How Does an unConference Day Work?

Introductions

The conference begins each day with attendees introducing themselves by completing the sentence “I’m Geeky because….”

Agenda

At the beginning of the day, we create the agenda. Everyone meets in one room and posts topics they would like to present, see or discuss. We start with a blank wall and, in less than an hour, through a highly participative process, create a full day, multi-track conference agenda that is relevant and inspiring to everyone there. This creates a rich assortment of agenda items and makes for an exciting day of learning.

From there, we go to separate areas or rooms assigned to each topic. The session formats can be a presentation, inquiry about a question or discussion about an issue or technical field. We ask for one participant volunteers to record the proceedings.

Sessions

Various session topics are put forward by the women who attend the event. They include: presenting about a particular expertise, hosting conversations about issues of interest both technical and personal (such as how to balance work and family), exploring start-up ideas, discussing different programming languages or frameworks, sharing stories about what it was like to work in the early days of the industry, teaching public speaking, and many others.

Notes

Summary notes are generated from each session and posted to our blog for everyone to see.

Closing

At the end of each day we review briefly highlights from all the sessions hosted during the day and then usually invite attendees to complete the following sentence “As a result of today…” you can see what women shared in this closing exercise from our DC unconfernece here.