Digital Administration UnConference

The future of sports administration. What's working, what are you thinking about, worried about or how are you resourcing it. 

The Digital Administration UnConference allows attendees to take the reins and lead discussions on the issues that matter most to them. Sessions are presented by attendees with no set agenda, with several presentations taking place simultaneously. The concept behind the UnConference is for attendees to connect with and learn from each other.

The half day will be self-governing and directed but focused on these formats;

The group discussion. Someone picks a topic they’re into, writes it on the board, and forms an interesting discussion around it.

The semi-talk. Mentioned briefly above, this is a 5/15 minute presentation by the organiser, used as fuel for the session.

The show and tell. The organiser has a cool project, demo, beta, or something to show and let people play with. It’s the springboard for all the conversation in the session. Alternatively, individuals are asked to bring their own thing to show and tell (perhaps with a theme), and the session works round-robin. 

All talks are participant lead & driven with the exception of the keynotes. Before the day, we ask those interested in leading a topic to add their idea to the board. Everyone who puts up a topic idea, gives a explanation & then the voting begins to decide the agenda for the day.

What won't be at this unconfernce

The poorly disguised product demo. If you’re going to do a demo, make it obvious. “Fooby 2.0 demo” and don’t hide it behind some other topic, making people wonder why you keep steering the conversation back to a product you’re waaaay too excited about.

The zealot with a microphone. If you can’t stand to listen to people who disagree with you, get a talk show, or start a podcast – but don’t run a session. Unless you set the ground rules, or describe the session in a way that makes your stance known, expect people to either challenge you, or leave the room in frustration. More fun: find a zealot with the opposing view, get a moderator, and have a debate.

The doing of things best done on e-mail or wikis. Having 20 people in a room making a long list of best twitter accounts / cool websites / favourite athletes is a waste of everyone’s time. Very little of that process benefits from being in a room together.

The bad rendition of a bad blog post. Rants are great if people volunteer to listen: so if you really just want to vent to an audience for an hour, imply that in the session name. But don’t let yourself dominate a room or force the conversation back over ground everyone else has hapilly left behind. Also, the unconference spirit tends to be more about “60 second rants” where everyone gets to chip in, than it is about geek soliloquy.