Posts Tagged ‘unconference’
The Idea Camp as a burning bush
Holy holy. The Idea Camp finished last night in the 8′ish hour. A bonus session with CharityWater.org’s Scott Harrison followed after a brief intermission. 
The entire hybrid unconference was so much more than an experiment. It’d be too pithy to call it an experience. Some of what I loved about being there:
- lots of younger people in the audience eager to learn and connect.. I believe the ideas and dreams God has planted in them has been watered and cultivated all the more; the $0 registration opened the doors wide for anyone and everyone to participate
- porous-ness of the gathering, with room to breathe between sessions, people could come and go, ideas could flow and combust
- how it connected the online and offline worlds, e.g. we had as many people online as in-person at the event, Q&A was interaction with both onliners and offliners, relationships initiated online came together in person, etc
- the steps for turning an idea into reality was unpacked, in many different contexts, perspectives, and methods via workshops, Q&A, and examples
- minimal use of paper connotes creative uses of digital technology, eco-friendly consciousness, frugal stewardship, and that hip cool factor too
- it’s less about content and so much more about connections and courage and compassion
- every main session and workshop was setup in a conversational format; we get more than enough lectures in the classroom and elsewhere
- Charles Lee showed incredible generosity to organize, to share his social capital by inviting a buncha A-list conference-circuit-rider speakers / presenters/ facilitators, to thoughtfully plan the flow, to keep it open source, to be fully present with everyone during the event, to honor the dignity of each person by giving space and voice so they can have an opportunity to be heard
There’s so much more I loved about The Idea Camp, partly because I’m an ideator (i.e. ideation is one of my top StrengthsFinder talents). Gallup describes ideation as, “People strong in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.”
Starting points for reviewing and connecting with the conversations that happened during and following The Idea Camp, via Google Blog Search for “the idea camp”, Twitter Search on hashtag #theideacamp, the Facebook group, the Ning-powered site at theideacamp.com,
I’m more than happy to explore percolating ideas with my fellow campers and be part of seeing it become reality — video chat via tokbox, and/or meetup in person. Signal me any time. [Aside: psst, this blog post was composed on a MacBook Pro]
free conference with top leaders
It’s been a long time coming, and it’s now around the corner. A $0 conference for Christian leaders to gather! For years the rest of the world has had unconferences that have shared valuable content and facilitated engaging conversations for $0 registration, but it was very hard to find a free Christian conference for church leaders. (Granted there’s a certain value to the traditional conference format with productions on the main stage and breakouts / seminars / workshops, and some even are profitable ventures, there are also other innovative ways in the Web 2.0 world.)
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’m so grateful that Charles Lee is coordinating an unconference called The Idea Camp on February 27-28, 2009 in Irvine, California. SAVE THE DATES! Here’s what The Idea Camp is about:
The Idea Camp is a free hybrid conference for idea-makers to share, network, and implement ideas. We are gathering some of the most innovative and creative leaders from around the country (this means YOU!) to share ideas, intentionally network, and move collaboratively into idea-making. Whether your passion is church leadership, non-profit work, social entrepreneurialism, technology, media, creativity, culture making, church planting, spiritual formation, compassionate justice, etc., this is the conference for YOU!
The Facebook Group for Idea Camp is facebook.com/group.php?gid=41051955597 and using a Ning.com powered social networking engine, conference information is dynamically and collaboratively updated. See the list of people who will be presenting and/or facilitating conversations at The Idea Camp; it already includes: Brad Abare, Greg Atkinson, Eric Bryant, Mike Foster, Dave Gibbons, Jeff Shinabarger, Cynthia Ware, Robert Yang of Kindlejoy.com, me, and more! More will be added between now and then, and you could be part of it too!
New to the idea of unconferences? It’s where no one pays to get in, no one gets paid, the playing field is level, and everyone has skin in the game. Read more about it cf. what is an unconference, understanding the unconference.
Call out others you’d love to see there. I’m calling out Dan Kimball, Erwin McManus, James Choung, Ed Stetzer, Dallas Willard, John Bishop, Donald Miller. Come on down!
Live from ChurchTechCamp
Spending the day at ChurchTechCamp; see the live streaming video, chat room, live tweets, and live blogging >>
Here’s a quick video scanning the #churchtechcamp audience
Search for hashtag #churchtechcamp for multiple simultaneous voices; follow me at twitter.com/djchuang for mine
This afternoon about 1:30ish (Pacific) I’ll kick off a discussion / conversation about whether blogging still matters, with these articles as a starting point:
- State of the Blogosphere 2008 (intro, parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop – New York Times (April 2008)
- Death by blogging – Slate
- Death by Blogging? – The Daily Dish / Andrew Sullivan
- The Death of Blogs – Christianity Today (September 2007)
[update] open wiki at churchtechcamp.wetpaint.com for list of participants + sites mentioned + #churchtechcamp gets mention at official Twitter blog (!)