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Today started with another GREAT breakfast, which included the very popular parfait bar (see pictures below). During breakfast I was joined by none other than Tom Poppendieck. I waited for him to finish eating then politely asked if I could take a picture with him, and he graciously agreed.
Then it was onto the ballroom for the keynote address. After some brief announcements (1400 participants representing 38 countries!!), Dave Thomas started his presentation. I took some notes, in the form of tweets from the Keynote, even though I was at first hesitant because of his slide forbidding any live tweeting due to copyright…but I was soon set straight that this was just a joke. Here are some of the tweeted highlights from the keynote:
“Practices first, not about brands of methods. ”
“If you can’t do it with a card, you will do it worse with fancy tools.”
“If we are saying developers need to be enlightened, what about product owners?”
“Hire them young, they don’t know it can’t be done.”
“Lean is so simply, but it requires the ability to think, which makes it hard.”
“We do Kanban, we do scrum, we do XP, we’re all DUMB!” Haha, I liked this chant.
“Founders have magic powers. We need to nourish the leaders of tomorrow. Always seek to replace yourself.”
Here are some pics from the keynote address:
A quick scan of the ballroom. It was packed! Standing room only!
The rest of the day was filled with great presentations, including a hosted lunch where I shared a round table with David Hussman of Devjam. The extended lunch was filled with great, thought provoking conversation, definitely worth the time. I often find that most of the value of these types of conferences are in the connections you make and the conversations that happen outside of presentations.
For the remainder of the afternoon I popped in and out of several sessions, and had my regular conference anxiety of sitting in one session too long for fear of missing something else. Definitely something I have to work on. Now I look forward to heading to a Shipwreck party being sponsored by my good friends at VersionOne.
I plan on taking some video and pictures, so check back tomorrow to see highlights from tonight’s festivities.
Getting ready for the keynote, I snapped some pictures using my camera sky rig. If you are not here, this is what it is looking like this morning…
Me snapping pictures!
20 minutes til keynote, and already filing up fast.
The Parfait line at breakfast was packed!
The rest of breakfast was awesome. Those burritos rocked!!
More shots of the room.
Get here quick. Between the time I took these photos until now, it is now almost completely full!
(At least at my table. Come by, say hi, get your picture taken:)
Ok, one last post before I call it a night, and this is a video post. This is just a quick video of me walking the ice breaker floor with some fun camera tricks. You may see some familiar faces…enjoy!! (2:30)
Looks like Day One is now officially in the books, at least as far as the sessions go. I am writing this before the mixer at 7:00p, but thought I would log this recap before heading out for the night…otherwise I would likely not get it done at all.
Breakfast started the day, with a really nice spread, I wish I had a picture to show you, but believe me, it was great. I got caught up with some old friends, met some new ones, and headed out to my first session “Becoming Agile in an Imperfect World.” I was excited about the talk, but then soon realized that it was aimed primarily at folks new to Agile. I was contemplating scooting to a new session when the fire alarm in the room went off, followed by an announcement stating we would have to evacuate the space and head outside. So much for our session. I joked as we headed out that it must have been those waterfall guys trying to throw a wrench in our conference.
Here is a short video of half the conference making their way outside:
After we all went back inside, the session picked up steam and stayed for the duration. We ended up doing some team exercises, and it must have been the trainer/facilitator in me that had me on my feet with a marker in my hand before anyone could ask.
The second half of the day was great as well. I spent a few hours in Jean Tabaka’s session “The Agile Organization: Apply Visioning and Learning Models.” This session really hit home because of how much I relate to the Peter Senge type of materials about systems, learning organizations, and mental models. So much about what I like to present within Agile is aligned with this aspect of the transition, the people factor.
That session took us through the end of the day, and here I am back in my room getting ready for the mixer and dinner with a friend. I look forward to making more connections this week, so please find me if you happen to find this post.
Some things I wish they would improve on:
- Something other than coffee to drink! At lunch, there was great food, but nothing to drink other than coffee, not even water! I think this is a huge miss.
- Something to drink during the breaks. The break snacks are great, but again, nothing to drink. I think that if you pay $2,000 for a conference, they should offer something to drink.
That is about it. Remember to follow me on Twitter for all the intraday jabbering! @AgileAdvisor
