A few terms we use often. We'll keep adding to this list.
Artefact
A living output from an unconference — a process map,
framework, decision record, or reflective essay — that keeps helping a community long after
the event ends.
Co-create
To build a session, conversation, or outcome together
with participants, rather than delivering something predetermined to an audience.
Debrief
The structured reflection that happens after an unconference ends:
what happened, what surprised people, what's still unresolved, and what's worth turning into
an artefact so it isn't lost.
Emergence
What arises from a group's interaction rather than being decided on
in advance. It's the thing unconferences are built to make room for: not a lack of structure,
but structure loose enough that something nobody planned can still show up.
Enthusiastic Drift
The very normal, very human tendency for excited
participants to nudge a session (or the whole event) somewhere new. Not a personality problem
— a predictable dynamic we help redirect with a light touch.
Facilitation
A way of hosting in which the facilitator is also a participant.
There's an easing (from facil-) of the call — it's held, not controlled — allowing
room for emergence while still maintaining the enabling constraints that keep things workable.
Generative Tension
A disagreement or friction that, when held well, opens
up new understanding or possibility rather than shutting conversation down.
Kernel (or Spark)
The idea — the thing that lights someone up — the piece of an
unconference that needs to stay lit and true no matter what shape everything else takes.
Only the sourcekeeper can really know if the spark is dimming, or if the kernel has been
chiseled away enough to become meaningless or distinctly different from where it started.
A well-established meeting format that unconferences borrow heavily
from: participants build the actual agenda together, sometimes at the beginning of the
gathering, sometimes unfolding throughout the event, rather than being set months ahead by
organizers.
Participant-Host
Someone attending an unconference who also proposes and holds a
session. Not a separate category of person — just what happens when a participant's
curiosity turns into an invitation for others to join them.
Residue
The leftover emotional weight that can linger after a
disagreement is technically "resolved." We build in small practices to help groups notice and
release it, rather than carry it into the next thing.
Sourcekeeper
The person — or small group — who carries the original
energy and intent for a gathering. We coach and support this role; we never try to become it.
Unconference
A gathering format in which the agenda is shaped
largely by participants rather than set in advance by organizers — sessions emerge from the
questions people bring on the day.
