Opening Session

Colleen Bell, Metrolinx

Metrolinx wanted to re-examine the way they did public consultation
They wanted to look at groups with whom they normally don't connect
With this in mind, they approached TransitCamp to organize the conference
TransitCamp's format allows them to get perspectives they wouldn't otherwise get in more formal public meetups

This is an informal process that is parallel to Metrolinx's more formal public outreach sessions
For more information about Metrolinx's public outreach sessions, see their site

The TransitCamp community emerged when a number of Toronto people active in blogging and tech got together to come up with a "solutions playground" for public transit
Inspired by the success of Toronto's TransitCamp, other TransitCamp events/communities are now emerging in Vancouver and San Francisco; Boston is interested in starting one up
The TransitCamp community is an open one; there is no formal sense of "membership". Anyone can join!
It works best when people are engaging in communication and exchanging ideas, which hopefully leads to action
We want to emphasize that TransitCamp is not a one-time thing; it continues beyond this event.
How it continues is up to you
The TransitCamp Wiki is one way of extending this beyond this gathering
This April 5th event is the first of a series; there will be more this year!

The idea behind this format of conference -- or more accurately, unconference -- is that many people have found that the most interesting conversations and learning took place in the hallways between sessions. What if we made a conference that was "all hallway"?
In the back of the main room, you can see the schedule board, which right now is mostly blank. That's because we collectively set the agenda at the start!
There are two sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon.
This gathering is based on the Open Space Meeting methodology.
You can take any number of these roles:

You can be someone who convenes a conversation.
You can be someone who participates in a conversation.
You can be a "bumblebee", who rather than staying in one conversation, moves between conversations and by particpating in them, "cross-pollenates" them.
You can be a "butterfly", who doesn't join any of the set conversations, but hangs around. The interesting thing is that butterflies end up gathering together and starting their own impromptu conversations.

Follow the Rule of Motion: If you're in a session where you're not contrubting or learning, you must leave!
A couple of tips:

The conference is self-organizing, but in order for this to happen. you must self organize!
If you're in a group of n people, you should probably be speaking 1/n of the time.
If you see someone who's not speaking, encourage them to speak.

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