This week on The Lock-In Podcast we’re talking to Eoin Kennedy, founder of Congregation, the annual ideas event which takes place each year in the lovely village of Cong, Co Mayo.
Except, this year, it doesn’t. Congregation 2020 is a virtual event – all online – and the only people in Cong will be the ones who live there.
Click on the player below to play the podcast audio (download: 22:54; 13MB; MP3), or scroll down to watch the video.
It’s Blacknight’s eighth year sponsoring Congregation; the unique event continues to attract talkers and thinkers. Unlike a traditional conference, there are no headline speakers. Instead, a theme is selected and submissions invited – from everyone! In fact, it’s a condition of entry. You can’t buy a ticket for Congregation: the only way in is to write or record your thoughts on the theme, and get ready to discuss them in “huddles” organised throughout the day.
The theme this year is ‘Society 3.0’. Is that a response to the pandemic? It turns out it was chosen after last year’s event.
“The themes for Congregation have been driven by what people want to talk about and every year it’s kind of got broader. Last year it was Community, and that kind of naturally led on to, if we’re talking about community we should really look a little bit broader, a little bit further outside of that, and it’s moved quite a lot from the very granular themes of Social Media and Technology which were there in the earlier years”
Congregation 2020 will take place on Saturday 21 November. Entries are still being accepted, and all the information is at Congregation.ie.
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