Got an idea for an amazing session for our April 30 event?

What makes ProductCamps so amazing is the sessions hosted by the participants themselves. This means you!

Suggest a session topic. Don't think you can host a session? Previous participants have told us hosting a session is one of the most rewarding aspects of ProductCamp DC. Here's what it's not:

• You don't have to be an expert. In fact, you're hosting a session precisely because you want feedback from and interactive dialogue with the community.
• Long lecturing where the session host drones on and on, and everyone else passively listens.
• Lots of boring slideware.

In fact, hosting a sesson involves:

• Learning. What do you want to know more about? What challenges do you face in product management? It's because you're NOT an expert, you want to host a session to learn from others.
• Sharing. Product management professionals everywhere share common challenges - requirements definition, product development processes, marketing, empowering sales, pricing, customer service - the list goes on. How have you met these challenges? What have you done? Trust us, others want to know. And who knows? By sharing your experience, the community feedback could help you make further improvement to your product management processes!

So go ahead! Suggest a session. Stumped for ideas? Check out sessions from our August 2010 event below. We've also compiled a list of guidelines to help you.

Important Guidelines to Consider When Proposing Sessions

ProductCamp sessions are NOT for selling your product, your service, or you (e.g. consultants and recruiters). People come to ProductCamp and give up a Saturday to give and receive useful information, not to get pitched at. If you have expertise in your field, that will come through in your session and people will seek you out to learn about your product organically.

If you would like to hand out materials in your session, that is acceptable, if the material is relevant to the topic at hand (e.g. a worksheet in a workshop session, a diagram in a presentation). Marketing slicks for your product are not acceptable. ProductCamp DC provides official sponsors with tables to distribute their literature to those who want it. It is fine to introduce yourself in the beginning of your session and mention who you are, where you work, and what you do, and we encourage that. Contact the ProductCamp DC sessions team if you have any questions about what is and is not appropriate. We do not enforce a lot of top down control on ProductCamp sessions, but this is a hard and fast rule: violate it and you may be barred from presenting in the future. Thanks for helping us keep the unconference spirit of ProductCamp alive.

Session Formats

You can structure a session however you wish, but to help align expectations of the session leader and the participants, here are formats that have been well received in other ProductCamps. It is not necessary to follow these formats, but experience has shown them to be popular, and using the label will help match expectations for those who come to a session. In general, the sessions that have been reported as most enjoyed and talked about have been very interactive. This list is is not intended to be limiting or exhaustive, so feel free to be creative.

• Town Hall: The leader presents a short (20-30 minute max) informative topic, open-ended question or premise, and opens the floor for expansion, comment, questions and general discussion.
• Roundtable Breakout: Similar to Town Hall, except that audience breaks out into small groups and typically shares findings, comments, or team responses with the room at the end of the session.
• Workshop: In this format, the audience is actively involved, collectively or in groups, in an exercise or application of a technique or process which has been presented by the session leader. The description should mention the portion of the session spent in the exercise and what the attendees will produce. Proposers are encouraged to have knowledgeable assistants to help answer questions and support the exercise.
• Panel Discussion: Popularly seen, this format has several people qualified to talk about the subject of the session, preferably from diverse or even counterpoint perspectives or roles. A moderator facilitates questions from the audience or a series of prepared questions for the panelists, but a significant part of the session is still interactive Q&A with the audience.
• Ask the Expert: This format is most successful with a recognized authority on a subject of wide interest, or a direct participant in some particularly interesting event or phenomenon. The expert or a moderator introduces the topic and frames some appropriate discussion, and then opens the floor for questions, including those that might be somewhat specific as long as they are applicable to more people than the individual questioner.
• Presentation: Having already suggested that this traditional one-directional delivery is less popular among the ProductCamp community, there are some exceptional topics and presenters who can make this work. Session proposers are advised to consider this carefully and be honest in citing this format if it is actually what will be delivered.

Lessons Learned From Other ProductCamps

(What they learned by listening to participants...)

There is nothing like leading a session at ProductCamp - it will be the most fun you can pack into a 45-50 minute conference session. Because a ProductCamp is completely user-driven, there are no "talking heads" or "keynotes." There is just you and your peers. That lends a realism to the sessions that you can't get anywhere else. Presenting at ProductCamp is fun, and an experience you will remember forever. Use this opportunity to polish your presentation and facilitation skills in a non-threatening environment, talking about problems that matter with people who "get it."

We learned from the other ProductCamps that certain types of sessions work better than others. These are guidelines, but feel free to break the mold and bring something new to the table.

Participants Liked:

• Interactivity
• Discussion
• Use Cases/Examples
• Whiteboards
• Roundtables

Participants Disliked:

• Excessive slideware (>10 slides is probably pushing it for most sessions!)
• Pushing questions to the end
• Anything Sales-y

Got an idea for a great session? Share it with the community!