The Student Affairs Technology Unconferences are intended to connect professionals in order to share knowledge and ideas around technology and to promote networking by "building something together, onsite, through common interest groups." The first SAtech Unconferences were held in Boston in 2011 and 2012 and have been held all over the country this spring and summer.
I was looking for a professional opportunity development this summer that would push me to explore my interests in technology and social media. ACUHO-I in Minneapolis in June was terrific, but it is a very large, relatively traditional-style conference... and while ACUHO-I organizers certainly encouraged interaction and networking, the event itself is too bulky and too complicated for me to really achieve what I had hoped.
The unconference model turns the responsibility of sharing and acquiring knowledge to the participants. In traditional conference models, someone with what we presume to be higher-level knowledge of a topic stands in front of us and talks in order to share information. We take notes, maybe engage in small-group conversation or Q&A, but then head to the next session to soak up more information. The unconference model puts the participants in charge - for this event, we suggested topics via a Google document before we arrived and then voted on the topics we most wanted to discuss. Each break-out session was assigned a topic and we then chose which sessions to attend based on our own interests. Once in the room of our choosing, we..... INTERACTED. We shared our experiences within the general boundaries of the topic, shared best practices, ideas and knowledge, took notes and sent Tweets.
I signed up for the Chicago event (#satechchi) with the hope of challenging myself to step beyond my typical level of comfort and try something new. I hoped to gain a better understanding of the unconference process - to see what the buzz was all about - and to network with new colleagues. I hoped to contribute useful information about the things we do at Gustavus, but more importantly my hope was to expand my knowledge on technology in student affairs - how to do the things I love to do BETTER and with more PURPOSE.
I did all that and more. I met new people and tapped into parts of my brain that needed to be bothered. The conversations disrupted some of the ways I think about communicating with students and the role that technology plays in my professional life (and how that inevitably spills into my life outside of work).
#satechchi was a fantastic experience and I highly recommend attending one of the unconferences in this series if you have the chance.
A few words of unsolicited advice and a summary of my thoughts from the weekend:
1. Be prepared to challenge yourself. The unconference experience was more intellectually stimulating and mentally taxing than any other conference I have attended. The idea of the passive conference attendee is impossible - engagement and involvement is crucial in the unconference format. I was challenged to think critically about what I do in terms of technology and social media and to be able to share the "why" and the goals of the work I do.
2. Awkward pauses are part of the deal. In my first session, a group of about 12 professionals sat around a meeting room wondering where our facilitator was. Everyone probably knew that one of us would just have to start the conversation, but we all pretended we believed someone "official" was supposed to be there and was probably running late and would be in to present information at any moment. We stumbled over false starts and awkward jokes for about 10 minutes before someone had the courage to get the conversation rolling. Lucky for me, I'm all awkward pauses... so I was right at home staring at my shoes and waiting for someone to take the lead at that first session. The joke that was thrown around several times is that the "Un" in "Un-conference" actually stands for "UNcomfortable silence." And there were many uncomfortable silences, but each and every one ended up opening the room to a wonderful, productive conversation about the topic at hand.
3. No one is the expert and everyone is the expert. Unconferences are about sharing - about sitting down together in a room and tackling a topic that the group chose. One of my favorite leadership lessons is that your greatest strength is the person standing next to you. Our greatest opportunity to learn at an event like #satechchi is from the others in the room. We walk in with a similar question or problem and share ideas and experiences in order to bring new solutions and plans of action to the table.
Along with this notion of nobody/everybody being the expert, be prepared to throw yourself out there and meet new people. I am an introvert and conferences often push me to the brink of exhaustion and anxiety - but in order to fully engage in the unconference experience means having to take a step out of the introvert's comfort zone and share.
4. Follow the backchannels! The Chicago SAtech conference used the hashtag #satechchi on Twitter, which provided a way to catalog online conversations and thoughts via social media. A great deal of learning can be done via Twitter backchannels - even those not in attendance were able to actively engage in conversations around the topics we were discussing in person in Chicago. Even if you can't afford the time or money needed to attend an unconference, the use of Twitter to follow along provides incredible insight into the kinds of learning that happens at these conferences and can provide cheap (read: FREE) and low-risk professional development opportunities.
5. Apply what you learn! No conference can be worth the resources you invest in it if you are not bringing ideas home and applying new knowledge to your work. The lessons, ideas and thoughts are shared in rapid succession at an unconference, but the #satechchi hashtag provides a record of the things discussed - including links to awesome resources you can use to enhance your work around technology and social media.
At the end of the unconference day, we were encouraged to share our "take-aways" from the event. Many of these can be found on the #satechchi feed. I had a lot of information to take away and some really great new ideas to try to implement in the work I do at Gustavus. Perhaps the biggest take-away for me, however, is more philosophical - and more professionally existential - than how to use new tech devices or market our services in better ways. I learned that it is important to take opportunities to force a fundamental shift in the WAY in which I think about what I do and why I do it. The unconference idea is so simple, but such a 180-degree flip in the traditional ways that I learn at conferences. I appreciated the awkward moments, the opportunities to connect, and the encouragement to Tweet. I look forward to finding ways to "un-" some of the things we do at my institution and to attending similar unconferences in the future.
Thank you to the wonderful professionals at Northwestern (@jpmchaley, @coryphrare and @JPKirchmeier) for putting together this event. I look forward to #satechchi 2014!
Connect with me on Twitter @pottscharlie
and read more about the SAtech Chicago experience at #satechchi
