About SoCraTes Canada
25
Participants
who care about quality
48
Hours
in a cabin
82
Mashmallows
waiting to be grilled
167+
Ideas
to be shared
SoCraTes stands for Software Craft and Testing. It's a 2-day Open-Space unconference.
You know all the insightful discussions that happen in the hallway of a conference? That's what an unconference is! We bring 25 passionate people offsite for 2 days and make it easy for sessions to happen. Each participant is also a potential speaker. At the end of this "retreat", everyone goes back home with new ideas, perspectives, and connections.
It starts with the Marketplace
Before each work session, we gather in the main lodge to propose and select the topics we want to discuss.
Any participant can propose a topic they would like to teach or learn about. Pick a time and place, present your session to the group, and voilà!
Work sessions
For a few hours, participants gather in small groups to discuss the topics they are interested in. It's a great way to learn from others, share your knowledge, and get feedback on your ideas.
Most sessions will look like roundtable discussions. Although, some may propose hands-on coding or other workshops.
Enjoying meals
We spend lunch and dinner together in the main lodge. It's a great time to continue the discussions, or to relax and enjoy the Canadian experience.
Meals are prepared and served by a local caterer.
And having fun!
Overall, this is a retreat to learn, share, and enjoy time together. We have fun activities scheduled in the evenings, such as grilling marshmallows, playing board games, etc.
It's a great opportunity to make new connections and maybe new friends!
It's about People
Participants love developing high-quality, maintainable softwares. Expect creative discussions and rich learnings from passionate people.
It's about Action
For 48 hours, we will share ideas in a self-organized Open Space. Expect hands-on coding sessions, roundtable discussions, interactive talks and more!
It's about Fun
Besides insightful work sessions, enjoy the Canadian experience: take a walk in the woods, have a beer near the firecamp, or just relax in the hot tub…
SoCraTes Canada is the Canadian edition of a larger family. You will find other SoCraTes unconferences around the globe, such as:
This won't be our first drill. We had previous editions under our belt:
Discover the Selenia Lodge
The 2025 edition will take place at the Selenia Lodge, a hidden treasure of the Laurentides.
It's a wonderful place to relax, work, and have fun. The lodge is located 1h45 car drive away from Montreal, to the North. It's a perfect place to enjoy the Canadian fall colors in early October 🍁
If you need help to get there, we facilitate Car Sharing between participants.
One big central lodge is reserved for our work sessions and meals. This is where we spend most of our day.
We rest in cabins that are spread around the main lodge.
Participants share a cabin with 1 to 3 other participants. Each participant has their individual bedroom.
The lodge is also equiped with fire places and hot tubs, to relax at the end of the day 🔥
The Agenda
The conference starts on Friday 4th at 2pm and ends on Sunday 6th at 2pm.
The exact Agenda is made by the participants, on the spot. It's an Open Space, so it's up to you to propose a session, or to join one.
That being said, here are some topics that were discussed during previous editions:
- Prioritize Tech Debt with git metadata
- How to make the community more inclusive
- Remote mob programming
- How to discover what you don't know that you don't know
- Getting started on DDD
- Component design with tests
- How to apply DDD to front-end development?
- Code reviews assisted with AI: good or bad idea?
- … and many more!
Besides regular roundtable discussions, we also had hands-on coding sessions (e.g. refactoring katas), live animated workshops (e.g. Event Storming), and even TDD board game!
Facilitation will be in English. However, it will be possible to run sessions in other languages (e.g. French).
In the evenings, participants are free to chill as they like: listening to music in the hot tub, continuing the discussions around the fire pit, playing pool or board games, or even live-hacking programs solo or together… you choose!
Here is a rough idea of how the unconference would look like, time-wise:
| Friday 4 | Saturday 5 | Sunday 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| before | - | Breakfast in your cabin | Breakfast in your cabin |
| 9am | - | Start of day / Marketplace | Start of day / Marketplace |
| 10am | - | Work sessions | Work sessions |
| 11am | Arrival at Selenia Lodge | ||
| 12pm | Lunch | Lunch | |
| 1pm | Work sessions | Free time | |
| 2pm | Start of conference | End of conference | |
| 3pm | Work sessions | Work sessions | Leaving Selenia Lodge |
| 4pm | |||
| 5pm | |||
| 6pm | Free time | Free time | - |
| 7pm | Dinner | Dinner | - |
| after | Free time | Free time | - |
Testimonials from previous editions
Here are some feedbacks from the participants and sponsors of previous editions:
Our beloved Sponsors
The conference could not happen without their support to the community! They help make the conference affordable and share the values of developing maintainable software. This 2-day unconference is a perfect moment to talk authentically with them.
If you want to be a sponsor, reach out (nicolascarlo.espeon@gmail.com) to get the details.