Collaborative discussions at an unconference

Unconferences are brilliant. Rather than a set agenda, people come up with their own sessions. A dozen Post-It® Notes are slapped on a wall, everyone writes down what they want to talk about, they're slotted into a grid, and - BAM! - you've got yourself an unconference.

At the recent OggCamp there were a number of brilliant spontaneous talks. But nearly all of them involved one person standing at the front, delivering a message to an audience. That's fine. But there are other forms of unconference sessions. You can have everyone make something, teach people sea-shanties, play games, or - my personal favourite - have a collaborative discussion.

Here are a few that I've run in the past - with some tips on how to get the best out of them.

Your role as facilitator is to keep the conversation moving. That means encouraging people to speak while quietening the voices which always speak. Notice whose hand is up, bring them into the conversation, move things on when they need to.

Book Club

Tanya and I were having a corridor conversation about our favourite books, so we decided to turn it into a session.

Set the chairs in a circle. Everyone has one minute to say who they are and what their favourite book is. That's it. By the end of the discussion, we had this:

Your role as facilitator is to keep the discussion moving quickly. Have a timer and let people know when they're approaching the end of their minute. Remind people that the books can be on any subject, they can be fiction, they can be classics, whatever they want to talk about.

Fail Camp

This is a harder one to run. Most talks are about success - this is about all the times you failed.

You need to tell people this is a safe space - and they're not to repeat what they heard. You may need to reiterate this message as new people wander in to the room.

Rather than go around the circle, ask for volunteers. Give them a few minutes to talk about their failure - then ask the rest of the group if they have any reflections, thoughts, or reassurances. It's important to keep things moving as many people will want to talk about something that has affected them. It may be handy to have a box of tissues at the ready.

Show Me Your Favourite Website!

This requires one laptop connected to a projector - don't spend precious time swapping between devices. Have people come to the stage podium, type in a URL, then spend a minute talking about their favourite website. It can be theirs, a friend's, a commercial site, whatever. They just need to think it is nifty.

Depending on your attendees, it may be wise to remind people of the code of conduct. Nothing pornographic, abusive, or otherwise unsuitable.

Feedback Camp!

Best to run this at the end of an unconference. It is a meta-session where you ask people what they liked and what they would do differently next time. This can be a difficult session to run, especially if there have been some logistical problems with the event.

Make sure you have a list of questions that you - the organiser - want answered. Some suggestions are:

• What did you like about the venue?
• If we chose a different venue, what should it have that this venue didn't?
• How was the food at the event?
• Where did people travel in from?
• Were there any scheduling clashes?
• What could we do to make the next event better?

Don't ask people to reveal anything embarrassing or distressing (were there any CoC violations? What was the worst session? etc). Be prepared for some robust feedback. Only take a few comments and then move on. Remind people that a survey will be sent out after the event.

Your ideas

What sort of facilitated discussions do you like?