Tuesday, I attended the Digiday Social Conference and ended up engaging in a metadiscussion with @laurenperkins and @ckieff about the conference. I suggested a #digiday unconference, but the idea is probably too big to fit into 140 characters, so I'm explaining it here.

Let me start off by providing bits of background. DM2 Media produces a series of conferences around digital publishing, media. and marketing called Digiday. There is Digiday Social, Digiday Mobile, Digiday Apps, Digiday Target and probably a few others that I am forgetting right now. They tend to overlap a fair amount. After all targeted social media campaigns using mobile apps are an important part of where digital publishing, media. and marketing is going.

I attend, and write about many of the Digiday conferences and often have great discussions with Chris Kieff about them on Twitter and during the networking breaks.

About half way through Digiday Social, Lauren Perkins asked Chris, "What do you think of @digiday so far?" Chris replied, "not bad, there is some substance this time. I'm pleased with the lack of 2 year old references. You?" One particular two year old reference that Chris was referring to was Motrin Moms. He tweeted about how glad he was that they made it through the conference without a reference to Motrin's famous social media fail.

Lauren replied, "Was hoping to hear more about where we as an industry go next - how we are going to use innovation". I'm with Lauren. I would love to have some good discussions about where we go next. Chris responded, "That discussion happens behind closed doors and costs more money... :) "

The discussion meandered on and Lauren said, "I would say that #digiday has great speakers but a lot of the content is for those who are not engrossed in it every day". I think Lauren was right about that, but there is some value to speaking to newbies. As I see it, Digiday is an opportunity to help new people learn about the value of social, mobile, targeted apps and related strategies.

I jumped in and suggested "A digiday unconference might be really interesting." Lauren replied, " interesting.... what do you propose for an un @digiday event?"

I am a big fan of unconferences and regular readers of my blog will recall discussions about Podcamps; unconferences about podcasting and social media. The Podcamps I've attended tend to be mostly aimed at individual content creators, and not at people in the marketing and media worlds. A Podcamp aimed at those in the biz might be really interesting.

Podcamps are unconferences that grew out of barcamps, which are unconferences in the Open Space Technology tradition. They are typically free, or have a minimal cost.

Wikipedia defines an unconference as a "facilitated, participant-driven conference centered on a theme or purpose". My experiences with unconferences have been that they are great for emerging topics. The day before Digiday Social, Peggy Holman's new book, Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity came out. I've attended unconferences facilitated by Peggy and she is a master at it and her book is one that people interested in emerging trends, such as social, mobile, targeted apps and related strategies should read.

Good unconferences, in my opinion, should be brainstorming sessions, without product pitches. Powerpoint presentations are a good way to lose an audience at an unconference. In many ways, it seems like a good social marketing strategy should be very similar to an unconference. It should listen to the audience and engage them. It should encourage user generated content.

I suspect the fear that many brands have of a social media campaign, "What if someone says something bad about my brand or does something inappropriate?" is very similar to the fear that people have of unconferences. People like to be in control, whether it be of the marketing campaign or the conference experience, but the big wins come when people give up a little bit of control and let something exciting and perhaps even viral emerge.

So, what would a #digiday unconference be like? Imagine DM2 Media gathering some of the best and the brightest in the worlds of social, mobile, targetted, and apps in a large room. Everyone would get a brief moment to introduce themselves and suggest a topic or two that they are interested in. The organizers would gather up the topics and arrange them to be in breakout rooms. There would be no presenter and no pitches Instead, there would be a moderator and a note taker. Probably the best note taking would be done via twitter. Everyone would participate, sharing ideas, experiences and passions.

To the extent that a sponsor wanted something specific about their products, sessions could be included where people would sit around and talk about the products. The sponsor would be well advised to provide a very brief, "this is what the product is" introduction, followed by a chance for users to share experiences and prospects to ask questions or share ideas of things they would like to do with the product. It would be like a good social campaign targeted at users and potential users.

Broader topics could also be explored, such as "What is the future of Apps?" Instead of listening to three or four sages on the stage talk about it, a lot of interesting new ideas could emerge from the participants.

So, what do you say? Anyone up for UnDigiday?