A few years ago, a group of us decided to organise a Liberal Drinks at federal conference in Brighton. We were building on James Graham’s simple but successful model: nominate a pub, decide a date, publicise it; then have convivial chats with whoever turns up. In Brighton, we followed the same model, deciding on that nice-but-tiny real-ale place near the station. We arrived, a small but respectable number of people turned up, chatted the night away, and at some point moved on to a Chinese restaurant in the vicinity before winding up back at the conference bar. A good time was had by all.
At the end of the night, a general view was expressed that it might be nice to do something similar outwith conference time, and maybe outwith London.
Wind forward a few years, and Jonathan Calder asks as part of a blog post
[is there] scope for a different event at Conference? One idea that attracts me is a blogging clinic where people can come along and ask advice or share ideas in person.
It is obviously too late to do anything for this year, but perhaps another year?
One final thing to throw into the pot before starting to ask the questions is the idea of an “unconference“: a sort of anarchic conference where what happens is decided by the participants. I went to one of these in Nottingham recently, which looked at the Digital Britain report. They provided a venue with a number of rooms, and people planning to come volunteered to run sessions on their areas of expertise. One of the rooms was designated a “blogger’s creche” – and the venue supplied the wifi, the participants brought a variety of their own gadgets. Indeed, by the time you read this I will be up in Bradford at Photocamp 09 – a very similar idea, it seems.
Munge all three of these ideas together, and I think you have the nub of a good idea that we as Lib Dem bloggers and netty people could do. We could meet, for a day, exchange ideas, share our skills with each other, end up in the pub or other hostelry.
So far, so good. But there are a lot of questions to answer first, so I thought I would throw it open for discussion.
Where should we hold it? London or {not-London}? There are lots of people in London, and it’s easy to get to from everywhere, but us provincial types resent da capital a bit. If we had it out in the sticks somewhere, would people come? Would people come, anyway?
What venue? Ideally we need the use of a place with several large rooms, all with free wifi. A coffee urn never goes amiss. LDV could probably spring for a couple of hundred pounds, but that doesn’t usually buy a nice place or one with an internet connection, or one in London – at least not the easily accessible bits. Is there maybe an MP’s office somewhere that might fit the bill? Perhaps we could combine it with a meatspace activity day quid pro quo?
When? Initial suggestions seem to be – have an informal chat at conference, and try to arrange something for October or November. Is a Saturday OK? Anything we should avoid?
What content? Is there something you want to discuss, or a session you want to lead? (I’ve half a mind on a session called The Birth of Lib Dem Radio)
Further details, my friends, are up to you. What do you think?
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14 Comments
Wacky idea: how about organising something exactly like that, but that everyone could take part in, not just Lib Dems? Get Iain Dale and others involved, invite everybody, use it to talk blogs and internets and politics in general. Still an ‘unconference’, but an entire blogosphere unconference, not just a lib dem bloggers one.
Use one of these charity donation sites like JustGiving to raise money for the event from donations – you don’t have to make a donation to come along, but it would help.
Thinking bigger would mean more interest, more support from other blogs, more people coming, a more lively atmosphere and generally a better conference.
Just a thought. 🙂
I think this is a good idea and I would certainly attend if I could.
In answer to the questions:
Where should we hold it? – I would be fine with it being in London although it would also be OK if was say Birmingham or Manchester as that might end up being more central for all those who want to come.
What venue? – Not sure. I will have a think if I know anywhere that might suit. One idea off the top of my head though would be a university or college. They tend to have lots of rooms with WiFi access and would hopefully not be too expensive.
When? – Saturday in October or November would be good for me (not 17th Oct) but I think the important thing is to get it decided ASAP as my calendar (and I suspect other people’s) tend to get filled up quite quickly.
What content? – You have taken the words right out of my mouth! I have been wondering for a while if Lib Dems could jointly come up with some sort of radio/podcast offering and would like to discuss the practicalities of this amongst all the other ideas I am sure there would be.
As Alex says, it’s an idea that in different forms has been knocking around for a while, so I think it’d be excellent to have a go at making it happen. The advantage of an unconference format is that we don’t need make many decisions about content and format in advance, though picking a sensible venue is important. Anyone got any specific ideas on that?
I think not only is this a tremendous idea, but think we could go bigger than an event at conference. I like Alex’s suggestion of an unconference and I therefore suggest a venue in Scotland rather than the normal England venues.
As has been proven by the Total Politics lists there is actually a substantial blogging community up here and I am sure we could organise a good event between us all. I don’t like the idea of other parties being involved, only because this close to an election let us shape our own e-strategy and still bring in outside speakers.
Our Clifton Terrace HQ in Edinburgh (next to Haymarket Station) would be suitable to use dependent on numbers.
Just a thought – as I agree, there is too much happens in London, the Party is much bigger than London.
Where should we hold it? Sadly, in my experience it tends to be Londoners who are more up for a conference outside London than anyone else. Move North and the South Westerners don’t show up. Move West and the Northerners don’t show up. With that said, pretty much any major city will do. I organised a “New Radical” conference in 2002 in Leeds and we had around 50 participants.
What venue? Well the aforementioned conference took place in a Liberal Club. Whether any Liberal Clubs have wifi is another question – Orpington (might be a bit small)?
When? I think early November would be your best bet. If you could avoid 21 November (Unlock Democracy’s AGM) it would be much appreciated.
What content? Polling Alone: social capital as a political tool (AKA how do we take Flocktogether to the next level?)
What a fantastic idea! I totally back up Andy’s idea of an event in Edinburgh – it could be a fab part of a weekend up north and if the Lib Dems wanted, Fred Mackintosh, our top target seat of Edinburgh South, where we’re only 405 votes behind Labour and Kevin Lang, candidate in Edinburgh North and Leith, would happily find things to do if they got bored, or decided they didn’t like beer, or something:-).
Edinburgh’s really easy to get to and has the added bonus of being the only venue I’m likely to be well enough to get to for a while:-).
Manchester or Leeds would be easiest for me, and also not as far as London for the Scottish folk, as a compromise. Whenever it is, some of us would have to book time off work. For instance, I work Saturdays and Sundays.
Realistically, given current financial situation, booking time off is not going to happen, so I’ll probably not end up attending. But I hope everyone who does has a good time.
Lots of people have been asking about bloggers’ clinics and offline meets. A good mixture would consist of discussion and practical sessions, eg sharing podcasting/video/website skills.
I’d also stress making it accessible for experienced and new bloggers alike.
Why not “unorganise” it? See who comes up with a free venue and end up with 6 events 🙂
Alex
The one in Nottm was provided free, so if you contact the organiser they may be able to help…
Matt
I like this idea. I also like the verb “to munge s-th”
On venues, and following on from what Mark said, how about Oxford? Has trains direct from south-west, the north and Scotland and obviously dead easy for London and the midlands. Fares, of course, are another matter.
Does anyone else think Stu is just angling for a special guest-style invitation? 😉 I can’t quite envisage a universal political blogosphere meet-up that is genuinely forward-looking and interesting and doesn’t become tediously party political, but yeah, it’s a nice dream.
There is a real question about how the party builds a “movement” that is bigger than just the membership and there might be value in extending the invitation to people who are on the liberal/centre-left of the political spectrum. But an invitation to all-comers would be impractical.
To be honest for me one trip really down far south is all I can afford (both travel time and/or money wise) in a year and that is Bournemouth. So if we are having an ‘unconference’ outside of conference time. I would prefer it outside London (even though I could get accomadation with mates there easily).
Having constantly put my 1,2,3 preferences for Federal conference as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen but almost constantly end up it seems on the South Coast I appreciate some consideration of the Scotland option as Andy points out. Failing noting James’s comments somewhere down the west coast line-ish is better to serve more of the country. Liverpool/Manchester or Birmingham.
I have a venue in Reading which would fit the bill for an ‘unconference’. Reading has even better train links than Oxford. I’d be happy (and suspect colleagues would) to be further involved in the ‘unorganisation’.
Sounds like fun.
I can’t suggest a venue (unless there’s some Government grant and we all swan off somewhere hot and not raining at the taxpayers’ expense).
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