Categories: Articles

Unconference Defined

There has been lots of great feedback after CaseCamp Montreal (which took place yesterday). With the good, also comes the criticism (as is to be expected from the Blogosphere). At the end of the day, I’m just happy to see the passion of people and the conversation flowing.
One recurring theme is that the event should take place in a more conversation-friendly environment (round tables and the ability to ask questions as the presenters speak). I don’t know of a table that holds sixty-plus people, but I agree that the more conversation, the better.
Based on those main challenges, some people have drawn a conclusion that in the end the result may not have been very “unconference” after all.
I disagree.
First off, here’s how wikipedia defines “unconference”:
“An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants, generally day-by-day during the course of the event, rather than by a single organizer, or small group of organizers, in advance. To date, the term is primarily in use in the geek community. Unconference processes like Open Space Technology, however, have been around for over 20 years in other contexts.”
CaseCamp Montreal was one hundred percent an unconference. Everything done before the event was self-organizing and up to all of us. The wiki was set up, people could post their presentation (along with the slot they wanted) and attendees went in and signed themselves up.
If the end result was a polished event, then that speaks volumes to the quality of the presenters and the following of the CaseCamp rules.
In my definition, an unconference is something self-organized (which this was). CaseCamp Montreal was nothing like a standard conference. There was not months of prep work, there was no professional and volunteer staff or the promotion it usually takes to pull off a conference. CaseCamp Montreal was a wiki, a couple of Blog postings and people like you and me.
That’s pretty unconference as far as I can tell.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.