This is a rant. I don't rant much on the blog these days, as I'd rather be doing stuff I like than railing against things I don't. But once in a while, the provocation gets the better of me.
When I read David Gurteen's post, What is a Conversational Conference, I thought David was doing a good job of seeing the glass as half full. He quoted this blurb from KM Australia 2013:
What is a conversational event?Where to begin?This congress will follow an interactive conversational format. Each speaker will present a case study for 25 minutes and conclude their presentation with a question to the audience.
The remaining 15-20 minutes of each session will be given to the audience to discuss the speakers talk and the question at their tables before going into a traditional Q&A.
This conversational format is intended to create an informal, relaxed atmosphere in which you, the conference participants, can get to know each other, learn from each other and build relationships.
So basically they tweak the tired, standard conference format and insert a few minutes of highly controlled conversation. How much power does this give participants? No much. They are expected to answer a question set by the speaker; they must answer it with the people they are sitting next to. Not much freedom offered there. And then we hurry back to the weary old Q and A format.
I don't know, but I wonder if they're also going to sit people at those awful 8-person tables, where you can barely hear those sitting opposite you, but feel constrained to pretend that you can. Tables that so fill the room you are actively discouraged from moving around and deciding who to mix with? I wonder if the room will be semi-dark and gloomy, all the for benefit of some probably dead ugly slides that have print too small to read?
And this is the cutting edge of Knowledge Management? These are the folks who are supposed to be exploring the exciting frontiers of possibility? The ones who are here to revolutionise how organisations learn and relate?
This is their idea of a good time?
I'd rather watch paint dry.
Have any of these knowledge managers noticed this thing called the internet and the rise of peer-to-peer networks? Have they reflected that if you want to absorb a chunk of content, you can watch a youtube presentation at your own pace in your own time, so that when you actually meet people in the flesh you can actually talk?
Come to that, have they actually been to a coffee shop? Where they don't have enormous tables and generally have daylight? And where people have loud animated conversations, amazingly without someone handing them a little card explaining (well, stipulating) what a conversation is, and what it would be wise for them to talk about, and who they should be talking about it with?
Dave Snowden tackles the same subject and offers an alternative approach. It's not entirely my cup of tea but it's an imaginative attempt to offer something different. I'd want to suggest something a bit more radical but that's for another post.
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Comments (11)
sound to me like a suitable candidate for Open Space Technology approach
February 28, 2013 11:04 Permalink for comment
Hi Johnnie
thanks for your rant - no really :-)
I am in almost total agreement with both you and Snowden
I have been trying to get traditional conference organisers to change their ways for the last 10 years but with little or no success
they are too risk adverse
there must be literally millions of people both students and business people being put to sleep in death by power point lectures every day
my goal is help conference organisers and speakers/lectures take a small baby step in the right direction
I want them to make bog standard lecture style talks more conversational by moving from
presentation + no time for q&A TO presentation + reflection + conversation + q&a
this is so simple to do but has a significant impact
when they see how well this works and the engagement and energy it generates in the room I am hoping they will become more adventurous and pick up on all the other formats that you and Dave talk about and indeed I have many times in the past including here from 2006
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/conference-ideas
and as you know I am also an ardent tweeter of all your great posts on the subject
why? I am trying to get the word out there more broadly and encourage change but as you know it is a slow hard slog :-)
best wishes David
February 28, 2013 12:31 Permalink for comment
Sally: I'm inclined to agree although there are lots of other ways any of which could add a lot more life
David: Yes indeed. I am happy to play bad cop to your patient good cop :)
February 28, 2013 13:00 Permalink for comment
Is it time to dust off our unconfencing podcast from 2005? Or maybe do a new one? What if a small group of us took conferences that were really happening and had a conversation about how to do them differently?
February 28, 2013 19:36 Permalink for comment
Hi Chris: Yes let's do something podcasty/skypey. It will be fun.
February 28, 2013 20:21 Permalink for comment
There are some conferences that are experimenting beyond the tired ppt/ ppt/ppt panel format ( but sadly many industries get locked into a predictable format that is neither designed for brains or bodies). The Lift Conference actually commissioned a design agency to figure out what works http://www.slideshare.net/frogdesign/lift-conference-design-research . David Rock explores the conference model from the pov of a neuroscientist http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work/201104/rethinking-how-we-conference. My favourite creativity conference has a self organising sharing of ideas in the evening called night flites open space style. There's only a starting outline for suggestions to go into. There's a real energy about ideas posted up, spaces added for additional ideas, people racing around at night, and all sorts of ahas and conversations.
Here's to longer breaks, more movement, more improvisation applied, more mixing up, and getting outdoors. If there are to be keynotes - why can't they have the elegance of the Gettysburg Address. It's hard to see why they should be longer than a Ted talk. I think how panels are done can be completely reworked ( eg 6 panels at 6 bars, choose the conversation or bar you want to be part of). And yes - all those terrible round tables for 8 are not conducive to anything...
March 1, 2013 05:49 Permalink for comment
Hi Lee: thanks for a great list of alternatives. i wish more people in the KM world were agitating for this kind of approach!
March 1, 2013 08:01 Permalink for comment
A lot of people are simply don't believe that unconferences can work. So we made a video: 'The rise of the unconference'. You can see it at http://www.theinformationdaily.com/2012/09/05/the-rise-of-the-unconference
March 3, 2013 05:55 Permalink for comment
Hi Vicky, thanks for that link - another good resource for anyone thinking of breaking the standard mould.
March 3, 2013 07:58 Permalink for comment
Nice video Vicky. I've attended quite a few unconferences and always find them stimulating. The unconference format is great both for sharing and learning.
March 3, 2013 14:54 Permalink for comment
I read that (the thing you quoted) and thought it was ironic!! Look, these things are a massive energy suck, and a morale destroyer. You sit there thinking "oh my god, why have we all come all this way to watch a youtube video in the flesh?" And squeeze bits of networking into the corners/corridors, but without really having a sense of who you should network with usefully. And this is why I love open space. And here (self-promotion alert) is a thing called "Activist Skills and Knowledge"
http://askfortheworld.net/2013/01/15/youtube-activist-skills-and-knowledge-basics-v-1-0/
and a technique that I've developed called "The Novice Line".
http://askfortheworld.net/2013/01/15/youtube-the-novice-line-v1-0/
March 3, 2013 23:00 Permalink for comment