Panel Day | Panel Time | Track | Panel | Room | Panel Description | Panelist |
Friday | | | | | | |
| 4:00 PM | TeenFusion | Munchkin | Ballroom C | Go down in the dungeon. Kill everything you see. Take all the treasure. Backstab your friends and steal their stuff. First one to Level 10 wins! (2 HOURS) | GM- Dawn Strenzel |
| 5:00 PM | TeenFusion | Magic the Gathering | TeenFusion | Come learn the game or play with other teens. You do not need your own deck, but it is encouraged. (2 HOURS) | Kevin King, Jason Palmer |
| 5:00 PM | Science | Assistive Technology in Science Fiction Settings | Petoskey | How is disability defined in a science fictional setting, How is assistive technology defined in science fictional settings? | Michael Marcus, Daniel Dugan (M) |
| 5:00 PM | Media | Star Wars & Star Trek | Isle Royale | With 2016 marking the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, and with the return of Star Wars to the big screen, come talk about the two fan favorite science fiction franchises that have had such a profound and wide-ranging impact on the genre. | Lawrence Schoen, Eric Distad, Jeannie Szarama, Christian Klaver |
| 5:00 PM | Literature | The Gals Are Back in Town | Manitou | The heroine is almost the default in modern Young Adult, which when looking at the context of adult genre fiction is quite revolutionary. Why does this preponderance exist? Are we seeing a similar inversion of roles for boy characters as a result? From this observation, what can we infer about the state of science fiction and fantasy at large? | Alaya Dawn Johnson, Aimee Carter, Cherie Priest, Kelley Armstrong, Courtney Allison Moulton |
| 5:00 PM | Fandom | So This Is Your First ConFusion | St. Clair | Welcome to your first Confusion! To keep your actual confusion to a minimum, let us tell you what we're about and what we have to offer you this weekend! | Jessica Zerwas, Anna Carey, David Klecha, Brigit Bradakis |
| 5:00 PM | Fandom | Reacting to Fiction in Public | Charlevoix | Book discussion today, predominantly online, has created a new phenomenon of public reaction. Whether it's love of a work or the opposite, this public reaction has become a performance all its own. Does this new paradigm create a culture where perspectives that deviate from those with the most social capital are no longer valid? | Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Susan Dennard, Andrea Johnson (M), Amal El-Mohtar, Greg van Eekhout |
| 5:00 PM | Media | Pop Up Media! Game of Thrones | Vogon Poetry Lounge | Science fiction and fantasy have taken over the airwaves! Come join fellow fans in (respectful!) round-table discussions of the awesome genre shows on television and the big screen today. | |
| 5:00 PM | Literature | “How Many Genders?” | Leelanau | What does “gender” mean in today’s LGBTQ community – politically, biologically, socially? Now stretch your imagination—ever since Amok Time” we’ve dreamed about the sex lives of SF characters. With alien biologies, what genders might we encounter among the stars? | Mari Brighe, Julie Lesnik, Sean Martin (M), Stina Leicht, Adam Rakunas |
| 6:00 PM | KidFusion Suite | Beadazzled | KidFusion Suite | Make a beaded creation with perler beads and decorate your badge or make a badge holder. | Larc Bogdan |
| 6:00 PM | Fandom | SFF Debates 2016! | Ballroom A&B | Six of your favorite SFF personalities debate the issues of our time in this live debate, moderated by Robert Jackson Bennett. | Diana Rowland, John Scalzi, Wesley Chu, Delilah S. Dawson, Robert Jackson Bennett, Mark Oshiro, Brent Weeks |
| 6:00 PM | Media | Pop Up Media! Ex Machina | Vogon Poetry Lounge | Science fiction and fantasy have taken over the airwaves! Come join fellow fans in (respectful!) round-table discussions of the awesome genre shows on television and the big screen today. | |
| 6:00 PM | Film | SHOWING: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Film) | Kensington | Based on the book by Douglas Adams starring Martin Freeman, Zooey Deschanel, and Mos Def. The movie follows Arthur Dent as he is trying to prevent his house from being bulldozed when his friend Ford Prefect whisks him into outer space. It turns out Ford is an alien who has just saved Arthur from Earth's total annihilation. Along with Ford and a myriad of other worldly characters, Arthur makes his way across the stars while seeking the meaning of life, or something close to it. (2 HOURS) | |
| 6:00 PM | Fandom | Dragon's Den | Interlochen | The Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association Board wants to hear how you will help take Back to the ConFusion into the future! Small grants avalible for particularly promising ideas! | Brian Decker, Amy Zrnich, John Davis, Josh Parker, Cylithria Dubois, Anna Carey, David Klecha |
| 6:00 PM | Gaming | Flea Marketeers | Ballroom C | Enjoy the experience of wheeling, dealing, and stealing you way through the game of Flea Marketeers! Each player has their own board and unique Fleabook. The Fleabooks are all different as far as values for 60 "Tables" that Marketeers try to buy low, sell high, and have a Gut Bustin' Great Time in the process! [3-6 players max] (2 HOURS) | GM- Bill Lonskey |
| 6:00 PM | Gaming | Pathfinder: Night of the Necromancer | Ballroom C | A necromancer has moved into the local tower and started messing with dead things. As the most powerful kobolds in the tribe, the chief has ordered you to drive him out before he attracts adventurers, who are bad news for everybody. Can your band work together to drive out the menace? (4 HOURS) | GM- Paul Krausnick |
| 6:00 PM | Gaming | Zephyr: Winds of Change | Ballroom C | A cooperative modular boardgame adventure for 1 to 4 players. players take on the role of a post-apocalyptic steampunk airship captain. Customize your ship and build yourself up to defeat the ever growing evils of a fallen world. (2 HOURS) | GM- Jon Mietling |
| 7:00 PM | KidFusion Suite | Kid Astronomy | KidFusion Suite | Bob Trembley provides a guide to the stars for the kids! | Lisa Garrison-Ragsdale, Jason Palmer, Bob Trembley |
| 7:00 PM | Media | Star Trek Vid Show | Saugatuck | In honor of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, come watch some fantastic vids based on one of science fictions most beloved franchises. | Julie Winningham (M) |
| 7:00 PM | TeenFusion | Roll Your Role - D&D for Beginners | TeenFusion | Brian R. Bay will lead you as you create a character to use during the D&D game to be held Saturday. He will coach you on the basics of role-playing and the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. | Brian R. Bay, Jeannette Girard |
| 7:00 PM | Fandom | Opening Ceremonies | Ballroom A&B | Welcome to Back to the ConFusion! Meet our GoHs and special guests! | Anna Carey, Jessica Zerwas, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Ann Leckie, Cameron McClure, Gordon Smith, Kelley Armstrong |
| 7:00 PM | Music | Concert: The Faithful Sidekicks | Marquette | Acoustic geek comedy band The Faithful Sidekicks has come all the way from Minnesota! Welcome them and their music to ConFusion. | Eric Distad, Jen Distad |
| 7:00 PM | Fandom | Pitch Me Your Elevator | Manitou | The panel, using their wit and guile, will craft elevator pitches on the spot for classic novels and films. Bonus points will be awarded for style points. Who will take home the title of Elevator Pitch Champion? | Mari Brighe, Robert Jackson Bennett (M), Mur Lafferty, Pablo Vazquez, Brigid Collins |
| 8:00 PM | Literature | A Song of Ice and Inspire | Interlochen | There's no question that A Song of Ice and Fire and its television adaptation Games of Thrones have had a huge impact on the fantasy genre. Discuss these impacts and the degree to which they will resonate into the future, or not. | Bradley P. Beaulieu, Aimee Carter, Scott H. Andrews (M), Steve Drew, Jeannie Szarama |
| 8:00 PM | Fandom | Dessert Reception | ConSuite | A meet and greet with our GoHs. Mix, mingle, and enjoy some sweet treats. | Kentaro Toyama, Anna Carey, Jessica Zerwas, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Ann Leckie, Cameron McClure, Gordon Smith, Kelley Armstrong |
| 8:00 PM | Media | Golden Year of TV, 50 Years Later | Manitou | Of the 36 hours of Prime Time TV programming in 1966, 17 hours of it was F&SF shows, including Trek, Batman and Lost in Space... Time for a good look back at it. | Bill Messner-Loebs, David M. Stein, Jeff Beeler, Matt Feazell |
| 8:00 PM | Science | Forensics and the Science of Crime. | Keweenaw | The science of forensics has grown from fingerprinting to DNA Analysis. Find out how modern day Sherlock's are catching modern day Moriarty's. | Diana Rowland, Julie Lesnik, Jen Haeger, Alex Kourvo |
| 8:00 PM | Film | SHOWING: K Project | Kensington | Yashiro Isana has lived a relatively ordinary, simple life of an average high school student. However, nothing normal has been happening since the recent murder of Tatara Totsuka, prominent member of the infamous HOMRA. No one knows who exactly killed him | |
| 8:00 PM | Literature | Justice for Ancillary Perspectives | Saugatuck | Ann Leckie's now-complete trilogy of the Radch Empire has been critically and commercially praised for its exceptional blend of high concept space adventure and quiet contemplative look at identity and cultural constructs. Why has Leckie's work succeeded | Annalee Flower Horne (M), Jason Sanford, DongWon Song, Jenny Thurman, Natalie Luhrs |
| 8:00 PM | Comics | Rewind, Reboot, Recycle | Petoskey | We're once again in the midst of massive reboots (and the fallout from them) in both the DC and Marvel universes. Do reboots actually bring in and retain new readers? Do they energize or enrage existing fans? Do diversity measures in DC and Marvel universes just get washed away in these massive continuity reboots? Are there better ways for comics to reach out and make themselves more accessible to the wider genre audiences? | Michael Marcus, Suzanna Grossman, Michael Lee, Miriam Weinberg |
| 8:00 PM | Gaming | Zephyr: Winds of Change | Ballroom C | A cooperative modular boardgame adventure for 1 to 4 players. players take on the role of a post-apocalyptic steampunk airship captain. Customize your ship and build yourself up to defeat the ever growing evils of a fallen world. (2 HOURS) | GM- Jon Mietling |
| 9:00 PM | Literature | Who Threw Away My Monster Compendium? | Keweenaw | When was the last time a zeitgeist novel had a bugbear or a cockatrice? How long is it since someone fought a giant, flesh-eating beast instead of pikeman? Where did all the monsters go? With quest plots out of fashion, deus ex machina ditched, treasure-hunting too economically dull, and stories about ethics, is the monster still relevant in today's fiction? | Douglas Hulick, Devi Pillai, Sam Sykes (M), Ken Schrader, Megan E. O'Keefe |
| 9:00 PM | Literature | Sexually Oriented Literature: Censorship and Self-Censorship | Saugatuck | How does a working artist or writer deal with sex? A practical artist knows the limits of a market before starting to work. To what extent does censorship and self censorship inhibit creativity? Is it the same for queer and straight artists? | Bill Messner-Loebs, Kurt Erichsen (M), Mark Oshiro, Michael K. Elliott, Miriam Weinberg |
| 9:00 PM | Music | Theme Circle: Songs That Make You Cry | Marquette | Share the songs that move you. | Wyn Jones, Tom Smith |
| 9:00 PM | Media | Pop Up Media! Tomorrowland | Vogon Poetry Lounge | Science fiction and fantasy have taken over the airwaves! Come join fellow fans in (respectful!) round-table discussions of the awesome genre shows on television and the big screen today. | |
| 10:00 PM | Media | Pop Up Media! Adult Swim Cartoons | Vogon Poetry Lounge | Science fiction and fantasy have taken over the airwaves! Come join fellow fans in (respectful!) round-table discussions of the awesome genre shows on television and the big screen today. | |
| 10:00 PM | Music | Open Music Circle | Marquette | A place to share music, stories, poems, and more. | |
| 10:00 PM | Gaming | Revolution | Ballroom C | Secretly bid against your opponents to gain the support of the people, win territory . . . Will you try to control the tavern or the fortress? The harbor or the plantation? Knowing where to push for support – and where to back away and let your opponents fight – is the key to victory. It's a game of bluff, counter-bluff, and surprise. (2 HOURS) | GM- Dawn Strenzel |