Beth, I think you’ve summed up most of the reasons why folks love and are scared of going to UnConferences. Folks are so used to how a normal conference functions that they get nervous because of that lack of structure. You get to enjoy the best part of regular conferences – the discussions – the entire way through and you don’t have that level of “I can’t approach you” mystique hanging over you and preventing you from just striking up a quick chat.

We’ve had two UnConferences here in Birmingham in the past three years and they’ve been great. I’m heading out to WordCamp SF this weekend to crystalize some ideas for one of two more UnConferences we’re hoping to do here next month. There are many who are still nervous about what to expect, but I think it’s because of the love of structure and the fear that it may fall apart. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t.

Beth- great post! (as always!) I am always thinking about how social media and Web 2.0 behaviors impact online interaction and behavior. At the top of my list is user generated content and the idea that anyone can be an expert. The un-conference demonstrates how that kind of democratic interaction has migrated to the offline world. Thanks for highlighting this new format and giving us the opportunity to think about what lies ahead in our field!

Beth,

Thanks for this post and the comment on the mashable article. I look forward to meeting you at SCP as well.

I agree that this event should be a good one. However, this is not a "camp." To those who have yet to be introduced to the concept, this is not an important point. It's another marketing conference with decent quality speakers, local to them at an attractive price. To those who have helped build this movement, it a very big point.

The public and private comments on this situation have nothing to do with making the "camp" accessible to corporate marketers or public relations people. By design, the conference is set up to be more accessible to everyone (not just corporate marketers) than traditional events. Free (when possible), local, speaking slots open for the attendees, wikis used to communicate, etc.

The point is that an unconference, by definition is driven by the participants on the day of the event.

Wikipedia: "An unconference is a facilitated, face-to-face, and participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose."

CNN.com: ".. the particular unconference model where 'there is no agenda until .. the attendees made one up.'"

barcamp.org: "BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants."

SearchCampPhilly with it's preset agenda is missing the single most important ingredient necessary to make the event an unconference or a "camp". Just calling this event an "unconference" at best simply doesn't make it so and at worst completely hijacks the ideals and sweat equity of the thousands of people that have put these events on around the world over the past few years. I know other "camps" have preset agendas also…they aren't "camps" either.

Discussions with peers and leaders in the barcamp/unconference movement have generated reactions like "call out the troops, ugh", "this is ridiculous", "I just threw up in my mouth", "It's 100% self promotional and it's bllsh", "it's a shame that there are increasing arguments for having a tool like a trademark to force compliance as the wider BarCamp spreads out from its roots", "I'd say it's more of a traditional conference", and most damning "As a social experiment, it is interesting to see how willing people are to dismantle the integrity of a good thing for personal gain."

The problem in this specific situation is that we (SEO's, PR, Marketers) already suffer from low reputations in general. This event's outbound communications resemble, as it still appears on the event website, to be nothing more than a typical marketing event with a couple, literally, a couple of words on the homepage that give a faux tip of the hat to the movement. In reality, it's the antithesis of what camps are about. See the .PDF of the press release put out on the event by the Internet Marketers of the Delaware Valley for reference: http://www.searchcampphilly.com/new-online-marketing-conference-launches-in-philly.pdf

So that creates what should be an obvious conflict for the "social media saavy" marketers, seo and pr folks that are trying to brand this event as an unconference. Ironic since we are all communications professionals and should be highly sensitive to the deomgraphic these types of events attract. Instead, it appears that a couple of words have been added in the title tag of the event website "a search somewhat unconference" to claim plausible deniability while pretending that the movement's brand is not being hijacked for our own, conflicting purposes. …and I still don't know what a "somewhat unconference" means.

As marketers perhaps a better approach would be to create a local event that our demographic already understands and position it accordingly like "Philly Search Expo" or "Philly Search Strategies." If this were the approach the sister events could still be co-promoted. "Come to the Philly Search Expo being held in conjunction with Podcamp Philly"…

If the camp ideals are what drove the decision to do this and the organizers don't want to separate the event from that then they should make the event a true unconference and educate the demographic they are after (we are professional communicators after all) about what an amazing learning experience camps provide and why they should take a risk and attend. I'd recommend that the organizers embrace the camp in its true form and promote the benefits of this model instead of taking a worldwide, active, vocal movement's idea and bending it beyond recognition to serve our own idea of what they think it should be.

In the end, what I'm hearing is:

1) Some marketers have been to an unconference and it was a great experience;
2) It was such a great experience that they were motivated to create one of their own focused on search;
3) They understand the local search scene and the people they want to attract to this event are old school, traditional, corporate marketing and pr types that won't get the unconference model. Moreover, when the do get it it makes them uncomfortable and they feel intimidated;
4) So, they decide to set up their event to be the exact opposite of the event that motivated them to create this event so the attendees with be more comfortable. But they'll still call it an unconference so the people who wouldn't be served by an unconference will come to their "somewhat" unconference conference;
5) Looking into my magic ball: In the end
a) their attendees will not get the same vibe that they got;
b) the organizers will muddy the waters when it comes to educating the general public about the unconference movement is all about by giving them an incorrect impression of what an unconference is;
c) the organizers will contribute to either the slow death of the movement that fired them up in to do this in the first place up;
d) and do the attendees a disservice by having them leave with a typical experience rather than what they should have experienced.

There's no doubt that some, perhaps a lot, will leave w/o all the warm squishy good feeling in their tummies. But that's true of any event. And especially with camps. They're not for everyone. With that said, getting the juice from the brand shouldn't be more important than protecting the ideals that made the brand/movement so attractive to the event's organizers and motivated them to try to recreate the experience themselves.

I'd recommend going to amazon and purchasing these books:

http://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Cool-Standing-Cluttered-Marketplace/dp/0743497090/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218742603&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Coolhunting-Chasing-Down-Next-Thing/dp/0814473865/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218742603&sr=8-5

And reading a bit from these sites:

http://barcamp.org
http://www.identitywoman.com
http://www.unconference.net

With all I've said here, Li has said that there are going to be several open tracks available at SearchCamp Philly, but the website still does not reflect this well and it does nothing to educate those who are uncomfortable with the unconference concept. The site still looks like the event is an SES-lite or a PRSA Summit. This misrepresents the camp ideals and the event that Li has said will actually take place.

We have pledged to be a sponsor of the event and I'm pitching in to help in general, by filling some empty speaking slots and do whatever else I can because we are passionate about building community and know that it's important to protect this unique incubator for new ideas in the local community.

I can see by your post that you love the camp idea and got a lot out of the experience. Because of that, I'd humbly ask that you help us preserve it.

giovanni gallucci

friend me up! friendfeed.com/giovanni | twitter.com/giovanni | flickr.com/photos/theagencyblog/

@robblatt, I surely hope you are wrong! Once someone experiences a democratic environment like a Camp—even if it is disconcerting the first time—it’s hard to go backwards. That said, I still appreciate normal conferences. I like have the opportunity to attend both.

I agree about the intimidation factor. There were a few folks at SMCamp NYC that I wanted to meet and regret not introducing myself. Glad we had the chance to talk a few times during the day!

See you in September!

@kellyecrane, there are a lot of UnConferences/Camps that I would like to attend in Boston and Austin. I just think it would be great to hear a lot of those local folks speak and engage with them IRL. But as you mentioned, the chances of that happening are slim-to-none. Until I can jet off to Boston or Austin, there’s lots of great stuff going on in Philly!

Beth,

You rock and so does Li. She’s been patient with the unconference hippies and I appreciate her willingness to hear us out. After she punches me in the belly for being such a pain in the arse about all this, we’ll talk about all our points of view, concerns and objectives. I’ll give some direction with the evangelism part when I’m there to help those passionate about camps to get the word out while keeping the magic in the event. End game, Philly’s 1000 attendee unconference.

Then you have a whole new set of issues to deal with.

I’m expecting Philly to be a great, eye-opening trip for lots of folks.

See you in September.

giovanni gallucci, viewzi

friend me up! friendfeed.com/giovanni | twitter.com/giovanni | flickr.com/photos/theagencyblog/

viewzi. change the way you look at search.

@webconomist, agreed. So how do we transform from our marketingselves into social media leaders? How do we keep up with the changing conversations without the comfort of structure & framework that we know so well? Only time will tell…