Unconferencers get their dialogue on at the all-day event hosted by The Festival of Ideas and Creation and Small Wooden Shoe.  Photo by Amanda Lynne Ballard

by Michael Wheeler

When I looked out my bedroom window at torrential downpour at  8am on a Saturday morning, the first thing that occurred to me was, “Damn, I’m going to be one of five people at the Unconference.”

I was a little astonished to arrive at a lobby teaming with artists eating danishes and doubling down on coffee, ready to meet people and set their own agendas.  The hell with traditional models and top-down thinking – these folks were all here looking for dialogue and the tools to create action-based solutions! Judith Thompson and Daniel Brooks were participants too. It was pretty cool frankly.

Here’s my highlight list:

• Getting the names and emails of 11 people that want to help me fix the back room of a gallery into a rehearsal/performance space. (Coming late summer/fall.) 
• Misha Glouberman facilitating while sitting on the stage in a suit. (An appealing mix of off-hand professionalism.)
• An indepth conversation about how to get a new theatre company off the ground.  (Artistic vs. administrative goals.)
• Feedback from several people about this new re-vamped website. (Range from great to overwhelming amount of information.)
• Several different and interesting conversations about how to not be overwhelmed by the administrative and logistical nightmares of being an Artistic Director. (With other ADs and people who don’t want to be because they don’t want the responsibility.) 
• Some good non-theatre related stories over beers at the pub afterwards. (The biggest clue to the success of these things is enthusiasm to keep talking when the event is officially over.)