Firstly, we’d like to give full credit here to this Mashable article that highlighted what an awesome job the YxYY ‘unconference’ is doing to bring a unique experience to their guests and reinvent the idea of what a conference can be.

Having read it, a few things struck us about what they’re doing that could be adopted by more traditional conferences and meetings to create a more dynamic experience for their attendees too.

1. Freedom

Conferences often try to pack in learning sessions, workshops and formal networking from start to finish, with barely a pause for breath.

Often they do this across multiple tracks too, meaning you’ll always miss out on something, no matter how packed your schedule is.

It’s all done with good intention of course, so delegates get as much value as possible packed into a short space of time.

However, it can lead to overly complicated itineraries, frustration at having to choose between sessions and networking, and general fatigure by the end of the event.

Unconferences like YxYY are appealing because they’re not so jam-packed, allowing attendees some down time, needing less pre-event preparation to coordinate a schedule and more time to build relationships with one another.

Idea: For your next conference, why not set aside at least couple of hours a day for completely informal chats amongst your attendees?  Or schedule one hour of downtime for every hour of scheduled activity to offer a balanced agenda and greater freedom to your attendees.

2. Spontaneity

Going hand-in-hand with this idea of freedom at unconferences is spontaneity and the ability to shape your own agenda.

Having a degree of control and self-direction helps attendees feel empowered and much more engaged in their experience, so why not find ways to build this into your next conference?

Idea: Why not set aside a window where everyone and anyone is allowed to get up and speak for 10 minutes at a time; or a session where anyone can lead a mini-workshop or roundtable on a topic of their choosing?

3. Exclusivity and intimacy

Most unconferences, including YxYY, put a cap on the number of attendees, to help keep the event a more intimate affair, where it’s not too overwhelming to get out and meet people.

If your business relies on growth in numbers each year, it may be impractical to put a hard stop on growth, but why not try and achieve a similar result by segmenting your attendees into groups, so they feel like part of a smaller circle?

Idea: To keep it simple, you could do this arbitrarily, dividing a group of 1500 into 5 colour-coded groups of 300 for example, and then providing that group their own schedule or networking activities.

If this is impractical at a really large scale, or you can’t coordinate different schedules and networking activities, you could try and encourage more meaningful networking and help attendees reach out to one another through games, buddy systems or by utilising networking apps.

For more ideas on this, check out our ‘Experts Guide to Networking.’

4. Curate your attendee list

I’m not sure what the UK equivalent for ‘douchebags’ is exactly, but it would roughly translate as anyone you don’t want to spend quality time with because they’re way too into themselves and only care about furthering their own agenda.

While you can’t practically patrol your registrations for ‘douchbags’ (you could include a custom question to ask them to self-select if you really wanted to!), you can help find the right balance of attendee at your event.

One of the keys to the success of unconferences is their vibrant mix of people, and even big events can be proactive in encouraging this diversity.

Idea: While you may not able to hand-select people, you can use targeted sales and marketing campaigns, tiered pricing or even free passes to encourage more types of one attendee and less of another.

5. A genuinely exciting and fun environment

The pictures in the Mashable write-up scream fun and relaxation, and they’re a far cry from the kind of under-lit, stuffy conference rooms most delegates will be used to.

The environment is something you have 100% control over, so there are no excuses for not creating a more appealing setting for your attendees to learn and network in.

Idea: It doesn’t have to be a pool party, but you could swap out chairs for bean bags, hold networking outside to let people get fresh air, hire performers to liven up the day or pick an unusual venue like a boat, museum or vineyard to host the event.

What ideas from YxYY would you try to implement in your conference?  Share them in the comments below!