Imaginarium 2025 is proud to announce the addition of fifteen new Panels to our programming! There will be over 135 panels and workshops hosted in our 12th year, so make sure to check back regularly on our official site to see all new additions!
The titles, presenters, and descriptions for these new programming additions are as follows:
New Panels Added:
Auditioning for Indie Projects: Moderator – TBA. Join indie directors and producers as they share what they are truly looking for. Tips for self-tapes, in-person auditions, and showcasing your range and authenticity with limited direction.
Beyond the Algorithm: Building your Brand’s Platform with Social Media: Moderator – TBA. Obtain insight into which platforms (TikTok, Instagram, X/Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Threads, etc.) are best suited for different genres, target audiences, and author/filmmaker personalities to successfully build your brand.
Confessions of a Plot Hole: Where Our Stories Go Awry (and How We Fix Them!): Moderator – TBA. Join our panel of honest and hilarious authors as they bravely share their biggest plot mishaps and the ingenious (or sometimes desperate) ways they found to patch them up.
Crafting a Marketing Blueprint for Book Success: Moderator – TBA. Whether you’re traditionally published, self-published, or exploring a hybrid path, this panel will provide the strategic insights and actionable tactics you need to create a powerful marketing plan that elevates your books and grows your readership.
Crowdfunding Can Still Work: Moderator – TBA. Come learn strategies from industry professionals to have successful crowdfunding for films.
Distribution & Marketing in the Evolving Film Landscape: Moderator – TBA. Learn from our panel of successful indie filmmakers as they demystify the current landscape and share their strategies for effectively distributing and marketing your film in today’s (and tomorrow’s) market.
Screenplays for Page & Screen: Moderator – TBA. Whether you’re new to screenwriting or looking to elevate your craft and break into the industry, this panel will provide invaluable insights, practical advice, and inspiring perspectives on writing compelling screenplays that truly leap off the page.
Show, Don’t Tell (and When to Break the Rule!): Moderator – TBA. This panel will teach you how to move beyond the cliché to truly understand how to engage readers’ senses, evoke emotion, and immerse them in your story through evocative detail and action, while also knowing when direct telling is necessary.
The Collaborative Story Challenge: Moderator – TBA. In this fast-paced, improvisational panel, our authors will demonstrate the delicate art of crafting a story while navigating curveballs thrown by the audience. We’ll start a basic premise, and then you—the audience—will introduce plot twists, character dilemmas, and impossible situations. Watch our panelists brainstorm, problem-solve, and perhaps even laugh (or cry) as they try to weave your suggestions into a coherent narrative. Learn how to think on your feet and make even the wildest ideas work!
The Engine of Story: Moderator – TBA: Explore how to identify internal and external conflicts, and consistently raise the stakes to drive your narrative forward and keep readers invested in the outcome.
The Writer’s Mind: Nurturing Mental Health in a Creative Life: Moderator – TBA. Join our panel of authors, mental health professionals, and well-being advocates as they offer compassionate insights and practical strategies for protecting and nurturing your mental health while pursuing your passion. This panel aims to foster an open and supportive environment, acknowledging the shared experiences of writers and providing actionable steps towards a healthier, more fulfilling creative life.
Thriving as an Indie Actor: Moderator – TBA. If you’re an aspiring actor looking to break into film, a seasoned performer seeking more creatively fulfilling roles, or a writer/director curious about how to best work with actors on your indie projects, this panel will provide invaluable insights, practical advice, and inspiring perspectives on thriving as an indie actor.
What’s Your Character’s Playlist? Music as Muse & Method: Moderator – TBA. We’ll explore how specific songs, genres, or even just a beat can inspire a scene, define a character’s emotional landscape, or help an author find their story’s rhythm.
Worldbuilding in 60 Minutes: The Collaborative Map: Moderator – TBA. Ever dreamed of creating an entire world from scratch? This panel proves you can do it, piece by piece! We’ll start with a blank slate, and together, we’ll build a unique fictional world—its geography, its magic system, its cultures, and its inherent conflicts—one suggestion at a time. Our panelists will guide the process, demonstrating how disparate ideas can be woven into a cohesive, compelling setting ripe for storytelling. It’s a fun, rapid-fire lesson in collaborative creation and foundational worldbuilding.
Interactive Elements:
Audience Prompts: Use a large whiteboard or digital canvas. Ask for suggestions for geographical features, magical elements, types of creatures, cultural quirks, or societal problems.
Live Mapping/Note-Taking: One panelist (or the moderator) physically draws or writes down the suggestions as they’re given, building a visual or textual “map” of the world.
Connect the Dots: Panelists demonstrate how they’d connect two seemingly unrelated audience suggestions into a cohesive element of the world.
What’s the Conflict?: After establishing a few elements, panelists ask the audience to identify potential conflicts arising from the new world.
Your Book, Your Path: Moderator – TBA. Join our panel of literary agents, editors, successful self-published authors, and hybrid publishing experts as they demystify each path, sharing invaluable insights into their unique benefits, challenges, and what it truly takes to succeed.You’ll leave this panel with a clearer understanding of the diverse roads to publication, empowered to make an informed decision about the best strategic path for your book and your author career.
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