7 thoughts on the Unconference

Jeff & Cindy - thanks again for pulling off this unconference.

Ideas for next time:

1. Use professional facilitators for each session. If this requires a financial investment by the participants, so be it. (Process affects the outcome)
2. Keep the same size groups: 5-8 people per group is ideal. It would be interesting to have several different groups trying to simultaneously “solve” the same problem. This is one way to minimize group think. (Size affects the outcome)
3. Pre-work: ask all participants to share the 1-3 ideas they have on their selected sessions. Consider this pre-work part of the price of admission. Distribute these ideas to all participants before the conference. This allows us to quick start idea generation.
4. White boards, passion, frantic web searches, marker fights: these are the signs of real, painful, breakthrough thinking. We should set up the rooms so all these things can occur. (Environment affects the outcome)
5. Three days are required for breakthrough thinking to occur: first day is “how are you/who are you?” second day is “OK you are really starting to >>> me off, but you have a point” third day is “Eureka!” (Time affects the outcome)
6. Increase practitioner participation: This is solvable. We all know practitioners with great minds. Let’s work together to improve the practitioners/vendor ratio for the next event. (Participant mix affects the outcome)
7. Vendor controversy: I love it. Let’s set up a cage match. Yves looks scrappy… Seriously – if Joel Cheesman and I can have a respectful discussion about the future of recruitment technology (as we did) – all things are possible.

Looking forward to reading more posts.