by Dan Slee and David Grindlay

As an unconference this isn’t a conference.

As the great web visionary Lloyd Davis once said, an unconference aims to take you out of your comfort zone and put you somewhere even more comfortable.

If you’re used to a traditional conference where you listen to people talking it’s not really that.

We encourage people to take part and here are some pointers.

We’ll use four rules and one law of open space events.

We’ll use open space principles

1. Whoever comes are the right people.
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
3. Whenever it starts its the right time.When its over its over
4. The Law of Two Feet. If you find yourself neither learning or contributing gio and find a more constructive place.

We’ve also crowdsourced some house preferences to make the day work as well as possible.

On the day HOUSE PREFERENCES

1. Please take part. We try and make the event as open as possible so if you’re coming we encourage you to pitch a session and join in with the debate.
2. Please leave your job title at the door. Comms director with 20 years? Admin assistant in your first week? Everyone’s idea has equal space.
3. Please pitch a session idea. If something needs solving or if you think you’ve solved it lets hear and see if we can improve it.
4. Please don’t use PowerPoint. We encourage you not to.
5. Please be seen. In the spirit of no passengers, do leave your camera on. A screen filled with black squares isn’t very social.
6. Please be heard. Knock your mic off if your in a noisy room but be prepared to make it go live when you have a point.
7. Please don’t record without permission but do blog, tweet and report. Make a note, blog, tweet and paint a watercolour about the discussion if you’re able. Don’t record the discussion unless everyone is fine with it and don’t land someone in it.
8. Please facilitate. If you’ve pitched a session encourage the discussion to flow. Don’t let the debate be dominated by a few voices. Encourage others to make a point. That’s where the pearls often are.
9. Please share your experience. That’s their truth. Tell us yours.
10. Please share links. The chat function in each room is useful for this.
11. Please be nice. You may not agree but we’ll agree to disagree. Be nice.

Big thanks to our super main sponsors Touch Design, Granicus,  and Brand Stencil.

Thanks to our co-sponsors texthelp, Dan Slee, CAN Digital and Birdsong Consultancy.

Thanks to our supporters: Public Sector Digital Transformation Forum CIPR Local Public Services and David Banks Media Law.