From Volunteer to Presenter: An Event Camp East Coast Unconference Story
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
This past weekend I had the opportunity to act as a volunteer at Event Camp East Coast, a 2 day UNconference for meeting and event planners. My co-volunteer, the extraordinary Paige Buck, along with the amazing team of organizers Adrian Segar, Lindsey Rosenthal and Traci Browne did a wonderful job creating an experience that was unparalleled and will definitely remain a highlight of my event education for years to come.
Having never been to an UNconference, I really had no idea what to expect from Event Camp East Coast. No one did. But that is the beauty of an event model that is ultimately up to the participants, it’s full of surprises. From a participant perspective I can understand why this might have been a little bit scary. There was no guarantee on the content, no world-renowned keynote speaker, and for the most part, none of the glam and glitz associated with a high-profile conference. Instead, we were given the chance to engage and learn with one another. We had the opportunity to make friends instead of acquaintances and, remarkably, we got to decide what we wanted to learn.
The process was intense. We spent about 3 hours in a roundtable discussion learning about each other’s areas of expertise, sharing what we wanted to get out of the event and talking about what brought us to ECEC10. It was like an icebreaker on steroids (the good kind)! From there we attended a cocktail where we listed the topics that we were interested in. We indicated our interest in each of the suggested topics and from there a small group of individuals hunkered down to determine which sessions would make it on to the schedule.
I had the incredible opportunity to take part in the session scheduling. First we combined similar topics, then we eliminated those without substantial interest or enough expertise in the room to generate a helpful discussion. Finally, we ensured that there was a solid mix of opportunities for learning and discussion. I admit that I am oversimplifying this process as it was hard work and required a critical and objective eye. However, the guidance we received from Adrian Segar made the rigorous 4-hour process thought provoking and invaluable. In fact, I would even go so far as to say it was one of my favorite parts of the event.
As luck would have it, one of the topics I had recommended was selected. Which meant, that aside from the general session I had volunteered to facilitate, I would also be acting as an expert in conflict management for event planners. These experiences were where I felt I was really able to give back to the #eventprofs community and gave me the chance to share my knowledge with my new friends.
Sure, I know a lot about conflict management and I can happily chirp on about it for hours on end. However, as a volunteer facilitator I was faced with the significant challenge of not having any time to prepare material. With no Powerpoint or speaking notes I flew by the seat of my pants, I asked participants what they wanted to learn about and used that as a guide. I’ll admit, I was afraid. What if I wasn’t giving participants what they expected? What if I suddenly clammed up? What if people didn’t like my session?
Unlike the beautiful and talented Jenise Fryatt, I am not an improvisation expert (which, BTW I heard was an amazing session) but what I could offer was knowledge and experience in an area that many individuals wanted to know about. That was the point of ECEC10, for us to learn from each other. I have always said that we learn best when we learn from each other and we learn most when we are having fun. Both of those criteria were met at this spectacular UNConference. We shared with each other, learned and engaged and we worked together to create what we can only describe as our ideal conference experience.
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