The TransportCamp ‘unconference’ brings together transport professionals, researchers, technologists and citizens interested transport, technology and innovation.

With the city's population booming and the boundary expanding our mobility demands are changing. How we manage the transforming metropolitan system and interactions will have a direct impact on the city’s economic strength, environmental sustainability and social equity.

Recent advances in technology—mobile computing, open source software, open data and spatial analysis—present an opportunity to improve mobility more immediately and at a lower cost than has ever been possible in the past.

Major themes at TransportCamp include:

• Innovation

• Open data

• Utilising big data

• New transport options

• Shared mobility

• Creative ways to address transport issues

The single day event aims to raise awareness of these opportunities and builds connections and knowledge between the often siloed innovators in public administration, transport operations, design, and computer science.

This event is being run as an ‘unconference’, where the sessions topics and activities are programmed by  attendees. Yep! Attendees set the day’s agenda and run the sessions themselves. You might want to workshop an idea, present some visualised open data or simply discuss how the public and innovation sectors can work more closely together.

While some of the big names in transportation and technology will present on the day, TransportCamp provides an opportunity for all attendees to lead and shape the event content and outcomes. Be prepared to get involved and meet people. The second TransportCamp is being held on 15 November, 2016 in Melbourne. For more information please view the events page.

Tips for TransportCamp

• The Rule of Two Feet: you’re free to walk out, and find a session that fits you better. Don’t stay in a session that doesn’t work for you, move to another session that needs your contributions.

• Speak up: if a session needs help, provide it. Feel free to give reminders about time or topic focus.

• Do it yourself! If you want a session to be different, maybe more technical, or more policy focused, suggest it! Other people might feel the same way, and you’ll help to sharpen the focus for everyone.

• Good stuff happens in the corridors too. Unscheduled, informal corridor conversations are great for continuing off-shoots from sessions.

The session board

“The Board” is the central nervous system of the event. It’s a grid, representing the available spaces (the rows) and planned time slots (the columns). Each box is a particular space at a particular time, the sticky note in each grid cell describes what the session will be, including topic, format and presenter.

In the unconference tradition, participants propose sessions by writing them up (as described below) on large sticky notes. Then, an event organizer puts the session into a space on the board. We will try to spread sessions across the day evenly, making sure that similar or complementary sessions don’t go head to head.

Use the Board to plan your day. Once individual sessions are up on the board we won’t move them around. We’ll maintain an online version of the board, so you can also check the latest status of the board from your laptop or phone.

Proposing a session

Show up at TransportCamp with your session in mind. Head to the board, grab a sticky note, and describe your session. Don’t be shy about it! You are interesting and your work is compelling and people will want to hear what you have to share. Your note must include:

• Session title

• Your name

• What kind of session it is (presentation, brainstorm, Q&A, demos,etc.)

• More info about the session—will it be technical? Are you open to co-presenting?

How to lead a great session

So, you proposed a fantastic session and it’s up on the board. Congratulations! You’re responsible for the session logistics and content, here are some tips for making the most of the session:

Logistics

• Be there ahead of the start time, so you can welcome people and kick things off on time

• Start on time! This matters, you don’t want to make people late for their next session. Ask a volunteer for a timecheck if you’re not sure.

• Finish on time (even if you start late!). We’ll let you know if there are schedule adjustments.

Content

• If you’re leading a session, you have responsibility for the content and format, and the happiness of everyone participating. Be a leader, to manage the content as well as logistics.

• Make sure expectations are clear from the outset: if you’re going to show slides for 45 minutes, make sure everyone in the room is ready for that.

• Work towards tangible outcomes. A good start is for someone to take notes online, perhaps in a shared Google doc. Maybe it also makes sense to collect contact details for a mailing list for further discussion.