The Unconference

Saturday 31 December 2005 09:47 GMT

Title	The Unconference
Weblog	Gurteen Knowledge Log
Posted Date	Saturday 31 December 2005 09:47 GMT
Posted By	David Gurteen
Link	http://www.highcontext.com/hcarchives/2005/11/18/conference- ...
Categories	Unconference
Technorati Tags	unconference
del.icio.us Tags	unconference
People	David Gammel

For the last few years I have been running knowledge cafes and conferences that were inspired by my frustration with traditional conference and speaking formats. Too often traditional conferences are "chalk and talk" and "death by powerpoint" and I wanted to get away from this format and create meetings that were a lot more interactive, participative, and conversational - where the participants (note I have never called them delegates) got to engage with the subject matter.

At the same time it was good to notice that other people were adopting this format too and that many more conferences and seminars were becoming 'participative events'. Well once this new form of 'conference' is given a label then maybe its time has really come and so I was delighted to just read this posting of David Gammels on Unconferences.

This is how an "unconference" compares with a traditional "conference". I love it

Conference Unconference

Attendees Participants

Exhibitors Participants

Recruiting speakers Recruiting participants

Content planning Content facilitation

Direct marketing Word of mouth marketing

Handouts Wikis

12 month planning cycle 12 week planning cycle

Sponsorships Donations

Once a year As often as needed and desired

Large budgets Shoe-string budgets

Maximize value for organizers Maximize value for participants

Best practices Innovation

Top down Bottom up

Wisdom of experts Wisdom of crowds

Magazine coverage 2 months later Live blogging/podcasting

Slides Stories

Panels Conversations

Best practices Practicing

Hierarchy Networks

Directive methods participatory methods

Participants Contributors/creators

Speakers Conversation starters

Sharing information Learning collaboratively

Instruction Discovery

Best learning in the hallway It’s all hallway!

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David Gurteen

Giving a talk at the Graduate School of Bangkok University, January 2008.

I help people to share their knowledge; to learn from each other; to innovate and to work together effectively to make a difference!

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Saturday 17 May 2008
09:53 PM GDT