Adventures in Mobile Marketing

Email Industry Un-Conference

So I’ve been thinking for a while that we should have an un-conference. What is an un-conference? It’s a conference where the attendants make up the agenda. It has a different angle, basically very relevant topics and participation. Very few sponsors or vendors- everyone is there to simply learn from each other.

I have a few frustrations with events in this industry. I have been in email marketing since 2000 roughly, and since I’m from a technical background, I’m usually on the hunt for new technologies- but also new case histories, new techniques, new campaigns. Rarely if ever has there been a talk at these conferences that is on my level of enterprise campaigns, segmentation, metrics, etc. Sure, there’s a confidentiality aspect that means that we don’t get a lot of the intensely good client stories up on stage.

I expressed this to my colleague Tamara Gielen of BeRelevant! B2B Email Marketing. She said that namely these are networking conferences, and while the topics may be rudimentary for me, they aren’t for a lot of the people attending.

An unconference can easily solve the problem of the agenda. The way it works is this: we select a central city, low-cost travel. We attend, and in the first few hours do a quick introduction round, put up possible talks, and determine interest. Multiple sessions run at the same time, we take notes in conferences and post to a wiki. The next day, similar activity. Catered on site (sponsor opportunity).

So, I’m asking readers and other colleagues- are you interested in a conference where we make up our own talks? Where the registration is below $100, where the travel costs are also low? Is this industry – online marketing – going to work with the unconference style?

Unconference tenets:
- If you’re not contributing to a session or learning from it, you need to move on
- The people who show up at your session are the right people to be there
- Go as long, or as short, in time, as the topic bears

More Reading:
Wikipedia on the unconference
Planning for Bar Camp
Email Marketing Club Discussion

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Written on Thursday, 19. February 2009 at 13:55 In the category events, technology. Follow the comments via RSS here: RSS-Feed. Share on FriendFeed

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12 Comments

  1. [...] Adventures in Email Marketing wrote an interesting post today on Email Industry Un-ConferenceHere’s a quick excerptSo I’ve been thinking for a while that we should have an un-conference. What is an un-conference? It’s a conference where the attendants make up the agenda. It has a different angle, basically very relevant topics and participation. Very few sponsors or vendors- everyone is there to simply learn from each other. I have a few frustrations with events in this industry. I have been in email marketing since 2000 roughly, and since I’m from a technical background, I’m usually on the hunt for new te [...]

    Pingback: Wikipedia » Email Industry Un-Conference – 19. February 2009 @ 3:01 pm

  2. I would love to help organise one in europe. Involved in running Bizcamp in dublin next month.

    Comment: Alan O'Rourke – 19. February 2009 @ 3:24 pm

  3. Oh cool Alan! I’ll keep you in the loop.

    Comment: banane – 19. February 2009 @ 3:33 pm

  4. [...] Read Anna’s post and let us know if you’d like to participate: http://www.banane.com/workblog/?p=648 [...]

    Pingback: Email Marketing Unconference/Barcamp: Who’s in? | The Marketr – 19. February 2009 @ 6:08 pm

  5. Great idea! Especially in this time of budget cutbacks keeping many from attending the normal industry conferences.

    Comment: AJ – 20. February 2009 @ 6:47 am

  6. [...] owns Ardent Partners Inc. a professional internet marketing firm in Mesquite, NV. The company Email Industry Un-Conference – banane.com 02/19/2009 So I’ve been thinking for a while that we should have an un-conference. [...]

    Pingback: Posts about Internet Marketing as of February 20, 2009 | The Lessnau Lounge – 20. February 2009 @ 8:35 am

  7. This is a great idea… not sure if I could get our company to sponsor, but I’d love to take part in discussions and create an agenda out in western US.

    Comment: Neil – 20. February 2009 @ 11:55 am

  8. Sounds like you want to have Mailcamp :-) (I registered mailcamp.org back in 07). I have always thought an un-conference centered around email marketing would be a great idea. I would be willing to help organize and we would certainly sponsor. Would you consider Baltimore?

    Lets make it happen! :-)

    Greg

    Comment: Greg Cangialosi – 20. February 2009 @ 10:01 pm

  9. Greg- I had no idea about mailcamp! Yes let’s merge ideas. We’ll get the wiki up.

    Comment: banane – 23. February 2009 @ 3:32 pm

  10. Ditto Neil’s comment – not sure about sponsorship, but it would be great to be involved in this, especially if you need help in the Northeast.

    Comment: leanne – 24. February 2009 @ 8:30 am

  11. Thanks Leanne! I’ll put you down.

    Comment: banane – 24. February 2009 @ 1:23 pm

  12. [...] problem – there have been unconferences on many subjects such as food and wine, mobile and email marketing, library speakers and trainers, and even fashion!So where do I start?There’s no [...]

    Pingback: Unreal Unconferences - SitePoint – 15. April 2012 @ 10:27 pm

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