An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. The term "unconference" has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid hierarchical aspects of a conventional conference, such as sponsored presentations and top-down organization. - Source: Wikipedia
- Date: March 6th 4PM
- Location: Microsoft Reactor, 70 Wilson St, Finsbury, London EC2A 2DB, United Kingdom
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 claim a time and a space.
We will follow the agenda:
- 4.15PM introduction + request for topics
- 4.30PM dot voting: selection of 2 sessions from presented topics
- 4.45PM session 1 (45')
- 5.30PM break (15')
- 5.45PM session 2 (45')
- 6.30PM moderators wrap up (15')
- Present: people, advancing in career, relationship with recruiters, use of communication tools (job boards, community websites, slack, mailing list, newsletter, mastodon, discourse, etc.)
- Future: 21st century guild manifesto, HR tech, health, work/life balance, organising events, mentorship, nonprofit organisation and managing money (e.g. donations) etc.
An unconference can be conducted using a number of facilitation styles. Here some that we see fit, the final version of this document should have an agreement on the format.
- dot-voting: useful to select the initial set of topics, provided they revolve around the main categories we want to discuss
- fishbowl: like a panel session but with a participating audience, this might be useful to expose results of the survey
- 1-2-4-all: to encourage engagement of introverts, possible format at the back of dot-voting
- open space technology: to allow the creation of a dynamic agenda and working groups
- birds of a feather: needs previous preparation and probably feels too structured for current stage of topics
should take notes, keep the time, allow people to speak, make a recap at the end of the session
We would like to meet at 3PM for 3-4 hours then head out for drinks. This should address the problem with non-office hours where all the attendees are knackered for the working day and less inclined to discuss things productively, unless it’s weekend (and we don’t want to spend precious family time to do this). Using a 2-3 hours allowance on a Friday afternoon should be reasonable and motivational enough to make the most of that time.