Before we get to the conference (the next blog post) we thought we’d take a moment to tell you about anti-conferencing before the conference!
The idea is simple, the anti-conference is about connection. So how can we create opportunity for connection before people even enter into the space?
We tried a couple of different ideas, one was more successful than the other. But we will share both.
Have you ever been to an event where, as you travel towards the event, you start wondering “are these people going to the same event I am? Should I say hello?” Sometimes it’s obvious, I recently had a nice chat with a graduate I had taught a few years before, we were both wearing Bath rugby shirts of the train from Bristol to Bath and we were both headed to the rugby. I would have spoken to them anyway but it was a nice in. The first idea was to create that same sense of shared identity. To start anti-conferencing before the conference. Participants were encouraged to where a flower, either real or crafted, as you journey to the anti-conference. If you then encountered someone else on your route to the conference you were encouraged to compliment them on their flower and ask them if they were wearing it for a reason? To increase the chances of success I also named a few coffee shops that were a short walk from the venue, so people might bump into each other there.
So, here’s the failure. As far as I am aware no one connected in this way before the event (if you did let me know in the comments below). Was it an unmitigated disaster, I don’t think so. One attendee noted that they were much more mindful of the wild flowers they passed than they usually would be because they were wearing a flower – which I think is a win, especially when connecting with nature is a key tenant of regenerative design.
Plus, when people arrived, I was on the door and it created a nice soft welcome as we complemented each others flowers on the way in. Which, I hope set the tone for a day of connecting in a joyful manner with people you didn’t know.
So, maybe it didn’t quite fail, so much as not work as intended. Would I suggest we did it again? Absolutely.
The second way we encouraged people to anti-conference before the anti-conference was by creating a zine for the event.
“A zine (short for magazine or fanzine) is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine.”
The zine covered practical stuff like how to find the venue, what the plan was for the day, what pre-planned workshops were happening. All attendees were also invited to contribute a page. This was a way of enabling attendees to tell others about themselves/their work without having to have lots and lots of talks. As part of the pre anti-conference communications we provided guidance for those who hadn’t made a zine page before. The organising committee also included their own pages so people knew what we were looking for (and that they didn’t have to be works of art).
The final zine looked amazing (again thanks to Max) covered a wide variety of information, from how to find the venue to ways to best practice when communicating in groups to help those with hearing loss. It also included some regenerative design quotes, plus submissions from over half the attendees.
The zine was sent out a few days before the event. One of the other organisers said “The zine is so freaking beautiful. Nearly wept a bit reading it. Still might!”. We haven’t had direct feedback about the zine (one of the elements of an anti-conference is not to spam people with feedback requests) but at least one attendee shared their page before the event, and we have been asked to re-open submissions so that some people who wanted to create a page but ran out of time can add a page. All of which points to the fact that people enjoyed it.
So next week, we arrive at the big day. Join us as we relive the anti-conference!
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