AgileAus17 Wrap Up

“Learning reduces uncertainty,” Melissa Perri

The Agile Australia Conference is done and dusted for another year, and as all who attended reflect on what has been another magical Conference, let’s hear about what went on at AgileAus, and the various topics and sessions that contributed to the learning journey.

AgileAus had another fantastic cohort of international guests and speakers from around Australia, with varied and diverse backgrounds that filled the program with insightful and relevant talks.

The keynote sessions gave attendees the opportunity to hear from experts in their field, plus talks on other ‘outworldly’ ideas and concepts that challenged preconceptions.

We want to look at the unexpected, that’s why we need smart software – Lisa Harvey-Smith

While Lisa Harvey-Smith taught us that we can weigh black holes at home, attendees were also appreciative of the Conference’s focus on inclusive culture and empathy in leadership.

Empathy is a big topic this Conference. It’s been brought up multiple times in relation to collaboration and working holistically. Really interesting to see the focus by various speakers – Marcus Ford

Absolutely love hearing about the strong connection among Aconex colleagues and the strong theme of looking after each other in retros – Hannah Barrett

Sami Honkonen gave an insightful and humorous outlook on the way non-Agile businesses use old methodologies such as budgeting to create processes and outcomes.

Bureaucracy is kryptonite to productivity – Gary Hamel

Melissa Perri taught attendees the value in building things for a purpose rather than just building.

Product development should solve customer and business problems, not build features for the sake of building them – Shava Kharel on Melissa Perri

On the Agile journey, many can stumble when it comes to change. AgileAus invited speaker Belkis Vasquez-McCall cited the fact that “perhaps at no other time in recent history has adaptability been more important than now.” This shows that we need to be adaptable in times of uncertainty, and learn how to roll with the punches.

Leadership was one of the key themes of this year’s Agile Australia Conference Speakers were keen to iterate that leaders need to understand their position and learn how to make an impact on all involved.

Impact is POWER

Effectiveness is a key part of the Agile process. It is essential to streamline processes to be more effective in our outcomes. Dom Price gave a talk on effectiveness over efficiency and how to incorporate the two into the way we work.

We must reflect on whether it is more important to be efficient or is it more valuable to be effective – Narinder Sharma on Dom Price

The Deep Dives were a hit for attendees who wanted to delve deeper into the minds of the keynotes, and ask questions relating to what they do and the challenges they face.  

The goal is not to fail, it’s to learn! – Tatyana Mamut

Activate Sessions

Activate Agile is where students come together and are given the opportunity to hear from innovative people who are creating change and developing amazing software, apps, portals, platforms, and products.

It was so encouraging to see students interested in learning about new ideas in the tech sector. The room was abuzz with students keen to pick the brains on leading Agile minds and techies in the know.

Students of today teaching the graduates of tomorrow. Fantastic initiative – Stuart Mitchell

AgileAus Supporters

The sponsor booths were a space for all attendees to see what leading businesses are creating in the Agile landscape, with new inventions and products on show for all. Attendees worked for their supper and got their heartrate up at the blender bike, while others had their socks knocked off with giveaways from Atlassian.

Thoughtworks have been a support of AgileAus from its inception, and they were back this year as Title sponsor. AgileAus sponsors included Accenture; Commonwealth Bank; Context Matters and Scaled Agile; Hewlett Packard Enterprise; IBM; AgileCraft; Atlassian; Elabor8; AMP; CA Technologies; Scrum.org; Software Education; Tricentis; and DiUS.

AgileAus 2018

AgileAus is back for its big ten year anniversary in 2018. We’d love to hear from you about your favourite talks from years past, sessions that you would like to see in the future, and anything that can be done to make AgileAus even better! Get in touch at conference@agileaustralia.com.au

Save the date for AgileAus 2018 – Monday 18 – Tuesday 19 June 2018 at Palladium at Crown in Melbourne.

“Great people. Endless thoughts. Never ending stories. Enormous knowledge pool. I swim to strengthen my brain and improve productivity. Thank you Agile Australia.”