Time to start the HR conversation…

Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun?!  Even though September seems a long way away, it’s really only just around the corner which is why here at Courtenay we are working with my partner in crime Jon Ingham to plan the first dedicated HR ‘Unconference’ in the UK.

If you are not sure what an unconference is, start here and browse a bit and you will soon get the picture. No event management companies, no big budgets, no hard selling from sponsors, no fixed agenda. Just value added conversation amongst HR folk on the subjects that matter to them.  And that’s what we are planning for the first #ConnectingHR community unconference.  Actually we prefer the term conflab – sounds a lot more social!  Here is a brief description borrowed from Jon’s blog:

“Conflabs are conferences where the audience decides what will be talked about. Not in a ‘Whose line is it anyway’ way, but in a way where those attending the conference state what they are interested in, challenged by, concerned with, or questions with which they are struggling.”

Whatever we call it, we anticipate it being different to any form of conference gathering you have been to before – think all the value added bits from a normal conference – the coffee break/lunch conversations and networking opportunities – and then imagine a whole day of those.  No hour long presentations with little chance to have your say or interact.  Just great, value added conversations and the ability to move freely between them, at any time.  Throw in a gathering the night before to break the ice and you have the ingredients for something very different and, we hope, very exiting.

Well, that’s the plan anyway.  The important thing, and another key difference to a traditional conference, is that we need your involvement to make it happen.  No fixed agenda means YOU fix the agenda for the day. Participants drive the content.  We will be creating an online destination to manage this and other elements of the conflab, but we would be keen to hear from any HR professionals out there that would like to go one step further and get more involved in the organisation and creation of this groundbreaking event.

If you are interested then please make contact either via twitter – @garelaos – via email or via the tweetup on the 24^th June.