Karlheinz Pape said:
From my view a unconference is mainly a self-organized event. A BarCamp for Example will be organized like a classical conference – with the exception of engaging Speakers. The empty Agenda-Frame will be filled out with themes and responsible persons in the first hour in the morning. This is an action of all participants. After “Session Planning” everybody plans his individual Agenda. While BarCamps mostly 4 – 6 Sessions running parallel and each participant choose the most interestingly theme or persons for himself. The best sessions are discussions with all session members.
After 45 or 60 minutes sessions are over. Participants changing rooms and themes. They change also constantly their role, from instructor to learner to instructor and so on. And this is a very effective way of learning – better than in a passive conference environment.