Very cool. Makes me think of old type Bejing Opera places, where the play would be on, but everyone has already seen it a hundred times, so people are there mostly to shoot the shit, maybe occasionally glance at how the stage is doing.

Not optimal for actually delivering insights from the stage, but perhaps that isn't actually what we should be doing. Is it really appropriate to have one person or presentation receive the full attention of everyone while everyone else is mostly listening?

It would be interesting to be part of a chaotic bazaar-type unconference. Not to mention doing it on a regular basis.

I have the impression that in the US many comedy clubs are like this, and in Sweden there's the "inn shows" which are somewhere at the middle between complete attention and total irreverence, mostly because people are often rather drunk. But I've never been to either. Nor to old Beijing Opera, I've only been to surtitled, pre-packaged, touristy (abridged! horrors.) Beijing Opera.