With all of these Virginia bloggers conferences going around, it’s pretty cool to read about the unconference:
Welcome to the weird world of unconferences, a trend that is shaking up the $122 billion conference industry. These inexpensive, informal gatherings – like BarCamp, BrainJams, and Foo Camp – are conceived as little as weeks in advance. All were started in the past few years by Valley types bored with the usual calendar of confabs.
“We figured there was much more expertise in the audience than there possibly could be onstage,” says BarCamp co-founder Ryan King.
Unconferences break the barrier between the two. Attendees write topics they’re interested in on boards, consolidate the topics, and then break into discussion groups.
At traditional conferences, the most productive moments often occur in the corridor between meetings; at unconferences, attendees like to say, it’s all corridor.
Sounds like a pretty neat paradigm. Between Sorenson, Martinsville, and the August conference we may want to give it a try, yes?