Un-forum — June 2026
Saturday to Monday, 20th–22nd June 2026
Online and in person in different locations
This edition's themes
These four themes thread through the whole three days — each day explores them from a different angle, culminating in open conversation on Monday.
Day 1 — Seminars & Intros
Saturday 20th June 2026
Local catchups in the morning, then two seminars in the afternoon and evening — a gentle opening day to set context and find your people.
Gather with others in your city. Discuss the themes and plan how you will engage over the weekend.
Social Enterprise & the Open Commons
An introduction to the social enterprise landscape in Australia and its intersection with open technology, community infrastructure, and the solidarity economy. What does it mean to run an enterprise that serves the commons?
Local Economy: Alternatives That Work
An accessible intro to local and alternative economies — from community currencies and timebanking to platform co-ops and buy-local networks. How open tech enables these models to scale without losing their soul.
Day 2 — Workshops
Sunday 21st June 2026
A full day of hands-on learning, running online and in person throughout the day. Each session digs into one of the four themes with practical tools and real use cases.
Privacy Fundamentals for Community Organisers
Threat modelling, secure communications, and self-hosted tools — practical skills for anyone running a community group or social enterprise that handles sensitive information.
Running Local AI on Your Own Hardware
A practical workshop using Ollama and open-weight models — run a capable AI assistant entirely on your machine, with no data leaving your hands. What's possible today, and how to apply it for social enterprise and community work.
Mapping Your Local Economy
A participatory, in-room session to surface and connect the mutual aid networks, solidarity economy actors, local businesses, and community groups already operating near you. Leave with a living map and new contacts.
Open Tools for Social Enterprise
Hands-on with the Electron Network's self-hosted stack — Nextcloud for collaboration, Mautic for community communications, Matomo for privacy-respecting analytics. How to build a tech infrastructure that is owned by your organisation, not a vendor.
Day 3 — Unconference
Monday 22nd June 2026
A fully participant-driven day. Topics emerge from what the weekend has surfaced. Propose a session, lead a conversation, or just follow the threads that pull at you.
Unconference Planning
Pitch your topics, vote with your feet, set the grid for the day. Everyone is a speaker; everyone is an attendee.
Open Sessions
Rotating breakouts across the four themes and their intersections — social enterprise × local economy, privacy × local AI, collective governance, and whatever else the room brings. Lunch woven in.
Closing Circle & Commitments
What did we learn? What will we carry forward? A structured close that turns conversations into next steps — commitments, projects, follow-up sessions.
Social & Celebration
A relaxed close-of-weekend gathering in Melbourne. Location TBC — subscribe for updates.
Session details and RSVP links will be added as the program is confirmed. Subscribe below to stay across it.
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