Experimenting with the Idea

It's the beginning of Day 2 at The Idea Camp & I just wanted to share some quick additional thoughts about the potential for this new format of learning The Idea Camp is experimenting with.

What I saw today is huge potential to expand our pool of teachers. Historically, conferences have been limited to people who not only had great wisdom & insights to share, but stellar presentation skills. I think we can all agree when the same names keep surfacing, it confirms we're working within a pretty small pool.

But when learning comes from a collective group--guided by an experienced individual who's "been there, done that" but not necessarily a polished speaker--it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. I think there will always be a need for a more structured experience that's taught by skilled communicators who can provide wisdom & inspiration.

I'm a die-hard Catalyst fan and would be hard-pressed to find anything that could come close to replacing the value I get from that experience every year. But are there any downsides to the formula for this kind of an alternative event in the conference world?

Comments

[djchuang]

of course there are upsides and downsides, pros and cons, to EVERYTHING... but being someone who's okay being unstructured, these unconferences are much more invaluable to me and the masses ;)

[Dave Baldwin]

I remember attending an executive pastor's forum that Leadership Network hosted a number of years ago. There was no agenda, just a facilitator. At the beginning of the forum we tossed out issues we were facing. After a break the facilitator had an agenda for the next two days.
He guided our thoughts and conversations and used his years of experience to make the event very profitable. It's a weekend that changed me for ever.
I wish I could have attended the Idea Camp. It sounds a lot like that.
Thanks
Dave