There are indeed more variables at play at Unconferences than at more traditional scripted, presentation-oriented conferences. That’s one of the reasons why they’re important to attend, too. The frustration I described above was specific to one aspect of my own individual experience at this particular event, and shouldn’t be taken as an indictment of either the methodology (which is tried and true) or the management organization (i.e., Forum One, which is tops).

Could guidelines and direction help keep things on track? Sure. But it would also be important to (1) keep a low barrier to entry (so people don’t shy away from running sessions), and (2) ensure that some degree of spontaneity remains.

In any case, I do expect to be at next year’s OCUE, if they’ll let me…

Bill, I like the idea of providing just a little bit of guidance on using the time for the topic at hand prior to the sign ups. Encourage the attendees to stay on topic during the session, but that if it runs its course and ends early to engage with a related topic.

In most of your unconferences that I’ve attended, there has always been a little time after each session to introduce a slightly different yet related topic to the group at the session. The only exception seems to be the metrics/ROI sessions…In fact, that’s how I’ve been able to grow my network and learn quite a lot at your events.

I agree that we were hampered by the weather, with about 40 folks having to drop our or come late because of the snow.

To your main point of frustration: the session formats. This really comes down to the people in the room. If the convener doesn’t keep the conversation on topic, and if the folks in the room don’t agree on session objectives at the beginning, you can certainly get topic creep. I think we both experienced this in the B2B communities session. I still got value out of that session because of the deep discussion of subscription business models, although I could see that you may have gotten less because of your position as an analyst.

One idea from this could be that we give better guidance on how to hold a productive session at our future Unconferences. I would also welcome any ideas or suggestions you may have.

Overall, I thought this was a strong event, albeit one hampered by weather-related attendance and timing issues.

One thing we can agree on, and as you have both noted, Pauline Ores rocks! Pauline actually mentioned (I’m paraphrasing) in the closing circle that she was pleased that the conversation at the Unconferences has moved over the last three years, and that sessions were at a higher level of sophistication than in years past. Matthew – I think you missed this as you were out of the room for the closing session.

Again – I welcome any feedback on how to make the Unconferences more valuable for attendees in the future.

With 3-4 dozen sessions at a typical Unconference, one person can only join so many discussions, so my experience may certainly be different from those of many others. A friend of mine told me that someone on her team who she sent in her stead said she learned a lot and thought it was fabulous. So experiences vary.

And do let us all know if you share your musings (or direct experience) on ROI/business value of online communities…even if it’s on another site or blog.