Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. All authors are, or have been, involved in organising unconference or unconference-like sessions. Some of these events require participants to pay a registration fee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
An academic conference is a traditional platform for researchers and professionals to network and learn about recent developments and trends in a particular academic field [ 1 — 4 ]. Typically, the organizing committees and sponsors decide the main theme and sub-topics of the conference and select the presenters based on peer-reviewed papers [ 5 ].
The selected speakers usually share their research with a large audience by means of presentations and posters. However, the most stimulating discussions generally take place over coffee breaks when attendees can interact with each other and discuss various topics, including their own research interests, in a more informal manner [ 1 , 6 , 7 ], while expanding their own professional networks.
While many people may not yet have taken part in an unconference, the concept has been around for more than two decades. The success of these events has made the unconference format increasingly popular and widely known [ 8 — 11 ]. Unlike traditional conferences, an unconference is a participant-oriented meeting where the attendees decide on the agenda, discussion topics, workshops, and, often, even the time and venues.
The informal and flexible program allows participants to suggest topics of their own interest and choose sessions accordingly. The format provides an excellent opportunity for researchers from diverse disciplines to work collaboratively on topics of common interest. The overarching goal for most unconferences is to prioritize conversation over presentation. In other words, the content for a session does not come from a select number of individuals at the front of the room, but is generated by all the attendees within the room, and, as such, every participant has an important role.
