Session Summaries Video

First of all, the video of the session summaries. Thank you, LCA AV team, for doing this for us.

Overall Event Recap

• Number of participants: Difficult to determine, as folks came/went, but based on counts at various times in the day it's anywhere between 20 and 30 people.
• Number of sessions: 9 total, with 3 discussion segments each hosting 3 different sessions
• Most notes are available via the main CLSxAU wiki page
• As organiser, I participated in no discussions and instead spent all my time floating between them and tweeting to keep up the social media visibility of the event.

What Worked

• The layout of the room. It was perfect for this! We had a large open space, laid out with 6 large round tables (each seating 8 or more). This was really great not only to facilitate a "roundtable" discussion but also to separate the individual discussions. As I roved about the room I noticed that while there was an ambient murmur/chatter in the room while folks were talking, it was always at a very good level where everyone could both hear and speak, even with softer voices.
• Rolling whiteboards. We didn't use them in every session, but did for over half of them. That the conference venue made these available to us was brilliant. They really made a lot of the process so much easier than it otherwise would have been
• Slides. I had intro slides and then slides for each portion of the day. The slide would list the current event (discussion, afternoon tea, etc) and the start/end times. If it was a discussion, the slides also listed the three topics currently being covered. This ended up being very handy not only for drop-in participants (who could see at a glance what we were covering right then & easily choose a group to join) but also for everyone else who just couldn't remember how much more time might be left in that session.
• Closing video. Having a video of the closing summaries is very useful. We can't record the other sessions (and wouldn't want to, lest people not speak freely), but having a video of this one session allows us to share our findings with the rest of the world.
• Collaborative scheduling. The scheduling for most unconferences is "write idea on card/sticky note, stampede for scheduling grid, slap idea in a slot, everyone else puts up with it." How we did it:
  • People pre-submitted some ideas on the wiki page
  • During the opening session, we collected other suggestions from the participants
  • There inevitably was a much larger number of ideas (> 20) than discussion slots (9), so we were able to negotiate and consolidate until we came up with a list which appealed to everyone. This took much less time than you'd think. I believe we didn't even spend 30 minutes doing this. It went very quickly and I believe it ended up with a much stronger programme at the end.
  • In the free "lightning talk" section of the opening session, I had people introduce the topics which they'd proposed and which were selected for the programme. This worked quite well for establishing context.
  • This approach may not scale to large groups.
• Group wardens. Before the event, I reached out to some folks who'd listed themselves on the wiki as possible attendees. I asked them whether they'd be willing to keep an eye on whatever conversations they joined to make sure they didn't become monopolized or otherwise taken over or run off the rails. They all said 'yes' and it was great to know I didn't have to be everywhere at once.

What Didn't Work As Well

• AV. I could have done a better job expressing AV needs, but then again I've never done this before and didn't really know the AV needs. What they ended up being:
  • Microphone: At least one for handing between people during opening & closing sections. The organizer will also need it for the opening, to announce time remaining in that section, introducing speakers for summary session, etc.
  • Video: The fact that we'd prefer the closing (summary) session was lost somewhere (I undoubtedly screwed this one up), but thankfully the AV team was able to do something for us because they're aMAZing. Having this session recorded makes the event more actionable beyond just the participants. It would be nice, from an organiser perspective, to have the opening session recorded as well. Donna had this from 2016 and it was super useful when planning for 2017. It's not of much use to attendees but for organisers? It's great.
• Wiki in advance. To no one's great surprise, people don't wiki before the conference. I asked for folks to sign up as attendees and to pre-load topics, but very few hit the wiki. It was a bit of a disappointment but I still think this is valuable to do, if only for reaching out to group wardens (see above) in advance.

Things To Consider For Next Year

• No passing time. We had no passing time between discussion sessions this year, but we were all very close together so it worked OK. If you're able to get a sense of your space in advance next year, please consider whether you need to work passing time into the schedule.
• Have water at each discussion area. There was water up at the front where a normal presenter would be, but this event allows everyone to speak their mind. We should have water at each discussion area.
• Try to line up potential note-takers in advance. At the start of each session I made sure each group had a designated note taker. This worked pretty well, but next time we should start setting up note-taking expectations in advance. I feel some people were caught by surprise and it would be polite to avoid that.
• Set up note-taking turnaround time expectations. Most sessions have notes in the wiki now, but a couple don't yet. Part of setting up expectations early should be delivery time. Ideally, these would be entered into the wiki during the discussion session and available immediately afterward. Realistically, we'll take what we can get.
• Be clear up front about safe space/Chatham House rules. During opening someone had to ask whether they could feel free to speak and not be quoted. It should be made clear right up front that this is a space where people can feel free to speak their minds (respectfully) without risk of people talking out of school.
• Prepare in advance for video of the closing (and opening?) session. See above for details on this.