Upcoming Agile Coach Camps

Posted by David Bulkin on Jul 20, 2011

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Agile coaches facilitate the transformations of teams and organizations to agile methods. Agile coach camps are open space unconferences where coaches gather to share and learn. There are two upcoming coach camps, one in Bletchley Park in the UK, the other in Columbus Ohio in the US.

As this article is being written, there are still a few spots open for the agile coaches gathering in Bletchley Park in the UK. It starts on July 22nd and end on July 23rd.  The stated goals for this gathering are:

• Develop our agile coaching skills by sharing our experiences, knowledge, puzzles, and history.
• Discuss the business aspects of agile coaching, both from an internal perspective and an outside-the-company perspective.
• Grow a network of agile coaches.

A coach camp will be held in the Columbus Ohio in the US starting on September 23rd and ending on September 25th. As this article is being written there are still a few tickets left.

Paul Booz who is helping with the Columbus Coach Camp explains that one thing that is new this year is a desire to inspire attendees to create smaller groups of coaches to share ideas in an open space. Paul formed such a group, Agile Influencers of DC along with Siraj Sirajuddin, another coach camp alumni.

This description from the registration for the coach camp in Columbus sums up the meeting format of coach camps in general.

We use the open space meeting format, which means you, the participant, determine the topics and questions that you want to talk about. We’ll create our agenda Saturday morning and people will then join the small group discussions that interest them. Open Space is very complimentary to Agile & Lean thought processes, and actually shares some of the same principles. Open Space is all about self-organizing and empowered teams. Open Space will allow YOU and other participants to bring to the conference the issues and opportunities that are emerging for you in real time. For some of you this will also be a first opportunity to experience Open Space, yet another effective tool you should know about, for cultivating communities of practice in your region.

Ellen Grove explains that although no one is required to speak at an Agile Coach Camp, the setting makes it difficult to resist.

Because ACC uses an Open Space unconference format, everyone is encouraged to actively participate but no one has to speak if they don't want to. My experiences suggest that it's hard to resist though - when you find yourself in a smaller group of people who are passionate about the same topics that you are (and many of those people are also skilled facilitators who are very good at creating a safe space for people to speak up), you will find yourself joining in the discussion, whether it's to ask questions or share what you've been through

Declan Whelan explains how powerful an agile coach camp can be "For many of us, agile coach camp has been transformational. It changed the trajectory of my career from agile newbie to agile coach. The connections made and learning are deep and the coach camps are organized and facilitated to encourage this."

Find out more about at the agile coach camp home page.

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   camps

   by Pim Aster

   thanks for the info.

   Reply