Before you decide
What riding actually involves
The Road to UNBOUND runs two stops a week between now and Boston, and there is a seat on each one. Here is what the hour tends to cover, what to do if a live call is not for you, and what happens on the day.
What we would actually get into
You do not need to pick one before you arrive — most people find their thing about three minutes in. These are the directions the insider sessions tend to go.
- Your road to UNBOUND
- How you got to this one. First time, or your ninth. What the year has actually been like on the way to Boston — the projects that went well, the ones that did not, and what you are hoping is different by September.
- What UNBOUND means to you
- Not the keynote definition — yours. For some people it is connection, for some it is a week off the treadmill, for some it is the one room a year where nobody needs the job explained. All of those are the right answer.
- What you are blocking, and why
- The sessions you have already circled, the ones you are torn between, and the one you would tell a stranger not to miss. What you want to come home able to do that you cannot do now.
- The social part nobody admits to
- Four days of being on is a lot, especially if you work remotely and are no longer certain whether you are an introvert. Talking about that openly tends to be the most useful thing in the hour, and it is the reason these sessions exist at all — a warm-up for the real thing.
- The rule you are glad to be breaking
- The limit, the process, or the old way of working you are finally done with this year — and what made it finally give.
- How far you are coming
- Where you are travelling from, what the journey looks like, and what would make it worth the trip.
If you would rather send a recording
Joining a recording is the main way in, but a call is not for everyone and calendars do not always cooperate. Film it on your phone in one take and it goes in as you said it. Two shapes work, and it helps to know which you are making before you start.
About 30 seconds — one question, one answer
What UNBOUND means to you. The session you are telling everyone to block. The thing you hope is different this year. These get cut together with other insiders' answers, so yours lands inside a piece made of many voices rather than standing on its own — say the question back in your answer so the clip makes sense without it attached.
One to two minutes — one thought with room to breathe
The sessions you are blocking and why. What you want to come home with. The part of the platform you would change. That is the length most clips on this show already run, so it goes out as its own cut with your name on it. Longer than two minutes and it usually wants editing, which means it stops sounding like you.
Either orientation works — landscape sits more naturally inside an episode, upright travels further on its own. Somewhere reasonably quiet, decent light, and no need to rehearse: a couple of takes and the best one is fine.
Send it to casey.hawkins@valuefirstteam.com. If the file is too big for email, say hello at that address first and we will sort out somewhere to put it.
On the day
Recording is on Riverside, in the browser — nothing to install. The green room opens a few minutes before so you are not walking in cold, and one of the hosts will be in there. No prep deck, no slides, no questions sent in advance. It runs about an hour and ends when it ends, usually because somebody has a hard stop.
You do not have to stay for all of it. Come for the part you want, say your piece and get back to your day — people roll in and out and nobody minds. There will usually be other insiders on the call, so it is rarely just you and the hosts.