So you have attended a TeachMeet and hopefully have come away with something to use in the clasroom. Please take some time to explain what you think went really well and what might be tweaked to help improve future meetings.

1. Click "Edit Page" at the top of any page 2. Enter the user: guest and password: teemhcaet 3. Type something | 4. Click Save!

TeachMeet BETT'09 - 16/1/09

What went well?

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• Compère was superb, held the chaos together.
• Friendly, supportive but firm manner from the compère overseeing the event - well done Ian!
• Lots of other things but this is the first time I've contributed, and don't want to hog the page .. will check back later and say more if needed!
• The whole atmosphere - very supportive, relaxed.
• Good range of sponsors and plenty provided
• TeachEat a great way to finish.

What could we do to improve?

• More classroom action please.
• Suggest contributors prepare written urls which they could pass to a volunteer who could type them in while they do their intro - could reduce a rather tense moment for presenter and audience! As an alternative, request that all presentation materials are online - i.e. no use of individual laptops. Presenters then add their url into their entry in the wiki, so the compere / AN Other can launch as they walk up to present. Another option (if it's out in the UK yet?) is a device like this - http://www.imation.com/en/Imation-Products/Wireless-Projection-Link/
• Similar to the above idea, I had thought if there was a delicio.us page set up for contributors to save their urls to and tag them with their own names, then as soon as someone is selected, the compere can click onto their tags on the delicio.us page. Additionally, attendees would be able to browse speakers' urls before the event, during the event or after the event whether the speakers were selected to speak or not. 
• It was a great event - just a shame there was not enought time to hear all that was there to potentially listen to. Just some ideas - 1) A couple of 10 mins/10 questions Q&A panel/session slots for all speakers who had prepared something to say but missed out on an individual slot. Audience could tweet/text questions, host picks questions for panel and they respond/support each other to address question - 1 min each question.  2) In advance settle on some "in practice" theme/s for inclusion as part of the event and select from a subset of those who prepare to those themes. (second may be too formal for an "unconference")
• Find ways to use the Twitter back-channel to interact with speakers via questions/comments. OR, how about asking people to volunteer as panelists, then select six at random to become an impromptu panel, with questions from the floor or via Twitter / text?
• Fill the gaps - use the panel idea above for 2 mins between presentations, or arrange 7 minute presentation, 2 minute 'lucky dips' alternately, allowing the 7-minute presenter 2 minutes to set up. The selection for the next 2 minute and 7 minute presenter can be done between the lucky dip and main presentation as well, cutting out 'dead' time.
• Networking is an essential part of TeachMeet, but it would be good if we had to mix with people we don't know. Perhaps a random draw of who sits where, with each table doing a 2 minutes summary  of possible skills or ideas to the rest of the attendees. Most of us would catch up before, during beer breaks or at the feeding frenzy afterwards.
• More nanopresentations - quick bites backed up with online info and backchannel/afterchannel for those interested
• Get more teacher input, less of the old hacks who are doing it more at a distance. Perhaps say that people who presented last year (for BETT event) do not present at the next.
• Ensure drinks vouchers given out more rapidly at start - ridiculous to have so many left at end.
• No taxi home to Broadstairs :( after TeachEat !!

Advice for anyone running / organising / compering a TM

• If you are fortunate enough to have volunteers, assign someone the task of keeping an eye on the wiki, making sure people sign up with required information.
• If you are organising a meal - delegate this to someone to take care of everything - numbers, restaurant, even menus, whatever's necessary. If you are fortunate enough to get sponsors, they need to be very understanding and/or have a credit card or cash.
• The raffle should have been immediately before a break rather than the first item after a break - the kerfuffle as people looked for their prizes didn't help the person unfortunate enough to do their presentation immediately after the raffle.
• If you are organising something as different as a live music performance, plan for any PA support to be aware of this. We were fortunate enough that the guys in the Apex Room had the appropriate kit to plug in a guitar and a mic which was suitable for a vocal performance - the normal mics used for presenting wouldn't have been up to this.
• We used a Google spreadsheet for sponsors to sign up - this worked well and (more importantly) allowed EMAP to see the state of play re: sponsorship. If you want to see the spreadsheet please contact Ian U.
• Make sure you have some IT support - yes, a TeachMeet at BETT is essentially a room full of tame geeks, but not every one will be, and you don't want to have to worry about that sort of thing.
• The compère really should have the cojones to keep presenters on task - if they don't mention classroom practice in the first couple of minutes of a 7 minute presentation, then ask them to do so, or stop talking (gulp). This will immediately make everyone else realise that if they don't focus on practice, then they'll be asked to stop. Note that you can't rely on the audience to express dissent - most audiences are used to being told what to do.
• The person keeping an eye on the wiki could ensure that presenters explain what practice they are going to cover in their brief "abstracts" on the wiki page.
• For this, it's important that a second mic is open so you can ask a presenter to focus - need to tell the AV guy(s) this.
• Speaking personally (IU) alcohol and how it's used was a big issue. Those presenting early in the evening could get away with an average presentation, later on there was a constant burble of noise as, rather than expressing a "where's the classroom practice" sentiment, people would simply lose interest and talk among themselves.
• Having badges for people to collect at the door caused a big backlog - this was necessary for fire regs, but delayed the start.
• The camel worked well and makes the "please stop talking now" moment a bit easier to bear...

If you have any specific organisational alternatives to what you saw on the night, that would fit with the unconference style, please consider adding them to the TeachMeet Evolution page.