Sam Abrams, a core team member of Indy Hall, discussed how to make sure that you get your moneys worth at the coworking conferences with Alex Hillman.  Sam attended her first ever conference which was particularly successful.

Day One

Day one is typically the conference day.  Alex expressed how he prefers the unconference day because it does not feel like he learns much on the first day.  

People tend to use the stage a certain way which often feels like they are talking at you.  However, this conference had no slumps in topics which made the first day better than usual.  Although, it still had the usual presentations, each one was uniquely interesting and different.  The speakers created a take away rather than just showcasing what they have achieved.

Angel Kwiatkowski, one of the speakers was so open about a failure she had in the past.  A lot of times at conferences, people talk about how to be successful. This can create a high standard that is hard to hold yourself to.  Being able to explain failures is important. In order to be able to discuss failure, you need to have a certain amount of self awareness. The willingness and humility to admit a failure does not come easy but is incredibly impactful.

Day Two

Day two is preferred by Alex because you are actually able to talk to different people about what they are doing.  Sam did not think she would get to have a lot of conversations on how individual spaces run. She thought it would be more focused on missions and goals.  However, she found a lot of opportunities to actually talk about how spaces are run. She learned about how they grow while maintaining intimacy amongst members and much more.

Unconferences allow people to get ideas from places on how to implement things in their own space.  Unconferences cover a wide range of topics from mental health to programming and events. Sam enjoyed getting to share personal conversations they had that made an impact on their space.