The Changing Face of Agile – #WomenInAgile event at Agile2016

I’m very excited to announce the #WomenInAgile workshop – The Changing Face of Agile at Agile2016 in Atlanta, GA this summer! This is an event long in the making, started by great women who came before me and hopefully will be continued by other strong women’s voices in the future until the event is no longer needed.

#WomenInAgile has been a passion of mine since my first professional speaking opportunity at Scrum Gathering 2013 in Las Vegas. A group of women met for an open space to discuss the state of women in Scrum and it evolved from there. There have been similar meetups at many of the large Agile conferences ever since. I have seen many more women submitting and presenting on related #WomenInAgile topics as a result. It has spread like wildfire and I am so happy to be a part of this. I also dedicated my Master’s thesis to understanding more about the issue and it led me to submit this program proposal to the Agile Alliance for sponsorship at the Agile2016 conference.

The event will feature Cindy Morse VP of Engineering Operations at Salesforce as the keynote. Cindy is a brilliant female I have the privilege of working with on the Agile transformation of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. There will also be a Lean Coffee formatted workshop to discuss greater involvement strategies for women, designed to give actionable steps to start trying tomorrow. It will also serve as a place to meet other women in the Agile industry and continue to network and build camaraderie.

I am also saddened, humbled, and honored to dedicate this event to one of our own, Jean Tabaka. Jean’s involvement in the Agile industry will never be forgotten and the event will celebrate her wonderful work with a community who greatly cared about and learned from her.

I’ve gotten many questions regarding the event, the movement, and the general purpose behind #WomenInAgile. Some are supportive while others discuss that by calling out a separate event it makes the inequality more of a problem and focus. That is certainly not the intent. I wish the event was not necessary and I hope in the future it can be focused differently because we will have made such great strides to solve the gender inequality problem. But unfortunately that is not the state the current industry is in.

While we have made obvious strides in having more women presenters and conference attendees, there is still persistent inequality. The event is truly to help women understand the struggles others have, share their triumphs, and build more of a community. It is not about exclusion or bashing of men, but about understanding how to continue finding our voices to further contribute more ideas to benefit the Agile community as a whole.

Additionally men are very welcome to attend the event to network and understand some of the unique challenges in the Agile community. It is truly about learning how we work together to enrich our community and nourish ideas from all participants. The face of Agile is changing and the voice needs to be heard from everyone if it is going to continue to mature with the rest of the community.

Please feel free to ask me any questions here or via the other contact methods I have listed on my site. Please visit the #womenInAgile website, use the #womenInAgile hashtag on Twitter, and join the LinkedIn group. I hope to see and hear you at the #WomenInAgile workshop in July – Register here!