Events Without Agendas, Speakers or Staged Networking: Do They Work?

I’ve been organising and hosting events for the talent acquisition world for years now (including the unconference-style get-together #truManchester).

I’ve seen the good, the bad and the messy. So let’s cut through the fluff: when you ditch agendas, speakers and traditional networking formats, do you really get more value, or are you just creating chaos?

We’ve all sat through conferences packed with long agendas, flashy speakers, and staged networking. And what do we remember? Often nothing from the slides, but the chat in the coffee line. That’s the idea behind the “unconference” model: attendees set the agenda, choose topics that matter to them, and the event becomes relevant and dynamic.

I recently had a conversation with Shannon Thaler at ‘A Media Operator’ about hosting unconference events like #trumanchester and #truleeds.

This is what we talked about:
https://www.amediaoperator.com/analysis/events-without-agendas-speakers-or-staged-networking-do-they-work/