I am hearing things that should have not happened are indeed happening.
I heard of people going to BarCamps and complaining about 15 minute spamming sessions. I’ve heard of unattentive organizers preferring the pitch of a product, a software or a blog over discussion and creation.
This is what unconferences should not be. By pitching you are controlling, control belongs to traditional conferences.
A pitch could be a way to start a conversation about some interesting topics, not the focus of a session.
We recently runned ecoCamp, a user generated conference/BarCamp where lack of control was the success.
If you attend a BarCamp speak out loud when you feel someone is trying to control, because that is not the place to do so.
I will be at BarCamp London 4 on the 30th of May, come there and I’ll be happy to meet you.
