On the 11th of October at the Priory Rooms in Birmingham, a ‘facilitation’ of agile people from across Government will be getting together for the first ever Delivery unconference — DeliverCon! If you are interested in coming, we still have a few tickets available for free here.
If you are interested in helping out on the day, please check out our trello board, and add yourself to anything you can help with.
With just over a week to go, we thought we should write about what to expect on the day:
What is an unconference?
Unconferences are where there is no pre-set agenda. The agenda is set by you the attendee. At the beginning of the day, we will use the 25/10 Crowd Sourcing technique to gather ideas and prioritise topics.
The highest valued topics will then be distributed between rooms and you choose which ones you wish to participate in (please bear in mind that space can be limited and it may be necessary to go to a different session if the room is full). Each room will have a facilitation team to guide the conversation and manage time.
We have three rooms available on the day:
The Main room, is the big space for gathering, talking, and running the other things going on alongside the main sessions. It will also be the venue for lunch. Depending on numbers on the day, we may use some of this room for some sessions too.
The Reading room and Margaret Fell room will be where the main sessions will be run. Each room will have a small team of facilitators to keep the conversations on track; making sure the room has a great atmosphere; ensuring the code of conduct is being followed and generally gophering and helping out in any way possible. These rooms will also be used for lightning talks over lunch.
What should I expect?
Expect lots of conversations! Bring your experiences, thoughts and opinions on the topic’s you are interested in. The best conversations are the ones where everyone has a say so the room facilitation team will be doing their best to keep the topic’s flowing. Most importantly although talking is vital, we will be defined more by the things we do than the things we say, so think about any practical actions you can take from the day to apply to your day to day role. Again the room facilitation team will help you identify these.
If you want some break out space or a conversation with particular people you have met, the Main Room will be available throughout the day. There will also be other activities going on here.
The day’s schedule is shown below and can be viewed here.
Who can I ask if I need some help?
The volunteers on the day will be wearing red tops (so don’t wear red if you don’t want to be mistaken for one!) so flag one of them down if you have any questions or concerns (or just to say hi!). Alternatively, head for the continuous retro board in the Main room where somebody will be happy to help.
What else is going on?
Lightning Talks
Over lunchtime, there will be 5-minute lightning talks, where you get to take to the stage to talk about a subject you’re passionate about. It’s a great way of trying out public speaking to a friendly and attentive audience if you have never done it before.
Map
We want to know where everyone has come from, and give you all a chance to get to know one another and connect, so during the course of the day you will be able to add a little bit of detail about where you have come from, and how to get in contact if you want to connect with other delivery people. We are hoping by the end of the day to have a great visual map of where attendees are based.
Continuous Retro
Throughout the day we will be running a continuous retro in the main hall, where you can come and tell us what is going well, what could be improved, or any questions you may have. We will do our best to respond to your feedback throughout the day to make it a great experience. Anything we can’t fix on the day we will feed into the next one. We hope this will be the first of many!
Sticker Exchange
Bring along your team or organisations stickers, or the ones with pithy agile phrases, there will be a table available for swapping and mingling to tell the stories behind them.
Code of Conduct.
Being #OfTheGovernment we are of course heavily influenced by #OneTeamGov and have riffed off of their code of conduct:
LEARN, SHARE AND CONNECT
Use DeliverCon to help you learn, to share your experiences and to make connections.
DIFFERENCE AND INCLUSION
Everyone has the same right to be here as you do. Treat everyone as you would like to be treated.
LISTEN TO EVERYONE
Respect everyone’s right to be heard. Share the conversation so that everyone has an opportunity to speak.
ZERO TOLERANCE FOR HARASSMENT
Harassment includes offensive comments, unwelcome photography or recording, sustained disruption and inappropriate physical contact.
People who harass fellow participants will be asked to leave immediately.
POSITIVE SPIRIT, GENEROUS NATURE
We’re here to learn from each other. Have a critical debate in a positive and generous way.
Cloakroom
There won’t be a cloakroom on the day, sorry. So please keep an eye on your stuff throughout the day as we can’t be responsible for it.
Phew! That’s a busy day.
After the event we will be heading to the Old Joint Stock for a post-unconference wind-down.
