The TrailBlazers Academy.

Why this series exists?
We already know AI is changing how we work. Most of us have tried Claude or ChatGPT — a quick question, a draft, an experiment. But knowing a tool exists isn't the same as building it into how you coach, facilitate, and lead. Real change needs more than a five-minute play with a chatbot: it needs practice, feedback, and people around you also trying.

That's what this workshop is for. Across 3 meetups, with fellow Agile coaches, Scrum Masters, and team leads, you'll move from "I've heard of this" to "I actually use this" — one real project, one real decision at a time.
How this workshop works
This series is built the way we ask teams to learn best: theory first, on your own time; practice together, in the room. Before each meetup, you'll complete a short section of Anthropic's free AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations course https://academy.claude.com/courses/ai-fluency-framework-foundations — usually 30–60 minutes.
At the meetup itself, we don't re-teach what you've already read. Instead, we spend two hours applying it — to a real project you choose, with the support (and healthy challenge) of the group.

Meetup 1 - Choose Your Project: What Would You Actually Delegate to AI?
Learning Outcome: By the end of this meetup, you will be able to choose a real work project suited to AI collaboration, and decide — task by task — what to delegate to AI and what to keep for yourself, based on your own judgement as a coach.

Are you looking for a place to share your knowledge and get new inspiration for Agile ways of working? Are you looking to co-create fresh insights with fellow professionals and friends old & new?

Come to Weesp, Friday September 18th!

Trailblazers is again organising a one-day Open Space conference where all Agile subjects are welcome (we mean that in the greatest sense possible)!

The theme this year is: Human-Centric Agility in the Era of AI.

And what would an Agile Open be without a game night? So we're offering that as well!
After the Agile Open, for all participants that would like to stay together, we will have dinner and play some games.

Your investment: one Friday and €50-105*.
Your return: new energy and inspiration for your job, new and renewed acquaintances and friends, good lunch and refreshments.

So click and book your ticket now via weezevent.

Sticky notes in three predictable colors. The same three people talking. Someone mutters "same as last sprint" and everyone nods, half checked-out. Sound familiar?

We think there's a better way — and it involves playing games. Not for the fun of it (well, also for the fun of it), but because some lessons about complex, interdependent systems are almost impossible to explain your way into. You have to feel them.

Join us for an evening where we crack open the toolbox. We'll simulate flow problems, surface team dynamics you can't always name directly, and show you why the debrief matters more than the game itself.

Whether you're a Scrum Master looking to shake up a stale retro, or an agile coach curious about how serious games actually land with real teams — bring your questions, your skepticism, and your willingness to discover new games.

When: Fridaynight August 14, doors open from 17:00, diner from 17:30, start games at 18:30.
Where: TrailBlazers HQ, Loes van Marlestraat 14, Weesp
For: Agile coaches, Scrum Masters, and anyone tired of the same three sticky-note colors

Drinks, snacks, and a healthy bit of rebellion included.
Sign up now — spots are limited.

Work changes fast. Last week we were all about Agile and today AI is changing how we get things done. It’s important to keep refining our practices to boost team collaboration and effectiveness. Rather than rolling out another big transformation, Atlassian has decided to take a test- driven approach to experimenting with new ways of working, letting teams try things out in a safe space.

We’ll talk about how to design and run work experiments, check the results, make any necessary tweaks, and share what works with the rest of the organization.

With guest speaker Sven Peters, AI evangelist at Atlassian

In the series of Trailblazers meetups this time we have a recurring guest from the Liberating Structures Meetup group, Robert van Lieshout! He will guide us through facilitating and working with Liberating Structures (LS).

If you want to practice with LS, or want to experience them, this is the evening for you. But on top of that we will not just focus on the structures, we will also use them to help participants to gain insights in the theme of the evening: “Changing the world, one conversation at a time”.

So, do not hesitate, invest in this evening to gain insight into what you can do to change the world and register now!

Program:
17:00 Door opens
17:30 diner
18:00 Welcome and start of the session
21:00 Closing drinks

We will use a selection of LS that you can volunteer to facilitate, and one of them will be Social Network Webbing.

We normally design interventions to improve our organizations. What if we flip the script, try to break it, and see how hard that is from the other side?

This workshop makes these dynamics visible through game mechanics and shifts perspective by asking a provocative question: "If you wanted to deliberately ruin this company in the next few years and nobody should explicitly know that this was your plan, what would you do?"

As the "evil management team", you get to try to ruin a fictional company and experience the pushback and resistance from the organization, because it wants to stay alive. The game is designed using systems thinking (with a focus on long-term effects) and the 3rd Entity concept from ORSC.

Come and join the fun. Register now!

Program
17:00 Walk-in
18:00 Diner
18:45 Session Starts
21:00 Drinks and aftertalk

A Genuine Contact Exploration

As professionals who help people to organize getting things done in better ways, it can sometimes be pretty tough to keep going. Almost inevitably, at some point, we will all experience a ‘dark night of the soul’, where nothing we’re doing seems to be working, nothing is changing, and we’re finding it hard to even still care...

And yet, we continue to find ways to show up again and again with the energy to inspire others, the patience to step back and see what emerges, the wisdom to understand what’s happening, and the strength to continue learning - and helping others to learn - truly valuable lessons from the whole experience.

One of the things that can nourish and restore us in these moments is uncovering, connecting to, and exploring the essence of our work, and drawing from the deep well of what really matters to us.

At this meetup, you will be offered an opportunity to experience how some of the methods and tools of the Genuine Contact approach can add value to your professional and personal life, by explicitly working on the ‘essence’ that drives you: your deeper perspectives, beliefs, and principles; and the conduct and attitudes that they require.

You will come away with:
- An understanding of Genuine Contact as an approach
- Experience of a participatory meeting method
- Experience of working with one Genuine Contact tool applied to your own situation
- The potential to adapt pieces of what you are learning into your own practice Information on how to learn more about the Genuine Contact approach.

Schedule:
17:00 Walk‑in
18:00 Dinner & Start of the workshop (please let us know if you have any allergies)
21:00 Drinks

This Meetup will be facilitated in English by Doris Gottlieb & Richard Metcalf.

Are you looking for a place to share your knowledge and get new inspiration for Agile ways of working? Are you looking to co-create fresh insights with fellow professionals and friends old & new?

Come to Weesp on Friday September 12th!

Trailblazers is organising a one-day Open Space conference where all Agile subjects are welcome (and we mean that in the greatest sense possible)

The Theme of this year's Agile Open is: Organizing for an Unpredictable Future!

And what would an Agile Open be without a pre-conference game night? So we're offering that as well!
Our office will be open on Thursday September 11 from 5pm for all participants that would like to get together, have dinner and play some games the night before.

Your investment: one Friday, from 9am to 5pm (Thursday evening optional), and €35.
Your return: new energy and inspiration for your job, new and renewed acquaintances and friends, good lunch and refreshments.

Registration and tickets via weezevent.com

Rooted in the evolving DNA of Agile thinking and inspired by the transformative lens of Management 3.0, Sociocracy 3.0, Liberating Structures and the unFIX model, this inaugural meetup lays the foundation for a dynamic series ahead. We’re not here to just talk about agility — we’re here to ignite it across organizations.

From reshaping team structures to recharging leadership mindsets, this gathering is where fresh ideas meet bold experimentation. Together, we’ll explore how companies can organize with agility, adapt with purpose, and scale with confidence. Think big, play smart, and co-create what’s next.

This session sets the tone. Follow-up meetups will deepen the journey. We begin not with answers, but with powerful questions — fueling a movement that helps organizations thrive in complexity.

During this kickoff, we’ll collaboratively decide on the themes and topics that will shape the upcoming Meetups — ensuring each future session reflects the needs, interests and ambitions of our community.

Program:
• 17:00 Doors open
• 17:30 Dinner
• 18:30 Welcome & start of the session
• 21:00 Closing drinks

On June 4th Andres Almiray will be talking about setting up data driven test with Java tools.

Everyone knows that performing tests during development is the Right Thing to do. But how do we test data driven test cases? How can we ensure clean environments, reproducible outcomes, setting the database with the correct state, ensuring results match expectations, and so on? The Java ecosystem offers several options that we can leverage to answer these questions.

In this session we'll cover how to configure data driven testcases with Testcontainers, setup database state and verify results with DbUnit and Database Rider, even test PL/SQL statements.

Schedule:
17:00 Welcome drinks
18:00 Dinner (please let us know if you don't intend to join!)
19:00 Start talk, discuss learnings, closing drinks

Emerging from the pioneering principles of Management 3.0 and the revolutionary unFIX model, both created by Jurgen Appelo, M3K empowers your leadership skills and organizational setup.
Whether it’s navigating AI, redefining your company culture, or reimagining how teams collaborate and continuously improve, M3K helps you lead with creativity, clarity, and courage. Let’s help you be playful in how you explore. Serious about what you unlock. And always driven by purpose.
The future is changing, so ensure your organization and leadership team do. By using the cards (hard copy or Miro), Theo Geelen will show the possibilities.

Program:
17:00 Door opens
17:30 diner
18:00 Welcome and start of the session
21:00 Closing drinks

Speaker: Theo Geelen

Note: this meetup has been moved one week from the original date to May 15th because of personal circumstances of the speaker.

As Winter fades and signs of Spring begin to appear in and around us, we often feel ready to take on new challenges and put new energy into dreams that we’ve been nurturing over the past few months…
In this meetup on Thursday 13 March 2025, we will focus on perhaps the most inspiring and challenging topic of our time: our sustainable future and how we can (and do) contribute to it through our working lives.
With cooperation with Richard Metcalf and contributions from - among others - Maryse Meinen (co-author of The Agile Sustainability Manifesto) and Joanna Masraff (co-founder of the Green PO initiative), this interactive session will inspire you to build a stronger understanding of what a sustainable future looks like, and explore together how to increase our positive impact.

Doors open at 17:00 and we will finish around 21:00.

Register now!

We all want to learn new things, and for many of us there's never time in our day job. There's always the pressure of the next deadline and having to finish things quickly. So we usually fall back to the things we know well, never getting around to trying that other way of doing things that might be more efficient, faster or in some other way better than the thing we know. Time to fix that and take off some of the pressure.

On Tuesday evening February 25th, TrailBlazers is hosting a coding dojo. Like a martial arts dojo, a coding dojo is a place to get together and learn. So come join us to expand your skillset in good company!

Doors open at 5PM, at 6PM we will have dinner together, and at 7PM we will start coding. Then at 8:30PM we will discuss what we have learned and we close off at 9PM with some drinks.
Register now!

Join us for an evening of celebration, debate, and innovation as we explore the future of Agile coaching in honor of the Agile Manifesto's enduring legacy! This event is designed to bring together Agile enthusiasts, coaches, and professionals to reflect on the past, present, and future of Agile. We will celebrate the principles that have shaped modern software development while engaging in thought-provoking discussions about how Agile can continue to evolve and thrive.

Doors open at 17:00, around 17:40 we raise our glasses to celebrate the 24th birthday of the Agile Manifesto, there will be some free food from 18:00 and at 18:45 we'll start the session. Of cause there is time for a drink afterwards.

So please let us know you're coming and register now via Meetup.

Code smells & refactoren, een voorbeeld

In this Meetup on Thursday evening Oktober 17th you will learn how code smells and refactoring provide you with a vocabulary for making explicit what’s up with your code and how to improve the code in small, controlled steps, while keeping the code working all the time. Delivering value and making improvements are not contradictory - on the contrary ;-).

Marc Evers, Rob Westgeest and Willem van den Ende will show you how, using the Gilded Rose kata.

Free dinner is served beforehand and drinks after the talk.

So join us and let us know you're coming via Meetup.com so we can tune the catering to the number of participants.

Are you looking for a place to share your knowledge and get new inspiration for Agile ways of working? Are you looking to co-create fresh insights with fellow professionals and friends old & new? Are you looking to revive the energy of Agile Open Holland?

Come to Weesp on Friday September 27th!

Trailblazers is organising a one-day Open Space conference where all Agile subjects are welcome (and we mean that in the greatest sense possible)
And what would an Agile Open be without a pre-conference game night? So we're offering that as well! Our office will be open on Thursday September 26 from 5pm for all participants that would like to get together, have dinner and play some games the night before.

The Theme of this year's Agile Open is: Share your curiosity!

Your investment: one Friday, from 9am to 5pm (Thursday evening optional), and €30.
Your return: new energy and inspiration for your job, new and renewed acquaintances and friends, good lunch and refreshments.

Registration and tickets via weezevent.com

Note: please register separately for the pre-conference night on Thursday september 26. Participation on Thursdaynight is based on a voluntary contribution on site for the dinercosts.

Java’s concurrency journey has been a long and winding one. We departed from the ‘classic threads’ station and traveled through Runnables, ExecutorServices, CompletableFutures and ForkJoinPools, before finally arriving at ‘virtual threads’. But does ‘finally’ mean that we’ve arrived at our final destination, or is it a transfer at best?

Now that virtual threads are available, our Java programs will likely use an abundance of threads. This increase in thread count will immediately make thread coordination, observability and isolation more difficult. Two new Java features are currently in development that might make things a bit easier: Structured Concurrency and Scoped Values.

In this Meetup on Thursday evening September 19th, Keynote speaker Hanno Embregts will introduce and demonstrate these new features and how they can help address the challenges that have emerged since the introduction of virtual threads. He will also discuss how the availability of these features will impact your day-to-day programming life and whether Java’s concurrency journey is actually over now that these features have become available or if there are still more stops to come.

Free dinner is served beforehand and drinks after the talk.

So join us and let us know you're coming so we can tune the catering to the number of participants.

Onlangs is onze AED Checker applicatie in productie genomen door Reanimatie Netwerk Amersfoort, een vrijwilligersorganisatie die zich bezig houdt het beheren van publieke AED's. Ondertussen gaan we vrolijk verder om de applicatie door te ontwikkelen. Boven aan het lijstje staat de wens om de applicatie geschikt te maken voor meerdere organisatie en meer talen dan alleen Nederlands zodat ook andere (vrijwilligers)organisaties er gebruik van kunnen maken, ook buiten Nederland.
Na twee eerdere succesvolle Hackatons, kunnen we nu weer alle hulp gebruiken om de applicatie een flinke stap verder te brengen.

Dus heb je zin om een zaterdag gezellig te komen mee-ontwikkelen aan een applicatie die een bijdrage levert aan het beter beheer van AED's in Nederland en daarbuiten en daarmee misschien wel levens bespaart, meld je dan aan!

Oh ja, misschien wel handig om te melden dat de applicatie is gebouwd met Java, Spring Boot en Angular dus handig als je daar verstand van hebt. Maar ook Cobolkrassers met een talenknobbel zijn welkom. Een natje en een droogje is natuurlijk verzorgd, inclusief de lunch, en voor de echte diehards regelen we ook wel het avond-eten, mocht je 's avonds willen doorgaan. Mocht je wat minder lang de tijd hebben, dan ben je nog steeds van harte welkom.

Alle informatie nog even op een rijtje:
Datum: Zaterdag 15 juni 2024
Inloop: 10:00
Start: 10:30
Meenemen: je eigen laptop en een goed humeur

Heb jij gehoord van Consent besluitvorming maar heb je het nooit in de praktijk zien werken? Heb je misschien een Sociocracy 3.0 training gevolgd en daar geoefend met Consent besluitvorming, maar wil je nog meer oefenen? Ben je op zoek naar hints, tips en tricks uit de praktijk?
Kom dan naar deze meetup op maandagavond 6 mei!

We zullen de avond besteden aan een korte uitleg van Consent besluitvorming, maar we zullen vooral aan de slag gaan met een aantal casussen onder begeleiding van ervaren Consent besluitvorming facilitators. Uiteraard is er ruimte voor al je vragen over deze manier van beslissingen nemen. Deze meetup is zowel voor beginners als voor mensen met ervaring met consent besluitvorming.

We nemen al onze belangrijke besluiten op basis van Consent, al vanaf vóór de oprichting. We bestaan al 6 jaar en delen graag onze ervaringen.

Deelname is gratis en inclusief eten. Meld je wel even aan, zodat we een plekje voor je kunnen reserveren en de catering kunnen aanpassen op het aantal deelnemers.

Als de ruggengraat van elke digitale oplossing bevat IT-architectuur de sleutels tot het ontsluiten van een groenere, duurzamere toekomst in software. Tijdens deze meetup verkennen we het snijvlak van IT-architectuurstrategieën en groene softwareprincipes. Ontdek hoe we als ITers, door bewuste architectuurbeslissingen te nemen, de impact van onze digitale inspanningen op het milieu aanzienlijk kunnen verminderen. Meld je aan en ga met ons mee om de routekaart te verkennen waar robuust IT-ontwerp samenkomt met ecologische betrokkenheid en maak deel uit van de beweging naar echt duurzame software.

Deze Meetup wordt georganiseerd in samenwerking met Goal17.org en Colin Chalmers zal als gids en gastspreker ons meenemen in deze ontdekkingsreis naar een duurzamere IT.

Zoek je naar manieren om je team beter te laten samenwerken en beter te snappen waarom dat soms moeizaam gaat? Dan is deze meetup zeker voor jou!

Bij Trailblazers zijn we zowel in de wereld van Sociocratie 3.0 (S3) als in Systemisch werken gedoken en we vertellen daar graag meer over. Deze twee kunnen namelijk hele mooie resultaten opleveren wanneer ze worden gecombineerd.

De vorige meetup over S3 en systemisch werken leverde nog een hoop onderwerpen op om nader te verkennen! Zoals beloofd organiseren we dus samen met Rebelwise een tweede bijeenkomst waar de focus meer zal liggen op systemisch werken.

Meld je nu aan!

Ben jij ook op zoek naar manieren om je team beter te laten samenwerken en effectiever besluiten te laten nemen? Als je 'ja' knikt, dan is deze meetup iets voor jou!

Bij Trailblazers zijn we zowel in de wereld van Sociocratie 3.0 (S3) als in Systemisch werken gedoken en we vertellen daar graag meer over. Deze twee kunnen namelijk echt geweldige resultaten opleveren wanneer ze worden gecombineerd.

Wij, TrailBlazers, zijn bezig met een zoektocht naar een ander soort eigendomsvorm in plaats van het gedeelde aandeelhouderschap. Waarom en hoe we dat willen, dat willen we met jullie delen én we willen jullie inspireren.

Waarom zou je dit doen? Wat zijn uitdagingen en te maken keuzes? Wat is steward-ownership? Deze keer vertellen we meer over onze eigen ontdekkingstocht daarin.

Wij laten ons daarbij begeleiden door Jennifer Benson van Economy Transformers. Voel je welkom na je werk met ons samen wat te eten en deze avond met ons mee te beleven!

Heb je moeite met het introduceren van zelf- of samensturing? Moet het nog starten? Loopt het al maar stuit je op lokale of bredere weerstand? Wil je zelf wel, maar krijg je anderen in je team of organisatie niet mee?

We nemen je mee om in 4 stappen een drijfveer op te stellen waarmee je anderen beter duidelijk kan maken welk probleem je wilt aanpakken en makkelijker het gesprek aan kunt gaan met anderen over Samensturing als mogelijke oplossing. Daarnaast introduceren we een aantal patronen uit Fearless Change die je kunnen helpen bij de introductie of verdere uitbreiding van Samensturing.

Wij, TrailBlazers, zijn bezig met een zoektocht naar een ander soort eigendomsvorm in plaats van het gedeelde aandeelhouderschap. Waarom en hoe we dat willen, dat willen we met jullie delen én we willen jullie inspireren.

Waarom is dit zo belangrijk? Hoe hebben andere succesvolle bedrijven dat gedaan? Wat waren hun uitdagingen en keuzes? Wat is steward-ownership?

Om daar inzicht in te krijgen is niemand anders dan Koos Bakker (oprichter – Odin biologische supermarkten) naar ons TrailBlazers kantoor in Weesp gekomen om hierover te praten.

Na Agile lijken zelfsturende teams nu de nieuwe heilige graal voor flexibele, innovatieve en effectieve organisaties. Samensturing klinkt natuurlijk gaaf, maar hoe gaat dit praktisch in z’n werk? Wat zijn de voordelen en valkuilen? Als TrailBlazers hebben wij binnen meerdere organisaties ervaring opgedaan met zelf- en samensturende teams.