Everyone always asks me why I very rarely give meet up talks, despite looking after two user groups. I guess part of it is, why does anyone want to hear me talk? But when I do actually push myself to do them, I absolutely love it! So more recently I have been putting myself out there.
I recently got the opportunity through the work I am doing with Learning Connexions to visit Romania! Not your number one holiday destination, so i immediately wanted to go. I was asked if I wanted to do a couple of talks at a local ‘Colors in Projects’ conference and I was more than happy to help out.
Lesson number 1….always validate what you are being asked to do!
My small conference talk turned out to be a keynote speech, and my session turned out to be a one day workshop. Never the less I was excited and nervous at the same time.
I decided to do my key note on something that I have been using with my client called ‘Evolutionary Stages’. Effectively it’s a team self reflection tool to look at how Agile they are, and what practices they should consider focusing on. My topic tackled the continual question I seem to get ‘How Agile are we?’
I am not sure I have ever publically said this in my blog, but I have an irrational fear of balloons. Literally before I took the stage there was a group exercise which involved blowing up balloons with your name in (to win a prize) and then throw them to the front.
Cue my keynote standing amongst these balloons whilst freaking out!!!!!!
The other thing I really hate in life is snow……….second day…….it snowed!
Never the less I felt it went really well and I even got a few laughs from the audience
I was most happy with my prize as a talker and he has currently moved into my house.
Whilst I was excited about delivering my key note, I was even more excited to try out my ‘Art of Retrospection’ one day workshop that I had created.
OMG, it was awesome! I had such a great bunch of attendees who really threw themselves into all of the practical exercises and simulations we done. People know I have a passion for retrospectives generally, and so to see it all come together was fantastic for me and I got some really good feedback. I now want to see how I can incorporate this into an everyday offering through ‘The Rock’
One of the new metaphors that I have picked up was from one of the groups….Lord of the Rings. I find my students so inspirational in the ideas that they have. Two of them have already written to me to tell me, and send me images of how they are starting to use this in their teams now.
Here are a few images from the day.
Final Thoughts
I am not sure I have a hard hitting message for you today. I was just so excited about some of the stuff I have been doing, I just wanted to share with you.
I guess if I really sought out a message, it would be ‘Have confidence’ in what you do, and we all have something valuable to share with others. Even though we may feel it is not important.
Watch this space
I have started creating my ‘Karate Kid’ retrospective and will be excited to share it with you soon!!
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