Tweaking the conference format

Feb 04, 2014 by Dermot Daly

Our philisophy has always been that a single-track conference is the way to go. “Reducing awkwardness” is an internal mantra at every Úll planning meeting.

Then we found Lyrath. An amazing space with lots of nooks and crannies, rooms of all shapes and sizes. And we thought “wouldn’t it be a shame to have all our delegates in one big conference room for the entire time?”

The venue really made us re-evaluate our idea of a conference. It has shaped our thinking and inspired us to embrace new possibilities. This year we’re shaking it up and introducing “Features” to make use of the amazing spaces and enhance the traditional “talks” format.

Monday will be modelled on last year’s Friday: An afternoon start, some talks, some refreshments and an Úll Panel Session.

Tuesday will take the conference in a new direction. We’re not asking speakers to speak, we’re asking them to produce an exhibit. They aren’t getting a time slot, they’re getting a room. The result will be a reproducible, regularly run, feature presentation.

There will be enough time for attendees to see every feature, and attendees will be able to choose their own journey. Of course, there’s still going to be times when we get together as a full group. There’ll be meals, there’ll be entertainment and plenty of mingling.

We’re excited about this, our speakers are excited. We hope you love it.