LIVE EVENTS

Inspired by speed dating , where busy masochists looking for a relationship spend a few minutes introducing themselves before rotating over to new partners, SpeedGeeking is an Unconference event format which allows participants to hear several quick presentations on a variety of topics over a fixed period of time. In this post, we ll talk a little bit about the fairly simple format and how to organize one.

You ll need a room large enough to hold all your attendees at once, with enough power outlets to support multiple presenters with laptops and projectors. Presenters typically place tables, podiums, or other presentation set-ups around the outer edges of a room and all set up simultaneously. Before the event starts, each presentation station is assigned a number (or letter) that should be displayed on a visible placard nearby.

As attendees arrive, they re assigned groups with numbers that correspond to the numbers on the presenter stations; groups should range from 5-15 people in size. The group number dictates which presentation that group will hear first.

When everyone s ready to begin, the event moderator starts the timer, and each group heads over to their assigned presentation. All presentations should be the same length (presenters should be told how long to make their presentations well in advance), usually ten minutes, sometimes as long as fifteen. Once time is up, the moderator sounds the alarm, and each group rotates one station to the left or right, and the presentations begin again.

In May 2011 the iEducate team worked with experts from museums and galleries across Budapest to showcase technologies they could use for their education programmes. As part of this we held a speed geeking session where each member of the iEducate team was given a limited amount of time to introduce a different technology to a small group.

Check out Pete Stevens showcasing Virtual Tours in Second Life.

iEducate Speed geeking Virtual Tours Pete Stevens from iEducate on Vimeo.

So that s a sit-down, low-key, small-group version of a Speed Geek.

Educators & Students are Speed Geeking

We ve seen quite a few examples of large school faculty bodies using the format as a way to quickly get up to speed on the latest pedagogical terminology, or to get a fast briefing on what s happening in other departments. And since teaching is also a nifty way to learn, students are also being introduced to the format as a way to share their knowledge with others, practice public speaking, and to better understand their own material.

Drawbacks

We haven t seen this exact method used on mass-scale events it would be very difficult to moderate thousands of people at once but it can be managed for up to 150 attendees. For larger-scale events, we recommend sticking to standard lighting talks.