This is a short and simple report of my first Global Scrum Gathering that took place at the Hilton Prague between the 16th and 18th of November 2015.
The two cent summary: I would go to the next one if possibility arises, I would even consider being a speaker.
The program with session descriptions as a PDF can be accessed through SGPRG SessionDescriptions Aug20.pdf and the slides from the different presenters, facilitators, and what not, can be found online here. The social media tag was #sgprg.
Got up really early, 04:30, went by taxi to Linköping City Airport, Sweden. From there by plane to Schiphol, Holland, where I had an early lunch before the next flight, to Václav Havel Airport, Czech Republic, ending the travel with another taxi ride to the hotel.
Checked in to my hotel, rested on the room for a while, and went down to the registration’s desk at around 16:30 and got my credentials and conference bag with assorted “goodies”.
Early to bed.
I had high expectations for the conference, and day one met them by far. I carried the “First Time Attendee” badge on my credentials, which perhaps helped others to go easy on me and be extra pedagogical.
I won a book, which I got signed by one of the authors on day two, on a subject close to me; coaching. The workshop with mr Bamberger was the best session that day, none of the others were bad but this was just better.
On my birthday I learned about that it takes 25 months to change one habit with another. I also learned about PechaKucha and attended a great workshop on adopting Scrum based on goals.
The format of Lightning Talks is probably a format I will try to use with people around me.
I even entered a poem contest, me?! Didn’t win though…
This idea of open space wasn’t my cup of tea, at least not the creation of subjects and schedule. I understand the concept, but I’m probably more comfortable with the format of Lightning Talks. I’ll probably change my mind the next time I encounter open space.
The closing keynote, with a true inventor, was inspiring and mr Robertson gave some great insights and advices on holacracy.
Another day of travel. Taxi - medium wait - flight - long wait - (flight - short wait - taxi, and then at home!)
I’m writing this on Schiphol Airport, Holland, so I’m not home yet…
The Hilton Prague is a great hotel where I got a large room. I think it was a perfect venue for the gathering and the staff in the conference areas were service minded. I ate all my dinners in the hotel’s different restaurants, there are three, and there too I was met with great service.
However, I have to bring up the issue of how poor the hotel’s wireless internet connection was. Technically put, the number of packets lost was about 75% and I had to reconnect to the wifi 5-6 times per hour.
Overall the gathering was very well facilitated and all officials had a mindset of service, speakers and other facilitators also did a great job.
The only thing I had a hard time with was the disrespectful culture of not being in time, and interrupting others midsentence, e.g. without thinking of the language barrier.
The main thing I bring from this, which might be presumptuous, is that I know I’m on the right track when it comes to Scrum, agile, and in aspects of coaching.
The gathering gets four out of five voting dots.