- \n
- First, participants suggest topics<\/strong> on sticky notes<\/li>\n
- Next, participants vote on topics<\/strong> using colored dots<\/li>\n
- Then, we break into small groups<\/strong> around top ideas, with each group having a \u201cleader\u201d for organizing the discussion, and a \u201cscribe\u201d for taking notes<\/li>\n
- Then, we reconvene<\/strong> as a larger group and read our notes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
She said the Unconference was the most interesting insurance conference she had ever attended. I told her the bar for insurance conferences probably wasn\u2019t that high. She insisted it was great.<\/p>\n
When we tested a blockchain Unconference in Boston earlier this year, I saw she was right. The Unconference model really works, for reasons, I will discuss below (with downloadable notes). But first, let me tell you how we ended up doing an Unconference in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\n<\/center><\/p>\n
The World Crypto Conference Unconference<\/h2>\n
In 2018, at the terrific World Crypto Con, we hosted a full day of training workshops. It was eight hours to fill, but I had the help of several colleagues, and we each took a workshop. It was a big success — I wrote about the experience at the end of my book Blockchain For Everyone<\/strong><\/a> — and this year the organizers asked us back again.<\/p>\n
In 2019, though, my colleagues couldn\u2019t make it.<\/p>\n
I was alone. With eight hours to fill.<\/p>\n
They say necessity is the mother of invention, but desperation is the grandmother<\/em> of invention. I flashed back to the Unconference model. \u201cEureka!\u201d I shouted. \u201cIn the spirit of blockchain, I shall decentralize\u00a0<\/em>our training workshops!\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, I\u2019d get the attendees to do it for me.<\/p>\n
When the big day arrived this week, I was sweating marbles. The worst case would be that one other person would show up, and it would be me and some guy trying to hold an Unconference between the two of us.<\/p>\n
So I was thrilled to see the conference room packed for our first session. This was 9:00 am, on the day before<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>World Crypto Con, and the room was full and buzzing.<\/p>\n
Even better, the people were engaged<\/em>. Over eight hours, we held four amazing workshops, each led by the participants and exploring a variety of topics from \u201cThe Future of Bitcoin\u201d<\/strong> to \u201cBest Crypto Wallets\u201d<\/strong> to \u201cFinding Hidden Gems.\u201d<\/strong> (Downloadable notes below.)<\/p>\n
I received about a dozen compliments afterward on the workshops. \u201cThank you for organizing this!\u201d people said. (Little did they realize I didn\u2019t organize anything.<\/em>)<\/p>\n
Why do these Unconferences work? Same reason as blockchain: decentralization.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWhy Unconferences Work<\/h2>\n
- \n
- They allow everyone to learn from each other \u2013 not just from a single speaker.<\/li>\n
- Participants get to choose topics they want to discuss.<\/li>\n
- They build connections between people.<\/em><\/li>\n
- They build connections between ideas.<\/em><\/li>\n
- They unlock all the brainpower in the room, from beginners to experts.<\/li>\n
- They create a sense of community and fun!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
One of the coolest things, though, was getting a pulse on\u00a0<\/strong>which blockchain topics are hot.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>You could easily see, with colored dots, which tokens and technologies were on everyone\u2019s mind. It was a valuable way of seeing where the market is.As each small group read their \u201ctakeaways\u201d to the wider group, I took notes on the high-level learnings. So many people asked me for a copy of this master document that we\u2019ve made it available to Bitcoin Market Journal.\u00a0<\/em>You can download it here<\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n
Sign up here<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to get more blockchain intelligence and insight in our free weekly newsletter.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A colleague from the insurance industry once told me about a conference that changed her life. Only it wasn\u2019t a conference; it was an UNCONFERENCE. What is an Unconference? \u201cImagine all these executives from the insurance industry,\u201d she said, and I tried to picture the wild parties that must ensue. \u201cExcept there\u2019s no programming: the… Read More…<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[459],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14744,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742\/revisions\/14744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- They build connections between ideas.<\/em><\/li>\n
- Next, participants vote on topics<\/strong> using colored dots<\/li>\n