2014 will be THATCamp Philly’s 4th year. Jedoch, we have been having severe drop offs in attendance and pre-unconference participation the previous two years. We had our suspicions as to why, but surveyed organizers and participants to clarify why they were not coming and it was clear that many of the issues could be tied to fatigue with the unconference format. In order to try and answer these concerns and keep the event going we have decided to mix things up a bit, leaving/stripping unconference bits people liked/disliked while adding in traditional conference parts people appear to be missing.

We’re all fine with trying out this experiment this year, but it raised questions internally about whether or not it can still be branded as a THATCamp, so that is my question to the group. Below are how we are transforming things, so let us know what you think on the whole branding angle. The main concerns are with reduction (not elimination) of the self-organizing and spontaneous aspects. Not all of these changes are something outside of other THATCamps but I wanted to be complete:

-Moving from two day format (Fri/Sat) to one day format (Fri)
-Introducing a theme for the first time (TBD)
-Holding structured workshops in tracks throughout the day by pre-determined leaders
-Holding unconference sessions in simultaneous time slots with the workshops
-Adding additional networking opportunities during the day separate from sessions and workshops

There are other changes but are more on the detail side. I would like to add that the organizing group is not closed and we always encourage new people to join. With the workshops in particular, jedoch, we have had to start planning months in advance and the vast majority of attendees show no interest in working on organizing until they arrive at the event and even then it is iffy. Last year we had a real struggle getting people to propose unconference sessions ahead of time through the THATCamp’s site or the day of.