Agile Conference Direction (was .sig line)
mheusser
in different places, staggered by six months. This would allow:
(A) the conference to respond to change more quickly,
(B) More total people to attend by lowering the travel expenses,
(C) More slots for speakers to speak, thus more speakers
We've been doing this in the test community for years (STAREast,
STARWest, and EuroSTAR come to mind). What /tends/ to happen is that
you see a slightly different 'flavor' to the conferences.
I'm tempted to join the Agile Alliance and start proposing this RIGHT
NOW. Luckily, my business credit card is at home and I'm working
remote today (in one of those "office" thingies) so I'll get to sleep
on it.
But I joined the Scrum alliance and all my proposals to that seem to
fizzle very quickly. I'm unlikely to do the leg work to become an
inner ringer in the Scrum community, but I believe I already have
somewhat of a voice in the Agile Community.
What do you think?
regards,
--heusser
Yves Hanoulle
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Yves Hanoulle
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See you at:
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Xp 2010 (1-4 June Norway) www.xp2010.org I will be delivering my Leadership Game.
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XPDay Benelux (25-26 November 2010) www.xpday.be
Charlie Poole
From: lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com [mailto:lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Yves Hanoulle
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 5:46 AM
To: lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Rachel Davies
Subject: Re: [LCS] Agile Conference Direction (was .sig line)
racheldavies
I'm normally a lurker on this group but I did see this message thread
in the digest.
To set the record straight, it is true that Agile Alliance did
consider running a conference in Europe when we created our roadmap
last year. I volunteered to scout this out and discussed the merits of
doing this with a few folks. My recommendation to the board in
December 2009 was that the conference scene in Europe is quite healthy
and creating a new big Agile Alliance conference would probably be
unwelcome competition. So we have not set aside any budget for a new
conference in Europe for 2010 or 2011.
Instead, we prefer to continue to support conferences in Europe by
continuing to sponsor them. For instance, XP2010 got extra help this
year, Agile Alliance provided and hosted the submission system (same
one as for Agile2009) for tutorials, workshops, lightning talks,
experience reports (excluding the research papers). XP2010 did not get
a big outcry from people whose sessions were rejected. I guess this
was because they are not offering much compensation to presenters
other than free or discounted registration.
Agile Alliance are still open to running / supporting another
conference somewhere outside North America possibly South America.
In the past, Agile Alliance considered running 2 big conferences per
year but this would require even more volunteer effort, something we
already struggle with. One of the reasons, we merged XPUniverse with
Agile Development Conference is because their were complaints from big
name speakers who felt they were spreading themselves too thinly and
couldn't decide which conference to present at when the dates were
close together.
Agile20xx is intended to be an international "meeting of the tribes"
rather than an in-depth conference on a specific topic for a local
community. That is why Agile Alliance also spend a big chunk of the
proceeds of Agile20xx on sponsoring other events around the world -
many of those are open space, coach camp, community-based events which
we hope provide a cheaper alternative to Agile20xx for people who
can't afford to be there.
Agile Alliance is interested to hear ideas of how we might organize
our conference better but the limiting factor we have found is finding
volunteers who understand agile development enough to assemble an
interesting and relevant program for our diverse audience. Clearly,
there are some of you who feel that we could do a better job with
that. I encourage you to sign-up to help our conference chair, Hakan
Erdogmus, work out how to select the program for Agile2011.
Personally, I've found that being a reviewer of conference sessions
has helped me work out how to pitch my own sessions better so maybe
you might learn something by being a reviewer or stage producer.
Rachel
(who doesn't have the energy to create a long signature list of all
the conferences she is going to)
On Apr 12, 1:45 pm, Yves Hanoulle <Mail...@ObjectSoft.be> wrote:
> I'm happy with that idea.
> I know that the agile alliance is already working on a european version of
> the conference.
> I think that Rachel Davies is the person to contact for that one.
>
> I put Rachel in copy, Rachel could you tell us some more about these plans?
>
> Yves
>
> 2010/4/12 mheusser <matt.heus...@gmail.com>
> http://twitter/yveshanoullehttp://www.slideshare.net/YvesHanoullehttp://www.linkedin.com/in/yveshanoullehttp://www.PairCoaching.net
>
> See you at:
>
> Agile Coach Camp Germany (30 April - 2 May 2010 )http://ww.agilecoachcamp.eu
> Xp 2010 (1-4 June Norway)www.xp2010.orgI will be delivering my Leadership
> Game.
>
> Agile Eastern Europe (8-10 October 2010, Kiev)http://www.agileee.org/
racheldavies
in the digest.
On Apr 12, 5:36 pm, "Charlie Poole" <nunit...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Yves,
>
> Of course there is already a European Agile Conference: XPnnnn.
>
> XP2010 is taking place in Trondheim, June 1-4.
> XP2011 will be in Madrid.
> XP2012 will be in Sweden (I believe Malmö, or at least nearby)
>
> The "XP" conferences cover all agile methods with Scrum, XP and Kanban being
> the most mentioned ones. The conferences have had their ups and downs but
> then so has the Agile conference.
>
> It isn't surprising to me that an as-yet-unspecified conference has
> (virtual) features
> that may attract you more than some existing conference, but we see that
> phenomenon in the software industry all the time - the next release is
> always
> the best!
>
> Consider sharing what would need to improve in the XP series of conferences
> to get your attendance.
>
> Consider helping us make those improvements.
>
> Charlie
>
> _____
>
> From: lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Yves Hanoulle
> Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 5:46 AM
> To: lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com
> Cc: Rachel Davies
> Subject: Re: [LCS] Agile Conference Direction (was .sig line)
>
> I'm happy with that idea.
> I know that the agile alliance is already working on a european version of
> the conference.
> I think that Rachel Davies is the person to contact for that one.
>
> I put Rachel in copy, Rachel could you tell us some more about these plans?
>
> Yves
>
> 2010/4/12 mheusser <matt.heus...@gmail.com>
> Question of the Dayhttp://twitter.com/retroflection
>
> http://twitter/yveshanoullehttp://www.slideshare.net/YvesHanoullehttp://www.linkedin.com/in/yveshanoullehttp://www.PairCoaching.net
>
> See you at:
>
> Agile Coach Camp Germany (30 April - 2 May 2010 )http://ww.agilecoachcamp.eu
> Xp 2010 (1-4 June Norway)www.xp2010.orgI will be delivering my Leadership
> Game.
>
> Agile Eastern Europe (8-10 October 2010, Kiev)http://www.agileee.org/
Janet Gregory
Yves Hanoulle
Dave Rooney
Thanks for the detailed explanation! Comments below...
On 04/12/2010 04:46 PM, racheldavies wrote:
> To set the record straight, it is true that Agile Alliance did
> consider running a conference in Europe when we created our roadmap
> last year. I volunteered to scout this out and discussed the merits of
> doing this with a few folks. My recommendation to the board in
> December 2009 was that the conference scene in Europe is quite healthy
> and creating a new big Agile Alliance conference would probably be
> unwelcome competition. So we have not set aside any budget for a new
> conference in Europe for 2010 or 2011.
>
> Instead, we prefer to continue to support conferences in Europe by
> continuing to sponsor them. For instance, XP2010 got extra help this
> year, Agile Alliance provided and hosted the submission system (same
> one as for Agile2009) for tutorials, workshops, lightning talks,
> experience reports (excluding the research papers). XP2010 did not get
> a big outcry from people whose sessions were rejected. I guess this
> was because they are not offering much compensation to presenters
> other than free or discounted registration.
>
Fair enough - I knew that the Agile Alliance was involved with the XP
series.
> In the past, Agile Alliance considered running 2 big conferences per
> year but this would require even more volunteer effort, something we
> already struggle with. One of the reasons, we merged XPUniverse with
> Agile Development Conference is because their were complaints from big
> name speakers who felt they were spreading themselves too thinly and
> couldn't decide which conference to present at when the dates were
> close together.
>
To be fair, though, the "agile world" has changed a LOT since then. In
2004, how many "big names" were there? Compare that to 2010. I don't
know if the community has grown exponentially, but it has certainly been
non-linear. Remember as well that there were also other more "human"
issues behind the two conferences in the early 2000's that had nothing
to do with logistics.
The complaint here and now is that there are many, many good sessions
that aren't being accepted for the one conference in North America. Was
that the case in '04? To me, it's an indication that the community has
grown and matured.
> Agile20xx is intended to be an international "meeting of the tribes"
> rather than an in-depth conference on a specific topic for a local
> community. That is why Agile Alliance also spend a big chunk of the
> proceeds of Agile20xx on sponsoring other events around the world -
> many of those are open space, coach camp, community-based events which
> we hope provide a cheaper alternative to Agile20xx for people who
> can't afford to be there.
>
Yes, and if the main Agile20xx conference grows too big that "meeting"
becomes very dilute.
> Agile Alliance is interested to hear ideas of how we might organize
> our conference better but the limiting factor we have found is finding
> volunteers who understand agile development enough to assemble an
> interesting and relevant program for our diverse audience. Clearly,
> there are some of you who feel that we could do a better job with
> that. I encourage you to sign-up to help our conference chair, Hakan
> Erdogmus, work out how to select the program for Agile2011.
> Personally, I've found that being a reviewer of conference sessions
> has helped me work out how to pitch my own sessions better so maybe
> you might learn something by being a reviewer or stage producer.
>
Yes - I'll be in touch with Hakan. :)
Thanks!
Dave...
George Dinwiddie
Something to ponder:
Dave Rooney wrote:
> The complaint here and now is that there are many, many good sessions
> that aren't being accepted for the one conference in North America.
If there were multiple conferences, would that increase the acceptance
of sessions now getting rejected? Or just increase the number of times
the currently-accepted sessions get accepted?
The biggest difficulty for the program committee is to balance things
across stages. Wouldn't it be even harder to balance across conferences?
- George
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* George Dinwiddie * http://blog.gdinwiddie.com
Software Development http://www.idiacomputing.com
Consultant and Coach http://www.agilemaryland.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yves Hanoulle
Dave,
Something to ponder:If there were multiple conferences, would that increase the acceptance of sessions now getting rejected? Or just increase the number of times the currently-accepted sessions get accepted?
Dave Rooney wrote:
The complaint here and now is that there are many, many good sessions that aren't being accepted for the one conference in North America.
The biggest difficulty for the program committee is to balance things across stages. Wouldn't it be even harder to balance across conferences?
- George
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* George Dinwiddie * http://blog.gdinwiddie.com
Software Development http://www.idiacomputing.com
Consultant and Coach http://www.agilemaryland.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject.
--
Yves Hanoulle
Agile Coach EMEA
FR +33 6 03 40 38 00
BEL +32 9 277 91 99 (Arrives on France Cellphone)
http://twitter/yveshanoulle
http://www.slideshare.net/YvesHanoulle
http://www.linkedin.com/in/yveshanoulle
Xp 2010 (1-4 June Norway) www.xp2010.org I will be delivering my Leadership Game.
Agile Eastern Europe (8-10 October 2010, Kiev) http://www.agileee.org/
Dave Rooney
On 04/13/2010 06:48 AM, George Dinwiddie wrote:
> Dave,
>
> Something to ponder:
>
> Dave Rooney wrote:
>> The complaint here and now is that there are many, many good sessions
>> that aren't being accepted for the one conference in North America.
>
> If there were multiple conferences, would that increase the acceptance
> of sessions now getting rejected? Or just increase the number of
> times the currently-accepted sessions get accepted?
I'm sure there are sessions that merit being accepted at both
conferences, and those that don't merit being at either.
> The biggest difficulty for the program committee is to balance things
> across stages. Wouldn't it be even harder to balance across conferences?
How do the STAR conferences do it? I'd ask how SD did it as well, but
given that they don't exist anymore I guess the answer is, "not very well".
Would it be harder? Probably. Would it provide a stage for more people
to give their message? Probably.
BTW, I do realize that you can't simply split the conference size in
half and expect half the costs and revenues. I would expect that 2
Agile confs would have to be something like 2/3 to 3/4 the size of the
current single conf to be effective and profitable enough to warrant
having them.
Dave...
Dave Rooney
> My feeling is
> Some people might want to talk on both (the big names)
> a lot more people might be happy if they talk only on one of these...
> There is no way to know if I''m right or you're right.
>
> only by doing it
>
> Well maybe sending out a mailing to every accepted an rejected could
> help finding this
AMEN!! I was just about to say something very similar, but you beat me
to it!
Granted, "just doing it" is, um, 'difficult' for a conference the size
of Agile 20xx. However, don't we coach teams to suspend disbelief that
all this agile hooey that we spout will work for them? Seriously.
Dave...
George Dinwiddie
Dave Rooney wrote:
>> The biggest difficulty for the program committee is to balance things
>> across stages. Wouldn't it be even harder to balance across conferences?
>
> How do the STAR conferences do it? I'd ask how SD did it as well, but
> given that they don't exist anymore I guess the answer is, "not very well".
Those are professionally run conferences. They include what they think
will draw people, not necessarily what is most important (though there's
overlap in those concepts).
In a professionally run conference, there's no sense of entitlement when
a session is rejected. A volunteer-run community-based conference is a
very different animal.
Glenn Waters
In a professionally run conference, there's no sense of entitlement when a session is rejected. A volunteer-run community-based conference is a very different animal.
Which is Agile 2010 (serious question, not cynical)? It has attributes of professionally run and volunteer-run.
Glenn
Dave Rooney
On 04/13/2010 08:15 AM, George Dinwiddie wrote:
> Those are professionally run conferences. They include what they
> think will draw people, not necessarily what is most important (though
> there's overlap in those concepts).
Uh, yeah, there's an overlap. I'll point to the TDD for
iPhone/iPod/iPad session by Mishkin as an example. BTW, I have nothing
at all against Mishkin, and I'm sure the session will be good. My beef
is that it sure looks on the surface that it was accepted on the
coolness factor, and not that there is new ground being broken on the
TDD front.
> In a professionally run conference, there's no sense of entitlement
> when a session is rejected. A volunteer-run community-based
> conference is a very different animal.
I get the distinct sense that Agile 20xx has long passed the "community"
concept (and I wish I could have attended the confs back 7-8 years ago,
but my personal circumstances at the time prevented it). While the
conference is run by volunteers, is that not more a reflection of what
they're paid rather than what they do?
Dave...
mheusser
> given that they don't exist anymore I guess the answer is, "not very well".
I was on program committee for GLSEC a couple of times, and I'm on the
planning board for STPCon this year.
For GLSEC, we came up with a half-dozen factors to rate from 1-5 for
each proposal. Then we rated them and averaged, then averaged amoung
the board and sorted. Then we tried to build the schedule from there
(for example, if ALL of the top proposals are on the same thing, or in
the same 'track', we might have to kitty-corner around.)
One of the things we explicitly did grade on was known good quantity
of the speaker. Personally, this is important to me. There are
plenty of people (Ron Jeffries comes to mind) that no matter what they
are proposing on, I know it'll be good.
The opposite, how EuroSTAR does it, is the double-blind evaluation,
where you don't even know who submitted what at all. The prevents any
buddy-buddy systems and inbreeding in the conference.
The /main/ reason we did the rating system was not actually to help us
determine who to accept (we could have done that with a simple
holistic rank 'em, average, and sort) but so that, when people asked
why they were rejected, we could give them specific feedback.
Hey - I JUST JOINED THE AGILE ALLIANCE.
Step two: ?
Step Three: Change the world.
Who's with me?
--heusser
Charlie Poole
From: lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com [mailto:lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Yves Hanoulle
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 1:00 AM
To: lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com
Scott Duncan
Charlie Poole
> I get the distinct sense that Agile 20xx has long passed the
> "community"
> concept (and I wish I could have attended the confs back 7-8
> years ago, but my personal circumstances at the time
> prevented it). While the conference is run by volunteers, is
> that not more a reflection of what they're paid rather than
> what they do?
You can roll back the clock!
Just start your own community conference.
Here in the Pacific Northwest we have AgileOpenNorthwest, and there
are other AgileOpen conferences in various parts of the world. Our
last event cost $125 for a two day event. Because it's open space,
there's an opportunity for anyone to host whatever session they
are interested in.
This is not unique. There are XP days, code camps, etc. taking place
all over the world. As a somewhat narrower example, I just attended the
Seattle AltDotNet conference, which is oriented to .NET technology but
also toward things like TDD, refactoring and so on. For $35 I got to
hear the latest ideas of some very smart people, share some of my own
and eat pizza twice. Such a deal.
So don't bemoan that you missed the glory days of the 20th century!
Start your own event. You can probably even get seed money from the
Agile Alliance. :-)
Charlie
I think we need more local/regional events in the agile community.
They can be low-cost (AONW was $125, AltDotNet was $35)
Janet Gregory
Rachel Davies
Rachel Davies
George Dinwiddie
Glenn, I'd say it's volunteer-run, though, as Rachel points out, they do
hire some logistics work from a highly competent company. It's still
volunteers that make the decisions about what the conference contains.
George Dinwiddie
Dave Rooney wrote:
> Hi George,
>
> On 04/13/2010 08:15 AM, George Dinwiddie wrote:
>> Those are professionally run conferences. They include what they
>> think will draw people, not necessarily what is most important (though
>> there's overlap in those concepts).
>
> Uh, yeah, there's an overlap. I'll point to the TDD for
> iPhone/iPod/iPad session by Mishkin as an example. BTW, I have nothing
> at all against Mishkin, and I'm sure the session will be good. My beef
> is that it sure looks on the surface that it was accepted on the
> coolness factor, and not that there is new ground being broken on the
> TDD front.
I'll agree that there's inconsistent decisions made on what's included
in the Agile Conference. I think that's because there are so many
people involved in making the decisions. I'm not sure I would have
selected that particular session, but it must have appealed to the
reviewers of that stage.
>> In a professionally run conference, there's no sense of entitlement
>> when a session is rejected. A volunteer-run community-based
>> conference is a very different animal.
>
> I get the distinct sense that Agile 20xx has long passed the "community"
> concept (and I wish I could have attended the confs back 7-8 years ago,
> but my personal circumstances at the time prevented it). While the
> conference is run by volunteers, is that not more a reflection of what
> they're paid rather than what they do?
I don't know what you mean by that.
George Dinwiddie
> Just start your own community conference.
Yes!
> They can be low-cost (AONW was $125, AltDotNet was $35)
And SDTC (Simple Design and Testing Conference) was $0.
Yves Hanoulle
The XP20xx conference is considered academic because it is hosted by a different university each year. Agile20xx also has academic space but we struggle to get enough submissions to make a decent track.
XP2009 in Sardinia was around 100 attendees (including the speakers) - several tutorials had to be cancelled because of the low sign-up rates. Many other agile conferences in Europe such as XPDays, AgileCE, Agile Business conference are bigger so XP20xx not really "the big one" for Europe. Although for XP2010, we already have 350 attendees (including speakers). This is about the size of XPUniverse or Agile Development Conference ~2003 before they merged. Still way smaller than Agile20xx which is 1000+ attendees since 2007.Our peak number of attendees at the Agile Alliance conference was 1600+ for Agile2008 which accepted ~400 sessions from 968 submissions - we tried to accept as many sessions as we could make room for. However, attendees complained saying there was too much choice!Agile2009 accepted ~300 of a whopping 1500 submissions. I believe Agile2010 has so far selected ~170 sessions from 909 submissions (this might be topped up with academic and invited sessions). Notice that the conference is becoming more selective. See how this explains the unexpected rejections - both Agile2009 and Agile2010 have fewer presentation slots in the program.
Jim's vision for Agile2010 is quality over quantity. Although you may notice that a smaller number of scheduled sessions also makes the conference budget easier to balance, simplifiest admin, speaker expenses, etc. Agile2010 also drops the publication of written experience reports which was something setting our conference apart from big commercial and small local conferences. I think that's a pity.
Dave Rooney
>>
>> I get the distinct sense that Agile 20xx has long passed the
>> "community" concept (and I wish I could have attended the confs back
>> 7-8 years ago, but my personal circumstances at the time prevented
>> it). While the conference is run by volunteers, is that not more a
>> reflection of what they're paid rather than what they do?
> In a professionally run conference, there's no sense of entitlement
> when a session is rejected. A volunteer-run community-based
> conference is a very different animal.
>
> I don't know what you mean by that.
Simply that while, yes, they are volunteers, they are doing work that
would be paid if there were professional event organizers.
Is the perception that Agile 201x is a "community" or "gathering of the
clan" a holdover from 5-8 years ago when it was indeed that? Rachel
mentioned the numbers in a message yesterday - 1500-1600 attendees and a
similar number of session submissions tells me that the conference has
outgrown this concept.
This isn't a bad thing, it's just that we need to recognize and accept
it as such and possibly adjust the conference accordingly.
Dave..
Yves Hanoulle
On 04/13/2010 10:58 PM, George Dinwiddie wrote:
In a professionally run conference, there's no sense of entitlement when a session is rejected. A volunteer-run community-based conference is a very different animal.
I get the distinct sense that Agile 20xx has long passed the "community" concept (and I wish I could have attended the confs back 7-8 years ago, but my personal circumstances at the time prevented it). While the conference is run by volunteers, is that not more a reflection of what they're paid rather than what they do?
I don't know what you mean by that.
Simply that while, yes, they are volunteers, they are doing work that would be paid if there were professional event organizers.
Is the perception that Agile 201x is a "community" or "gathering of the clan" a holdover from 5-8 years ago when it was indeed that? Rachel mentioned the numbers in a message yesterday - 1500-1600 attendees and a similar number of session submissions tells me that the conference has outgrown this concept.
Dave Rooney
2010/4/14 Dave Rooney <davero...@gmail.com>
On 04/13/2010 10:58 PM, George Dinwiddie wrote:
In a professionally run conference, there's no sense of entitlement when a session is rejected. A volunteer-run community-based conference is a very different animal.
I get the distinct sense that Agile 20xx has long passed the "community" concept (and I wish I could have attended the confs back 7-8 years ago, but my personal circumstances at the time prevented it). While the conference is run by volunteers, is that not more a reflection of what they're paid rather than what they do?
I don't know what you mean by that.
Simply that while, yes, they are volunteers, they are doing work that would be paid if there were professional event organizers.
Is the perception that Agile 201x is a "community" or "gathering of the clan" a holdover from 5-8 years ago when it was indeed that? Rachel mentioned the numbers in a message yesterday - 1500-1600 attendees and a similar number of session submissions tells me that the conference has outgrown this concept.
Are you saying that with that number of people it is no longer a community?
Is this bad? No. I think the issue may be that we're viewing the conference as a gathering in the village square when in reality the population is much larger than the square can handle.
Dave...
Rachel Davies
Agile2010 also drops the publication of written experience reports which was something setting our conference apart from big commercial and small local conferences. I think that's a pity.we could look for a (cheaper ?) replacement as in having written experience report on the net ?
Rachel Davies
When conferences are organized by professional event organizers, they pick big name speakers, case studies from big corps, and hot topics like "Enterprise Agile" - there's no room for new presenters who are not already known, experience reports or in-depth workshops. Such event organizers do not write reviews or give feedback to presenters on submissions (if they collect submissions) - presenters just get scores from their actual sessions and not invited back if their scores are low.
Agile2010 and many other community events use volunteer reviewers because these people are agile practitioners who are aware of interesting topics that might not necessarily come from big names. We still have to have a few big names and popular topics to draw people to register or persuade their boss to sign-off the cost (that's what the invited sessions are for) in but our bigger aim is to expand the field of agile practice and cross-pollinate ideas.
The idea of drawing attendees and presenters from around the world for a gathering is not purely for chummy networking and beers - we want to spread techniques and new practices around the world. During the 90's OOPSLA provided a crucible for the early XP/SCRUM practitioners to share their ideas with an international audience, Agile20xx to serves a similar purpose for sharing experiences (although with such a large pool of practitioners the effect is diluted).
We could throw in the towel and sell the conference to be run by a professional organization like SQE. We could leave the small Agile Open conferences to have exciting conversations in their own local areas. My guess would that this would slow down the transfer of ideas/tools/tips/techniques between continents. Agile Alliance would also lose a source of revenue that we use to sponsor other conferences.
The only people who are empowered to adjust the conference are the people involved in running it. Agile2011 and the dealings of the Agile Alliance can be influenced by volunteers. If you care enough then get involved and make it happen. If you just want to toss in ideas for someone else to implement in their spare time then don't be surprised when nothing happens.
Rachel
Mark Levison
Mark Levison
Dave Rooney
I need a brain break - in fact right now I just need a new brain. Dave a suggestion, I understand that the whole system is imperfect and could do with improvement. I invite you to join me on the inside :-). Should someone make a stage producer next year (for the neuroscience stage :-)), I will invite you to be part of my review team. The pay sucks and people will throw rotten fruit at you, but at your helping to make the review process better.
My motto for the next year (inspired by a lot of things in the past few months and not Dave): "Instead of complaining I will seek to improve every situation I'm part of. If I can't make even a small improvement I will step out".
FWIW, I've been on both sides of the equation in terms of being accepted and rejected... this time last year I was pissed, and right now I'm ecstatic. I know that it isn't an easy job and I've never said it was. I'm also not the only one asking these sorts of questions - there are people who aren't understanding what seems to them to be an arbitrary process.
I am suggesting that the responses I see with respect to the organizers' view of the Agile 201x conference reflect a view of the Agile world that might be somewhat dated. I'm not saying that my perception if correct, but again I'm not the only person seeing that.
Dave...
Rachel Davies
I am suggesting that the responses I see with respect to the organizers' view of the Agile 201x conference reflects a view of the Agile world that might be somewhat dated. I'm not saying that my perception is correct, but again I'm not the only person seeing that.
Dave...
Keith Ray
selection process. It seems like this could raise the diversity of
speakers, at the possible cost of fewer big names. That could be
compensated for, if it becomes necessary.
Before orchestras started doing auditions behind a screen, they only
selected men for most instruments, falling into preconceived notions
of which sex (and race?) could play what instrument. Look at the
orchestra in Disney's Fantasia: the only woman there was the harpist,
and all the player were white.
C. Keith Ray
Agile Coaching, training, eLearning
http://www.industriallogic.com
Sent from my iPhone
George Dinwiddie
Dave Rooney wrote:
> On 04/13/2010 10:58 PM, George Dinwiddie wrote:
>>>
>>> I get the distinct sense that Agile 20xx has long passed the
>>> "community" concept (and I wish I could have attended the confs back
>>> 7-8 years ago, but my personal circumstances at the time prevented
>>> it). While the conference is run by volunteers, is that not more a
>>> reflection of what they're paid rather than what they do?
>> In a professionally run conference, there's no sense of entitlement
>> when a session is rejected. A volunteer-run community-based
>> conference is a very different animal.
>>
>> I don't know what you mean by that.
>
> Simply that while, yes, they are volunteers, they are doing work that
> would be paid if there were professional event organizers.
Well, of course. But volunteers do it differently than paid staff.
> Is the perception that Agile 201x is a "community" or "gathering of the
> clan" a holdover from 5-8 years ago when it was indeed that? Rachel
> mentioned the numbers in a message yesterday - 1500-1600 attendees and a
> similar number of session submissions tells me that the conference has
> outgrown this concept.
I disagree. The community is much larger and more diverse, but that
doesn't mean that it's outgrown the concept of community. It means that
it has to find ways to deal with that growth.
> This isn't a bad thing, it's just that we need to recognize and accept
> it as such and possibly adjust the conference accordingly.
Yes. And, I think, to find ways to provide more continuity from year to
year. Otherwise the lessons learned get lost.
George Dinwiddie
Keith Ray wrote:
> I like the idea of conference submissions being anonymized during the
> selection process. It seems like this could raise the diversity of
> speakers, at the possible cost of fewer big names.
It could also result in a conference full of people who can write a good
proposal, but who can't give a good presentation. When I was a reviewer
last year, we interviewed proposal authors who we didn't know where
capable of conducting a good session. We didn't reject any, but we were
careful because of complaints the year before.
Yves Hanoulle
I like the idea of conference submissions being anonymized during the selection process. It seems like this could raise the diversity of speakers, at the possible cost of fewer big names. That could be compensated for, if it becomes necessary.
Dave
I just noticed your comment that the XPnnnn conferences have a
reputation for being academic. I've participated in two XPnnnn
conferences, and I found them to be full of practical sessions and
very rich in between-session interaction with peers. Go for it!
Dave
On Apr 13, 4:00 am, Yves Hanoulle <Mail...@ObjectSoft.be> wrote:
> Hi Charlie,
>
> Ah yes.
> This year is the first year I will go to XPnnnn
> So what I'm saying here is only based on things I heard in the community.
> Quite a few people told me that XP is accademic.
> Maybe that is not the case, but at least that is the name it has.
> (I'm not sure what they mean with that.) I go this year as I wanted to find
> out myself what that mean accademic.
>
> I also heared that it is a small conference.
> A lot of the local (as in from one country) conferences are actually bigger.
> I guess that is another reason why people don't see it as THE european
> conference .
>
> Personally I prefer smaller conferences over bigger ones.
>
> I mentioned the initiave from the AA as I heard about it at Agile2009.
> I'm glad Rachel posted an update on that here.
>
> y
>
>
>
> > Hi Yves,
>
> > Of course there is already a European Agile Conference: XPnnnn.
>
> > XP2010 is taking place in Trondheim, June 1-4.
> > XP2011 will be in Madrid.
> > XP2012 will be in Sweden (I believe Malmö, or at least nearby)
>
> > The "XP" conferences cover all agile methods with Scrum, XP and Kanban
> > being
>
> > It isn't surprising to me that an as-yet-unspecified conference has
> > (virtual) features
> > that may attract you more than some existing conference, but we see that
> > phenomenon in the software industry all the time - the next release is
> > always
> > the best!
>
> > Consider sharing what would need to improve in the XP series of conferences
> > to get your attendance.
>
> > Consider helping us make those improvements.
>
> > Charlie
>
> > *From:* lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com [mailto:
> > lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *Yves Hanoulle
> > *Sent:* Monday, April 12, 2010 5:46 AM
> > *To:* lonely-coac...@googlegroups.com
> > *Cc:* Rachel Davies
> > *Subject:* Re: [LCS] Agile Conference Direction (was .sig line)
> > I'm happy with that idea.
> > I know that the agile alliance is already working on a european version of
> > the conference.
> > I think that Rachel Davies is the person to contact for that one.
>
> > I put Rachel in copy, Rachel could you tell us some more about these plans?
>
> > Yves
>
> >> In the .sig line discussion, someone suggested two agile conferences,
> >> in different places, staggered by six months. This would allow:
>
> >> (A) the conference to respond to change more quickly,
> >> (B) More total people to attend by lowering the travel expenses,
> >> (C) More slots for speakers to speak, thus more speakers
>
> >> We've been doing this in the test community for years (STAREast,
> >> STARWest, and EuroSTAR come to mind). What /tends/ to happen is that
> >> you see a slightly different 'flavor' to the conferences.
>
> >> I'm tempted to join the Agile Alliance and start proposing this RIGHT
> >> NOW. Luckily, my business credit card is at home and I'm working
> >> remote today (in one of those "office" thingies) so I'll get to sleep
> >> on it.
>
> >> But I joined the Scrum alliance and all my proposals to that seem to
> >> fizzle very quickly. I'm unlikely to do the leg work to become an
> >> inner ringer in the Scrum community, but I believe I already have
> >> somewhat of a voice in the Agile Community.
>
> >> What do you think?
>
> >> regards,
>
> >> --heusser
>
> >> To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject.
>
> > Yves Hanoulle
> > Agile Coach EMEA
>
> > FR +33 6 03 40 38 00
> > BEL +32 9 277 91 99 (Arrives on France Cellphone)
>
> >http://twitter/yveshanoulle
> >http://www.slideshare.net/YvesHanoulle
> >http://www.linkedin.com/in/yveshanoulle
> >http://www.PairCoaching.net
>
> > See you at:
>
> > Agile Coach Camp Germany (30 April - 2 May 2010 )
> >http://ww.agilecoachcamp.eu
> > Leadership Game.
>
> > Agile Eastern Europe (8-10 October 2010, Kiev)http://www.agileee.org/
> Yves Hanoulle
> Agile Coach EMEA
>
> FR +33 6 03 40 38 00
> BEL +32 9 277 91 99 (Arrives on France Cellphone)
>
> Question of the Dayhttp://twitter.com/retroflection
>
>
> See you at:
>
> Agile Coach Camp Germany (30 April - 2 May 2010 )http://ww.agilecoachcamp.eu
> Xp 2010 (1-4 June Norway)www.xp2010.orgI will be delivering my Leadership
> Game.
>
> Agile Eastern Europe (8-10 October 2010, Kiev)http://www.agileee.org/
Yves Hanoulle
Dave
don't know that a single, large-scale, annual conference is the only
way to achieve that goal. Regional conferences with attendance in the
600-1000 range could do the same job, while alleviating cost and
logistical challenges in traveling very long distances and also
helping to keep the conference programs well-focused. The XPnnnn
conferences in Europe, the growing series of Agiles conferences in
South America, and the annual Agile China conference seem to be
evolving to become the key conferences in those regions. It has become
harder to have a great experience at the Agile conferences in recent
years because of the number of participants and the number of
sessions. Its size may be reaching the point of diminishing returns.
I might also observe that the larger conferences tend to be good for
introducing people to the concepts and practices, while the smaller
ones are better for practitioners who are looking for ways to push the
envelope. The XP Day events in Europe are examples of the latter. I
doubt the experience of participating in those could be duplicated in
a large-scale conference. So, I think we need more than one type of
event.
We might need to think of a new buzzword one of these days. People in
the agile community are already talking about "Agile 2.0," or Brian's
artisanal retro-thingy, or just "effective software development" with
no particular branding; and agile events these days always include
plenty of "lean" content, Systems Thinking, Real Options, Beyond
Budgeting, and a host of other topics that are relevant, but not
specifically "agile." Can we become both larger and smaller at the
same time? Larger in scope but smaller in size?
Cheers,
Dave
Subscription settings: http://groups.google.com/group/lonely-coaches-sodality/subscribe?hl=en
Rachel Davies
[excuse me, as I write this email on return from pub discussions about the next XPDay]
I invite you to consider how people here might move from observerd to active implementerd? Are there ways that you can help support these ideas become real events?
I know that I have been hugely influenced by the efforts of others to build agile community, such as Ward's c2 wiki, London's Extreme Tuesday Club, Michele's XP2000 conference in Sardinia, Agile Manifesto.... (yes, examples from back in the day but I still get energy from new community based events like Agile CE, Open Volcano, etc).
The efforts of other people inspire me to get stuck in and make my own contribution rather than critique from the side. I was an organizer/maven of first XPDay in 2000, I played a role in merging Agile Development/ XP Universe, I stepped up to chair the humungous Agile2008 when someone resigned, I set up a mechanism for Agile Alliance to spend $100k on other agile conferences, and did my best to support Agile2010 session selection within severe constraints.
I learned a great deal (as a coach) from each of these volunteer lead efforts. I am sure that many people on this list have had similar experiences. If you've never taken the plunge, I encourage you to consider how you can make something (that will influence people in the agile comunity) happen.
Rachel
![Ted M. Young [@jitterted]'s profile photo](http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/ALV-UjWewvID4ovqyCrnsP9cctDIemJsDN5z3C11VE-IcDbDQYoIHLue=s40-c)
Ted M. Young [@jitterted]
list, but what the heck.
I'm looking at putting together an Agile conference
(http://www.agiletech2010.info/), and the biggest roadblock is the
administrative aspects:
* Need a non-profit org to "contain" the conference: receive money and
pay expenses
* Find the space and handle catering
* Manage the registration
This is where I wish the Agile Alliance, or some other organization,
had the ability to provide those resources and let the conference
organizers focus on the content. Even if the first item were made
trivial, that would remove a huge impediment.
;ted
Mark Levison
This is probably starting to stretch beyond the boundaries of this
list, but what the heck.
I'm looking at putting together an Agile conference
(http://www.agiletech2010.info/), and the biggest roadblock is the
administrative aspects:
* Need a non-profit org to "contain" the conference: receive money and
pay expenses
* Find the space and handle catering
* Manage the registration
Charlie Poole
Somebody else can answer WRT Agile Alliance support - I want to
address the list of needs.
You do _not_ need a non-profit org to run a conference - or even to
run it well. For example,
our Agile Open Northwest group has only now formed a non-profit, after
running four conferences.
I think it makes sense to start without the overhead of a formal
organization while figuring out
whether the event will fly.
There are venues that can be rented in practically every city and
sometimes a sponsor will be
able to provide space for you. Catering is rather easy to arrange -
the folks who do it want your
business. Online registration facilities are available from several sources.
All those things you list are valuable, of course, but you can run a
fairly good-sized event
without any of them. You do need a body of volunteers willing to do
the work. In some cases,
one or more people need to be willing to advance some funds, but not
always. And one area
where Agile Alliance is very supportive is in providing seed money for
such things.
I'm not knocking your idea - it would be very helpful. But if you want
an event, just go ahead
and do it - asking for community help where you need it.
Charlie
Dave Rooney
> This is probably starting to stretch beyond the boundaries of this
> list, but what the heck.
>
:)
Dave...
Glenn Waters
Glenn
--
I have no .sig
Rachel Davies
You would still need to put a budget together and put some time and energy in locally to find a venue, etc.
Rachel
Rachel Davies
Remember the first year of Agile Open North West - the organizing team used the Agile Alliance bank account to bootstrap processing sponsor money who needed a registered org to bill.
Rachel
Ted M. Young [@jitterted]
Thanks for the reply, you've helped renew my motivation to get this
off the ground!
Re: non-profit, my reading of the Agile Alliance sponsorship is that
if I want them to help, there needs to be a non-profit entity to
receive the money. Granted, I haven't asked explicitly if that is
truly required, but it appears to be that way.
Also, the type of conference I have in mind is more pre-programmed
than an open-space, so there are issues of Audio/Video that have to be
dealt with that aren't a factor in Open Space. The requirements of a
space are also different -- I think an open space can deal with less
than optimal spaces that would not support a presentation format.
I've looked into a number of spaces in the SF Bay Area and they're a
few thousand dollars. There don't seem to be many organizations that
have spaces that would be appropriate, but, all my research to date
has been at the informal/feasibility stage.
Finally, it's not that I couldn't do any of the catering,
registration, etc., stuff, it's that I don't feel it's the best use of
my time to get experience in an area that others are already
well-versed, i.e., handling catering, registration, etc.
Right now I'm a bit stuck as to the date for the event, but I guess
I'll stop trying to get a perfect date and get it rolling.
;ted
Ted M. Young [@jitterted]
into gear now. :-)
;ted
racheldavies
whining that centralized services (like admin, office supplies, etc)
don't provide what they'd like. As coaches, we encourage teams to work
out how they can be part of the solution and that requires some of
their energy.
Guess what's holding back Agile Alliance from doing conference-in-a-
box? Yup, lack of volunteers. And please don't say Agile Alliance
should just throw money at it, outsourcing still requires someone with
time to convey the vision and steer this.
Rachel
On Apr 28, 2:05 am, Mark Levison <m...@mlevison.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 8:20 PM, Ted M. Young [@jitterted] <
>
Charlie Poole
Agile Alliance. My main message here is that _with_or_without_ help,
any group of motivated folks can get something going!
Remember too that before there were any sponsors or paid attendees,
Diana committed to a venue that first year using her own credit!
That's motivation!
It is true that a group may find it harder to get sponsors without
some established organization to handle the funds - harder but not
impossible. And I can cite other groups that do completely without
sponsors, an approach that may be preferable in some cases.
But as I said, get all the help you can but don't wait for it before starting.
Charlie
Scott Duncan
Charlie Poole
I hope you'll take this in the friendly way that I intend it.
It seems to me that it's almost impossible to say much of anything
about the Agile Alliance without someone jumping to its "defense."
While I understand the reason for this, it's not very pretty. People
who don't consider themselves to be attacking the agile alliance are
responded to as if they were, which tends to move them a little bit
closer to being "against" the alliance each time it happens.
As I read the thread, some rather mild suggestions were made as to
stuff that it would be nice to have available. Nobody was complaining
that the AA doesn't do those things - and certainly "whining" says
more about your reading of the posts than about what was in them. In
fact, I see it as a compliment to your work that folks assume that
anything central to the agile community should be done by the agile
alliance. It's the price of success.
I'm guessing that your reaction has more to do with how many times you
have heard such requests than anything particularly "whiny" or
"complaining" about the request itself.
As far as a conference in a box goes, it's an idea I've had too. If I
find the time, I may try to do something like that, at least for the
Agile Open variety. Maybe even "central" services don't have to be all
that central. ;-)
Charlie
Dave
Charlie Poole
recollection - Uncle Bob's creation and I guess Object Mentor fronted
everything.
Anyone wanting to start a major event (500 to 1000 or more) right off
the bat will probably need some kind of advance funding. But not
everything has to start off quite so big.
Charlie
Mark Levison
IMHO, this thread sometimes sounds like a team in a retrospective
whining that centralized services (like admin, office supplies, etc)
don't provide what they'd like. As coaches, we encourage teams to work
out how they can be part of the solution and that requires some of
their energy.
Guess what's holding back Agile Alliance from doing conference-in-a-
box? Yup, lack of volunteers. And please don't say Agile Alliance
should just throw money at it, outsourcing still requires someone with
time to convey the vision and steer this.
Well maybe some of us should step up to the plate and volunteer. First question is the Agile Alliance open to this sort of idea?
Second who has the energy to spearhead this? I for one am having a lot of fun trying to start my business. I can support an effort in a small way but not be the PO/Customer. Maybe someone like Ted who was already planning todo a conf can help. In addition you might want to reach out to the AgileTour folk + the people who organized Agile Toronto.
Cheers
Mark
Matteo Vaccari
> I never took part in ADC, but XP/Agile Universe was - to my
> recollection - Uncle Bob's creation and I guess Object Mentor fronted
> everything.
>
> Anyone wanting to start a major event (500 to 1000 or more) right off
> the bat will probably need some kind of advance funding. But not
> everything has to start off quite so big.
year to 400 people. It is funded by advance donations and a few
sponsors. As far as I know, the guy organizing it fronts the money to
the hotel. Of course he gets plenty of help from volunteers.
Matteo
Scott Duncan
Yves Hanoulle
Well maybe some of us should step up to the plate and volunteer. First question is the Agile Alliance open to this sort of idea?
Second who has the energy to spearhead this? I for one am having a lot of fun trying to start my business. I can support an effort in a small way but not be the PO/Customer. Maybe someone like Ted who was already planning todo a conf can help. In addition you might want to reach out to the AgileTour folk + the people who organized Agile Toronto.
Mark Levison
Jon Kern
experience: http://agilemanagement.net/index.php/Blog/thoughts_on_lssc10/
jon
blog: http://technicaldebt.wetpaint.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/JonKernPA
Mark Levison said the following on 4/28/10 11:35 AM:
Rachel Davies
How did the ADC 2003 & 2004 handle their funds and arrangements before theAgile 20nn's started, combining ADC and XP Universe (I think that was the XPone)?
Rachel Davies
Yes, I do take your comments in a friendly way - I try to assume good intentions where email communication is concerned :-)
As I remember, I was explicitly copied into this thread by Mark Levision and asked to respond on behalf of Agile Alliance. There have been several practical other questions since asking how Agile Alliance works or what Agile Alliance has been doing about this or that. This info is pretty hard to work out from the dire AgileAlliance.org website. So I have been trying to add factual content rather than defending Agile Alliance. And whilst, I often sound pro-Agile Alliance, privately I've been know to get pretty cynical about some of our efforts.
Where I get passionate is about people being part of the solution and taking action. Agile Alliance needs help to do a better job and I want to let people know that there is a desperate lack of volunteers to improve things.
I listed some things I've done in this area to illustrate what is possible. In 2003 I asked Agile Alliance for sponsorship of XPDay because we were struggling with funding. Then I found Agile Alliance was struggling with funding and 6 months later I was on the board of directors. A year later we had a conference sponsorship program and merging ADC and XPU was in process. Conference-in-a-box has been kicking around on the Agile Alliance backlog for a long time but not got started. I am no expert in how agile non-pofits work but they need people to step up to make things happen.
And I agree that central services (like Agile Alliance) are not necessarily the answer. You may not be aware that I work across several non-profit bodies that organize agile conferences which are unrelated to Agile Alliance (BCS SPA, XTC, Retrospectives Gathering, etc). These suffer some similar problems of distributed volunteers with not much spare time. As a coach, I learn a lot from experiences working with volunteers.
I totally agree with you that it's possible to get a small event started without any non-porfit body - for example, Agile Coach Camp Germany is not handling any money and has no bank account. Another example, is Open Volcano put together in 48 hours - I put some tips together about this on my blog (http://agilecoach.typepad.com/agile-coaching/2010/04/tips-on-organizing-an-agile-open-space.html) and only mentioned Agile Alliance once ;-)
Rachel
Charlie Poole
Cool! Even though AA isn't where I put my efforts, I think it's
essential to the overall agile ecosystem and I hope
those who want the things you are doing will step up and help.
Unfortunately, some folks have taken comments
like "You don't need the AA to do that" as anti-AA, so I wanted to make sure.
If you were asked to respond on behalf of the AA, then I understand a
bit better. The thread has grown a lot and
I'm not reading every post. I was responding to your comment about
some of the contributors "whining" about things.
Charlie
racheldavies
long emails setting out alternative ways of doing things without
addressing the fundamental question of how to give their ideas legs
(to me implying that someone else to pick up the implementation). I
agree you don't need AA to get stuff done but taking action is
essential to turn ideas into realities. I encourage volunteering over
philosophizing.
Rachel
On Apr 28, 9:01 pm, Charlie Poole <char...@nunit.org> wrote:
> Hi Rachel,
>
> Cool! Even though AA isn't where I put my efforts, I think it's
> essential to the overall agile ecosystem and I hope
> those who want the things you are doing will step up and help.
> Unfortunately, some folks have taken comments
> like "You don't need the AA to do that" as anti-AA, so I wanted to make sure.
>
> If you were asked to respond on behalf of the AA, then I understand a
> bit better. The thread has grown a lot and
> I'm not reading every post. I was responding to your comment about
> some of the contributors "whining" about things.
>
> Charlie
>
> On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 12:12 PM, Rachel Davies <rac...@agilexp.com> wrote:
> > Hi Charlie,
>
> > Yes, I do take your comments in a friendly way - I try to assume good intentions where email communication is concerned :-)
>
> > As I remember, I was explicitly copied into this thread by Mark Levision and asked to respond on behalf of Agile Alliance. There have been several practical other questions since asking how Agile Alliance works or what Agile Alliance has been doing about this or that. This info is pretty hard to work out from the dire AgileAlliance.org website. So I have been trying to add factual content rather than defending Agile Alliance. And whilst, I often sound pro-Agile Alliance, privately I've been know to get pretty cynical about some of our efforts.
>
> > Where I get passionate is about people being part of the solution and taking action. Agile Alliance needs help to do a better job and I want to let people know that there is a desperate lack of volunteers to improve things.
>
> > I listed some things I've done in this area to illustrate what is possible. In 2003 I asked Agile Alliance for sponsorship of XPDay because we were struggling with funding. Then I found Agile Alliance was struggling with funding and 6 months later I was on the board of directors. A year later we had a conference sponsorship program and merging ADC and XPU was in process. Conference-in-a-box has been kicking around on the Agile Alliance backlog for a long time but not got started. I am no expert in how agile non-pofits work but they need people to step up to make things happen.
>
> > And I agree that central services (like Agile Alliance) are not necessarily the answer. You may not be aware that I work across several non-profit bodies that organize agile conferences which are unrelated to Agile Alliance (BCS SPA, XTC, Retrospectives Gathering, etc). These suffer some similar problems of distributed volunteers with not much spare time. As a coach, I learn a lot from experiences working with volunteers.
>
DianaOfPortland
Agile Alliance can help in a number of ways.
Networking: Have you contacted those in your local community who have
developed skills/processes for conference organizing? I suggest
Ainsley Nies, David Chilcott, and others who are active in Agile Open
CA. They seem to know people in the Bay Area who could help.
Sponsorship: Check the Conference Sponsorship Program details at
http://agilealliance.org/programs . There's a form to fill out where
you can ask for the kind of help you need (within limits). The program
can also offer budgeting templates and other advice. (You can get
advice from Phil as well.)
Bank Account: Once your conference is "officially" sponsored, Agile
Alliance has a way of providing shadow bank accounts to local user
groups that can also be used by other groups who need that sort of
help.
Program: If your conference is intended to solve a problem that
relates to the Agile Alliance purpose statement, you may want to
propose it as an ongoing program. Info on same page as above.
As far as doing the local organizing work, you'll need to persuade a
self-organizing group of like-minded colleagues to help. That's what
we did to organize Agile Open Northwest - Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Charlie
Poole, and I all had the same great idea. We banded together,
recruited a few others, used our own credit cards, got help from the
Agile Alliance, and got it done.
Best,
Diana
On Apr 27, 5:20 pm, "Ted M. Young [@jitterted]" <tedyo...@gmail.com>
wrote: