Toronto has cornered the market in small, relatively unorganized tech meet-ups, mostly called unconferences.
But after three years of them, it appears we’ve had un too many. Unconference fatigue is beginning to set in.[rssbreak]
Tech unconferences and camps – another sort of meet-up – had their beginnings in northern California in the late 1990s, though the rough format has been around since the 80s. The name “unconference” was coined in San Francisco at BloggerCon, a gathering of bloggers.
The idea is that there’s no format. The day begins with a blank marker board and an open schedule, and attendees cobble together a speaking order.
They’re organized by community managers whose “community” is loosely made up of a group with a shared interest. In Toronto, communities include people involved in tech entrepreneurship, public relations and development of iPhone applications.
But not only are there too many unconferences, but too many also cover exactly the same ground. Many have to do with social media (usually meaning Twitter) and how to use them to your advantage.
Third Tuesday, Ignite!, FITC, Refresh Events, Sprouter – this is just a small cross-section of groups organizing events locally. Listing the actual events is now too daunting. There are too many.
For instance, last Thursday, September 24, on either side of town, there were two social-media-themed unconferences, both covering media, Twitter and the future of both.
On Friday (October 2) there are at least three tech events, one of which is a Tweetup, a gathering of Twitter users, to hear about the new Chevrolet Volt (unsurprisingly organized by a Chevrolet dealership).
The conversation about too many tech events, interestingly, was started by Justin Kozuch of Refresh Events. He began the debate on Twitter, stating in so many characters that T.O. is experiencing event overload and that unconferencing has lost its meaning.
In addition, too many unconferences are now corporate-sponsored, which can defeat the purpose.
The age of small, unorganized, community-driven conferences is over. No need to dwell on that.
Organizers need to form a broad coalition. Establish a panel of judges and, based on the merits of each unconference, select a number of them for a larger, recurring event. Ten smaller ones join together for one giant, worthwhile and attention-getting event.
If all local organizers united, such umbrella unconferences would have international impact without disturbing the integrity, idea-generating or money-making of smaller events.
Alas, all the competition among organizers means that fixing unconferences seems unlikely.
joshuae@nowtoronto.com
CLARIFICATION: I seemed to have stepped on some toes here. The general point of the column is that there is an event overload, with many taking on too similar themes, and I used unconferences as my prime example. Perhaps I weaved too quickly between unconferences and more general tech events. Not all of the examples listed (Third Tuesday, Ignite!, FITC, Refresh Events, Sprouter) organize unconferences, but all hold events.
