By now the first blog posts and report on Agile Australia 2009 will be emerging. It was the very first Agile Australia conference, and I think it was an enjoyable conference. For me it was a good opportunity to re-establish friendships and meet new people.
I had a long chat with fellow Scrum Trainer Jean Tabaka about the current state of Agile in Australia. Jean is always interesting to talk to and it was great to get another point of view. I also had a good conversation with Dave Thomas, and Ben Hogan about Agile certifications. It’s a topic that we all feel strongly about and there was some passionate discussion. Although, in the end I couldn’t help but feel we were all in violent agreement.
Unsurprisingly, all the Australia based Scrum trainers were there; myself, Rowan and Martin. We chatted some but successfully managed not to get into any ideological wars! That can wait until the next Scrum Gathering.
I also had an opportunity to catch up with James Brett from the Brisbane Scrum Users Group and Lachlan Heasman from the Sydney Scrum Users Group.
But when push came to shove I decided to attend a presentation given by Alan Beacham and Jason Yip … sorry Lachlan! Alan and Jason’s presentation about Lean software was (for me) the best talk of the conference. It was interesting, thought provoking and well presented.
Finally, I also got to meet a number of people who I know through twitter but hadn’t met. Justin was there as, was Mark. Here’s a photo of Justin on a panel providing some sage advice to the audience!
After the success of Agile Australia 2009, I’m sure there will be more demand for ‘10. Both the presentations and videos are now available online.
