Diversions
There are a range of exciting activities on offer on each of the conference weekday evenings. The formal activities don't finish late, so whether you are living or staying locally, or commuting from home, you'll be able to take part.
Dinner and most of the evening activities will take place in the spacious meeting rooms of the Strand Palace hotel, right next to the main conference venue.
| Sunday 16 May | |
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19:00 |
No formal diversions but there will be a "dining club" scheme for those who would like to form groups for dinner |
| Monday 17 May | |||
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Evening activities sponsored by Rally Software |
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18:30 20:00 |
Hot buffet dinner and free bar |
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20:00 21:30 |
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| Tuesday 18 May | |||
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Evening activities sponsored by Cincom Systems |
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18:00 19:30 |
Hot buffet dinner and free bar |
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Members of the eXtreme Tuesday Club will be joining us for the evening activities |
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19:30 20:00 |
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20:00 21:00 |
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21:00 22:00 |
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Beatbox!
Under the expert direction of UK Beatbox champion MC Zani, turn your voice into the ultimate percussion instrument (here's a taster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3KlOdw9lh8)
Guided Walk
A guided walk along the Strand led by professional City Of London Guide John Halligan (http://www.jhlondonwalks.co.uk/)
Haiku Workshop
Discover your inner poet and sharpen your powers of observation and description in this workshop led by writer and coach Liz Keogh.
Keep 'em Guessing
A light-hearted panel game in the SPA tradition.
The Software Craftsmanship Debate
The centrepiece of our Diversions programme this year, a debate that asks whether Software Craftsmanship is a useful analogy for practice improvement or just an dangerous fad.
Software Craftsmanship is a hot topic: there are several conferences and discussion forums devoted to it, and a growing number of people choosing to define themselves using terms such as "journeyman" and "apprentice".
The motion debated will be:
This house believes that the notion of 'Software Craftsmanship'
is a distraction from the things that really matter
Speakers will include:
- Michael Feathers, well-known writer, presenter and practitioner
- David Harvey, presenter of the controversial session Danger: Software Craftsmen at Work at QCon London 2010
- Adewale Oshineye, co-author of the book Apprenticeship Patterns
- Enrique Comba Riepenhausen, a Senior Craftsmen at Eden Development and a member of the Winchester Software Craftsmanship workshop
- John Nolan, Director at e2x and an outspoken critic of... well... most things, really
- Emmanuel Gaillot, Pyxis Technologies, and creator of the Paris Coding Dojo
Since this is SPA there will also be ample opportunity for contributions from the floor.
Chocolate tasting
Whether or not you have a sweet tooth, you'll enjoy blind tasting a range of top quality (or maybe not) chocolate, with a prize for the best guesser – er, the most refined palate.
