Sunday 13 May 2012

Conferences - open source?

A colleague was chatting to me about running a Saturday conference, run by teachers for teachers. This would be a natural progression from a teachmeet, giving a whole day instead of a few hours.

Another colleague has set up something similar in York during the summer holidays. She has organised a date using an online meeting scheduler.

Is it possible to plan an "open source" conference?

Is this only possible when a few people are involved so costs are low and faces are known? I would suppose that after a certain number the "delegates" will no longer realise that the conference is about good will and start complaining about the standard of the tea and coffee and the accommodation or a particular speaker.

The teachmeets I have been to have either been very professionally run or they have been small enough that informal was the approach required. Could a group of people turn up and just see what happens for a whole day?

The only thing that worries me is whether we are encouraging the government to believe that teachers can and will work on their own professional development in their own time, so we end up with even less holidays, and those with family commitments are frozen out from CPD.

Having said that I am very excited about our tweet-up in York in August.

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