Coderetreat on 2016-06-18

[dertseha]

@codecop mentioned the idea to have a code retreat on the 18th of June 2016. There are meant to be some international guests in Vienna as well who could (would?) join.

I've checked back with FRQ and it's open to host the retreat. Budget for catering hasn't been fixed as of yet; It might be less than normally known at FRQ.

So, we've got the idea and the location. Two more important factors:

• Who's going to facilitate? Tagging @codecop , @masterhilli , @ernst-fastl , @mlem for volunteers/ideas :)
• Will there be enough to participate? @codecop , how many internationals do you expect?

[mlem]

While I appreciate the idea, I thought june would be my turn with coding dojo. But I'm ok with facilitating a coderetreat too. I just have to make sure to have enough time to prepare/on that day.

[codecop]

@dertseha thanks for bringing this up. Thanks for offering FRQ as host. @mlem I would see the CR extra to the regular dojo. We could also take turns in facilitation, or everybody brings a session.

If we want to do this then we would also need to do some advertising for it. Maybe one or two internationals would come - including some of us we might be max 10, which is not enough for a full CR I guess.

[masterhilli]

@dertseha I have to decline any engagement in June (--> on vacation ... ) so the Retreat must be without me!

[ernst-fastl]

I am happy to join, as facilitator or participant.

[dertseha]

Ok, so @ernst-fastl and @mlem as main facilitators (having a team is recommendable) -- possibly @codecop and I could guest-facilitate a session each as well. I assume we stick to the standard topic of game-of-life? As for time of preparation: Martin and I spent about two hours (1 offline, 1 in a VoIP call) discussing session ideas for last year's code retreat.

Regarding registration, I could run an Eventbrite event again and request 15 EUR reservation fee (which is to be refunded at participation). Unless someone has another idea of registration?

I would like to have a definitive "Go / No-Go" from you people until this Friday (20th of May); If it's a uniform "Go", I'll verify back at FRQ (to ensure official support & reserve room) and then proceed setting up Eventbrite - When this has been set up, we can spam our ad channels.

[codecop]

Thank you @dertseha for the initiative and volunteering for the organisation work. I guess a CR is worth at least 4 dojos, so you are up with us again ;-) I am amazed how easy we are able to pull this off. This orga group is great.

Regarding my time, I can definitely guarantee time for a facilitator sync call the week before and running a session myself - if the main facilitators agree. So GO from me.

Regarding topic, we could do a) a regular one b) using a different exercise, e.g. TicTacToe or HexLife c) define a focus of the constraints up front, e.g. only TDD or OO or FP or Clean Code or ... d) have an "awesome CR" only with ppl who were at least at one CR before, so no explainations e) have a Legacy CR, which is also interesting but imho harder to facilitate. A CR is also a practice place for us facilitators, so we can come up with weird things as well and try modes of retro, sessions, slides ...

[dertseha]

@ernst-fastl & @mlem I should have noted that I'm defaulting to "no-go", to give you a chance to overthink your participation. :) But since the business day is over and we're entering weekend, I can't check back at the company anyway. Until Monday then, when I'll talk with my superiors.

[mlem]

Count me in, if there's still time. Otherwise I will just do a coding dojo

[ernst-fastl]

You can count me in, and please give me a heads up what needs to be done for preparation.

[dertseha]

Alright. I finally got the official OK from the company and I just set up the event page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/coderetreat-in-june-2016-vienna-austria-tickets-25764113156#tickets

(We haven't received confirmation that the room is actually available. The chance is slim that it isn't - in this rare occasion we'll simply have to cancel.)

Spam your companies and ad channels :) Please add links to this thread here for common platforms, such as Xing, so we avoid double posts. Please also point out that the reservation deposit will be refunded - a price tag caused some initial reservation last year, so I've heard. Though I prefer that over 50% no-show and unused food.

I also set forth a minimum count of participants: 12 - If that number isn't reached within 14 days, we'll cancel it, because it's then too much of overhead and we could just meet somewhere else.

The following days I'll write up the small list of to-do's. I'll also add an entry on softwerkskammer.org soon.

[dertseha]

Softwerkskammer: https://www.softwerkskammer.org/activities/CodingDojoVieCoderetreat201606 coderetreat.org: http://coderetreat.org/events/coderetreat-in-june-2016-vienna-austria

[codecop]

Link geshared in G+ https://plus.google.com/+PeterKofler/posts/5M7e1XjvdRK Twitter https://twitter.com/dertseha/status/737005204462243840 LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/hp/update/6142952132589940736 Xing (no URL available) ViennaPHP and Clojure Vienna groups announced the CR in a mail to members. ScalaVienna created a Meetup event: http://www.meetup.com/scala-vienna/events/231573091/

[mlem]

Thank you for the organisation. I would suggest to have a hangouts meeting this week with you and Ernst. One more note: Today I've got the information, that I will need to leave earlier on that day, about 2 p.m. I hope it's ok for you.

[ernst-fastl]

@dertseha der softwareskammer link zeigt aufs Februar Dojo @codecop hast Du auf Xing gepostet? Macht es Sinn dort extra noch mal in der Scrum User Group Austria zu posten?

[dertseha]

Heh, falschen tab kopiert, Link ist nun richtiggestellt, danke!

[codecop]

@ernst-fastl hab auf Xing den Eventbrite Link gepostet, aber hat keinen external Link den ich hier sharen kann. Macht sicher Sinn in Gruppen zu sharen/resharen wenn Du drinnen bist.

[ernst-fastl]

@codecop habs jetzt in der Scrum User Group Austria und Lean & Agile Austria gepostet

[dertseha]

If we are sticking to game of life, I can provide 3 large posters about the basic rules.

We try to start at 9am as close as possible - or at least, when critical mass of attendance has been reached and most are settled down. Please be there a little earlier to get accustomed to the location/beamer/... (you know the presenter-drills). As for the sessions, while the goal is to have each 50 minutes, stick rather to the wall-clock time. Meaning: Should a session start late, make it shorter and have it end when it normally would have. Never tell participants how much longer the session will go, there is "always plenty of time".

We will have lunch and most likely a breakfast again. I forgot whether we'd have some snacks in the afternoon as well - I'll come back on that. The snack/lunch-breaks need to be defined so catering can prepare for them. At last year's GDCR, we had the morning snack after the first session, because any time later would be too close to lunch itself.

The last session is typically a fun one, so pick a constraint that is weird :)

I will also bring the nametag stickers again, on which people write theirs, together with language preferences. So, in the morning it's all about: get money back, get nametags, have a seat and settle down.

[ernst-fastl]

Hi i just updated the material from the last Dojo, and a initial version of the documents for the retreat based on GDCR15

[codecop]

regarding sessions: I volunteer to run an advanced session of No If or Brutal Constraints - which is much fun, so maybe the last session

[mlem]

Regarding hangouts. Please fill in when you have time this week: http://doodle.com/poll/bwqevkdmiu3ifh25 I would like to talk directly to you for about half hour to 1 hour. Even longer if there is enough to talk.

[codecop]

@ernst-fastl the material you put in looks good. The time table is similar to mine, so we can keep that. Only the final retro must be limited to 30' because we have to stop at 1700 due announced schedule. Also I recommend removing the specific sessions from the slides, because they might change, BUT it is a good idea to have a default session in mind in case nothing else comes up. Also we could allow participants to run a session if they like.

[ernst-fastl]

@mlem and me agreed on a timeline. It ist sligtly more relexed than the one in Nov and therefore only has 5 sessions insteadof 6. @mlem will create a pull request with the updated document. Once that happend I will update the reval presentation.

@codecop if you are still up for it you can facilitate session 5 (the last session) with some fun constraint

@dertseha we agreed on time for morning snacks and lunch (see document). We want to stick with game of life, can you bring your posters? Will we need to bring any material aside from our laptops, or do you have post-its, name tags and such available @ FRQ?

The gdcr had some links to coderetreat.org and some documents. Do we need anyting other than the presentation for the retreat.

[ernst-fastl]

Presentation is updated with the constraints we want to use. The old schedule is removed from the doc.

@dertseha We planned morning snack 10:30 and lunch 13:00

[dertseha]

Basically you don't need any special preparation. The posters I mentioned are already some extra goodies :) The beamer has VGA and HDMI connectors.

I will bring stickers for nametags and there'll also be flipcharts & pinwalls, should you need any.

[dertseha]

I just merged the latest pull request (#13) . I'll have a look at the whole thing later this evening. One thing for now: Beware of introduction rounds. At the moment we have about 25 participants, this round alone is nearly 15 minutes if you give every person 30 seconds. The name tags people have to fill out can also show the programming languages they are interested in.

[codecop]

Yes that is too long. We can have 5 minutes time box where participants introduce themselves to each other but obviously not complete to everybody, that is easier to track. Also ignoring this and just asking them to write tags for themselves is good and done at other CRs.

[ernst-fastl]

Ok. Thanks for the advice. I'll factor that into the presentation tomorrow.

[mlem]

Thank you ernst for organising the timetable and slides. In the recent weeks I had very limited time. I'll tell you tomorrow more.

[codecop]

Thank you all for the organisation and running of the event. It was a full success.