We will have three focus groups in VikingPLoP 2026. Focus groups A and B will be in parallel on Friday and on Sunday there will be one focus group C. Here are the descriptions of the focus group so you can start thinking which one you want to participate in on Friday.

Focus group A: Joy Pattern Mining Focus Group

What is essential for you to live a lively and fulfilling life? What common elements can you find in the moments when you have felt a deep, fundamental joy in your life? In this focus group led by An Hikino and Takashi Iba, participants will explore the roots of a fulfilling life by discovering their personal “Joy Pattern.” Using an original method called Root Mining, attendees will reflect on their attraction to pattern languages and trace these back to formative childhood experiences to uncover recurring themes of fundamental joy. Inspired by Christopher Alexander’s work, this session offers a collaborative environment to experience and articulate these patterns as a new form of pattern language, requiring no prior preparation from participants.

Focus group B: AI Teaching as a Pattern Language Focus Group

This focus group is organized and facilitated by Mary Tedeschi and William Telafor. The session examines the use of AI in teaching through a design-pattern perspective, treating AI teaching not as a single solution but as a set of recurring contexts, problems, forces, and responses. Using MIT Analogia Cards and facilitated dialogue, participants collaboratively identify effective AI teaching patterns, surface anti-patterns, and explore ethical trade-offs related to care, authority, and responsibility in education. Participants gain a shared vocabulary for discussing AI in teaching, practical design knowledge grounded in real educational contexts, and contributions to an emerging pattern language for ethical AI adoption. No prior AI expertise or preparation is required, as the focus group emphasizes lived experience, reflection, and human-centered discussion.

Focus group C: Are Scrum Patterns ready for Human-AI Collaboration?

Scrum Patterns were built for teams that think, argue, and bond over coffee. But what happens when an AI agent joins the stand-up? This hands-on focus group brings together Agile practitioners, pattern authors, and researchers to examine where classic Scrum Patterns break down under Human-AI collaboration — and to draft the next generation of patterns that embrace non-deterministic, high-velocity AI “team members.” This focus group is organized and facilitated by Ademar Aguiar and Veli-Pekka Eloranta. 

Some authors have reported problems finding their way to the submission system. Thus, we will be adding the link to the submission system also here. We apologize for the poor website design on this regards.

Submission system

O mighty pattern-weavers and saga-scribes of the North, hear now a fresh echo across the fjords!

For many among you have sent ravens requesting more time, and the council of VikingPLoP has listened.

📜 A New Turn of the Sun Granted
The deadline for offering your wisdom-scrolls to VikingPLoP 2026 has been extended to the 1st day of December. If your runes are not yet carved, take heart — you still have days ahead to polish your tale and send it forth on the winds.

Let your manuscript take any readable form, so long as it may be marked, annotated, and scrawled upon by fellow travelers who read it by firelight.

So sharpen your quills, stoke the forge of thought, and let your patterns ring with clarity.

The longships await your work. Bring forth your scrolls, brave authors — the saga continues!

O wise pattern-weavers, lore-keepers, and code-slinging skalds, gather round!
For the longships of thought have set sail once more, and the fires of knowledge burn bright in the North!

From the cold fjords and quiet forests echoes a mighty call:
🗣️ VikingPLoP 2026 is upon the horizon, and the Call for Papers has been loosed like an arrow from Odin’s own bow!

Let all those who seek the wisdom of patterns, who forge clarity from chaos, and who craft sagas of structure and system, prepare thy scrolls!

🌲 Where the Saga Unfolds

This year’s gathering shall unfold in the vast, glistening realm of Finnish Lapland, where the snow still clings to ancient trees and the air sings with clarity. VikingPLoP 2026 will be held at the Jeris Lakeside Resort, nestled beside Lake Jerisjärvi, on the edge of Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park.

📍 Jeris Lakeside Resort, Lapland, Finland
📅 April 9–12, 2026
🌐 www.vikingplop.org

This time between winter and spring brings longer days, brighter skies, and serene landscapes. Ideal for both deep thinking and fireside reflection on patterns.

VikingPLoP calls for papers that capture the essence of recurring wisdom — in code, design, process, or pedagogy.

You may submit:

• 📜 Pattern papers or collections

• 🧩 Experience reports involving patterns

• 🔍 Theoretical reflections on the use of patterns

We welcome topics ranging from:

• AI and data mining

• Embedded or distributed systems

• Architecture, design, and dev pipelines

• Business, process, and organizational patterns

• Education, coaching

• HCI, and UI/UX patterns

Your submission should contain one or more patterns, or meaningfully explore the application of pattern thinking. Maximum length: ~10 pages. Final versions must follow Springer LNCS formatting.

All accepted submissions will go through shepherding, where experienced guides help refine your ideas.

📢 The Final Summons

If you’ve discovered a pattern in the wild, battled complexity with elegance, or taught others the old ways of good design — this is your time.

Join us in Lapland. Let your patterns be heard. Shape the saga of VikingPLoP 2026.

👉 Submit your scrolls and read the full runes at: https://www.vikingplop.org (submission system will open up soon)

Raise your horn. Unroll your parchment. The North awaits.
🛡️ Skål! 🍻

From distant horizons, word travels swiftly: longships cut through the mist, and whispers speak of landfall on the Finnish shores. We know the moment is soon.

Wherever the Vikings arrive, patterns emerge. In their wake, they leave not only echoes of steel and fire, but also structures, stories, and ways of thinking that endure long after the waves have calmed.

The VikingPlop is no ordinary gathering — it is a meeting of software explorers, pattern-weavers, and knowledge-bearers. Like the sagas of old, the tales told here shape the future, binding communities through shared craft.

And this time, their landing is foretold at the mysterious waters of Lake Nerisjärvi.

Stay watchful. The shore grows closer with each passing tide.
More will be revealed soon.