On the Fringe of Conferences

Posted by Kenneth Ronkowitz on

I have been noticing more and more informal meetups developing at the fringes of formal conferences. You attend a conference and discover that special interest groups are getting together less formally to share ideas during breaks and in the off-conference hours.

I have heard events of this type called meetups, unconferences, collaborative conferences and barcamps and I wrote about a Classroom 2.0 free meetup at the start of this year.


I want to share another one that I noticed this past week. It is occurring as a pre-conference event at the NECC Conference (National Educational Computing Conference). It is billed as EduBloggerCon / Classroom 2.0 "LIVE in San Antonio" on June 28, 2008. It's a full day meetup of educators using blogs and other collaborative technologies. They invite bloggers, blog readers and those who want to enter that world. What makes it an unconference is that it is pretty much being organized by the participants in real time on the wiki site. They are also sharing information on what sessions they plan to attend. The group does have (through the generosity of organizer ISTE) access that day to rooms at the Convention Center and free wi-fi.

I have never attended NECC - scared off by the reports of attendees of the overwhelming nature of this big conference. Does this meetup effect make a big conference seem smaller & more personal - or does it make it even busier? (Things to do during the breaks!) I'd love to hear from past attendees and unconference fans about their experiences.


Another happening is the NECC "Unplugged at the Bloggers Cafe" (also called "NECC 2.0," the NECC "Fringe" Festival, and the NECC "Unconference - I hope we settle on a name for all this). This runs over the 3 days and is also being scheduled by the participants and happens in the open lounge areas. Right now they list 7 types of sessions and it's interesting to see some new takes on the standard presentation and poster sessions format of many conferences.



  1. from the more formal "Birds of a Feather" sessions which are actually scheduled by NECC

  2. to "Speed Demos" - 5 minute (max) demonstrations of Web 2.0 programs or uses

  3. "Short Talks" 7 minute talks (they compare it to the TED Talks and suggest "if you got formally turned down for a NECC session... now you can say you presented at NECC").

  4. "Facilitated Discussions" - group discussion with volunteer facilitators, topics proposed online

  5. "Panel Discussion" - find some panelists & a moderator, and put yourselves in the schedule.

  6. "Success Stories" - your own success stories to showcase and for discussion in 30-minute blocks around specific topics (e.g., "Blogging with young students")

  7. and finally "Daily Wrap Ups"




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