Resource:How to organize an unconference

You probably have been to a traditional conference. There are panels, breakout sessions, keynote speakers, and coffee breaks. In most cases, the panels and speaker sessions go in one direction. Whoever is on the stage speaks and the audience listens for most of the time. At the end of the session a few audience members --usually those who are more comfortable speaking up -- get to ask a question or two (which may or may not be relevant or interesting). While many speakers have interesting things to say, often the most valuable connections are made during the breaks, when you bump into someone and start a conversation... but then you have to rush to the next session. 

In contrast, an UNconference makes those organic break conversations the whole event. There are no speakers and no pre-set agenda. The attendees, who come because they are interested in the proposed topic, create their own agenda and move organically to find conversations where they can learn and add value.

The Unconference is a tradition of UIF Meetups, and in this page you'll find instructions on how to organize your own.

What You Need

1. A topic. This is what will attract the right participants to come. It can be anything. For instance, you can convene an unconference on "Creating a Sustainable Campus". You need to determine what is a topic that will be relevant to the people you want to engage.
2. A space. Ideally a space that has open space for people to move around, and easels, whiteboards or paper on walls for participants to use
3. Facilitator(s). Most of the unconference will be run by attendees, but the role of the facilitator(s) is key in explaining how the unconference works and crowdsourcing the agenda from participants (more on this below).

The structure of an Unconference

An unconference has three parts:

1. Kick-off: participants arrive to the space, the facilitator(s) explains the rules of interaction (more below), and the unconference agenda is collaboratively built.
2. Conversations: this is the main part of the unconference, and participants gather according to their topics of interest from the proposed agenda. The conversations can take the form of sharing information, synthesizing information (ie, making new connections between data), brainstorming ideas, etc.
3. Wrap-up: participants representing the different conversations share highlights with the whole group.