Note: Some of you may have read this already when I posted it to the Seattle Mind Camp mailing list.  I wanted to repeat it here, in case there’s anyone who’s not on that list yet.

We’ve tried to address some of the challenges of the previous method of having everyone sign up on the Session Grid at once, while retaining the spontaneity and egalitarian nature of that process.  We hope this new process will have the benefit of, among other things, helping us to assign rooms of appropriate size to the more popular sessions, and to otherwise manage resources more efficiently.

For the impatient, here’s the quick bottom line:  keep an eye on your email for the release of the Session Organizer Candidate Form.  You’ll want to download that and bring it with you on the morning of Mind Camp, so that you can submit your session for consideration BEFORE opening remarks.  Sessions will be selected by a combination of popular vote and lottery; rooms and times will be assigned by the Planning Committee.

Details after the jump:

The Process:

• As always, anyone may initiate a session.  The Mind Camp Planning Committee will publish a Session Organizer Candidate Form online prior to the event.  Attendees who want to organize a session will be encouraged to download that form and fill it out prior to arriving at Mind Camp.  (Forms will also be available on site.)  The form will simply provide space to enter a session title, a description, the name of the session organizer, and preference for a room with projectors or other requirements.  (NOTE: Unless indicated otherwise on the Session Organizer Candidate Form, we will assume that sessions may be scheduled at any time.)
• Session Organizer Candidates should arrive a little early on the 11th so that they can tape up their forms along the length of the main hallway.
• As attendees arrive, they should peruse the Session Candidate Forms prior to introductions.
• After introductions, all attendees will be given a number of small stickers equal to the number of time slots available.  They’ll file along the hallway placing one dot on each of the sessions they think should be given a time slot.
• The Mind Camp Planning Committee will take the top vote-getters (up to half as many as the total available time slots) and assign rooms and times based on the popularity of each session.
• The remaining session candidates will go into a pool.  Candidates will then be drawn at random from the pool and assigned a room and time slot.  If there are leftover candidates at that point, they will be invited to participate in a lightning talk, where they’ll have 5-10 minutes to discuss their topic.

Let me reiterate one important point here:  You will be encouraged to fill out your session form in advance, but you will not be required to do so.  You can show up 5 minutes before introductions and fill in your form, if you like.  That will be up to you.

I’m sure this won’t be a perfect process, but I hope you’ll agree that it’s worth a try.  And, of course, I and the rest of the Planning Committee will be happy to answer any questions and take any suggestions you might have for improvement.