
The Ski Tertulia is a space for learning, in the Alps, with me and Jacopo Romei.
I have been organizing conferences since 2008. And from those conferences the things that I remember the most are the conversations I had with the participants and the speakers.
As a speaker, the thing that I remember the most is the hurry to get out of the stage and the sadness of not being able to answer the questions I was being asked.
Those questions were relevant for the participants, and I was hurrying to get out of the stage. Participants go to conferences to get those questions answered by people who have either similar or more experience. Their goal is to learn!
Over time, I realized that the most productive aspects of conferences where the conversations that I had in the corridor, the breaks, and also in the after-conference dinners.
It was the conversations that made me go to conferences some times 5 to 10 times a year.
Recently I’ve taken another approach to deep conversations and sharing experiences. I’ve been going to Italy every winter to spend some time with my friend Jacopo Romei. And the reason is the same as when I was going to conferences before: I want to have deep conversations about the issues, the problems that I face at work and in business.
Those conversations have been extremely productive. We talk about interaction with clients (since we are both consultants), we talk about more detailed issues in the Agile community, like #NoEstimates or #ExtremeContracts.
Those are learning conversations. We both share openly the challenges we face, we brainstorm ideas of what to try next, and of course we also talk about how beautiful the Alps are. We always meet at the mountains next to Torino where Jacopo lives.
And we intend to keep on going with this learning retreat in the Alps.
We decided to invite some of you to spend that time with us. It’s going to be a time of reflection, conversation, and especially, learning!
We call this space The Ski Tertulia. A space for conversation and learning.
Join us.
To learn more, check our Ski Tertulia announcement page. If you know someone who would benefit from both a few days of Ski and some new thinking, recommend the Ski Tertulia to them. Maybe your boss? 😉
See you there!
If you want to know more about the Ski Tertulia, email me at Vasco.Duarte@oikosofy.com.