What is an unconference?
WebCoast is a democratic conference, a conference directed by all the people attending it. It builds on the conference participants’ on-site suggestions of topics within the WebCoast theme: Communication over the Internet. The subjects are written down on a gridded board, and every speaker books a slot of either 20 or 40 minutes in which they can hold talks or discussions. Then you decide which you are interested to attend. Several events will be taking place at the same time in different rooms so that as many people as possible can both speak and listen. Between each session there will be a coffee break giving you the chance to socialise, network and exchange business cards. Please watch the video clip below (in swedish)!
This way everyone is encouraged to dare to talk about a topic, even those who do not usually take centre stage. It also makes it easier to make new contacts with other participants. This benefits everyone!
Unconference a Potluck Conference!
Compare an unconference – a potluck conference – and a traditional conference
- Subject choices are decided only after the unconference attendees are all in place in order to be able to offer sessions that people are interested in. Compare this with traditional conferences with only one or two speakers where the whole conference is completely dependent on how well the invited speakers can keep the audience’s interest.
- All participants in the unconference have direct access to an invaluable network of highly skilled people and can easily establish personal contacts. At other conferences you do not have the chance to hear so many different speakers nor have the same range of options for networking.
- As a company or a businessman attending the unconference you have unique recruitment opportunities because you can make direct contact with a wide range of people with many different types of competence.