Soooo many people are asking us which skills and abilities a facilitator should have. Here we are then, with a small list of suggestions!

 

General skills

First of all, he/she (probably “he”…) should be able to speak in public, trying to give a personal touch to every talk. He (I’ll just continue assuming that the facilitator will be a man… but come on women, we are just a few, but I’m sure we can be as good as men! (Probably better :P ))… should obviously be a JavaScript developer, as this event is completely focused on JS.

 

Technical skills

He should know TDD well enough to give the introduction talk, therefore he should know how TDD works not only in a theoretical way, but especially from the practical point of view. He should have attended at least 1 or 2 CodeRetreats in order to know how this kind of event works and how it evolves during the day. He should know and have experienced pair programming. He should have watched Corey Haine’s introduction video. He should feel safe enough with his expertise to ask deep questions to the attendees, and he should be good enough in understanding people’s code in just a few minutes, challenging them and suggesting them solutions and hints. Finally, he should have exercised the Game of Life at least a couple of times. And, last but absolutely not least, he should show the passion for what he does, conveying emotions and feelings.

 

Run retrospective

He should be able to come up with an idea on how to run a retrospective (for inspiration, take a look here), and he should be able to lead the closing circle.

 

Final suggestions

Finally, I highly recommend you to give a look to the main CodeRetreat website, in the “Facilitating” section.

As usual, if you need more information or suggestions just ping us! :)

If you wish, you can always ask us to be your facilitators in your city, covering at least travel costs and accommodation (you can look for a sponsor for that for sure! :) ). We are also available for internal workshops.

If you are willing to host a JS CodeRetreat in your city, take a look at this blog post.