What is it

The 8th of December (Saturday) is the Global Day of Code-retreat, and through the virtue of timezone magic, New Zealand will be kicking off this global event.

Global Day of Coderetreat is a world-wide event celebrating passion and software craftsmanship. Last year, over 1800 passionate software developers in 94 cities around the world spent the day practicing the craft of software development using the coderetreat format. This year, we are aiming for 200 cities! With an average of 15-20 participants per city, that's over 3000 developers!

The previous code retreat was a great experience, organized by Ian Randall (@kiwipom, of Codemania and not to mention XAML fame) and was facilitated by none other then Corey Haines himself. If you didn't make it along (or were stuck on the waiting list) - then you really did miss out on a great event!

Unfortunately Corey can't be with us on the 8th of December... so we have the second best.. no wait the third best.. no wait definitely the fourth best... well a thing, that is me, who has offered facilitate the #GDCR12 event in Auckland, and Ian Randall is again stepping up as organizer for this event.

Should I come?

Yes!

I think the evidence of how much fun and value people find in attending a code retreat is that many of the first-time attendees have signed up once again!

So if you are keen to come - definitely get in quick and sign up on the meetup event.

Depending on interest I believe a second code-retreat session may open up, but regardless, spaces are limited, as these events are generally restricted to around 20-30 people each for reasons of practicality.

If you plan to sign up, please:

• Only sign up if you definitely can attend (and withdraw ASAP if you learn you can no longer attend) as space is limited.
• Don't sign up unless you plan to be around the whole day, if you can only come for a couple of hours, be fair and give up your slot to someone else who can attend the whole day.

Costs

As Ian indicated on the meetup event, the first event was free to everyone, but ran to a cost of about $50+GST per person (covered kindly by the sponsors) - and costs are expected to be similar this time around, so if you know of anyone (such as the company you work for) who would be willing to sponsor some or all of the costs associated with the day, please contact Ian ASAP.

Venue

The first code retreat was held at the BizDojo Makerspace - which was a great venue - but unfortunately it's not available for the 8th of December, so we need a new venue for the Code Retreat to be held at.

Ideally a location close to or within the Auckland CBD would be great, with space for 30 or so people to sit at tables, and with power and internet connectivity.

If you know of a space, please contact the organizer (Ian), to discuss it further.

Attending

For those attending the event:

• Keep in mind you will be pair-programming, so you will need to bring along a laptop and a power cable.
• Ensure you have the tools/editors etc. installed before the day for languages you are comfortable in - the aim is not to learn a new language, but hone your craft - so you don't want to spend the first session setting up an environment.
• This is a pretty full-on day of coding, and can be exhausting, being well-rested is definitely a good idea

FYI - if you do want to get a feel for a different language - don't forget that there will be plenty of developers working in different languages, so you can always pair with them to get a taste (and this is a great way to see how people familiar with those languages think and work with the tools they are intimately familiar)

If you have not attended a code retreat before, you might also find it interesting to read about what a code retreat is!

coderetreat.org - about

And also watching Corey's retreat introduction on Vimeo gives you a good taste for what we will be doing:

http://vimeo.com/18955165

This will be my first time facilitating a code retreat - so things are bound to be a little rough around the edges (Corey has had years to master the code retreat format, and is also crazy smart) - but I'm confident everyone will have a great experience.

(FYI - For those interested in how the day will unfold, we will be following the structure outlined here - but this will all be covered during the start of the code retreat session, so don't feel you have to swat up on what we will be doing)

coderetreat.org - structure of a code retreat

See you there!

Can't wait to see everyone there, and have some fun honing our craft together.