‘KEY’ TAKE AWAY: After attending the Internet Retailer Conference and the Online Community Unconference 2007 last week, I’m really seeing the amazing value that Unconferences offer. They have the right people in the room and I’ve found them to be tremendously valuable as a dialogue of sharing rather than the one-way communication of “traditional” trade events. It’s very much reflective of Web 2.0. If you haven’t been to one before, try one. I’d love to hear what you think.
I had the fortunate opportunity to attend the Internet Retailer Conference Expo this week at the San Jose Convention Center and also the Online Community Unconference 2007 in Mountain View, CA. Both have their value and I will continue to attend both styles of conferences, but I’ve found that I really have found a lot of reasons to invest my time in more unconferences in the future. As in most traditional conferences, I was able to quickly see and hear about the latest trends at the Internet Retailer Conference. What I do find, however, at regular conferences is that the shear numbers of people and the format of speakers make it really difficult to have a true dialogue with the speakers. You go, you absorb.. maybe get in a question or two, but mostly absorb.
Image taken by fotogail on Flickr.co
At the two unconferences that I’ve attended now, it’s more about giving than absorbing. Combined with the fact that the numbers of people are much smaller (average 100), it’s a very casual environment that is very conducive to that dialogue that we emphasize so much in Web 2.0. The format is pretty simple in an unconference. You get there in the morning and people who want to speak sign up to a room and a time slot. All the slots are created on the spot (ideas are thrown out on a wiki before the event) and then simply marked on a big piece of butcher paper. You go to the things you want to hear about and you come and leave as you please (respectfully) from each session. If you got something to share or learn, just create your own session. It’s that easy.
The casual nature of the unconference can be summarized by a quote from author Harrison Owen that I saw at every unconference and found on Kaliya Hamlin’s blog:
“Law of Two Feet: any person neither learning from nor contributing to a group discussion must walk to another one”
What happens in the sessions is what is so amazing. I attended one on “Wikis in Business” presented by Jim Cashel. In the audience were people from SAP, Intuit, Catholic Health Care West, Cisco, etc. All of them were learning and sharing their personal real world experiences with Online Communities. It was great sharing experience.
I actually tried my first live video stream of this particular session using Ustream.tv. I apologize, it’s a little dark and choppy but I hope to improve.
LINKS WORTH YOUR TIME:
