Back to Playing - Play4Agile Summer 2022

The pandemic has hit the Agile Community particularly hard. Coaches and trainers love to gather, discuss, co-create, play, or just have a good time together. While the community tried to compensate the necessary social distancing with remote events, they were just not the same. Even worse, most remote events felt pretty much undistinguishable from each other. So Malte and I were really glad that one of our favourite un-conferences – the Play4Agile – was actually happening. The Play4Agile is a serious gathering about using games, simulations, gamification props and other facilitation tools to coach, teach, mentor, facilitate collaborative work.

So we joined the crowd and dug into a long weekend of daring, sharing, and caring. Coming back to Rückersbach felt like coming home after a long absence. The great location, the nice staff, the outstanding kitchen all contributed to the overall experience. It was almost like it used to be, with some small but significant differences from past Play4Agile events. The overall energy level appeared to be a little lower. It is surely exhausting to get back into such a large group again. People took more care for themselves and did not try to attend all possible session slots. Maybe the great weather and beautiful surroundings invited more participants to take a walk, just sit outside or just stroll around the areal, eventually meeting others.

My personal intention for this year's Play4Agile was to try some different things. Less party, more participation was the motto. So I took it easy on the drinks, had no drinks at all at the first night and woke up refreshed to facilitate the Open Space with Malte. We decided to use the original Open Space approach without fancy additions.

We had some very nice variations on the second day, when the Open Space was facilitated by Jordan and Olaf. They spiced up the facilitation with a "Back to the Future" theme.

I joined a couple of sessions but spent most of the time as a butterfly chatting with whoever came along. Malte and I had a very enjoyable weekend, and we are both looking forward to the next Play4Agile Summer edition.