Been working on a new way to run a one-day conference (or conference track) that blends a mix of collaborative, traditional, and un-conference elements for a @MeetAtFilament client. Let me know what you think. 1/
Everything begins by framing a "How might we ...?" challenge that's relevant to the entire group (or as many of them as practicable). It can be general such as "How might we be more innovative in X?" or specific "How might we keep invasive bug species off trans-ocean ships?" 2/
The first session of the day -- after the challenge has been shared -- will be to frame why the challenge is so important to solve. Imagine an inspirational keynote mixed with a football coach's pre-game speech mixed with a fiery sermon and you'll get the idea. 3/
Then, for the next 2-3 sessions, you ask your speakers/panels (this is the "traditional" part) to approach the challenge from different angles, sharing their best practices, success stories, tools they might recommend, etc. 4/
Take a 90-minute lunch to give people enough time and space to process their early thoughts and ideas in an "Idea Gallery" by posting a handful of problem-shaping questions they'll answer on post-it notes. 5/
After lunch, challenge people to form teams of 5-7. Build a "want a team" area for people who don't know anyone to quickly find peers to work with. 6/
For the rest of your afternoon (2-3 hours), challenge the teams to build a solution to the problem they've been discussing all day long. Allow them to initially propose three ideas they'll have to winnow down to one. Give each team a different constraint for their solution(s). 7/
The constraints might be something as simple as "Your team can't use money to solve this problem," or "Your solution must be implementable in six months," or similar. The constraint adds a bit of fun. You can also allow teams to trade their constraints if they're able. 8/
At the end of the day, teams must "pitch" their main idea. You can do this "shark tank" style, or have a bit more fun with it. One cool thing you can do is build rewards for "most creative solution" and "most creative pitch" or even "silliest idea." 9/
After the pitches, give each team a table and ask one of the team members to remain there. Then, allow everyone else to roam around the room and engage more deeply with different teams to learn about the solutions they proposed. 10/
A favorite twist: Give each team a tri-fold display board (like from a science fair project) and ask them to create their pitch on the board. Give them access to art supplies. Then, after the pitches, convene your "Idea Fair." 11/
Did I mention that happy hour should start in the middle of this afternoon process? 12/
If you're doing this for a multi-track conference, you can do these in parallel for different challenges, and then bring everyone together at the end of the day to see everyone else's ideas and "Idea Fair" boards. 13/
Feel free to charge sponsors to participate in the teams, so long as they promise not to sell too hard. 14/
At the end of the day, you've challenged folks to think about a problem they're facing, added more networking and collaboration, made room for some traditional conference elements, and built solutions (in an easily sharable format) that will be valuable to everyone. /END
