This time of year, while we’re counting down the dog days of summer, we are also looking forward to another successful agile conference.
This year, Agile 2009 will be held in Chicago, and is likely to draw old hands, newbies, and the generally curious. Agile methods are mainstream in the IT space these days, and I expect that many companies large and small will be sending their emissaries.
Agile guru Alistair Cockburn will be a keynote speaker, so I would expect that we will be hearing about some of the foundational principles of Agile. I believe the conference was the brain child of Alistair’s, and know that he organized the first (combined XP and Agile) conference in Salt Lake City (with belly dancers and all).
LitheSpeed involvement in the conference will be in these areas:
- Arlen Bankston will be co-presenting with Kevin Fisher of Nationwide Insurance. Expect to hear a story of the tremendous original work done by a crack Agile team at Nationwide in the area of the kanban-style progressive elaboration of product requirements across 21 teams.
- I will be co-producing the LiveAid stage with Bob Payne. Live Aid is gaining momentum and we are excited about teaming with the User Experience stage. The LiveAid lab allows attendees to participate in a real agile project that directly benefits a not-for-profit organization.
- I will be coordination a consulting one-on-one exchange for people connecting people who need consulting help with consultants who will be offering it pro bono.
- The PMI Agile Community of Practice will be launching at party hosted by ThoughtWorks. Register for the event here.
- Several PMI Agile Committee members (Brian Bozzuto, Jesse Fewell, Mike Griffiths, Dan Mezick, Ainsley Nies, Pat Reed, Michele Sliger and Sanjiv Augustine) will be at the conference — make sure you connect with one of us to learn more and to get involved.
As always, I expect that the conference will be simultaneously busy, hectic, fun, invigorating, and an all-round tremendous experience.
Personally, it’s always been a great time to connect with old friends, meet new ones and learn one heck of a lot.
Hope to see many of you there! You can find me at the LiveAid stage area Monday through Thursday, and it’ll be good to connect in person.
