#ACCDK23, an experience report!

Agile coach camp Denmark 2023

The last few days have been a blast.

Last year at #xpdaysBenelux we were invited by Per Beining Team Developer and Agile Coach and Rikke Thomsen Kornby to attend the agile coach camp 2023 #Accdk2023. We gladly took the up on the offer and off we went.

For me it was already a fun taking off. First of all, my driver ( Dana Garcia ) managed to toss her parking ticket in the waste bin, and I managed to forget my passport at the luggage drop off (Btw, kudos for Brussels Airlines to neatly drop my passport off at my gate, since there was where I realized I lost it. That was really user friendly).

On Thursday morning, we were invite by Per to have a guided tour in Copenhagen by him. It turned out it was a really entertaining tour with even special knowledge about the queen's guard, so for any future attendees, do take him up on his offer!

After a stop for (probably) the most famous burger in the whole world ( Gasoline Grill , yes that's you) we headed back to Dragor.

Back in time to start the conference at Thursday afternoon. It’s an unconference based on the #openspace rules. That was a first for me. After a short explanation (the law of two feet, whoever is there is the right people, it starts when it starts,…) we started creating the program ourselves.

As it is an unconference, we are not only allowed, but also supposed to create the program ourselves, so Dana and me proposed a session about “the ideal product owner, a fact finding mission” and with Re- Evented we proposed our idea that we wanted to pitch: an XPDays in Copenhagen!.

For the Thursday, we were taken up on the offer about the ideal product owner and so we created a checklist for ourselves (note, this is still very early access, so don’t take it for the sole truth) and together with a lot of people we discussed and debated what it was, an ideal product owner. Given the law of Two Feet, people came and went and that was fine, as the new input is always welcomed!

Special thanks to Anne Prytz Henriksen , Lone M?ller Klitgaard and the others that were there and helped us find our ways.

I also attended other sessions: Under the guidance of Alex we explored the TLT (Tight loose tight). It put a seed in my head that I need to explore further! Thanks for that Alexander Krause !

With my own two feet I also applied the law and went on to another session, it was the quest of Dmytro Yarmak ???? on how to approach a business and see the difference between it in Ukraine and here. Very insightful (I hope for him, but also very much for me!) as I got a lot of insights how different (and at the same time, equal) it was in Ukraine and Europe.

In the evening and at lunch, we met a lot of very nice people, who never made me feel unwelcome, even If they had to talk English to me (Danish is not my forte :) ). Thanks for the patience Kim ?rsted

On Friday we had a lot of fun.

First we explored the idea of an XPDays Benelux but then outside of the Benelux. We know there are other conferences out there and we wanted to see if there is?an audience for the concept of XP Days as it is a conference with a unique community vibe. Much like the vibe at the agile coaching camp.

We are so positively and humbled surprised with the reaction: we not only got some very enthusiastic people, we also already got some leads on venues and perhaps some sponsors. So in that regard our trip was already a success!

What we also followed was the keynote of FaST (the A is silent) by Quinton Quartel (or is it Quinton?) that also makes me curious and I want to experiment with it, how? I don’t know yet, but I sure will do something!

Fun fact about the keynote. Ron was prepared as everybody, shiny PowerPoint to impress us all. After the first morning, he realized that would have been a bust, so he started to recreate his PowerPoint on flip charts, and used the wall instead as an old-school PowerPoint. Much more powerful since at the end of the session, he didn't have to backtrack to a previous slide, he just had to point to the correct space on the wall!

On Saturday we closed with a last half day. On all of the topics, it was a Q/A with Per on FAST and after that, probably my most fun session I had: Share your quotes! where we shared our quotes that we used a lot. A few gems were created on that very spot:

“If all you have is silver bullets, everything looks like a werewolf”

“Fast is not the new silver bullet, it perhaps contains a bit more silver in it than the previous one”

but also oldies came along:

“If you don’t do anything, you can't do anything wrong”

All in all it was a very insightful few days.

Oh, and that was only the talks I attended. I had many more (very) pleasant conversations with old and new friends. I’m sure we’ll see each other again in the future:

Thanks Anna, Lone M?ller Klitgaard , Kim ?rsted , per, Luxshan Ratnaravi , Dana Garcia , Peter Latten , Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse , and many others for all the fun, the conversations, everything!

Special thanks to Dana Garcia for proofreading and correcting all my mistakes!