Like many great performances there are many like me who prefer to support from the wings. I have for many years avoided the celebrities and various cults of Agile, not because I don’t respect them, but because I do Agile rather than follow others who do Agile. I also don’t want to get involved in the various fights, not because I can’t fight, but because I see no value in those fights. No one owns Agile, regardless if they think they do, it’s been running free and wild too long to be caged.

So why am I involved?

I contacted Scott Seivwright to be an author and add a chapter to Agile an Unexpected Journey a curated anthology of Agile Biographies. He commited to be involved as did many others. At that time he invited me to get involved in the Agile20Reflect Festival and I said I’d look into it. Having previously been a Founder of UCD UK Conferences and The Human Centred Design Society, I recognised the good intent but wanted to ask some direct questions.

I decided to support this because it will live briefly then die and not become a point of contention in the Agile world. What will be left will be a Reflection on the past, a Snapshot of the Current State and some Dreams and Aspirations for the future as digital recordings of Events.

What is Agile20Reflect Festival?

This is a Festival without events, in the style of Uber being a Taxi service without taxi’s. It’s focus is facilitation not organisation in a true Agile sense the outcomes belong to the participants not the facilitators. It’s the ultimate embodiment of an Agile way of celebrating Agile. Anyone can add a free event to the calendar and we will promote it as part of the festival.

We have delivery teams who support anyone who needs help, we have ambassadors who are the local facilitators for event organisers and we have organisational supporters (shown below) facilitating their members and staff in holding and adding events to the global calendar.

What will Agile20Reflect Festival really do?

Honestly we don’t fully know, but we will measure success in February 2021 by events, their numbers, diversity of Agile related subjects, the languages and locations of the globe that are represented.

Storming the Agile20Reflect Festival up to November 2020

We built and deployed two websites, hundreds of pages of content, 57 videos on YouTube, Twitter feed, Facebook Group, LinkedIn page, over 300 volunteers on Slack, 250 volunteer speakers (many who would charge a fortune to speak offering to speak for free in the Agile20Reflect Festival), 90 ambassadors many of whom have now created local content.

Norming the Agile20Reflect Festival up to 20th January 2021

Pivot point towards facilitating event creation and addition to the Global Calendar. Ambassadors knocking on the doors of existing Agile meetings, companies and newbies to run Agile Celebration events. Ambassadors getting people involved in their countries and making the Festival a local Festival. We are working with the Agile Alliance, Scrum Alliance, Business Agility Institute and Project Management Institute to focus their members on creating events to expand their networking and engagement and to celebrate Agile.

Norming means, engage, engage, engage.

Performing the Agile20Reflect Festival in February 2021

Well I don’t really know what this looks like yet in previous three day conferences I’ve worked on we would have 55-60 sessions in one physical location. All I know is that post the Agile20Reflect Festival anyone who says to me they are involved in Agile I’ll be asking them if they hosted events or attended events at the Festival.

Conclusion

I personally don’t fully know yet the format of the five events I have added to the calendar, all I do know is I now have to do them, they have a priority in my life and I’m doing them to help the Agile Community grow up, look back, treasure the present and have vision for the future.

https://www.meetup.com/new-ways-of-working-meetup-group/events/275228162/

https://www.meetup.com/agile20reflect-meetup-group/events/275050803/

https://www.meetup.com/agile20reflect-meetup-group/events/275052398/

https://www.meetup.com/agile20reflect-meetup-group/events/275052520/

https://www.meetup.com/new-ways-of-working-meetup-group/events/275079160/