It’s only just past midnight in Chicago however it’s like I’ve had a huge night out in London since it’s the equivalent of half six in the morning. I wanted to jot down some notes around how the first day of Agile 2009 went.
The sessions kicked off from about 11am, allowing people to pick up their registrations pack weighing about of tonne in materials including two full books (one of them admittedly a not-so-pocket sized pocket guide) and some other memorabilia. I attended two sessions throughout the day, one of them titled, Agile Grows Up: The Agile Business Analyst and then Bob Martin’s speech on the main stage about Software Craftsmanship.
Whilst I’m not sure if I came away with anything new, for me it was a nice warm up to the conference with some great discussions and, at least for me, some of the better experiences chatting in the hallways with various people from different areas. The fresher’s fair was a great idea this year. It struck me that most people seemed to identify with only a handful of communities (two to three), whilst I felt very strongly attached to many more (about ten). Perhaps it’s because I strongly believe in developing so many cross discipline skills and a focus on coaching effective teams means connecting many of these disciplines together so often.
It was great to see people that I’d met across many continents and to meet many more new people from all the way. For those that haven’t registered yet, ThoughtWorks are hosting an Agile Open Office tomorrow (pre-registrations required due to building security policies) that I hope to meet many more people tomorrow.
