Forum 2000 - The International Conference
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The Forum 2000 organisation committee met in Lübeck on May 13, 1998.
The agreement was signed and the first important facts were decided:
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Signing the agreement on Forum 2000 in Lübeck, Germany:
(from left) Ron Blicq (IEEE/PCS), Thomas Warren (STC), Gerry Gentle (ISTC)
Claus Noack (tekom)
The Theme:
Technical Communicators Leading the Way
As we enter the new millennium,
technical communicators will make their mark in history.
Documenting technology is our responsibility and,
with the advancement of tools and equipment in all aspects of life,
technical communicators will have to seize the opportunity
to lead users into the future.
Place and Date:
June 12-14, 2000
Commonwealth Centre
London, Great Britain
The Idea of Forum Conferences
Forum conferences started when Ulf L. Andersson,
a technical communicator from Sweden and founding member
of both the Swedish Society for Technical Communication and INTECOM,
realized that usually he returned from a conference with the same feeling:
"The paper presentations were mostly tedious and unrewarding,
but I met very many interesting people during the breaks.
It’s a pity the breaks were so short."
The moment was born for him to think of a way to arrange a conference
consisting of one entire, long break!
And this how he became the inventor of the Forum conferences.
A second thought pursued him.
"Why travel to conferences in far-away places
just to listen to people reading their papers -- which you could do just as well at home?
That was the starting point.
His main idea was, right from the beginning,
to make it as easy as possible for the conference participants
to find people with common interests and arrange situations
where they could exchange ideas and experience.
The participants should leave a Forum conference
not only with ideas that others have planned to "hand out",
but also with ideas generated at the conference,
thanks to people with different backgrounds and creative conference methods.
His idea was to ban all lectures (i.e. formal presentation of papers)
but still to offer a program interesting enough to attract many participants.
Ulf Andersson’s Solution? -- The Idea Market
Ulf presented his new concept to an INTECOM board meeting in Stockholm in 1974.
The INTECOM board accepted his concept and offered support
to arrange the first international conference for technical communication.
This new conference was held in Sweden in September 1975.
Gradually, with further Forum conferences (one every five years),
new elements for professional discussions followed.
The Forum Conference Concept
Today, Forum conferences offer a wide variety of informative and stimulating elements:
- Idea Markets
- Sort-and-build groups
- Brainstorming sessions
- Networking lunches
- Video sessions
Idea Markets
Idea Markets are intellectual market places where 10-15 activators
simultaneously present their ideas and questions
(note: there are no "speakers" at Forum conferences; they are called "activators" instead).
A conference handbook (called the "Preseedings") is distributed to participants
prior to the conference so they can choose which topics they are interested in.
Participants move freely among the stands discussing the material
presented by the activator and described in the Preseedings.
The discussion moves freely, both between the activators and the participants,
and between the fellow participants themselves.
Whereas monologues are typical of lectures at normal conferences,
and dialogues may be typical of good poster sessions,
polylogues -- in which several people talk with each other
on a topic of common interest -- characterize the Idea Market.
The Postharvest is published after the conference
and contains both the activators’ comments concerning the polylogue
and a summary of any material produced during the conference
(or received too late to be published in the Preseedings).
It is mailed to all participants.
Sort and Build Groups
Some discussions at the Idea Market may be so stimulating
that it would be a pity to terminate them abruptly
because the time given for the Idea Market sessions is over.
Extra time and extra rooms are set aside for such groups
to continue their discussions or resume them later.
Brainstorming Sessions
At a Forum conference participants can also sit in on "superbrain" sessions,
which consist of fairly large groups of conference participants.
People with different backgrounds, different experience,
and different ways of thinking share their knowledge with one another.
Networking Lunches
This is another way of helping people with common interests to meet.
The tables at lunch have little flags with different discussion subjects
so participants know that all people at one table share the same interest.
Video Conferences
This conference element was first introduced at Forum 95 in Dortmund/Germany.
In two video conferences, Forum participants were connected with colleagues and experts
in Moscow and Beijing to discuss their professional situations.
A Short History of Forum Conferences
Forum conferences are organized every five years
and are under the auspices of INTECOM.
Five Forum conferences have been organized so far:
This was the first Forum conference and it featured
Idea Markets, Brainstorming Sessions, a canned information festival,
and a daily conference newspaper.
This was known as the conference with "more dinner speeches than lectures".
It began consolidating the Forum conference methods.
The "Preseedings" and "Postharvest" books were introduced in 1985,
plus a daily video journal covering each day's events.
An intellectual smorgasbord, a communication cartoon party,
multi-brainstorming sessions, and an information test lab
all ran during the conference.
This was an exceptional program that, in addition to Idea Markets, Sort-and-Build groups,
and Brainstorming Sessions, introduced a New Media room and a Communicators´ Show Room.
There was a daily televised "talk show" and intellectual smorgasbord.
This first Forum conference outside Scandinavia
was organized by four member societies of INTECOM and has been the most successful so far.
It contained all the traditional Forum methods and introduced, as new elements,
a keynote speaker, two live video conferences with colleagues in Moscow and Beijing,
and a system exhibition.
Further Information
TC-Forum will keep you up-to-date on any developments in the organization of Forum 2000.
For further information, please contact:
Forum 2000, Conference Organization
Mr. Gerry D. Gentle, ISTC,
Blackhorse Road, Letchworth, Hertfordshire SG6 1YY Great Britain
+44 (0)1462 486825 (voice),
+44 (0)1462 483480 (fax)
istc@istc.org.uk
See the Forum 2000 Information Site
© TC Forum 1998-99 - http://www.tc-forum.org - file last updated 24 Jun 1999
Forum 2000
