Overview

KnowledgeBoard was proud to host Contactivity at the University of Greenwich on the 10th and 11th April in partnership with The London Knowledge Network and The Gurteen Knowledge Network.

Contactivity was a very practical two day gathering of 64 Knowledge Management (KM) practitioners, academics and consultants, modelled within a Community of Practice (CoP) framework across both the virtual and physical worlds. It was the second event in a series - the first was held at KCC Europe in Amsterdam, November 2005. Theoretically, it exists in an ongoing stream of KB research exploring the 'seams' between virtual and physical CoPs initially presented at the eChallenges conference in October 2005. More information about this is available by following the links at the bottom of this article.

The council rooms full of active minds

The event as a research project

The event was also a research 'project-ette' - we have all been to conferences where we said that the most exciting bits were the networking and conversations, so we decided to design the entire event around these. We also wanted to explore the concept of 'surfacing' the theme in advance between the attendees (rather than dictate it), and how that might shape the event itself. This is now common practice in early adopting technology communities, and is poised to have an enormous impact on modern organisations and how they reach decisions between remote stakeholders.

As a research body, KnowledgeBoard had a strong desire to create an event environment which we could study in order to generate knowledge about this new meeting format. It was a natural evolution of our thoughts during 2005; to host a gathering which would provide us with the data for our research. It was loaded with risk, but it's not research if you know the outcome, is it?

Mind map from an Open Space session on who is the KM expert?

A full report of the event is underway and will be available on KnowledgeBoard in June. We hope that it serves to help people around the world make their meetings more meaningful, their decisions better informed and the resultant actions more sustainable. We had 'learning experiences'; Contactivity was designed to throw up issues which would lead to learning points for anyone thinking about organising an event. 

We also wanted to host an emotionally warm gathering which was affordable to all. And go to the pub with our friends (old and new) in a beautiful setting.

Peter wants to know: who owns the K in KM? Open Space proposition.

The days

We had two action-packed days of intensive conversational workshops and disruptive collaboration techniques.

Day one:

…Was a very structured 'knowledge sink', or literature review type of day. We began with an organisational simulation from the EKG team in order to bring everyone together and place our conversations within the context of KM as an entity which necessarily exists within any organisation's strategy. Then we tried out a new power-networking technique dreamt up by the Doctors.

Power networking: people's names and interests are on the boards they are all looking at.

After lunch we launched the new KB community book of case studies by workshopping a selection of the case studies with the authors. Following that we held the 'You the editor', an experimental workshop designed to mix everyone up and get them to create new journal article ideas from scratch under pressure. Then we walked around the Greenwich campus with a story-telling guide before retiring to a pub on the River Thames.

The council room bathed in evening light

Day two:

…Was deliberately less structured. We chose to run three sequential workshop techniques (Future Backwards, Open Space, Knowledge Café) in order to compare and contrast them in light of their relative strengths in different organisational contexts. The theme for day two was hoped to have emerged from the wiki in advance; this would then be carried through each workshop technique in order to afford the attendees a relevant context within which to both work on their problems and gain a clearer understanding of the techniques used.

Interestingly, rather than focus the attendees on a specific theme, the wiki brought out a range of issues which it was not possible to refine into one over-arching theme for exploration on day two. This is a research finding which will be explored in the full event report. In light of this, the facilitators (Martyn Laycock, David Gurteen and Martin Leith) agreed to press on with the sequential workshop model and start with a general topic: "What are the challenges and opportunities for Knowledge Management?". It is not possible to thank the facilitators enough for their collaboration on the spot. After that we had a reflection session and everyone went home with a rather talked-out look about them and millions of ideas and new friends and future opportunities.

It was a big experiment and a lot to do in one day. The rooms were teeming with activity and conversation and I think, by the end of it, many of the attendees would have liked a nice soothing, calming Powerpoint presentation. Interestingly, the very next day, Andrew Lewis (an ex-KB SIG editor) and his colleague Nicola Rainsbury presented a fascinating and rather provocative presentation about the 'industrialisation' of knowledge which would have sat beautifully in the middle of day two and kicked off some superb conversations. Next time, next time…

Paolo may wear a silly hat but his ideas are very powerful

The event is not over yet - it has moved into the CoP phase 'reflect, self-assess, renew'. We hope that the forthcoming report takes the concept out into the world and it evolves in different directions in different contexts. The wiki is still hosting conversations which have spilled back into the virtual world, and I am still badgering the attendees - this time to make sure that they are following up on the people they were directed to in the networking session.

The reports from the sessions and un-edited event feedback are attached to this article (below) and the event wiki (see other links).

Please download them, read them, share them, comment on them.

Ron: the event's creative godfather.

Ideas are at their most beautiful only when they are shared.

Other links
Contactivity wiki
KnowledgeBoard flickr group photo pool
John Curran's review of Contactivity
Real-life Knowledge Management case studies: the KB community book
KB and VE-Forum workshop report from eChallenges: virtual and physical CoPs
Learning from eachother: KB's paper about virtual and physical CoPs
KB event report: Contactivity 1 at KCC Europe, November 2005

Thanks to:

All the attendees: for taking part in our experiment; we all know it was you who made the event and so you did, with such grace and enthusiasm to make us all proud.
The facilitators: for taking the risk of voluntarily participating in an unknown event design run by a virtual team who only met physically once briefly 10 minutes before the event actually kicked off (now I think about it, was the event team ever in the same room at any one time?). It was a great risk for you and we hope it bears learning and new friends and ideas for you.
The KB community book case study authors: for coming along and sharing their ideas with us
The University of Greenwich: for being a fantastically flexible and reasonable location host in the face of myriad impossible demands and cries of 'but we're a research organisation.. and this is an experiment... can't you give us more?'. Specifically Jamie and Helen who handled our invasion with huge aplomb: I would recommend the venue to anyone.
The European Commission: and particularly our project officer, Albert who provides the funding to make KnowledgeBoard happen, and the original request to see an 'event' in action.
Headshift: and particularly Dan for providing the wiki in the spirit of exploration and making more meetings more meaningful in the future

Reports attached to this page

The following reports are attached to this page; they are un-edited and are intended to provide everyone with as much information about the two days as possible. Some people's handwriting left a little bit to be desired, so if you notice any strange things, I may have typed them wrong. Sorry!

Open Space session on day 2 session reports Knowledge Cafe on day2 transcription Workshop reflection session at the end of day2 including facilitators' responses Power networking results for attendees' post event network development Editorial hothouse article ideas list Contactivity feedback un-edited (but names removed)

Keep up the pressure all! Maybe one day we will find that there really is no edge to how far the boundaries will stretch, but then what would we do?