Since 2009 I’ve maintained an informal calendar of peer conferences (aka unconferences) on this site. It’s informal because I only list events I hear about, a minuscule fraction of the unconferences people hold every day. Even so, the calendar lists hundreds of events.

Currently, I add a few peer conferences a month. For example, as I write this the May 2024 listing includes events in Vienna, Austria; Raleigh, North Carolina; and two in Nepal.

For fun, I extracted a sampling of geographic locations from the calendar and plotted them on a Google map. Click the image below to view the detailed map.

As you can see, peer conferences take place all over the world!

Who holds peer conferences?

Look at the calendar to see the fascinating variety of communities that hold peer conferences. Some groups, like software developers and testers, are big fans and it’s interesting to see how often finance, healthcare, and food industry professionals, as well as religious groups, universities, and small businesses hold unconferences.

It’s also amusing to see groups you might not even know about who hold peer conferences. Associations for casino security, veterinarians, voiceover coaches, independent gardening stores, makers, builders, attorneys, teachers and education, sports commissions, product managers, cybersecurity, transportation, and many other communities of interest are listed. And then there are plenty of unconferences focussed on social and cultural issues, like leadership, DEI, the environment, peace work, political movements, good government, animal welfare, veterans rights—the list goes on!

Why I do this work

The incredible diversity of communities, organizations, and businesses that use participant-driven and participation-rich event formats is astounding. This calendar provides strong evidence that any group with something in common who wants to connect and learn can benefit from peer conference designs. As a perpetually curious person, I love the hundreds of opportunities I’ve had over the last few decades to learn about many kinds of communities, topics, and issues and the people who grapple with them.

Seeing how peer conference designs benefit these folks when they come together warms my heart.

That’s why I keep doing this work.

P.S. Do you want to let me know about an upcoming peer conference? You can submit information about it here. [Please note: This is not a calendar for conventional meetings or events that are marketed as an “unconference” but consist of prescheduled sessions. Don’t waste your time, or mine, submitting such meetings; they will not be listed!]