“Unconference” to provide global HR connections

Technology is taking the traditional HR conference a step further, with New Zealand’s first HR-focused “unconference” on the horizon.

The idea of an “unconference” sounds fairly futuristic – there’s no set agenda, no sitting in a room for hours on end, listening to various speakers.

Instead, the idea is that attendees bring whatever challenges and ideas they want to explore and connect either face to face at the event, or via technology from afar.

NZLEAD, an online HR community, plans to hold New Zealand’s first HR-focused unconference on 15 October.

Amanda Sterling of NZLEAD said that although the unconference model was new to many HR practitioners, it was a great opportunity for them to collaborate on and implement best practice strategies in their organisations.

“NZLEAD is all about connecting HR people from New Zealand and around the world to collaborate and share knowledge. Digital technology allows us to connect with people a lot easier than we were able to before. But nothing replaces having face-to-face, real life interactions with people. Particularly if you want to change or ‘unfurl’ better and more impactful HR processes.”

She said that the unconference would allow HR professionals to connect with practitioners who have similar areas of interest, build, discuss, brainstorm and reflect.

“It is incredibly powerful for individual learning and development, problem solving as well as innovations and ideas.”

The event will also look at some of the ideas that come out of the HR Game Changer conference which is being held simultaneously in Auckland and London later this week.

Sterling said that while there were no set speakers for the unconference, she would use social media prior to the event to look at topics that could be covered.

“On the day we will facilitate activities to determine the agenda, usually based on the popular issues or challenges. We will then have tracks of topics. A track could be a discussion, a working group, or someone who knows a bit about the topic might offer to talk others through their experiences.

“A track can be one to two hours long, after which we move onto another topic. There are usually multiple tracks running at the same time so people can move to whatever topic interests them or take time out.”

Sterling said the event was being organised through a crowd-funding platform called Pledgeme, where instead of buying tickets, people pledged $120 to attend, $30 to support the event, or $1000 to sponsor it.

Every pledger will get a copy of the upcoming HR Game Changer book by Angela Atkins of Elephant HR and an unconference t-shirt.

Click here for more information.  

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