Last weekend I had the pleasure and honor to be a scholarship attendee to the first national Public Media Camp held in Washington, DC by NPR/PBS. I was thrilled to spend the weekend learning more about the good work public media folks and supporters like me were doing around the country to make their community a little better, more engaged and more supportive of public broadcasting.
The format for the event was an un-conference which is loosely based on the same social technologies that the Art of Hosting employees in creating conversations that matter. If you’d like more information on Public Media Camp check out the website and wiki here: http://publicmediacamp.org/.
The framework behind the event
Setting up an un-conference is more than just inviting people to an event, there are underpinnings to the social technologies at work at these events that need to be built and understood in order to properly provide the space and mindset for truly meaningful conversations to take place; conversations that lead to innovative solutions.
Because many of the attendees of this event are expected to go back to their home city and host a regional Public Media Camp I wanted to provide them with a better understanding of the framework. I thought that providing some background about how these social technologies work would be crucial and, according to the feedback I received, I was right.
The purpose at the center of this session:
The design behind this session was put together rather hastily (I chose to do this teach at open space the morning of Day Two which doesn’t provide the time or resources you SHOULD invest in design):
The design is built around the purpose because EVERYTHING builds around the purpose.
We began with a check-in of, “How do you feel after a good conversation?” which led to the following thoughts:
- Like my ideas were represented
- I’ve been informed
- Feel like there’s action
- Empowered
- Motivated
This harvest sheet also grew out of our first question about experience with group circles and talking pieces. One of the key insights we came up with was that we don’t understand why, as children, we use these techniques and they work so well; but then at some point we stop using them and we stop really listening to each other.
That is the death of most potentially good conversations.
Other insights were:
- Talking pieces provide a physical reminder of how long your the only person talking, like a weight
- Talking pieces and circles are “good medicine” for having conversations
- Physical space is important when planning to have a circle so everyone can fit in it
Most of the session was a reiteration of the principles behind Open Space and World Cafe, some strategies for how they’re used and the importance of purpose and asking the right question. Refer to the design document for those notes (click here for a large version).
At the end of the session we had a chance to reflect on, “What did this conversation and teaching make you feel?”
- Bewildered at first but then it was eye-opening
- Confused that this session wasn’t about “online social media” but about “face-to-face socializing” and then glad that it was because face-to-face is so important
- Energized and ready to go
- Inspired
- Empowered
It was clear that we all shared a special experience and that several more individuals are looking forward to hosting meaningful conversations in their future.
Here are some resources for further research, learning and understanding:
