There are many people planning to come to Agile2017.  This year is estimated to be more than 2500 attending.  Others find this conference too expensive.  Unfortunately, that’s true for many of my fellow Florida agilists.  So if you are coming to the conference or if you are in the Central Florida area and looking for opportunities to learn outside the conference, I have some hidden gems for you.   Originally, this post was written with just a four opportunities in mind, but others have presented themselves in the last week.

Aug 5 update: There are still some learning opportunities outside the conference.  So I’ve re-arranged the order to reflect that.

Wednesday 8/9 – Mob Programming with Woody Zuill (FREE)

Woody Zuill is coming to Agile Orlando on Wednesday evening of the conference.  Woody is the one that helped develop mob programming as that next step beyond pair programming.  Woody is an awesome speaker and he constantly amazes me with his very thoughtful replies to almost any question.  This is a free event, but we ask you to RSVP on Meetup so we can guarantee we have enough food for all (thanks to our generous sponsors).

Friday 8/11 – Saturday 8/12 – Learn the Agile Fluency Game (rare offering)

Diana Larsen and James Shore have been developing Agile Fluency to help teams and organizations understand where they are on their agile journey and where they need to go (and where they may need to stay put).  A colleague of Diana and James, Steve Holyer, has offered to do a small class where you will learn the Agile Fluency game developed by Jim, Diana and other AF facilitators like Steve … and you can get a copy of the game too.  There is still time to sign up at http://fluencybydesign.com/.  The workshop venue is only a 10 minute drive from the Agile2017 conference.

(The following on DONE by Aug 6)

DONE – Thursday 8/3 – Saturday 8/5 – Training from the Back of the Room and Graphic Facilitation course (discounted)

If you are an agile coach or scrummaster, I highly recommend building up your training and facilitation toolkits.  A great course for that is Kim Brainard’s class coming up Thursday, August 3 through Saturday, August 5.  Kim is covering Training from the Back of the Room and Graphic Facilitation!  Even if you have read the book Training From the Back of the Room, it is worth experiencing the marvelous techniques taught in this course.  While the early bird price is over, Kim is still offering it to Agile Florida members.  Contact me for the code on Agile Florida Slack (direct message, #training or #agile2017 channels) or via the methods at the bottom of this post before you register for the course.

DONE – Saturday 8/5 – Sunday 8/6 – Certified Agile Leadership course with Peter Green (discounted)

The Agile for All team provides wonderful courses.  They have been long-time practitioners of Training from the Back of the Room and other innovative techniques.  Peter Green, one of the Agile for All team, is offering some of the first Certified Agile Leadership training before Agile2017 as is offering a 20% discount for Agile Florida members.  Info on the workshop is here: http://agileforall.com/course/cal1/  Registration is here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/certified-agile-leadership-cal-orlando-fl-tickets-33514297165.  If you want the discount, contact me or look on the #training channel of Agile Florida Slack.

CANCELLED 🙁 – Sunday 8/6 – High-performance Teams: Culture and Core Protocols (Pay what you will; half day)

This is a unique opportunity to learn about the Core Protocols, a set of principles that any team can use to become high performing.  Starting a new team?  Consider the Core Protocols.   Have a team in a slump.  Take a look at Core Protocols.  I’ve always read about them but have never had a chance to dive deep.  Now Richard Kasperowski will provide a half day class so you can learn about them.  The best part, you get to set the price of the course!  This is how critical Richard feels they can be to a team.  This is a VERY unique opportunity.  Don’t miss it.  I’ll see you there as I’m already signed up.

Questions?  Interest?  Contact me…

You can contact me about any of these opportunities on Twitter at @mkilby, via LinkedIn, via any Slack community we are connected on, or via the contact form at the bottom of this post.