One feature of Business of Software that we will be changing a little this year are the workshop and round table sessions. Traditionally, these have been held as open sign up sessions in an afternoon slot and up to ten people on a table debate a single subject of common interest. They give delegates a chance to meet with people who discuss issues openly, brainstorm a problem and share their ideas.
We want delegates to get more from them this year and we don't want a conversation to necessarily be restricted by the size of a meeting table or a talk title. We also want to draw on the incredible knowledge and expertise of our community and help you to help each other. We are delighted that some of our speakers have already indicated that they would like to get involved in a workshop session. We would love you to consider leading one or helping to put an unconference session together.
If you are passionate about something and want to share your knowledge and experience with others, we want to hear from you. You might not want to talk in front of 400 people but you might feel comfortable leading a discussion with a smaller group or want to . If you have expertise and passion about something that will be interesting to others, please let us know what it is. We want to organize a few different kinds of breakout this year and the space we have at the World Trade Center allows us to do that and play a little with the number of people in any particular group.
We are opening submissions to lead workshops today with a deadline of August 10th.
Here's how to get involved if you would like to lead a workshop or set up your own 'unconference' session with some others:
- Drop us a line with your name, contact details, topic title, a 100 word overview and an indication of the preferred size of the group. (A number between 15 and 380, or a range would be great).
- If you have done something similar before, or feel you would need special props, oxyacetylene equipment etc, feel free to mention it.
- We will send all registered BoS attendees a list of the session titles and ask them to indicate which ones they would like to attend in August. The event is now almost two thirds full so we will have a very good indication of demand at this time.
- We will finalise the sessions based on delegate demand and available space in early September.
Please send any nominations to be workshop/unconference leaders to us at info@businessofsoftware.org to arrive by August 10th.