“I have created and licenced an Open Toolkit for Artistic Learning. I’d like to organise a public event within which to present and run this Open Toolkit that will attract like-minded peers. I’ve heard that “unconferences” are ways of organising such participatory events, but I’m not sure what unconferences are, or how to find out about them. It all seems so daunting. Where should I start?”

A new form of “unconference” is proposed in the problem scenario. What is “unconference”? Let’s start by understanding it.

“An ‘unconference’ is different from an academic conference, which is a traditional platform for researchers and professionals to network and learn about the latest developments and trends in a particular academic field.^「1」 Participants in conferences often do not have a lot of decision-making power, with the sponsors and organising committee deciding on the themes and sub-themes of the conference. The atmosphere of these conferences is relatively serious and participants often play the role of ‘takers’. Unlike a traditional conference, however, an unconference is a participant-oriented meeting. The participants play a crucial role in it, deciding the agenda, the topics to be discussed and the workshops themselves. They present their own topics of interest through a flexible programme. In other words, the content of the conference is not determined by the investors or organisers behind the conference, but is generated by each participant in the conference.

Therefore the following rules should be considered if you want to organise an unconference.

1.The format of the meeting

Unconferences emphasise interaction between participants as they allow for more flexible meeting plans, so the number of people involved, the venue, the overall objectives, feedback from participants etc. should be taken into account before conducting an unconference. Traditional meetings have a larger audience as it is usually a one-way output of meeting content, whereas for unconferences, the limits of the number of participants need to be fully considered as each participant is a participant in the meeting. An unconference, on the other hand, emphasises the participation of the participants, making connections, being creative and working together to achieve goals.

2.Involve participants in the planning and structure of the event.

The unconference emphasises the self-involvement of the participants. Here I am reminded of the Barcamp we completed this week. it also falls into a form of unconference. Each member of our Basho group was not only the organiser and planner of the unconference, but also a participant in the unconference. The fact that all of our content is public before the conference allows participants to fully understand the topic, content and format of the conference and creates an opportunity for each participant to decide how they would like to contribute to the unconference.

I designed a game about ‘language’. The game involved the other participants in a form of Chinese wordplay. Everyone in the meeting was a participant and each person created a ‘piece of work’. At the end of the event, we can discuss suggestions and feedback about the unconference and decide on the theme for the next unconference.

3.Relaxed, lively atmosphere

For traditional meetings, the format and atmosphere is more formal, mostly starting with a presentation in which one person, usually a senior and powerful member of the community, communicates with many others who are passive listeners and have little opportunity for active interaction. The atmosphere is serious. In contrast, the unconference has a relaxed, lively atmosphere, stripped of fuss and conventions and breaking away from the traditional conference format.

In our Barcamp, participation is mostly in the form of games, with an emphasis on communication and interaction between participants. Participants are engaged through games. For example, in my Barcamp I designed a warm games to allow the participants to get to know each other through games. It also allowed me, as the event planner, to assess the level of participants.

4.Effective recording

When all participants work together to achieve a goal, it is important to record how this is achieved. Not only does it effectively monitor the progress of the activity, but it also provides a theoretical basis for reflection after the event. Recording the content can be an effective way of engaging people or extending the unconference format further. This is because in a group activity participants are working through different

ways of thinking about issues. This can be achieved by creating a collaborative network where everyone has the opportunity to express their views on the event.

References:

• Cutting WA (1995) How to do it. Participate in an international conference. BMJ 310: 249-251. doi: 10. 1136/bmj.310.6974.249
• Petsko GA (2006) The highs and lows of scientific conferences. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 7: 231-234. doi: 10.1038/nrm1832 PMID: 16421519
• Ramdayal K, Stobbe MD, Mishra T, Michaut M (2014) Building the future of bioinformatics through student-facilitated conferencing. PLoS Comput Biol 10: e1003458. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003458 PMID: 24499938
• Alberts B (2013) Designing scientific meetings. Science 339: 737. doi: 10.1126/science.1236324 PMID: 23413322
• Budd, A., Dinkel, H., Corpas, M., Fuller, J.C., Rubinat, L., Devos, D.P., Khoueiry, P.H., Forstner, K.U., Georgatos, F., Rowland, F., Sharan, M., Binder, J.X., Grace, T., Traphagen, K., Gristwood, A. and Wood, N.T. (2015) ‘Ten simple rules for organizing an unconference’, PLoS Computational Biology, 11(1), available: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A418603645/AONE?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=d4b7d5b7 [accessed 17 Nov 2022]

Week8&9 Sprint4:Barcamp / Xiaotong Wu / Contemporary Art & Open Learning (2022-2023)[SEM1] by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0