Successful Meetings - December 2007 - (Page 25)

unconference taps into the collective wisdom and creativity of a group in a highly engaging and productive way. However, many executives will be understandably concerned about issues of power and control when opening up the meeting to the group and it will be your job to show them how giving up a bit of control of the meeting can unleash enormous amounts of creativity and innovation and also build true ownership of ideas and plans. Third, setting up for an unconference is not trivial. Room and site selection, set up of props, selection of facilitators, coordination of premeeting communication, and design of followup interaction are just a few of the things a meeting planner will need to attend to. My own experiences designing and facilitating unconferences include working with both forprofit and nonprofit organizations in a wide variety of settings. Sometimes I use technology to enhance the interaction and sometimes it’s just good face-to-face conversation that makes the approach work. Regardless of what methods you use, the most important thing is to start with a solid understanding of what you want to accomplish with the interaction. One unconference I designed resulted in 3,000 people being able to share a variety of new approaches to cross-selling in a space of just a few hours. At the end of the session over 1,000 volunteered to work on project teams to bring the top three ideas to fruition. Kaliya Hamlin co-produces and facilitates meetings called “Internet Identity Workshops” using an unconference approach. She says, “In technical communities where innovation and interoperability are key to the success of all vendors—[unconferences] have been particularly powerful because you have to build trust between the parties involved.” Hamlin believes the unconference approach was critical in enabling one group to collaborate effectively on an industry standard called “Open ID”—despite the enormous diversity of the organizations involved. She attributes a number of innovations and breakthroughs in this collaborative effort to use of unconferences. Don’t look to eliminate keynote speakers or planned activities at your conferences. There will always be room for unique ideas that inspire and for carefully planned interactions. But conference participants, both now and increasingly in the future, will expect to play a key role in what happens at your meetings. You can channel that energy and enthusiasm with an unconference. Mary E. Boone (www.maryboone.com) is president of Boone Associates, an Essex, CT-based communications firm specializing in the design of meetings and training programs that emphasize participant interaction, creative use of technology, and measurable results. For More Info on Unconconferences Visit mimegasite.com, click on Industry Research, then go to White Papers to read the “Art of Meeting Design.” http://mimegasite.com http://www.maryboone.com http://sandpearl.com http://sandpearl.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - December 2007

Successful Meetings - December 2007 Contents Editor's Note Special Report Research Industry Trends 2008 Meeting Events Planner Spotlight Websites of the Month Mouth for Sale Technology Talk Food & Beverage Pre-Event On Site Pre-Event Tools of the Trade Goodbye, Booth Babes Five Tips to Improve Your Golf Events When Crime Pays Office for Hire More Miles for Your Money Places & Spaces South Florida Biloxi / Mississippi Gulf Coast Fort Worth Monterey Beijing Gurus Special Supplement: Hawaii Island-by-Island Guide

Successful Meetings - December 2007

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