I’m super excited about the upcoming CITCON Europe! As an organizer I’m thrilled with the strong response to the event. It is scheduled in Helsinki for September 11th and 12th and we already have 40 people registered, more than 25% of capacity in just a couple of weeks since we opened registration.
But as an attendee what I’m really excited about right now is who is registered.  When I look at that list of names I picture a lot of familiar faces, and I start to imagine a lot of conversations I’m looking forward to.
Ten years ago PJ sold me on the idea of holding an open space event by comparing it to standard conferences: “You know how the best conversations are the ones that happen in the hallways between sessions? With open space all the sessions are like hallway conversations.” Sounded good to me! And it has been in good in practice now for 25 separate events, on four separate continents. I think we have a case that there’s more than luck involved…
I think an important part of our success has been the selection bias. CITCON is held on a Friday night and Saturday. This makes a big difference in who turns up. This is an event populated by people who have given up personal time to be there. They must have enough interest, enough passion, to make the trek and to put in the time. Details in background — developers, testers, sysadmins, managers, coaches, consultants — matter less than being the kind of person who will make that personal commitment to improvement. And if you’re a person like that, being in room full of others who feel the same way is hugely energizing. I think that’s why these interesting, accomplished people come back again and again, to be part of those conversations.
Now maybe you don’t recognize those names, but you want to be part of that kind of community, what to do then? Easy, join us in Helsinki!
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