When is an Unconference not an Unconference

A friend forwarded me this link to a new Unconference, PR Camp , taking place in New York on Friday, November 20, a day after the Web 2.0 Expo concludes in NYC.  Given that I will be in New York, since the Podcamp Foundation is helping to organize the Open Unconference  sessions at the Web 2.0 Expo, I was initially intrigued.  I love Unconferences, and as Director of Operations for the Podcamp Foundation, I love to see how other people put them on.

Now, I have gotten into many interesting debates with people over what exactly constitutes an Unconference, and where the line between conference and unconference lies.  We talk about scale, what elements are crucial to success, and which ones have some flex in them.

For me, the heart of the Unconference is the sharing.  It’s speakers coming to educate, and to learn themselves, to be participants as much as leaders and educators.  The essence to me is about learning and sharing, and that everyone has something to say and teach someone else.

The rules about “The Law of Two Feet” and being able to leave any sessions, to create your own experience, is important.  The rules about “no pitches” and encouraging people to walk out of any session that becomes an infomercial is important to maintain the community spirit of the event.    The rules about “No Rockstars- everyone is an equal” is important too, as is the fact that anyone can sign up to lead a session, which tend to be more discussion and questions and answer based, rather than lectures.

Barcamps tend to adhere pretty strictly to the rule that anyone can present, and the schedule is created that day- people can sign up for rooms and to lead sessions the morning of, not in advance.  At Podcamp, we bend this rule a bit, and while we maintain open space where people can create content on the fly and in the moment, a good portion of the content, sessions and scheduling are set within a week or two of the event.  Why did we make this choice?

After Podcamp NYC, where we had over 1,000 people sign up for the event and over 100 sessions in rooms of vastly different sizes in which to place these people, we decided that having people sign up for sessions in advance was crucial, as was organizing the sessions into some rough tracks, just to make the event logistics a bit easier for everyone.  For example, one room night have great content about online video, while another focused on Search Engine optimization, and another on marketing your projects on the web.  We found that Unconferences can scale, but logistics and fire codes are still important factors to consider!

The advance scheduling of sessions has had another interesting effect-people who typically might be a bit nervous about this Unconference thing attend, because they know a bit about what to expect in advance.  They come and participate, and many have what I would call a conversion experience, where the differences in what they get out of an unconference compared to a traditional conference changes their minds completely about what a conference can be.

One of the things we say frequently about Podcamp is that at traditional conferences, the hallways and social events can be the best part of the event, and we try to turn the whole conference into the hallway.  Chris Penn often says that we provide the canvas paint and brushes, but the experience and art you take away at the end of the day is up to you- you structure your experience to get the most out of it, rather than having it dictated for you.

So let’s take a look at PR Camp.  It’s one day, limited to 200 people.  So far, so good.   The tickets range from $199 to $295, depending on when you sign up.  That’s way out of the league of the charge of most unconferences, many of which are free.  In fact, Podcamp Philly charges $20, but that money goes not to cover conference costs but to a local community charity, to help further support our community- this year was Covenant House.  Likewise, Podcamp Boston charges $50, some of which covers operation expenses not covered by sponsors, and helps cover things like lunch, with any extra funds going to the Boston Foodbank.  I have a hard time, even knowing what it costs to put on an event in NYC, how this pricing structure is in the Community-based, non-profit realm, which is also at the heart of most unconferences.  Strike One.

The confirmed list of discussion speakers is a list of PR Professionals, but there seems to be no room for anyone in the community to sign up and lead a session.  Strike Two.

I see a lot of people I know and who I know know unconferences participating, so I have some hopes that there will be some “unconference” in this event, but from the outside, it looks pretty much like a regular old conference to me.

I know that there are things the Unconference movement can bring to make any old conference better and more productive.  But if you are going to call yourself a “camp”, if you are going to adopt the name unconference, particularly if you are in Public Relations, you have got to realize you are treading in shark-infested waters.  Your PR brethren may not understand the difference, but there are legions of geeks who do who also consult to marketing and PR firms about the social web, and this is pretty much a poor PR move if ever there was one.

And if I think this use of the terms Camp and Unconference is over the line and not appropriate for this conference, being the poster child of the Hybrid Conference myself and constantly getting heat from Barcamp folks about it, all I can say is: batten down the hatches and good luck.  It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Tags: barcamp, chris penn, christopher Penn, podcamp, PR Camp, unconference

Things to know about Podcamp

This year, we seem to be getting lots of questions and confusion about the difference between Podcamps and Barcamps. So I thought I’d do a brief post here so everyone is clear.

1.Podcamp is Not Barcamp. This is a biggie.  Barcamp veterans often write me and say that they think Podcamp is not a “true” unconference because we have altered the format to be a bit more of a bridge between a Barcamp Unconference and a regular old conference.  To be honest, this seems like a silly debate to me.  The decisions on how a Podcamp differs from a Barcamp, which I’ll discuss below, were made to help make the events accessible and comfortable for people who are used to regular conferences, while maintaining the community feel and the basic rules of Unconferences.

2. The Podcamp Rules (Click here to read Chris Penn’s Excellent Blog post on this subject)

Here are the Six Rules of PodCamp:

1. All attendees must be treated equally. Everyone is a rockstar.
2. All content created must be released under a Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
3. All attendees must be allowed to participate. (subject to limitations of physical space, of course)
4. All sessions must obey the Law of 2 Feet – if you’re not getting what you want out of the session, you can and should walk out and do something else. It’s not like you have to get your money’s worth!
5. The event must be new media/digital media focused – blogging, podcasting, video on the net, social networks, etc.
6. The financials of a PodCamp must be fully disclosed in an open ledger, except for any donor/sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous.

3.  The way we do Session Planning.

For most Podcamps, we set up a wiki or Google Form where people can sign up to speak in advance- once the spots are filled, they are filled.  We also attempt to leave at least one set of rooms open for people choosing to add content the day of the event, Bar-Camp Style, or to extend conversation sstarted in sessions.

The reason we allow pre-planned sessions is that it gives people an idea of what to expect at an event, and whether they should sign up or not.  Surprisingly, many people don’t want to commit to attending an event where they don’t know who is speaking, or on what topic!   This tweak has actually been shown to help boost attendance at Podcamps, and aids the organizers immensely when planning for any swag or amenities they might provide.  It also helps potential sponsors have a better idea of what Podcamp is about and thus make a more informed decision about their sponsorship investment in the community.

4. We don’t “vote” on sessions to decide whether or not they should be presented. While some events, like South by Southwest take suggestions or submissions for sessions and then let the community vote for what they want to see, we don’t.  As a result, Podcamp is not a popularity contest, but if you want to present, it’s always prudent to register as a speaker and submit your session as early as possible.

Venues do not have infinite space, and we have a limited number of sessions available over the course of a weekend.  Sessions are usually 30 to 45 minutes long rather than rapid fire, five minute presentations.  So with limited physical space and limited time, we can’t always accomodate everyone who wants to speak.  This can lead to disappointment for people who don’t feel they were warned that sessions spaces were getting tight, but the lesson here is that the early bird gets the worm and those who procrastinate may lose out on opportunities.

5. Unlike Barcamp, we don’t use the “morning of” sign up for sessions. As discussed above, many podcamps, but not all, have moved away from the day of sign up for sessions.  Often, this is to avoid the chaos of hundreds of people gathered around a whiteboard, or problems caused by being unable to access an online schedule.  Because our attendees are computer and internet afficianados, their ability to crash and slow internet connectivity is close to legendary.  All of these folks  in one spot often leads to connectivity issues, even with robust wi-fi systems.

6. Some Podcamps charge an admissions fee. Podcamp started out as a free to attend conference like Barcamp.  But after we found that only about half on the people signing up to attend Podcamp were showing up, several Podcamps, including Podcamp Boston and Podcamp Philly have instituted a nominal fee.  This has raised attendance rates to well over 80%, making planning for space and for events much easier and much more predictable.  The admissions fees are used, typically, either to pay for event-related expenses like facility rental and insurance, or some have donated the admissions fees to charitable causes.  In either case, the fees are well below typical conference fees and we have yet to have people question the value proposition.

I understand that Podcamp is not everyone’s idea of an unconference, and some of the community-organized features can frustrate those expecting more of a professional conference experience.  I look at Podcamp as being partly a laboratory, we are not only are learning from each other during the event, but with each version, we try new things and make improvements to try to do better each and every time.

The Organizers are volunteers, and do this for the love of the community and their belief in the experience that Podcamp delivers.  It is not a profit making enterprise, but seeks to run budget neutral for each event.  The organizers from each community conference live in the community and the surrounding area, and while the Podcamp Foundation has set forth the rules for what constitutes a Podcamp and what does not, the formal affiliation between events remains largely in name and spirit only.

While the Directors of the Foundation, including myself, Chris Penn and Chris Brogan, strive to provide advice and guidance for any Podcamp or potential Podcamp organizer, we are not directly involved in producing Podcamps outside of those we have always been associated with at this point in time.  I’m happy to help anyone start a Podcamp in their area, and we are currently working on an e-book in our “free” time to try to make this process easier.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions about Podcamp I can answer in the comments, and I look forward to seeing you at Podcamp Boston and/or Podcamp Philly.

Tags: barcamp, chris brogan, chris penn, podcamp, podcamp philly, unconference