XP Days Benelux Cancellation Marks End of an Era

Wow, this one hurts. 😕

In these last few months we've seen several conferences needing to cancel their next edition, mostly due to a combination of increasing costs and difficulties to sell enough tickets to cover these costs.

But hearing yesterday evening about XP Days Benelux cancelling their 2026 edition and already announcing that there would be no following one, was a strike to my heart.

Because to me, it will forever be:

• The first Agile conference I joined, ever - with a gang of Telenet group colleague
• The first event I've ever brought Denise to
• The moment I noticed that most companies were going through the same challenges and situations
• Where I had my first workshops about OKRs, Lego Serious Play, serious games and many other topics
• Where I learnt SO MUCH about facilitation and entertaining large groups... by just observing what other speakers were doing

And more importantly, I met so many friends there, most of the time very randomly around the coffee machine: Deborah Nerinckx, Hanne Verbeeck, Suzanne Lagerweij, Hafedh Messaoudi 🧠, ♻️ Jeroen de Jong, Jord Rolland de Rengervé, Norman Deschauwer 🚀, and the perfect setup for memorable evening parties with Jan Van Der Burgt, Geneviève Loriaux, Kris Philippaerts, Sarah Siebel-Janssen and many many more that made this event more than just another conference.

These last few years, this conference was a milestone in my agenda and I'll forever be grateful for what they did for the community. ❤️

Thanks for everything Dana Garcia, Frank Eggink, Peter Latten, Sophie Van Der Mierden, Karen De Boeck and let's find another reason to catch up every year 🫶