VikingPLoP calls the daring to participate the adventure of 2016. We have wandered all over Europe since 2001 and we are not done yet. Thus, pluck up your courage and join us.

VikingPLoP, the Travelling pattern conference, is an excellent venue to meet pattern experts and to exchange knowledge about patterns. The conference helps you to learn more about patterns, to receive feedback on your own work, and to discuss with fellow pattern enthusiasts. We especially encourage new-comers and non-academic pattern enthusiasts to participate in the conference. Open and supportive atmosphere makes VikingPLoP a great opportunity to get familiar with patterns and patterns community.
We will head towards Netherlands. The gathering takes place 7th of April 2016 at Wassenaar. The journey lasts four days and we will head towards home 10th of April 2015. Our scouts have identified a potential base location: Hagenhorst mansion. There we will feast with Netherlandish cuisines, rest on luxurious rooms and enjoy the atmosphere of the venue in between the design pattern work.

The core of VikingPLoP is a series of writers' workshops where authors work together to improve their papers. Before patterns or other papers are accepted for a writers' workshop, they are shepherded. This means that an experienced author will discuss your submission with you, so that you can refine your paper prior to the conference. After shepherding, reviewed and accepted papers will be discussed at the conference in a writers' workshop. After the conference, you refine your paper with the feedback from the workshop and then submit the camera-ready version for the proceedings. Submitting a paper to VikingPLoP gives you a good opportunity to get intensive feedback and other opinions on their work through shepherding and through the writers'

Submissions
VikingPLoP accepts papers containing patterns or pattern languages as well as experience reports and papers related to the theory and use of patterns. Papers submitted to VikingPLoP cover a wide range of subjects, from technical issues, like C++ programming and embedded systems, to social and organizational issues. The submitted pattern papers should contain one or more patterns maximum number of pages being 10. However, we are not particularly strict on this limit and longer pattern languages or sequences and work-in-progress papers will also be considered for inclusion. Papers should follow ACM format guidelines. Papers that have been in writer's workshop at VikingPLoP qualify for a submission to the Springer journal LNCS Transactions on Pattern Languages of Programming (TPLoP).

Important Dates
To access the journey thou shall do the following:
December 19th 2015: Short requisition application (abstract)
January 4th 2016: Compete requisition application (complete initial paper)
January 15th: First training period (start of shepherding)
February 22nd: Demonstration of competence (second draft deadline)
February 29th: Announcement of the heroes (Paper acceptance notification)
March 9th: Blood oath (Registration)
March 16th: Final plan announcement & End of training (Conference version deadline & End of shepherding)
April 7th-10th, 2016: The journey (conference dates)
October 30th: Valhalla entrance day (Final version deadline)

Contact
Shall thou have any questions regarding the journey please contact program chair Jari Rauhamäki (jari.rauhamaki at tut.fi) or conference chair Christian Köppe (patterns at koeppe.nl), or visit www.vikingplop.org.