Pattern Languages of Programs, People, and Practices
The Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs, People, and Practices (PLoP) was established in 1994 by The Hillside Group. It gathers people who wish to improve the quality of life through designing and using social and technical systems more humanely, effectively articulating professional and other creative practices, and sharing this tacit knowledge more broadly. To achieve this, the conference promotes the use of patterns and pattern languages, as well as the underlying theory of the nature of order.
Originating in the work of Christopher Alexander on building architecture, these ideas have been further developed in computer science, fundamentally changing the perception of software development. Much of the pioneering work in this area originated at this and other PLoP conferences worldwide. Patterns and pattern languages have expanded to many other areas, including art, well-being, learning, psychology, organizational development and change, sociology, and anthropology. PLoP encourages a variety of submissions regardless of the area they target. At the conference, papers are discussed in Writers’ Workshops with groups of paper authors and possibly other conference participants. Authors are expected to take into account the comments they received in the Writers’ Workshops to improve their papers. You can find more information on Writers’ Workshops here and more about how to run PLoPs here. PLoP is a registered trademark of The Hillside Group.
Upcoming PLoP Conferences
Check out upcoming conferences on Pattern Languages of Programs, People & Practices
March 27-30, 2026
Yokohama, Japan
12th Asian Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs, People & Practices
Oct 12-15, 2025
Columbia River Gorge, Washington
32nd Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs, People & Practices
July 2-6 2025
Kloster Irsee, Germany
30th European Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs
Past PLoPs
Want to go even further back?
Use these links to visit PLoP conferences and proceedings from 1994-2000.
Other PLoP Conferences
Previous Asian
Pacific Conferences
The Hillside Group has sponsored PLoP conferences located in the Asian Pacific region in the past, including AsianPLoP, MensorePLoP and KoalaPLoP.
Australian Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs
KoalaPLoPTM was hosted near Melbourne Australia and is open to pattern authors, pattern users, and software designers and developers from around the world. The conference was last hosted in 2002. It ran for three conference cycles.
Bridging the World!
MensorePLoP ‘2002 was the first PLoP in Japan with the goal to bring together researchers and practitioners to share interests in exploring the power of the pattern form. MensorePLoP focused on improving the expression of patterns.
MensorePLoP was held at Hotel Moon Beach, Okinawa, Japan. This was the first attempt to hold this kind of conference in a subtropical climate and insular geological structure.