Have you ever been to an unconference?
I’m a non-executive Board member of the Tinder Foundation which promotes digital inclusion in the UK. This week, the organisation had its annual conference in the BT Headquarters in London which I attended. But the evening before it had an unconference in the London offices of Google which I also attended.
It was my first unconference and I didn’t know what to expect t. Would you? Apparently unconferences are meant to be seen as an antidote to traditional conferences, which have a fixed agenda and formal set-piece speeches, so that people with similar interests can come together to talk informally about the things that interest them.
So we were invited to come along with some thoughts on what we would like to talk about. When we arrived at the venue, we were asked to fill in our ideas on coloured post-it notes and stick them on a wall.
Once everyone had submitted their ideas, topics were given a space and a time by sticking them in a ‘box’ on a large sheet of paper, so that similar issues were grouped together. Across the top of the sheet were the names of four groups or tables called John, Paul, George and Ringo. Down the side were three time slots of around 20 minutes each.
So there were 12 sessions altogether across the unconference and each attendee got to attend three quick discussions of their choice. No notes were taken and no decisions were made, but ideas flowed freely and it was fun.
November 22nd, 2014 at 3:45 am
Thanks Roger, we haven’t heard of “unconferences”.
Was there still an overarching theme for the evening, such as “digital inclusion in the UK” ?
Cheers
Nadine and Howard, in hot and humid Brisbane.
November 22nd, 2014 at 10:12 am
Yes – the theme was digital skills .
As I understand it, an unconference has the same theme as the associated conference, but works without an agenda and speakers, so the form and content is driven by the participants.