The decline of the traditional meeting (part 6) and the rise of new meeting formats: ‘unconferences’

New formats and methods for meetings are becoming more popular as an alternative to the traditional meeting methods. The term "unconference" is used to describe a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional meeting. Unconferences are often facilitated, participant-driven conferences, events or meetings centered around a theme or purpose. There may not be an agenda until the attendees made one up. 

Often they are organized on the Web and on the fly, but more and more unconference techniques (like for instance ‘pecha-kucha’ or the ‘fishbowl’ are applied to all kinds of meetings. Unconferences can be short or long, held with a few to many attendees, to educate, to inform, to gain consensus, to make a decision, to celebrate an event, etc.  

They can be held face to face or, increasingly, in a distributed fashion across time or space. Quote from article by CNN: ‘at traditional conferences, the most productive moments often occur in the corridor between meetings; at ‘unconferences’, attendees like to say, it's all corridor’.

http://www.openspaceworld.org/ an approach for hosting meetings, conferences, corporate-style retreats and community summit events, focused on a specific and important purpose or task -- but beginning without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme (source: Wikipedia)

http://www.unconference.net/