Unconference

What is an Unconference?

An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. Typically at an unconference, the agenda is created by the attendees at the beginning of the meeting. Anyone who wants to initiate a discussion on a topic can suggest a ‘session’ where they can lead the group in a discussion, give a presentation, or teach a tool. We also encourage participants to set up ‘sessions’ as co-working spaces to develop collaboration between those who attend the workshop.

Unconferences blend appropriate process methods that bring people together to learn, share, and take participatory action, minimizing the passivity of low engagement. Highly interactive, unconferences can achieve good results in an hour, a half day within a regular conference, or with fully interactive one- to three-day events.

The peer-to-peer learning environment of an unconference is good for multi-disciplinary exchange. This works particularly well for professionals at the leading edge of their fields who learn the most from other professionals.

What types of session could I propose?

In order to help generate ideas, here are some examples of session types you could propose at the unconference:

Participant-Led Thematic Conversations: These can start with a short presentation to get things started. 5-15 minutes of prepared material/comments by the session leader followed by an interactive discussion.

My Big (or Little) Question: If you have a question you want to know the answer to, and you think others in the group could help you answer it, you can suggest it to the group. This format could also just be the seed of a conversation.

Show and Tell: If you have a cool project, a demo, or just something to show and let people play with that is the springboard for all the conversation in the session. Alternatively, you can invite others to bring their own items to show and tell (perhaps with a theme), and everyone takes a turn sharing.

Learn how to do X: If you’re inclined to teach, this can be simple and effective. Bring the equipment that you need, and have a plan that will let you teach five, ten, or 15 people how to do something all at the same time. We recognize this may take more time to prepare, and it may also be great for you to connect other to resources so they can prepare before or learn after the workshop.

The longer formal presentation: If you feel comfortable, you can prepare a more traditional presentation. While you can propose this presentation, be mindful that if the presentation is not voted for, it will not happen. As the goal of these sessions is to be collaborative this is tricky, because it’s difficult to make a formal presentation interactive.