Session proposals

Here’s how it works. We have a schedule, but other than the workshops, we don’t have anything planned—you’re the ones who do the planning.

Between now and 22 November you can post your session ideas to the THATCamp W12 blog. Take some time to read other people’s proposals and comment on them if you wish. On the morning of the event we’ll vote for the sessions we want to participate in, and this will become our schedule for the day.

The more thought we put into this, the better it works. Here’s what makes for a good session proposal…

What makes a good session proposal?

It’s NOT a paper, a talk, or a lecture, but an idea for a conversation.

It proposes a topic related to technology and humanities that a group of people can discuss in an hour or so.

We’ll be looking to you to facilitate the sessions you propose, so if you propose a hacking session, you should have the germ of a project to work on; if you propose a workshop, you should be prepared to teach it; if you propose a discussion, you should be prepared to summarize what that is, kick off the discussion, keep it humming, and wrap it up.

Ideally, the session will produce something useful or at least some actionable “next steps”. There are more ideas and guidelines on the THATCamp website.

How do I propose a session?

1. Log in to WordPress with your username and password
2. Go to Posts – Add New
3. Select the category “Session Proposals”
4. Write, publish, and hey presto!

If you haven’t used WordPress before, you may find this helpful: codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts

Alternatively, you can email your session proposal and I’ll post it for you:

How do I facilitate a session?

This is entirely up to you, but here are a few suggestions…

Introductions

• Who are you?
• Where do you come from?
• What do you know about the session topic?
• What would you like to get out of the session?

Plan the session

• How are we going to record our ideas? (whiteboard/notepads/Google docs/something else)
• What are our session objectives? (write these down)

Go for it!

Learn, share, hack, build, brainstorm…

 Wrap up

• What are our takeaways?
• What this session useful?
• Do we need more time? We could use another session to continue…