Presented By: Stefanie Attardi, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Co-Authors: Danielle Bentley, University of Toronto
Kristina Lisk, University of Toronto
George Nader, University of Toronto
Victoria Roach, University of Washington

Purpose 
Academic conferences employ curated symposia and poster sessions which serve as a dais to convey polished work, offering limited opportunity for suggestions or insights from the scientific community throughout the research process. These events typically require significant fiscal and temporal resources to organize, execute, and attend. This presentation describes the implementation of an unconference structure in the context of anatomy education research. 

Methods 
The Unconference was an informal, participant-driven, one-day meeting that began with a democratic election of discussionary topics to fill a skeleton agenda and populate discussion topics for breakout sessions. Content discussed in the break-outs was supported by the sum of experiences of the attendees; thus representing cooperative knowledge rather than those of one "sage on a stage". The event culminated in Harvard-Macy Step-back consultations where attendees each proposed projects, and received project feedback and advice; encouraging peer-to-peer discourse, and contributing to an ad hoc community of practice. 

Results 
Attendees were thirty-three scholars (7 students, 10 junior-level, 12 senior-level) from 16 North American institutions, with research experience averaging 7.2yrs (range:0-44yrs).  Attendee-chosen discussionary topics included study designs and research methods, psychometrics, and research dissemination. This format removed the social hierarchy often associated with academic expertise while encouraging networking, collaboration, and embracing diverse perspectives and approaches to problem-solving. Attendees remarked that they felt empowered to initiate collaboration with scholars they would have otherwise been reluctant to approach at a traditional conference. 

Conclusion 
By fostering an iterative and collaborative design process, it is hypothesized that participants' research will be enhanced, and ultimately yield higher impact results; thus advancing each participant's contribution to their respective fields of inquiry. While this Unconference was situated within the context of anatomical education research, it is expected that similar Unconferences could be launched in other educational research disciplines and yield similar results.