After Programistok 2018

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The time has come to drop a few lines about Promgramistok 2018. This time I didn't give a presentation. Instead, together with my colleague Rafał Maciąg I conducted workshops "Recipe for DDD, BDD, CQRS and Event Sourcing".

About conference

In general I can speak only in superlatives. I'll start by saying that the communication with organizers was simply perfect - I got answer for all my questions almost at no time. We were accommodated in the superb hotel on the market in Białystok. The before party was simply great (old school games, beer and not only, pizza, great people). I almost got touched while I was able to play Pegasus the first time since my childhood. We also didn't have to worry about transport - Do you need a transport to the train station? No problem. Do you need transport to the After Party? No problem... Last but not least the gift bag was delicious ;) I really regret that after workshops I had to go back to Warsaw and I didn't participate in the rest conference.

About workshops

As to the workshops. Despite some technical problems I'm happy with them. What is the most important participants were very active, had questions etc. Thanks! I talked with a few of them during the After Party and it looks like it was ok. Though I'm still waiting for surveys ;)

Our workshops consisted of 3 parts: some theory, Event Storming session and some programming. The first 2 parts went without any obstacles. Well except one minor one. I was asked by organizers what we would need. I told that sticky notes and markers. Unfortunately, this information was lost somewhere so it's good that we took our own equipment. After the first 2 parts we planned to make some coding exercises. To make everything smooth we prepared the sample project and description of tasks.  In the case of problems with Internet we also prepared a zip file with all required nugget packages. Finally, we told participants that they would need VS and Microsoft SQL Server Express installed.

We didn't anticipate only one things i.e. problems with Microsoft SQL Server Express. It's our mistake that at home we tested a sample project but with Microsoft SQL Serve Developer Edition. It turned out that the express edition requires additional actions like changing firewall rules or changing configuration in SQL Server Configuration Manager. We tried to do that but finally we give up in order not to waste too much time.

Live coding

Instead we made a live coding. I was sitting in front of the computer and programming. In the meantime Rafał was explaining details, answering questions etc. On the one hand I have to say sorry that it looked in this way. On the other hand I'm really happy that this unplanned live coding session went so well!

Final thoughts

In the summary I have to say that the next year I will do my best to take part in Programistok again.  The conference was so good that after coming back to Warsaw I decided to call organizers and and tell them this directly. Eliza Kasperuk, Adam Piotrowski, Dawid Kozak and others (that I didn't meet or I didn't remember by name) - Thanks for Programistok!

^*The picture at the beginning of the post comes from organizers of Programistok and was taken during "Recipe for DDD, BDD, CQRS and Event Sourcing" workshops.