As someone involved in the education sector, I’ve seen the proliferation of unconference events such as Teachmeet over the last few years. These events are organised “from below”; the delegates decide on the agenda and do the presenting. Generally speaking they are free and thus not susceptible to the commercial pressures that conventional conferences are subjected to.
I’ve been thinking for a while that there ought to be space for events like this in sport. Normally, of course, you buy training plans, a coach’s time, sign up for a training camp etc. These things cost various amounts from nominal fees to quite a lot of money. The question is, is there a space for a self-organised “unconference style” training camp over a weekend where anybody can come along? “Official” organisation would be limited to setting up a wiki to disseminate information and for folk to register interest. There may be scope to group book accommodation and maybe a Saturday night meal if that’s what people wanted. There will be no formal coaching or organised rides or runs. Everything at the event will be organised by attendees.
The Ironmeet idea is obviously aimed at preparation for Ironman UK and attendees would be able to cycle the published bike course and run on the published run course. However, anybody can attend perhaps as reconnaissance for a future Ironman bid, or just to find out about triathlon. The Ironmeet idea has no assets (beyond a domain registration), or bank account, is not “owned” or formally constituted by anyone and is absolutely not insured. Everyone attending would be expected to take full responsibility for themselves and have their own cycle/medical insurance etc as they deem appropriate.
If you think this idea has mileage, please blog, tweet or talk about it and register interest through a comment on this post. I have registered Ironmeet.net as a domain solely to provide a convenient wikispace to run the event from and it will be up and running in due course. My current thinking is late May early June at a campsite in or around Rivington (last year’s transition) to have ease of access to the run and bike courses, although I’m entirely open to suggestions.
It should be noted that Ironman UK has organised official training camps for the event (although the page on the IMUK website is down at the moment) and this meet is in no way intended to compete with those events.
Image from Richard Seipp at qwertyphoto.com
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