I had the privilege of participating in the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s (MassTLC) fifth annual unConference last Friday.

The event attracted approximately 1000 industry folks ranging from budding entrepreneurs and college students to greying high tech executives and venture investors. It was also the latest gathering that has helped to give the local tech community a renewed sense of identity, self-esteem and excitement about the amount of innovation and new business opportunities blossoming in the area.

The resurgence of the local tech scene has been brewing for a while, but it is always nice to see it come together physically at events like last week’s unConference. Much of the credit has to go to the MassTLC which has become a key catalyst for this renewal. But, it also can be attributed to other local groups, universities and publications which are promoting greater collaboration, communication and even competition among local entrepreneurs and companies. This new spirit is refreshing in an area which must overcome its conservative nature to compete head-to-head with the extraordinary energy I find whenever I visit Silicon Valley.

For those who haven’t experienced an ‘unconference’, the idea is to allow the attendees to create the agenda on the day of the event and let them shape the content of each session as it happens. Although it sounds like a formula for mass chaos, the ‘power of the crowd’ actually helps to shape the unconference into a very stimulating and creative exercise.

When I attended the first unconference five years ago, I was very uncomfortable with the lack of structure and predictability as the day began with a long line of people pitching their session ideas to the rest of the group. It felt like an encounter session that would produce dubious results. But, this format quickly becomes a poll about what is most important to the attendees, and it can produce fascinating perspectives and ideas from the participants.

Other commitments over the years have prevented me from participating in the unConference since the inaugural event. And, each year the press accounts of the event were more and more glowing. So, this year I was determined not to miss it and volunteered to serve as a ‘mentor’ providing feedback and ideas to a series of entrepreneurs seeking suggestions about what they should do next with their start-ups. It was not only gratifying to provide my advice but equally interesting to be exposed to some of the new ventures emerging in the area.

It was also fascinating to see the topics discussed in the breakout sessions. Nearly all of them focused on how start-ups can succeed and innovation can prosper in the local tech community. These ‘horizontal’, business development topics far outnumbered sessions discussing the latest in technology trends and market opportunities in areas like ‘Big Data’, Cloud Computing, SaaS, etc. The topics reflected the relatively nascent, local start-up community.

The unConference was also timely in helping me formulate my ideas for the presentation I was scheduled to give to the Trinidad and Tobago Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Innovation Business Symposium about how an underdeveloped country can foster entrepreneurism. I’ll share my thoughts on this topic in my next blogpost.