Unconference SG 2009

(copied & pasted)

We’re currently working on unConference 2009 that is slated to happen on 16th May. It will be a full day event, much longer than the last one, taking place from 9am till 6+pm. Last year, we took a slightly different approach by combining an exhibition, keynote presentation, user generated breakout sessions and startup pitches. While we received good feedback for this arrangement, we also got a lot of constructive feedback on how we could further improve the breakout sessions, make the scedule more flexible and improve the pitching sessions. And of course, people wanted to see much more new startups! We listened to all the feedback, brainstormed and came up with an improved version this year. While it still ain’t perfect and needs a lot more tweaking, bear with us and provide us with more feedback so that we can all have the best unConference so far.

Here’s a quick snapshot on what’s different from last year and this year.

Keynote Session
unConference 2008: We had a sponsored keynote session by Microsoft. The speaker talked about marketing and some cool stuff Microsoft was working on.
unConference 2009: This time round, we’re planning on flying in a speaker from overseas. Someone who understands web technology and has a global (or maybe regional) perspective on what’s happening with the web scene, trends developing in the various regions (like how China has been booming with virtual goods and USA is still lagging behind) etc.

Breakout Sessions
unConference 2008: We had 6 breakout sessions in total. They were sporadic and topics were all over the place. Feedback for this was that more breakout sessions could have been catered for and some congruence in the topics would have been good too.
unConference 2009: This time round, we’re catering for much more sessions, more than 10 hopefully, if we can find them! We’re trying to group sessions together such that there’s an overall theme. This may be difficult but we will try our best. You can access the breakout application form and start posting your sessions now.

Startups Pitching
unConference 2008: We received all sorts of feedback for this. Some really good, some really bad. Some attendees felt that it was a great platform for startups as it allowed them to reach out to a large audience and receive dedicated attention all at once. However, others felt that the startups were not ready and the session was too draggy. We agree with both sides.
unConference 2009: We’re changing it slightly this time round. We haven’t fully decided if we’re going to open the pitching session to all startups, but we’re pretty sure that we’re not scraping this section out completely. This time round, we’re having the startup pitching as a separate sessions where attendees interested in the pitches can go view them, while the rest engage in the exhibition etc. We hope this will cater to the various interests and will give attendees more freedom on what they want to engage in.

Exhibition
unConference 2008: This was probably everyone’s favorite part. Everyone loved the startups featured, nothing bad here :)
unConference 2009: We’re taking a bold step forward this time round. We’re trying to reach out, not just to local startups, but to regional startups as well. And this time round, we’re increasing the numbers to 30! We hope to get as much quality applications as possible. We can’t do this along and we need your help, so keep your eyes open for the good one. Startups interested in the exhibition (no fees) can apply here.

So what else is there?
1) We’re bringing in case studies this time, maybe 2 sessions. We believe that its important for startups to share how they did something important (it can be good or bad), so we’re working with startups (or ex startups cuz we’re not discounting those who have failed) who have an interesting case to share with the attendees.
2) We’re trying to see how to liven it up a bit so we may introduce a music element. More on this as we firm up the details
3) Deeper schedule that allows more choice with more tracks and options (keynotes, breakouts, case studies, pitches, exhibition).
4) What else would you like to see that we may have missed out? Send me your feedback!

Interested in hosting a breakout session (no sales pitches please)? Send us your application now!
Got a startup that you want to exhibit? Do it right now!
Any other feedback? Send me your feedback!
Wanna volunteer and be part of the community team? Let’s chat!

We’re still working on the website so as soon as it’s up, we will update all of you on it. :)

We’re looking forward to this and we hope you are too.