They showed some fan videos, too, but I can only remember Convictor Yamaxanadu.

[Drake]

Kilga and company seem to have a fairly good rhythm down. It's a short introduction as a game series, and there is very quickly a demonstration of gameplay from an average panelist, and then a newbie from the crowd plays, then a replay with lots of dodging like a Lunatic Perfect sans scoring. Next comes an introduction to the other canon works, and then an introduction to the fanbase and its works, describing how vast and productive it is and whatnot. They consistently have a huge timeslot and a large audience though, so naturally there are a lot of people to show the series to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8HIH-cpN8w

[DeltaSierra4]

So far I've attended three Touhou panels: At ACEN and at Youmacon of 2012, and at Ohayocon last month.
Pretty much all three panels were introductory level Touhou stuff. At Youma and Ohayo we got to see people play Touhou - at Youma our seasoned veteran Railgun showed his UFO replay, and at Ohayo we had someone completely new to Touhou play IN at lunatic.

And after a friend of mine issued this challenge to me, I feel like hosting a panel myself at some point, but again, results never guaranteed :/

[Gpop]

The most common type of panels are introductory panels

Though my panel is generally more of a discussion panel since we usually expect people who are ALREADY familiar with the touhou project series to come in and discuss various things that happens with the series and/or fandom.

I might make it more introductory this year though at Anime North. We'll see. But the best way to get an idea on what to do is watch panel videos on Youtube, there are plenty on Touhou out there I'm sure.

[Kosachi]

At Otakuthon last year, they separated the actual games and the fandom. In the games department, they did as was mentioned above. You go in, brief gameplay intro, watch a pro play and so on.

In the dedicated fandom panel on the other hand, the panelist sort of assumed everyone in the room was already somewhat familiar with the series. (at least I got the impression) They spoke about the biggest doujin, game and music circles, watched a couple of videos and that was about it.

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

I've been to three different Touhou panels, each with their different approaches.

The Anime North panel hosted by Gpop and company was amazing despite the limited time and space set aside for it. There really wasn't much of an introduction, it was pretty much all discussion; talking about the games released in the previous year (which at the time were GFW and the 10D demo), recent events in the fandom, and speculation. It was pretty fun, and afterward we 'borrowed' an unused room for showing off games and merchandise to each other.

The Animethon Touhou panel prior to 2012 was... disappointing. The host was trying to introduce the series, but he was... very lacking in knowledge about the series. He would generally show off one game and a few videos, although as an introduction it seemed... very uninteresting.

The Touhou panel at Animethon 2012 and onward was generally agreed by people to be a better improvement. The new host had a vastly different style, being quite knowledgeable about the franchise and regularly asking questions to make sure even longtime fans were kept engaged. I liked it, and honestly went to the con just to see this panel.

[Imosa]

A belayed thank you to the input here. A discussion panel like Gpop's sounds really fun but I'd probably have to do an introduction of some kind. I'll certainly take a look at some videos.

[cuc]

You can find slides for the Sakuracon 2012 Touhou panel here.

http://panels.preyx.net/sc2012-th.html