This past 17th of November, we celebrated at
Nextail's offices in Madrid, the second TejonesConf. This "unconference" that started as an inside joke (See
TejonesConf 2018) has become a great event to share, to learn, and to enjoy with friends. The "unofficial" motto for this edition was "agility and product development, from experience and without smoke or shit." :)
In this case, I was very involved in the organization, so in addition to trying to share in the sessions, I also tried to be aware that everything worked well.
Logistic
As the nextail office is a multi-floor villa, we were able to organize the
openspace using different spaces. For the sessions, we used three rooms with capacity for 10-15 people, which also had whiteboards and monitors. We also had a garden for the barbecue and a complete floor for lunch.
Due to the weather, we were not able to do sessions in the garden, but at least we were able to prepare some barbecue for lunch.
Open space sessions
This is the list of sessions that were proposed:
Additionally, we had a session to think about the next steps for Honey Badgers and see what to do in the future editions.
Attendees
The level of the attendees was incredible... near 40 friends... all of them, great developers, tech managers, product managers, etc.
In addition to the
honey badger group itself, we had friends from a lot of reference companies (Nextail, Mimecast, Toughtworks, TrustYou, Eventbrite, Amadeus, BotXo, Zooplus, Clarity, Codesai, Alea Soluciones, Jobandtalent, Cabify, Expedia, Minsait, Sysdig, etc.)...
As it was a small openspace, we decided that each one of the
honey badgers could invite a few trusted people... I have to admit, I got a little bit crazy and invited a lot :) (but there are so many exciting people).
To improve for the next edition
- We didn't encourage diversity from the beginning, so it wasn't a diverse group at all. Also, when we wanted to react, we realized that it was the same weekend as the Women Tech Makers in Zaragoza. As an idea, next year, we will consider the diversity to make the invitations.
- Making it an open space day has been great, but it has not allowed us to devote enough time to the badger group itself, so next year we are thinking of making two days. One Friday afternoon/evening for badgers, and Saturday for open space.
- We forgot to mention that for each session, the participants made a summary to be able to share later with the rest.
- There's some food leftover, and we weren't sure what to do with it.
- We need to study how to integrate better people who communicate better in English than in Spanish.
Conclusions and things that worked well
- The size (near 40) is perfect for Nextail offices and for the type of familiar openspace we are looking for.
- The Nextail office is great for an openspace with between two and four tracks.
- With good weather, the garden can be a fantastic place to run an additional track.
- People attending for the first time felt comfortable because at least they were connected to the person who invited them.
- We were able to attract people from outside of Madrid. People came from Segovia, Vizcaya, Guadalajara, Valladolid, and even from London.
- At the last moment and in an almost improvised way, some children came and had a great time playing around the office.
I'm still surprised at how far this tribe has come. I am very proud of both the conference and what we have achieved as a group... It is incredible how easy is to share knowledge and learn when you're surrounded by people passionate about our profession and eager to share. It was a great openspace, and I can't wait to organize next year's...
Thanks
A lot of thanks to our unique sponsor, Nextail, that provides us an incredible venue and pay part of the food and drinks.
References
