The main idea of an UnConference is a collaborative exercise within small groups of participants to share experience and solve problems; for us, the problems and experience are all related to corporate innovation.
We are committed to gathering a group of smart, engaged professionals; provide a loose framework, and some food. All of the content and value of the event comes from the participants.
Here is how our events go:
We determine a three to five topical areas prior to the event and send them to all attendees. We ask attendees to think ahead of time about their questions/challenges in these areas. Here are some examples of topic areas from previous events (we welcome pre-event feedback from attendees on the topic areas):
- Innovation in Society
- Mobility as a Platform in Innovation
- Capital Formation and Sustainment in Innovation
- Ideation models that work
- Innovation Participation Challenges & Solution Proposals
- The relationship between diversity and innovation
- The use of innovation spaces to enhance participation, execution and developing market fit
After kick-off, people form groups around each topic area. Everyone is welcome to change groups at any time, though the conversations are always compelling and involved so we don’t see people moving around very much.
Within every group, each attendee presents one or more of their proposed challenges; discussion ensues in order to determine what specific challenge the group will focus on. Once the challenge is chosen, all attendees provide their plans, successes, failures and other experience related to the chosen challenge, resulting in group discussion and ultimately conclusions.
Finally, each group will have 15 minutes to present their findings to the full audience.
In the only nod to a traditional conference format, we always coordinate a topical interactive panel discussion during lunch time. We find that this helps with the overall thinking/discussion process by getting people out of their small groups for a period in the middle of the day.