(un)conference

All topics are fair game at unconferences (unless the organizers specifically state a more narrow theme, of course). Here are a few categories of themes to get your juices flowing:

• Your professional expertise (e.g. mining black holes, how to create real estate pro forma, environmental review regulatory reform);

• Something you’re passionate about (e.g. pottery, quantified self, your experience going through IVF, a standup comedy set);

• A group experience (e.g. improv, acrylic pouring, cooking class, giant jigsaw puzzle, blind "dining in the dark" dinner, board games, photography workshop);

• A physical activity (e.g. stretching, group hike, hunting for four leaf clovers, breathing exercises, square dancing.

• Fireside chat. An informal conversation between an interviewer and a guest speaker, usually in a cozy setting.

• Facilitated group discussion about an important question.

• Pre-prepared talk + Q&A. This one is the most similar to what you’ve seen at conferences. To take advantage of an unconference's informality, we encourage you to pause more often for audience reactions or questions.

• Lightning talks. You can organize a mini series of short, 5-10 minute presentations on a topic. The series could have a specific theme, or not.

• Impromptu panel. After a round of intros, you pick 2-5 experts and form a panel. You can be moderator, or you can ask one of the experts to ask good questions.

• Demo of a new technology. Brownie points if it's a live demo! But make sure you're prepared so that there aren't lots of awkward gaps.

• Live podcast. Ask another attendee if you can interview them.

• Science experiment. Design an experiment that the group can test together during the session. It doesn’t necessarily have to fit in the 1 hour session; the experiment could run throughout the event and bear results at the end, or possibly even after the unconference is over.

• Group brainstorm in a Google Doc. This is a much higher bandwidth brainstorm format than a single-threaded group conversation. Pose some good questions, ask everyone to type their responses underneath each question, and allow people to comment afterwards. Tip: start by spending 3 minutes "brainstorming ways to brainstorm", then pick your favorite 2-3 ideas and spend the session on those.

• Ask everyone why they're interested. "Let's go around and say a sentence or two about any specific questions you'd like me to address." Good for making a Q&A more targeted to people's curiosities.

• Intros. "Let's go around and say a sentence or two about why you're here and your familiarity with this topic."

• Play with the length of time. Unconference boards are typically broken down into 1-hour blocks, but that doesn’t mean your session has to be 1 hour! You could take over 2 contiguous time blocks to make a mega 2-hour session, or you could use just 30 minutes if you don’t need the full hour.

• Invite specific people to attend your session. Think about who at the event will have interesting things to add to the discussion and ask them if they’d like to attend your session.

• Promote your session in the group chat. Many unconference organizers will create a group chat for everyone to get announcements throughout the event. 10 minutes before your session starts, you can message the group chat to tell them about your session and who you think would find it interesting.

• Invite everyone to sit on the floor. This can make the session feel more playful and casual. (You can also just remove all of the chairs from the room beforehand, then they will have to sit on the floor!)

• Bring a physical artifact. Having a physical object related to what you’re working on can make what you’re talking about more real. You can think of it as grownup show and tell!

• Find a cohost. Think about who might have overlapping/complementary expertise and invite them to run the session with you.

• Discuss a topic you’ve written about in depth before. Some of the best sessions we’ve seen have been writers sharing a quick overview of an essay or book they’ve written, and then giving audience members time for Q&A so the discussion can go beyond what they’ve published publicly. Another variant of this is that you could print out copies of the essay and ask people to read it in silence for the first 5-10 minutes of your session.

• The host is under-prepared. This is the most common failure mode. Although unconferences are designed to be casual, you should still take the role of hosting a session seriously. We've seen amazing sessions that required zero prep, but it's a high variance strategy. A host should at least be able to ask the right questions if a conversation falters.

• The session feels scripted. Long, non-interactive presentations miss what makes unconferences special. The fix is to encourage group participation.

• Intros take up the whole session. Beware the Law of Intro Inflation: that each intro tends to take slightly longer than the previous one. For a group of less than 10 people, intros usually take about 10 minutes. For 10-20 people, you'll need to ask people to keep it to 2 sentences or less. For a large group of 20 or more people, beware, and don’t hesitate to be the Bad Cop!

• A few loud voices dominate the conversation. A great facilitator is a great host, which means encouraging quiet participants to contribute and being willing to gently interrupt the long-winded.

• The topic goes off the rails. If your topic degenerates into a debate about capitalism, a great host will find a way to get it back on track.

• First-timers don't participate. Unconferences are wonderfully informal, and you don't need experience to host. If you're shy, try cohosting with another attendee! Alternatively, you can prepare a session and decide after day 1 whether or not to put your session up on the calendar. It can also be encouraging to ask others for their feedback on your topic.