Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Marketplace where you have some (fake) money to invest?

Booth/Marketplace
One of the formats in the past share fairs we have struggled with is the “Marketplace”. The method is not unique in terms of format as almost all conferences have booths or posters but what is common is the struggle to get people to engage with the booth or poster.

At the UNKFair, the idea of marketplace was taken a step further. Here is how the marketplace worked:
  • Selected projects get a space in the marketplace to put up their booth (1 hour).
  • Each person at the event gets some fake money to invest (we got 300 UN Francs).
  • Project owners get to showcase/sell their project.
  • Visitors to the booth get to listen to projects and invest money.
  • At the end of the marketplace session (1 hour), money collected is counted and top projects are selected for in-depth presentation.

UN money for the UNKair marketplace
Those who have the money got one piece of advice from Steve Glovinsky: invest your money properly. What do you want to learn more about? Invest money where you want to go in-depth and try and replicate in your own organizations/projects.

The presentations were very animated with participants sharing their experiences. Most participants loved the way it was organized but thought more time should have been given to each project presentation. The money idea was great as it encouraged people to visit booths! ;-)

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