As the dust of the earthquake is settling down again, it is time for us to meet in person and talk – to share knowledge and ideas we gathered during the last weeks of work and engagement in community life, wherever each of us tried to help after the earthquakes.
I would like to ask all of you involved in the futuremakers project to give me some ideas about what would be the right time and way to do our first unConference in Nepal?
For us the date that seems reasonable but also not too late is the 5 and 6th of June 2015. We will provide people with caffeine and glucose, and plates full of momos, and space where they can comfortably work, talk and use internet. Usually this kind of event has no real schedule in advance. Instead, we ask people to come over, write on the board what they want to talk about, where and when, and then participants go and join the meeting/workshop/discussion. Everyone is encouraged to take an active part in the conference and lead a session - and all ideas are welcome.
I wanted to ask your opinions about this formula, and what else needs to be taken into account in the Nepali context? Will people be open to just come and start a session? Is it the right time to bring people together and do something that is not exactly a relief work? Maybe you have a space to rent in your mind?
For those not knowing the word, I’ve added a link explaining unConferences. It’s a collection of different techniques to make meetings productive and enjoyable without resorting to authoritative top-down organizing. So, no fixed schedule, no high-polish presentations before a passive audience etc…
Probably the Edgeryders here in Nepal know related techniques they want to recommend? They’re probably called anything but not “unconf”. We’re very curious to learn and try sth. new, so pls let us know
@Matthias we have had few similar events. Bar Camp which used to organized unConference - I attended both (but they would call prior for speakers, and then would print the schedule and here is a take from a not-so-impressed-attendee). And I think there is another thing called PechaKucha (again, preset speakers). So some people are familiar with the idea behind an unConference but have yet to experience a real one.
I think this could be a great space/environment for people from citizen-driven initiatives to come, share, listen, relax and reflect a bit, and hopefully build a sense of community. I do think June 5-6 maybe a bit too early but we can still think about it.
We can definitely keep the environment free-flowing, and I like the idea of a white-board where they can write down if they want to speak and share. My concern is, what if no one signs up because they are too shy or feeling a bit awkward, or unclear as to what is going on even!
That’s good feedback, I feel more comfortable about the unConf idea now In terms of space: we will hold the event in the rooms of our friends from Robotics Association of Nepal, so I think it’s for at most 40 participants. Not too big, but we could have more events of this format because it’s not too much effort either. Will add another comment below to discuss that.
This sounds a splendid idea to me. The nature of the gathering will definitely be a good opportunity to share and learn from each others experiences and given so much have been going on as relief programs i think this is the right time to discuss and reflect upon.
The proposal above for a two-day event follows the pattern of earlier Edgeryders events, but these usually required people to travel, even internationally. In our case here, attendees will be from Kathmandu. So maybe a one-day event is better, to prevent fatigue and a “lame” second day?
In our final conference in July, we want to invite people from all of Nepal though. That one should be a two-day event for sure. But this one? Maybe rather one day, but repeating it every two weeks or even every week, each time inviting a new set of people in addition to whoever wants to come again? Because the biggest value seems to be that of a first contact point: enjoyable offline community building that can then proceed online.
What does our team and interested participants think about it?
Cool idea! Remember we were talking about a mix of ad-hoc events in the runup of THE event for each project?
Same in Bucharest, but we only did informal meetup. I’m curious if the barcamp will be effective and if organising it doesn’t take too long for its purposes… So get back to us with thoughts after your first one is done.
@Matthias, the proposal of one day conference is better i think. We could maybe start early and stay till eve , take breaks in between and make it more informal and stick to one day. We could do follow up meets in between and i will be more productive as we can always compare and contrast between things as time passes by…
Maybe you have a space to rent in your mind?
