Unconference Hub

You’ll find useful links and resources on this page before, during and after the event.

Preparing for the unconference

What will you get out of the 13th HbbTV Symposium? Your approach to our unconference day can make a big difference to the value you take from your trip.

You will have some difficult decisions to make during the unconference! The agenda will have up to six sessions running in parallel and you will need to decide which one to attend. But if the chosen session isn’t meeting your expectations, you are free – encouraged, even! – to move to another one or visit the exhibition area.

We will adopt a relaxed timetable this year, with just four hour-long session blocks and a 15-minute break between each one. This will provide more time for session hosts to prepare and for attendees to talk with exhibitors and sponsors.

Hosting a session

All Symposium attendees are welcome to pitch and host unconference sessions on any topic relevant to the HbbTV community.

A few guidelines to keep in mind when thinking about pitching and hosting:

1. Think about the outcome that you’d like to achieve your session – what is the goal?
2. Decide how you’re going to structure the conversation to reach that outcome – ideally keep it focused on the topic in question.
3. Try to hear from everybody in the room – experience has shown that participants do NOT appreciate sessions that are dominated by one or two voices or focused mainly on a PowerPoint presentation.

4. Take notes openly on a flipchart or whiteboard – this helps to keep the conversation on track and makes filing a (short) report easier.

You can find more details on the points above in this blog post from our unconference facilitator, Eoghan O’Sullivan. And If you want to read even more about unconferences, this is an excellent resource.