Photos from past Edgeryders event sessions: informal, collaborative, un-intimidating.
With only one month to go until the gathering in Tbilisi, June 24-26, we’re taking this week to launch an open call for everyone in the community to come forward and tell others what they want to see happen at the event, what they are willing to lead.
You don’t need to have it all figured out or have experience in public speaking to put yourself forward and lead a session. We’re all here to learn, and the work of developing your idea will be done in collaboration in the upcoming weeks.
A session at the event can be:
- a presentation about a project you are involved in
- a workshop to teach others in the community skills that they might need to move forward with their own initiative (@Grupo Cooperativo de las Indias have already a session on Market Activism)
- a work session to build together project proposals (example for EU funding tbc), replicate existing models (example unMonastery tbc),
- anything you want to explore with people coming from Georgia, Armenia, Egypt, Germany, UK, Italy, Sweden, Romania etc.; answer a burning question together (example @hexayurt's session)
HOW TO PROPOSE A SESSION?
Upload here a short description of what theme or project you want to present or work on at the event. (Below the editor, assign it to a platform group that you are part of).
What challenge does it answer? Who’s it for? What do you need help with?
Once uploaded and saved, share it via your social media profiles to get more people involved! Do you know of someone in Armenia, Georgia, Egypt working to affect change who needs to be in the room? Ping them on facebook, twitter etc and invite them to join.
WHAT IF I REALLY WANT IN, BUT CAN’T LEAD A SESSION?
There’s plenty of other things you can help with in event organizing: logistical arrangements, party planning, social media outreach. Choose a task and go for it!
THE PERKS
We have already booked 20 spots at a local hostel in Tbilisi and are waiting to fill them with names of those community members who show commitment to make our gathering memorable. You sign up to lead, you could end up with paid trip and lodging in Tbilisi. It’s that simple, we’re giving it a week, two max to give everyone a chance to benefit from it.
WHAT ABOUT THIS FUTURESPOTTERS EVENT AND WHY IS IT DIFFERENT?
The event is engineered by Edgeryders, a global community turned social enterprise to support the work of its over 2000 members. The Spot the Future project is supported by the United Nations Development Programme, our first official client!
If you missed it: all Edgeryders events are built entirely based on what participants want to get out of them. We’re not fans of sit-and-listen conferences with top down built agendas where people register only to hear others speak. We want to learn from each other, to work together, as this for us is a healthy way to build genuine collaboration; it goes beyond networking for one’s organisation.
We’re asking you to register for an event that has no predefined agenda, but a big story behind it: over the last months educators, communicators, open data enthusiasts, environmental activists and more in Georgia, Armenia, Egypt have met and joined the global Edgeryders community. We all have stories to share and burning questions we want to answer, but can’t do it alone. So we are meeting this June to continue the online conversation and find spots where we can help each other.
That’s why we aim to have a shared agenda and shared expectations – we want everyone to walk out of the room with the feeling that it’s worthwhile. Collaboration starts there, as we each have already made a time investment and stand ready to take it up a notch in the follow up of the event.
