Everything You Always Wanted to Know (Take 1)

Everything you always wanted to know about the Talent Unconference, and more! (Note: I will be updating this frequently, so if you are interested in attending, leading a track or just have a question please write me as soon as possible at jjhunter at ea dot com.)

It’s really happening and we hope that you can make it.

If you are not familiar with the Talent Unconference, what it is all about and what it takes to get in, read more here and here.

Date & Time

The Talent Unconference will take place on Thursday,  January 25, 2007. It will start at 9:00 a.m. and end around 6 p.m. PST.

Location

209 Redwood Shores Parkway, Redwood City, CA / Electronic Arts Worldwide Headquarters (Google Map here ... Detailed instructions will be sent to those who sign-up)

Unconference Format / Activities

• There are 6 tracks (see below).
• Each track has two sessions (one in the morning and one in the afternoon).
• You will sign-up for a session ahead of time, but you can also change your mind once you get here (but only before the session starts, not during).
• Each track has two leaders (except the “Big Pipe” session, which at this time has only one). The leaders are responsible for:

1. Creating the framing opportunity (see below)
2. Creating the framing problem (again, see below)
3. Either facilitating the opportunity / problem session or getting someone from the team to do it (will be decided in advance)
4. Either scribing or having someone else do it (can be decided at the start of each session)
5. Making sure that they invite individuals who would add something substantial to the session and whose “Learning and Teaching” statement aligns with the tracks opportunity / problem frame.

• After each session, the track leaders will report out the results of the session to all the conference attendees, or ask someone from the session team to do it for them. Their / your call.
• Each track is focused on “Bleeding-edge Innovations in Talent” but the approach to how the tracks focus on this will be different in the morning session than the afternoon session:

Morning Session – “Future Opportunity” – Your track leaders will have a basic business proposition for you, i.e. “We think that in the future of Talent Planning & Strategy this opportunity is going to exist, and we want to go start a business to capitalize on that opportunity.” ** The opportunity becomes the framework through which the participants in the track will start a conversation about the future of talent in that track focus.

Afternoon Session – “Problem Focus” – Your track leaders will have a basic business problem in the area of talent that they want to discuss i.e. “We think that getting people to adopt bleeding-edge technology without a central sourcing organization can only happen through changing organizational structure.”  ** The problem becomes the framework through which the participants in the track will start a conversation about innovative approaches to the realities of talent today.

** Both of these examples are made up. I am sure that the track leaders will come up with something far more interesting. And because this is an Unconference, where everyone teaches and everyone learns, the track leaders may decide to do something completely different than what I have planned here, or the session group may come together and just shoot the breeze about a topic du jour. It's all possible, but every session group has to report to the group at large.

• All report out sessions will be video-taped, and the video will be put up on YouTube as well as the Taluncon blog site. Peter Clayton will also be attending and interviewing participants to put on his Total Picture.com blog, which will have complimentary links from the Taluncon website.
• Each participant in the Taluncon will be made a guest author on the Taluncon website and will be able to post their questions, thoughts, ideas and miscellany about the Taluncon before, during and after the conference. The blog will become the central medium of exchange for the Unconference, and will be publicly accessible to all who are interested. (Please write me if you don't get your guest writer privledges by January 8).

Tracks / Leaders

1. Talent Planning & Strategy (lead by Susan Burns and Dave Lefkow)
2. Process Excellence (lead by Scott Dow and Nancy Gray-Starkebaum)
3. Future Tech (lead by Sean Rehder and Colin Kingsbury)
4. Meaningful Connections - Community and communications (lead by Jason Davis and David Manaster)
5. Sustainable Sourcing (lead by Shally Steckerl and Kristi Cavanaugh)
6. The Big Pipe – Getting business to fundamentally rethink their participation in the K-12 education system (lead by Dennis Hunter)

Agenda

• Will be distributed at the start of the conference.

Logistics

• PLEASE NOTE: You must book and pay for your own travel and provide your own transportation to and from the Talent Unconference.
• EA will provide a complimentary continental breakfast and a full lunch. Dinner will not be covered, although there are some conversations about bringing in pizza and beer before the poker tourney (check out Jason Davis and Recruiting.com  for more info as it becomes available).
• You will have to check in at the EA main desk on the day of the event, so you have to be registered to attend. I will stop accepting emails on January 23.
• HOTELS - The following hotels have specially negotiated rates. Please mention EA when you get your reservation in order to get the special rate (please use EA address above to calculate travel distance from the hotel):

Sofitel San Francisco Bay - $179 a night (nicest of the hotels listed and walking distance to unconference)

Crown Plaza Hotel - $129 a night

TownePlace Suites  - $111 a night

Fairfield Inn & Suites San Carlos - $95 a night

Recruiting.com Poker Tournament

The Poker Tourney is on and turning out to be big. Check out Recruiting.com for updated information. It will start 1 hour after the unconference is completed and end sometime early that morning.

Comments

[Amitai Givertz]

Jeff, this looks great, very exciting. You reminded what a good post this was/is...

http://www.talentism.com/business_talent/2006/11/us_education_my.html

[Jeff Hunter]

Bless you Ami. I loved writing that piece, and the fact that you found it worthwhile means the world to me. I don't know whether The Big Pipe session is going to tackle that level or not, but US business is eventually going to have to respond to this problem. There will be no place to outsource to for a quick fix.

[Dennis Hunter]

In the world that will be, the United States, and the businesses domiciled therein, will be severely challenged. Its supremacy will no longer be assured. In fact, it’s incredible success over the past half century will be one of the major obstacles to overcome. How it responds to, or better yet anticipates, the changed and ever-changing basis of competition will have substantial impact not just on the vitality of its economy, but on its social and political coherence. What should the U.S. do to maximize its chances of calling forth those capabilities that will result in a continuous, generative renewal? What role should the business community play in encouraging and nurturing the realization of the needed changes?

The “Big Pipe” track of the Unconference will focus on the educational component of this issue. It will start with the proposition that the role of education (a broader topic than the role of schools) is to maximize the development of human potential, the generation of capacity, as opposed to the current concept that its role is the delivery of specified capabilities (Ref., No Child Left Behind, and the success of centrally planned anything.) The second proposition will be that the maximization of the country’s success potential should start by recognizing, and building upon, its most fundamental existing strengths. The first of those being its diversity, and the capacities that foster tolerance and build mutual trust and respect, what some would call the creation of “Social Capital.” The second advantage is our relatively higher level of acceptance of failure. Both can be used to build on the country’s well-deserved reputation for creativity. And it’s competing on the basis of creativity that provides the best chance for sustainable economic leadership. But, unlike what has been true in the past, it’s a creativity that needs to be far more broadly distributed. We will no longer be living in a world where the contribution of the few can provide opportunity for the many.

We shall explore the validity and appropriateness of such propositions before moving on to investigating the dimensions of potential for contribution in these areas from the business community. Finally, we shall examine whether there is sufficient commonality of beliefs and interests among the participants to undertake an on-going commitment to collaboratively seek to bring into being at least a portion of the changes needed to prepare us to compete in the brave new world.