Xpdays benelux 2018, a experience report

So, the 2018 edition of XPDays Benelux has come to an end. For me it was an edition of firsts: first time presenter, first time co-organizer but also an edition of getting to know new people and greeting a lot of people I already knew. Below is my (little) experience report of this edition. Enjoy!

Wednesday

After the last workday of the week, I started my voyage to Kapellerput in Heeze, Netherlands. It took a little while longer because I could enjoy a good old traffic jam on the Ring of Antwerp. After arriving and checking in it was time to lay the final preparations for this edition. Almost everything was already set up by my wonderfull co-organizers (Thank you Peter, Frederik, Astrid and Robert!). I had the last few artifacts with me so we quickly finished this. A few organisational chores (who does what, who sits where, you know the drill) and the others could attend their pre conference dinner.

After the dinner there was still some drawing to do for the XPdays Benelux Facebook wall and the big feedback wall. Thanks Bart for helping me out! And now, quick to the bar for some refreshing beverages!

Thursday

Breakfast at 7:00 AM, after a good nights rest. So here it begins, a whole day of interesting talks, interesting persons and just having fun. But first a good breakfast. At 07:30 we were all present for the final touches and organizing everything to receive 188 participants and speakers. A few of the participants are already there (they just couldn’t wait to be there!) and soon a lot of people started to pour in. At 9:00 it started for all of us. Everybody was already energized but we also wanted them to know eachother. So 5 rounds of the Mad Tea liberating structure was a great start for that purpose. After the 30second session pitches everybody was off to the session they wanted to follow.

For me it was the last hour to rehearse my session (Gamestorm your meeting). Nerves and stress began to pop up. It wasn’t the first time I presented it, but presenting on a meetup is a different thing than presenting on a full blown conference (to me it was!) I ran through the session materials with Bart Coelus and at that moment it became time to set up the room. We expected around 30 people to come but it became clear after a moment that a lot more people were interested in this subject. I didn’t count, but there were a lot of people in the room. It was a good first session for me and I really enjoyed it. With games as the Fishbowl, 100€ Test and Squiggle birds we used to show the powers of the games. We got a lot of good feedback for this session, thanks for all of you who attended this!

After cleaning op the room (and getting rid of the nerves) it was time for the lunch, which was very decent. In the afternoon I really could enjoy the sessions I planned to follow myself. I like the bikablo style and drew a lot of the materials for the conference, so I really wanted to follow the introduction on Thought sketching by Koen De Keersmaecker en Desirée van Dijck. They introduced the basics (boxes, people, signs) with a neuroscientist explanation to it. Most notably was the calmness he used to draw. Thanks Koen and Desirée for showing us these skills!

I finished the sessions of the day with the excellent talk on structural thinking by Johan Decoster. This generated a lot of insights for me. Not only the way Johan can talk and entertain an audience but also the manner of thinking: Not solve the immediate problem but generate a vision to where you want to go and see how to create the tension to get the company moving towards that goal. It was truly a great end to end the sessions on Thursday.

Now it’s off to the bar and dinner, talking a lot with people I haven’t seen in a long time and having a good beer in between. Not only talking about the way of working or other XP practices, but also just having a good time and talk about a lot of other topics on regular life.

In real open space spirit there was an evening programme assembled by the attendees, Some yoga, explanations on Scrum.org certification paths, board games or a game of pool. I myself attended the game “The micromanagers of waterfall city” (inspired on the game the werewolves of Millers Hollow). It didn’t had any hidden message or lesson, just plain fun during the evening that had an agile inspired theme. Everybody was really amusing themselves and there was a lot of laughter. PS this game will probably come online on xpdaysbenelux thanks to Inge Gorgon.

After this it was time to head up to the room, to get a good nights rest for the next day!

Friday

For Friday morning we had a special guest. A small Tuktuk with some really good coffee and tea aboard. So we were covered for that part!

During the morning there were a lot of experience reports, people who were explaning how they succeeded, failed (or learned) in bringing the agile mindset to their companies. As I had the privilege to go to a lot of sessions yesterday I skipped these and did my duty at the registration desk. For the last session of the Friday morning there was 20 energizers, icebreakers and recaps in 75 minutes. I didn’t think up front this would have been possible but credits to Per Beining, it was truly amazing. It wasn’t for long before the whole room was ensued in laughter and fun and it didn’t stop before the session ended. Appereantly it was heard far outside the room! While I don’t think I can use them all in a company setting (the ones that invade personal space are a bit tough to bring in a company) I definitely got some extra ammunition for energizing the people in the future!

After the lunch it was time again to man the registration desk. This also isn’t a burden because you get to meet so much interesting people. Also with some of the organizers we started with reflecting on the next editions.

At this moment it really went fast and it started to come to an end, after a cleanup and closing the conference it was really over. Some last drinks and then off to the wife and kid.

I spoke to too many people to mention here, but special thanks to all you who attended this magnificent edition. Also a very special thanks to Peter Latten, Frederik vannieuwenhuyse, Bart Coelus, Astrid Claessen and Robert Van Lieshout for co-organizing this event. And last but not least a special thanks to Astrid and Joost for the filming of the sessions and I’m sure it will be a great aftermovie!

Last but not least, if you want to give additional feedback, just let us know!