I know what you are thinking:
“What the hell is an Unconference? And why should I care?!”
Group discussions make the event
Well you may care if your realised what an opportunity it presents to you and your business, but I will get to that. Let me first answer your question about what an Unconference (also referred to as a Foo Camp) actually is.
As you know I am a big fan of TED and have attended every TEDx Auckland event so far. There are a lot of interesting people, some fantastic talks, and you will find your mind being stretched by some good speakers. But there is a limitation, which I had never considered before. Some, Most or even All of these presentations may be totally irrelevant to your life, your business or your interests.
The Unconference is very different. There is no agenda except what is set by the attendees once the event has begun.
Yes, I know. That just didn’t make sense to me either, when I first read it before attending. I thought it would be total chaos and a lot of wasted time. I have never been more wrong.
In fact now that I have experienced this first-hand I can tell you that this is the most powerful method I have seen to get real discussions happening within an organisation or industry group.
A spirited discussion on Marketing
This is due to the fact that the topics selected are real problems or real opportunities that the delegates are facing right now.
In the event this weekend there were 4 session rooms, so you got to pick which you would get the most out of , and we were encouraged that if we were in one session and it wsn’t really what we thought or didn’t feel we were getting anything out of it, we should exit and move to another session. When the sessions were being put together we were also encouraged to move the time slots so that we didn’t have two conflicting sessions that we want to attend. -Again this sounds messy and chaotic but it worked surprisingly well.
Each session had a nominal leader who had suggested the topic. This person lead the discussion, and all were different. Some
A stringed trio of Banjo, Guitar & Mandolin break out in the evening
were people who wanted ideas to solve an issue, some were Subject Matter Experts helping to apply their expertise to the problems in the room. But all were interactive. -I have trouble keeping my mouth shut at the best of times so I loved this.
Before I explain why any small business owner should jump at the chance to attend one of these, if they are lucky enough to be invited, I should give you some context of the one I attended.
This Unconference was held by staff of Telecom NZ. This is a large company with a lot of passionate people working in it. From esoteric network engineering people through to front-line store and call centre personnel, the attendees ran the gamut. And as important as it is to have a wide range of attendees, it was incredibly useful that between 25-30% of attendees were smaller businesses that were not affiliated to Telecom (some were customers some weren’t).
I believe that this was the 4th TelecomOne Unconference, (although the first I have attended), all have been organised by Nat Torkington in association with internal staff. Staff attendance is totally voluntary and staff are not paid to be there. Sleeping arrangements were mattresses on the floor “marae-style”, with few opting for local accommodation elsewhere.
This year there were some executives (CEO/GM level) who attended several sessions and it will be interesting to see what their take is from this, those I spoke to there seemed very positive about the experience. I was also told that the balance had shifted from being very engineering (read geek) crowd to more across the board attendees.
The Great Debate to finish Saturday night: "Should Abstain be a Core Telecom Value?" -Hilarious!
Okay, okay. I know, this sounds great, and you can see how it could help Telecom or some other big organisation but why would you want to be there? What is in it for the small business?
There are several reasons this would be a good experience for a small business owner.
- It is always good to get around smart, passionate people.
Me, enjoying a whiskey and a game of Werewolf on the Saturday night
- You can make some invaluable contacts. Perhaps with specific skill sets; or who open new networks of people to you; or who one day may want to work for your company.
- Solve problems. The problems being solved in these sessions can mirror those in your own business, and you will benefit by seeing new ways to resolve them.
- Profile. I now know of several small businesses that I had never heard of before this weekend. I am now connected with the owners on linked in and who knows what opportunities may arise in future that I can share with them.
- Influence future products. One of the sessions looked at some of the products Telecom offered. The small businesses present gave their ‘dream-list’ of what they would want in terms of products. If they ever get into production, or even if we beta test them on these small businesses I know these business owners will be pretty happy.
- Spot Opportunities. I think this is the biggie. A lot of the sessions focused on problems that needed to be solved. The attendees are often focussing internally on their own issues. I am sure that some of the entrepreneurs present will have seen a couple of problems and asked themselves if this is common to a number of large organisations. If so is there an opportunity for a product or service to resolve the issue?
- Fun! -I had a blast. This weekend has been one of the highlights of my year so far.
There are a number of organisations (and possibly industries) that do this sort of events. Telecom does one every year and I believe NZ Post may be giving it a go also in the near future.
-If you do get the chance to attend one of these, either as an employee or an outsider I suggest you leap for it!
