Code Retreat

...programmers honing their craft together.

Code Retreat is a day of pair programming, working together in geek joy building beautiful code.

The focus is on the process of creation. For today, it's not about business value, not about hitting a deadline, not about shipping. It's about squeezing all the juice we can out of collaboration, and creating the best code we can in the process.

Registration

Code Retreats are always free, but we need you to register. We only have room for 26, so please sign up! We'll put up a waiting list if there are folks who don't get it, so please also let us know if you're not going to be able to make it.

What Will Happen

Our facilitators for the day will be Michael (Doc) Norton (@docondev) and Zach Spencer (@zspencer). They'll keep us focused, and help us find ways to create code we love.

For a whole day, we'll work in pairs (or triples) on a simple problem, and after 45 minutes, we'll throw the code away and start again, with a new pair. Yep, to help us remember that our objective isn't to finish, we'll throw our code away four or five times during the day. But each time, we'll learn something new.

Language & Tech

This Code Retreat is language agnostic. Generally, it's recommended that folks work in a language they're used to, because it's about building skill, not getting an introduction. However, folks have enjoyed poking into something interesting, too. I've been to a few recently, and there was a lot of Ruby, some Java, and a sprinkling of other things like Scala and J.

Bring a laptop set up for the language you're most comfortable in, and any pairing tools (extra keyboards, mice) you have available. (No one codes alone, so if can't bring a laptop, don't worry. There will be plenty.)

Food

Geeks gotta eat, so good food is included. A light breakfast (paleo-friendly) will be provided between 8:30 and 9. We'll code a while, and then break for a long, yummy lunch, too.

We'll be done before dinner, but sometimes folks will get together after we're done for food and/or beer at a local gathering place.

Questions?

The organizer for this retreat is Angela Harms. Reach me at my name @ gmail, or @angelaharms on twitter.

Learn more about Code Retreats at coderetreat.ning.com. 

Sponsors

There's never a charge for attending Code Retreat. It's free thanks to these sponsors, who care about crafted code, and who have provided delicious food and a rockin venue for our coding joy. :)