what an unconference is on a previous blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\nIf you think this format could work for you, here are some tips to help you organise it.<\/p>\n
1. Assemble a team<\/h2>\n
While unconferences are relaxed on the day, a lot of preparation is needed to make them feel that way. It\u2019s best to assemble a team that are passionate about the subject, have different skills to contribute and have time to commit to making the event a success.<\/p>\n
2. Pick a broad topic<\/h2>\n
To make the unconference format work, the topic should be broad enough for the attendees to have different points to discuss.<\/p>\n
For example if your subject is forestry, it would be better to run an unconference on \u2018the future of Scotland\u2019s forests\u2019 as opposed to \u2018ways to tackle deforestation\u2019. Because in the latter option, you\u2019ve already defined the problem, rather than allowing the attendees to do so.<\/p>\n
3. Get the right people in the room<\/h2>\n
The participant-driven approach only works if you have the right people in the room.<\/p>\n
You want to have people from all disciplines in the room that are relevant to the subject. Sticking with the \u2018what\u2019s the future of Scotland\u2019s forests\u2019 example, you\u2019d want attendees including: the Forestry Commission, landowners, timber companies, carpenters, adventures companies and environmental charities.<\/p>\n
Along with breadth of experience, it\u2019s also important to get a range of people at different stages of their career. While you may think senior people have the power to make change happen, it can often be the people below them driving the change. For me, this is what makes unconferences powerful.<\/p>\n
Practicalities of getting the right people in the room<\/h3>\n
The first thing to do is ask your team about their contacts and for ideas about who should attend.<\/p>\n
The next step depends on where the community you want to attend can be found \u2013 for our diversity in the Scottish digital sector event, I went to LinkedIn and Twitter and found a great number of the people that we didn\u2019t have contact details for.<\/p>\n
Make sure you have people to help target relevant contacts as managing the attendee list and communicating with the people on it is time consuming.<\/p>\n
4. Get the structure of the event as tight as possible<\/h2>\n
To make the event feel relaxed the structure needs to be tight. Some of the things you\u2019ll need to think about are:<\/p>\n
\n- the structure of the event, including timings of discussions<\/li>\n
- how you\u2019ll collect attendees\u2019 topic suggestions and facilitate the topic voting session \u2013 particularly if there\u2019s a large number of people<\/li>\n
- the timetable and its visibility<\/li>\n
- the number of supplies you’ll need, for example post its and sharpies<\/li>\n
- the room sizes – put the most popular discussion topics in the biggest room<\/li>\n
- ensuring everyone gets an equal chance to contribute in the sessions<\/li>\n
- assigning roles for the day including facilitators for the sessions if needed, and someone responsible for timing – thanks to the recommendation from SCVO\u2019s [Beth Murphy](https:\/\/twitter.com\/Betty_Murphy), we had a team member use a bike horn to let attendees know it was time to move on to the next session<\/li>\n
- creating a social media code of conduct \u2013 we asked people not to tweet anyone\u2019s name or organisation unless they had permission<\/li>\n
- how you\u2019ll make the event inclusive for people with disabilities and\/or additional needs<\/li>\n
- how you\u2019ll capture the key points made in the discussions and what you\u2019ll do with them<\/li>\n
- how you\u2019ll include people who can\u2019t make the event \u2013 we used Periscope (live streaming)<\/li>\n
- how you\u2019ll capture feedback about the event<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
5. Let go and enjoy it<\/h2>\n
This can be hard, but it\u2019s important to let the attendees lead the event. Taking a step back for me meant observing the discussions and when people were able to be open and honest about their experiences the event felt like a success.<\/p>\n
If you think you\u2019d like to organise an unconference, but want more information drop me an email on laurna.robertson@gov.scot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m going to\u00a0start with an assumption: that you\u2019ve been to a conference where you\u2019ve listened to speaker after speaker until you\u2019ve been saturated with other people\u2019s thoughts and opinions. Were you a bit bored? Or frustrated that by the time it got to the questions bit you’d forgotten what you wanted to\u00a0ask? One way to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":1383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,61,63,62,60],"class_list":["post-1381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-diversity","tag-events","tag-open-space-events","tag-organising-events","tag-unconference"],"yoast_head":"\n
How to organise an unconference - Digital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to organise an unconference - Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019m going to\u00a0start with an assumption: that you\u2019ve been to a conference where you\u2019ve listened to speaker after speaker until you\u2019ve been saturated with other people\u2019s thoughts and opinions. Were you a bit bored? Or frustrated that by the time it got to the questions bit you’d forgotten what you wanted to\u00a0ask? One way to...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-04T11:17:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-04T11:20:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/05\/unconference-graphic.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"laurnarobertson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"laurnarobertson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"laurnarobertson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/917d1eb9811767a9f2ff978a597d4c4e\"},\"headline\":\"How to organise an unconference\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-04T11:17:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-04T11:20:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/\"},\"wordCount\":833,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/05\/unconference-graphic.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"diversity\",\"events\",\"open space events\",\"organising events\",\"unconference\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Uncategorized\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/\",\"name\":\"How to organise an unconference - Digital\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/05\/unconference-graphic.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-04T11:17:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-04T11:20:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/917d1eb9811767a9f2ff978a597d4c4e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/05\/unconference-graphic.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/05\/unconference-graphic.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":768},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How to organise an unconference\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/\",\"name\":\"Digital\",\"description\":\"Updates from the Scottish Government's Digital Directorate\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/917d1eb9811767a9f2ff978a597d4c4e\",\"name\":\"laurnarobertson\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/author\/laurnarobertson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to organise an unconference - Digital","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to organise an unconference - Digital","og_description":"I\u2019m going to\u00a0start with an assumption: that you\u2019ve been to a conference where you\u2019ve listened to speaker after speaker until you\u2019ve been saturated with other people\u2019s thoughts and opinions. Were you a bit bored? Or frustrated that by the time it got to the questions bit you’d forgotten what you wanted to\u00a0ask? One way to...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/","og_site_name":"Digital","article_published_time":"2017-05-04T11:17:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-05-04T11:20:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/05\/unconference-graphic.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"laurnarobertson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"laurnarobertson","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/"},"author":{"name":"laurnarobertson","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/917d1eb9811767a9f2ff978a597d4c4e"},"headline":"How to organise an unconference","datePublished":"2017-05-04T11:17:58+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-04T11:20:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/"},"wordCount":833,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/05\/unconference-graphic.jpg","keywords":["diversity","events","open space events","organising events","unconference"],"articleSection":["Uncategorized"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/","name":"How to organise an unconference - Digital","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/05\/unconference-graphic.jpg","datePublished":"2017-05-04T11:17:58+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-04T11:20:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/917d1eb9811767a9f2ff978a597d4c4e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/05\/unconference-graphic.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/05\/unconference-graphic.jpg","width":1024,"height":768},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2017\/05\/04\/how-to-organise-an-unconference\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to organise an unconference"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/","name":"Digital","description":"Updates from the Scottish Government's Digital Directorate","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/#\/schema\/person\/917d1eb9811767a9f2ff978a597d4c4e","name":"laurnarobertson","url":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/author\/laurnarobertson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}