The Swiss IT Lawyers’ Day is not a conference? No. It is not. The Swiss IT Lawyers’ Day is deliberately designed as a BarCamp.
- What is a “BarCamp” anyway?
- Why a BarCamp?
- What is offered in terms of content?
- How is the quality of the presentations ensured?
All these questions might come to your mind and we will be happy to answer them one by one.
What is a BarCamp??
A BarCamp is a non-conference. This means that there is definitely a schedule, but no conference plan. In fact, the content of the conference (i.e., the BarCamp) is not created by anyone other than you. This works as follows:
After the first welcome coffee, all participants meet to plan the presentations or rather the “sessions” (session). Each participant has the opportunity to offer a session and to pitch it to the audience within 30 seconds.
All session proposals are collected. Afterwards, the participants vote on which sessions they are interested in, and the organizers create the so-called session plan. Now it is up to each participant to pick out the supposedly “best” sessions from the 2 to 4 sessions taking place at the same time and to participate in them throughout the day.
This means that you will not only be able to put together your own conference program for the day through the different sessions running at the same time. Rather, you can directly influence the topics available for selection by exercising your voice in session planning as well as your own session offerings. And on top of that, you can also help shape the progress of each session through your participation.
Participation? Yes, exactly. After all, it’s called a session and not a lecture, since the point of a BarCamp is to actively help shape a topic and to be able to contribute. This can and should go beyond the actual session (45 minutes). As a result, there will be enough time during the day and in the evening to talk further over a coffee or later a glass of wine.
Why the Barcamp format?
And that brings us to the question of why we chose the BarCamp format.
You are certainly familiar with the following scenario: A conference. A lecture. You would like to make a comment on the content, participate in the discussion. But this is not really planned. At the end of the lecture, it’s just “Does anyone else have a question?” and at that moment, the colleague starts a co-lecture, which can only be caught with difficulty by the moderator after 15 minutes…
Does this sound familiar? It does to us. And that’s why we want to do things differently with the Swiss IT Lawyers’ Day. The participants should get more space. It should be more interactive and dynamic. And that’s why it made sense to design the IT Lawyers’ Day in a completely different way than the usual conferences and panels, namely as a BarCamp!
What is offered in terms of content?
As just explained, the participants determine the content. Consequently, we can only answer this question in detail once the session plan has been finalized. But basically you already know what we will offer you in terms of content. After all, the thematic framework has been set.
With the BarCamp on “Digitization & Law”, we are addressing IT lawyers, data protection officers and IT security officers with a legal focus. The concrete topics will result from this spectrum and your ideas and approaches. We offer you the space for this.
However, this may sound a little too unusual, too abstract, for the IT lawyer who has so far only attended classic conferences. That’s why we asked participants in advance who would like to participate as session providers and asked them to briefly present their planned sessions. You can find these session ideas here. (We would be happy to add your suggestions to the session ideas,
Please note: No, of course you do not have to contribute or even be interested in the topic of legal tech or IT security from the perspective of a data protection officer. Perhaps you would prefer to talk about your experiences of implementing the GDPR in an SME or about the implementation of new software measures in different countries. Or maybe you don’t want to discuss legal issues at all, but would much rather talk about how to make women more visible in the IT industry? No problem. It’s up to you!
How is the quality of the sessions ensured?
You ensure the quality of the sessions!
You are not interested in a dryly rattled off lecture on the question of how modern online marketing is compatible with the DSG and the DSGVO? Very well! Then offer an equally exciting and easy-to-understand impulse in a session and discuss the issues with the other participants.
You are sitting in the deadly boring lecture of a data protection officer who obviously only wants to promote her service? (This is expressly not desired!) Vote with your feet. Leave the session. Go somewhere else or have coffee with a colleague and exchange ideas.