Online Community Unconference 2007

Unfortunately if you're charging $200 bucks to get in you're missing one of the key features and commitments to Unconferences. If the Computer History Museum donated the space (which they probably did - they've had conferences there before), and if you have sponsors, why is it still $200 to get in?

Hey there -

Fact is, not all conferences following the open space format are free. We actually changed the name of the event from the OC Camp to the OC Unconference out of respect for the folks trying to establish Camps as free events.

We are trying to put together a quality event at a price well below a "normal" conference. We have costs, one of which includes the venue. The CHM actually didn't donate the space (although that would have been cool).

If anyone has questions, wants to discuss, etc, feel free to comment here, or email me at bjohsnton@forumone.com

Brian,

But that's where you go and get sponsors who help cover the cost of the conference - larger corporate sponsors who can contribute towards cost. ;)

Anyway, that's fine - I mean no disrespect against your company, which looks like they've done some great work with non-profits. Apologies for my tone and my cynicism - living in the Bubble tends to turn some of us a little bitter...

re "emerging open space" format, note that while the *camp phenomenon may be relatively recent, open-space based "unconferences" have been going on since the 1980's.

Hmm, rmm, maybe we can organize an _ununconference_ in the CHM parking lot, with folks who can't afford the main unconference fee to wander out to the Bay for informal chats.

Perhaps we could instead attend by finding individual sponsors within our extended communities, who will benefit from our sharing and leadership and learning together.

Hi Raines - I'm with you on the open space, and aware of the history. My allusion to the being "emergent" is that we are still having discussions around format, payment expectations, etc.

If you, or anyone else for that matter, can't afford the $175 fee as an individual practitioner, please let me know, and let's discuss options.

Again, my goal is to create a really great space, and have a lot of passionate and knowledgeable people show up. We studied other unconfernce pricing models and felt like $175 was a fair price. We didn't want to go with 1 gigantic corporate sponsorship because, frankly, I didn't want to feel beholden to their agenda.
We're a pretty small company that works primarily with non-profits and policy organizations. We decided on the price point and a smaller sponsorship model.

Anyway, it's all good. If we don't see eye to eye on this, I do thank both you and Rachel for respectfully voicing your opinions here.

Creating a space for people that is high quality and welcoming has a cost. Not all communities have natural 'corporate sponsors' to support their gatherings. Having the ability to self fund (by charging a reasonable fee) one's community events is empowering. It steps away from dependency. Those providing value to a community also deserve to get paid for the time and resources they put into manifesting them.

I think part of this is about valuing the role of creating space. Some how it is normal to pay for a totally scheduled event and one that is participant generated is not worth as much. In my opinion it is worth more and costs about 8x less then a typical conference in the tech space right now. A great value.

One more passing comment. I've been to a lot of types of events, including free ones. Frankly the event quality goes up a lot if you charge something, partly because people take it way more seriously (such as, they actually show up -- often a problem with the free events :) ).

Hi All - We posted a FAQ today that you might be interested in:
http://www.forumone.com/unconference_faq

Whether it's free or moderately priced (or as one of the exhorbitantly priced corporate conferences), the quality of the event depends on the people for sure. In my experience, the quality of people vs. the price of the (un)conference are inversely related, i.e., the most rewarding, high-quality experiences I've had have been at the "free" conferences.

I reluctantly just plopped down the $179.83 for this conference because paying for an unconference seems antithetical to the whole idea, but the topic is hugely important to me and it looks like a lot of great people will be in attendance.

Perhaps this will help spawn a series of follow-up CommunityCamp gatherings so we can "spread the love", so to speak. I'll be the first one to help create the next community-focused BarCamp-style event... anyone interested in helping organize?

My comments were intended to be supportive, bjohnston. I went ahead and registered based on the list of who will be there, and recent experiences at other events (both free and not) where reconnecting with people I've known and/or worked with decades ago has led to interesting things happening. It's all about increasing the probabilities. I also did a pinch-hit facilitation for a session at the unconference-style StartupCamp in SF yesterday, and had a big room applaud based on my facilitation, leading me to seek out more opportunities to practice in the format.

I will be in NYC or I would seriously be considering attending. As an event organizer myself, I think it is vital that events do more than just cover their direct costs - it takes a great deal of effort to organize an event (well at least). But beyond that the "cost" does help, as people have noted, to impact who signs up (and to a great degree who then shows up and participates). When you invest in attending - not just in a public "I'll be there" but actually putting money as well as time on the line the value you have designated to that day, to that time, to that event is higher.

For most people in the room $200 is much less than what they would charge for a day of their time. So really people attending a conference are not just paying with the direct fee, but also with their time.

Personally I think that we have a challenge at the moment as an industry - too many events to a degree AND for many an assumption that events "should" or "must" be free (or in one or another of some format).

Fundamentally the idea is to help everyone. To share knowledge, to create knowledge (or in some types of events actual "stuff"). Some events are focused on helping build companies - spread the word, sign up clients/customers/users. Others are more focused on education, on industry direction, on sharing/exchanging/debating how to do some task. For each set of goals, each community, there are MANY good and useful formats - many different "reasonable" prices and pricing structures.

Focus on whether the event will be of value to you - and on how it can be of value to a whole community (companies = supporting via sponsorships and/or sending their employees, individuals = through time & fees, venues, and the organizers - plus speakers if the format has formal ones). Great events create value for ALL.

Shannon

Howdy -

Thanks for all the support, comments and discussion. For those of you watching, we will be registering folks at the door. We have about 20 seats left. Although, I just booked the catering so you may miss out on the twinkie and ho ho action in the afternoon.

Tons of folks will be blogging, tweeting, vcasting, etc, so we will do our best to get the majority of content out ASAP.

Any last minute questions, etc call me: 415.299.9638

Bill

This was a great event. SEVERAL attendees noted to me how well worth the admission fee it was.

Thanks for hosting, Bill and Jim. I definitely plan to attend next time.