MarketingCamp Silicon Valley is an Unconference for marketing professionals in Silicon Valley to share, learn, develop “togetherness”, and hopefully innovate around marketing. Register here, seats are limited.

I must be really excited about it as I have agreed to help with the social media effort around the event, together with a killer team.

What is an “Unconference” and what should You expect?

We’ve all been to a “conference.” So we all know what that is, right? Or do we?

I think you’ll agree that in common experience, a conference has a set, sometimes rigid, agenda—with pre-ordained speakers who are not necessarily addressing topics that are most germane to the audience. Even if a presented topic is perfectly on-target, it is one-way communicating that represents only the speaker’s perspective.

Most conferences are sadly missing “discussion” and they are decidedly lacking in the “togetherness.” Most people report that they get the greatest value from conferences they’ve attended out in the hallway actively compensating for what the set conference agenda lacks: in the halls, they get together and hold their own discussions!

New to some of us, but not a new concept, Unconferences have been extremely successful for many years in bringing together people from diverse motivations and backgrounds to self-organize topics of greatest interest to the group, with an emphasis on interaction, discussion and debate.

The unconference meeting format dates back to the 1980’s and the development of a meeting scheme called “Open Space Technology” by Harrison Owen.

In an Unconference, topics of presentations and discussions are selected by participant voting – every attendee is able to set their own priorities and is free to attend or leave any topic session, or even depart the entire meeting, at any time.

This assures that each person takes responsibility for what they get out of the meeting—and that each topic is attended by those that are the most interested.

The result is an astounding increase in leadership, participation and inspired results compared to what conferences have become. Discussion and Togetherness are maximized! …and so is satisfaction of the attendees, who are no longer passive listeners, but active participants in the Unconference.

So what is MarketingCamp?

Innovative marketing is what has made the Silicon Valley what it is today, and marketing movers and shakers benefit from interacting, cross-pollinating and learning from each other.

The MarketingCamp event is a single-day meeting that is designed to provide a great opportunity for anyone passionate about marketing to spend a day—at no charge and with no obligations—having fun sharing and learning from peers and mentors.

The MarketingCamp Silicon Valley team has selected the Unconference format to assure that the MarketingCamp meeting maximizes participation and focuses on topics that are most of interest.

There is no set agenda, no requirement to sit quietly during long presentations.

We very much want active participants—not passive attendees. And everyone will have an opportunity to Share what they have experienced, to Learn from their peers and mentors and to Grow from the day’s sessions and from the personal contacts gained.

• Topic submissions opens on September 8th, so put your thinking hat on and submit a topic for yourself or another presenter.
• Topic voting by registered participants begins on September 29th.

You can already follow the buzz and participate in discussions via the MarketingCampSV social media channels:

Hashtag: #MCSV

Learn more first or or go directly to registration! Seats are limited and this event will fill up quickly.

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