We waited and waited, till the suspense was too much and then we had to make a decision. To online or not online that is the question. And as much as we wanted for the symposium to be face to face in the real world. You remember, when we used to meet people and get to know them in the flesh. Well, we just had to move the thing online.
However, especially since everyone, their dog, their cow and their uncle has already moved there event online. We wanted to do something a little different so we have decided to adopt the principle that if it involves being talked at via a screen then it should be delivered asynchronously. While if it is interactive and participatory we will make a space for people to gather online and talk.
This means that all the papers, the keynotes and much of the media we hope to include will be uploaded to the website and you can consume it at your own leisure. For the event itself we plan to host two 90 minute panel sessions with lots of interaction and questions from the floor. A kind of hyper-Question Time if you like. Alongside this, we are exploring ways of running an online unconference or open space event.
If you have not been to an open space event before I am sure you have heard of them. It’s like a democratic experiment in conference administration which puts the delegates in the driving seat. It is not something you can do in teams or Zoom so we are evaluating possible platforms that will enable us to deliver what we hope will be an exciting, interactive and participatory event.
The call for papers is open until 30th April and you all about the symposium themes and sign up to submit here: https://practice21.net/call-for-papers/
So, save the date (24th & 25th June) and let’s dare to be different.