Scrum Gathering Las Vegas 2013

Thank you all who attended my talk on Confessions of a New ScrumMaster. I really enjoyed speaking to the group and answering the great questions at the end. The slides are available here if you would like to download them. You can view the original Confessions of a New ScrumMaster article here. This was the largest gathering in Scrum Gathering history with over 500 attendees with about 70 percent being first time attendees! Even with the increase in participants, the setting was still intimate enough to make lasting connections. Though the “party” at Margaritaville was a little over the top for my style (Agile2012 won in this area), it still had good food and a couple free (strong) drinks. It was certainly my favorite conference to date. Check out the Scrum Alliance website for other upcoming events.

Some other notable presentations from the Scrum Gathering I enjoyed were:

• Breaking Analysts: A Real-World Tale of Converting a Traditional Business Analyst into a Lover of Scrum by Leslie J. Morse. This was a great session from the perspective of a BA, which is often not discussed. Leslie made some great points about BA fears and how to alleviate them when implementing Scrum. She also made some great remarks about having “just enough” detail to start a story and defining a “Definition of Ready” which is something that hits very close to my heart and my Scrum team. I might even do a post about it soon! It was very well done and she will be presenting it at Agile2013.
• Coach the hand you are dealt. A True Agile Approach to Coaching by John Miller. John is the creator of Agile in Schools (and will be presenting it at Agile2013) and had a thoughtful talk regarding what coaching is actually defined as versus consulting. It certainly made me think about my qualities as a coach and how I can improve my skills to allow teams to solve their own problems instead of leading them toward the answer I would give.
• Stop Gambling, Embrace your Agile Superpowers by Jake Calabrese and Stephen Starkey. There are hardly words for this session. It was extremely powerful and moving to do this activity and I have only the highest praise for Jake and Stephen on their phenomenal facilitation skills. The concepts were derived from meta skills by Arnold and Amy Mindell, CRR Global and the Agile Coaching Institute.
• Facilitation & Communication in Scrum Teams by Michele Sliger. Michelle had some great activities to get people up, moving, talking, facilitating and leading. Her enthusiastic personality and practical application made the 90 minute session fly by!

There were also some great Open Space topics with Adam Weisbart facilitating. My personal favorite topic: Women In Scrum. A great group of women got together to talk about how to attract more women to Scrum and how to continue to make our voices heard. Please contact me with questions and I will update as more details emerge around a Women In Scrum user group.

I look forward to the upcoming conference: RallyON! June 3-5th 2013 in Boulder, CO. Hope to see you there!