Open Space

DDD Europe features an Open Space, where participants self-organise. Watch the video to learn how it works. Access is to the Open Space is included in a Hands-on Lab ticket, or you can get an Open Space-only ticket.

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Hands-on Conference


Learn by doing. DDD Europe 2021 consists almost entirely of interactive hands-on labs and workshops, led by industry experts. You’ll collaborate with other participants in practical sessions with modelling, design, visualisation, code, architecture, discussion, …


Schedule

  Times in CET (UTC+1)
Wednesday Feb 3 17:00 - ... Social: Remote Vegan Cooking with Michael Plöd
17:00 - ... Evening Reception - meet the other participants in the social sessions
18:00 - 18:15 Marketplace - Propose your Open Space session ideas and discover others
18:15 - ... Open Space (throughout the entire event)
Thursday Feb 4 08:00 - 09:00 Morning Networking
09:00 - 10:00 Official Opening & Lightning Talks
  • "Reductionism and Holism in DDD" by Trond Hjorteland
  • "People and Patterns" by Andrew Harmel-Law
  • "Dearth of a Drafter" by Einar Host
  • "No, you don't need to access my data" by Alberto Brandolini
10:00 - 12:00 Hands-on Labs Slot 1
10:00 - 10:15 Marketplace - Propose your Open Space session ideas and discover others
10:15 - ... Open Space (throughout the entire event)
12:15 - 13:00 Lightning Talks
  • "The businesscase for architecture" by Niek Van Raaij
  • "Tech alignment with Narratives" by Lothar Schulz
  • "What do you mean by “is”?" by Duncan Jones
  • "The Distributed Human System" by - Alan Jefferies
12:15 - 12:30 Marketplace - Propose your Open Space session ideas and discover others
14:00 - 16:00 Hands-on Labs Slot 2
16:30 - 17:30 Interview with Eric Evans, by Cyrille Martraire
18:00 - ... Evening Social
Friday Feb 5 08:00 - ... Open Space (throughout the entire event)
09:00 - 10:00 Lightning Talks
  • "Explaining flow in 5 minutes" by Michel Grootjans
  • "Incidents are new normal" by Kasia Balcerzak
  • "Aiding bounded contexts design with design heuristics" by Kamil Szymański
  • "Time-based domain events quickly" by Konrad Jakubiec
10:00 - 10:15 Marketplace - Propose your Open Space session ideas and discover others
10:00 - 12:00 Hands-on Labs Slot 3
12:15 - 12:30 Marketplace - Propose your Open Space session ideas and discover others
14:00 - 16:00 Hands-on Labs Slot 4
16:30 - 17:30 Lightning Talks
  • "What is DDD in 1 slide" by Javiera Laso
  • "Sociotechnical Architecture as an enabler for Product Thinking" by Eduardo da Silva
  • "Sweet Streams are Made of These: data-driven development in stream processing" by Caito Scherr
18:00 - ... Afterparty
Saturday Feb 6 06:00 - 12:00 Morning After Open Space

The online venue is open for the entire duration of the conference. You can even self-organise night sessions.

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Program


What to expect?

A Hands-on Lab consists of one or more speakers and a small group of participants in a video conference. Typically, there will be some explanation by the speakers, but for the most part, you'll be doing things yourself, together with other participants. This may involve discussions, virtual whiteboard sessions, pair or mob programming, and other activities, under the guidance of the instructors.

Note that the labs have limited capacity, based on the speaker's preference. This ensures they can guarantee the best quality and give all participants sufficient attention.

During the 2020 edition alone, we had 23 labs, with titles like "Cashflow & Finance Modelling", "Modelling with Business Capabilities", "Distilling Design Heuristics", "Monoids in Practice", "Context Maps Applied", "Exploring Connascence".... In the "Blink Modelling" sessions, we paired speakers like Eric Evans and Alberto Brandolini with a domain expert they'd never met before. After the speakers interviewed the domain experts, small teams of participants drew models of the domain. At the end, the speakers synthesized the results.

For more examples, have a look at the program for the previous editions:
2020 · 2019 · 2018 · 2017


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Tickets

Full conference ticket
This ticket includes a choice of 4 hands-on labs, and access to the Open Space, lightning talks, networking, socials, and chat. You'll be able to choose which labs you'd like to attend for each slot on Thursday and Friday morning and afternoon.
Open Space ticket
This ticket gives you access to the Open Space, lightning talks, networking, socials, and chat.
Pre-conference Workshops
On the days before and after the conference, we're organising online workshops as well. These are usually longer and more in depth, and require a separate ticket. They are announced through the training website.

Hands-on Conference FAQ

Who is it for?
Our audience is mostly Senior Software Engineers and Architects who work in complex domains (as well as people who aspiring to become Engineers and Architects in complex domains!). We also get a fair amount of CTOs, IT decision makers, Product Owners & Product Managers, Analysts, Testers, ... If you're in doubt if something is for you, get in touch.
Can I submit a hands-on lab / lightning talk / workshop?
Yes! See the Call for Proposals.
Why are there no regular talks?
Software Design is something you do, not just talk about. That's always been one of the core idea behind DDD Europe: bring people together to explore and widen the field of software design. In the previous (physical) editions of DDD Europe, we used hands-on labs, socials, hallways tracks, and Modelling with Strangers to create the best environments for interactive and engaging experience to happen. And that's what we're focusing on now for the online conference.
What about DDD Foundations and the EventSourcing conference?
We're considering to organise these as a separate event later in 2021.
Will the 2022 edition be a physical conference again?
We hope so. We miss you seeing you IRL!
Contact us
Use contact@dddeurope.com, DM us on Twitter via @ddd_eu, or call +32 468 109 891 for any questions or concerns you may have.

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