Innovation games at XP Days Benelux 2012
A few days ago I had the great opportunity to facilitate a product box innovation game session with Yves Hanoulle at XP Days Benelux 2012.
The conference itself is a perfect place to meet and be inspired by experienced, enthusiastic and energetic people. After all, what else would draw ten people into a session which:
- was the last session of a very long day
- started after 20.30 and kept everyone till 22.00
- required creativity, active participation and artistic expression
- was an alternative to an agile quiz or hanging out at the bar
- required putting up with two man with a dodgy moustache
Girls and boys, thank you so much for coming!
We have decided to run the session together as earlier this year Yves and I have had a chance to participate together in Luke Hohmann’s innovations game training in London. We have also both used different Innovation Games ® in our work and found them a very useful tool.
Since it was the 10-years anniversary of the conference we have picked the product box activity and decided to focus it on the next 10 years. The task our participants faced was to build a box for an event they would pick out of the many other conferences on a shelf.
Lost of interesting, clever and unexpected ideas were put forward, some highlighted what’s already good about XP Days and some suggested changes going forward. Here is a rough cut of some of the things the product boxes for 2022 highlighted:
- hands-on sessions
- games (application, ideas, practice)
- learning
- networking
- beer
- code and more code (some suggested it will be viewed as a fun archaic artefact in 10 years)
- software that makes the world a better place
- software that help our planet stay green
- included in the conference a day of free on-site coaching
- held in space
- in 2022 XP Days will be called “ex-XP days”
- open to wider community (no longer mainly developers and coaches, for nerds and normal people)
- more diversity among the participants
- will leave the methodologies of today (eg. XP, Scrum, Kanban) behind
- still good value for money
- changing the world of work together
- feed you brain
One of my favourite quotes was:
The XP Days conference is no longer a big-bang release once a year, it is now available on demand, every day, whenever you need it
I’m already looking forward to what will happen next.