It’s been over 2 weeks since Agile Open Florida happened and I’m still buzzing with the possibilities of where Florida can go next. Not only did we hold our first state-wide open space for agilists, but we were able to have one of my favorite OST facilitators, Ainsley Nies, hold the space for us. Thank you Ainsley for your guidance in planning and your servant leadership in facilitating. If you want to see photos and session notes, please go to http://agileopenflorida.com/2014-recap/
I also wanted to thank my co-organizers, Ryan Dorrell and Stephanie Stewart. This was the first time Agile Orlando and Tampa Bay Agile collaborated on an event and I look forward to future opportunities. I also want to thank members of the Agile Orlando community who took the 2 hour road trip to attend and even lead some sessions. I’m equally grateful for the members of the South Florida Agile Association who took a 4-hour road trip to attend. I especially want to thank Rick Regueira and Alex Kanaan for leading some sessions as well.
Best of all, this was the realization of a 12-year-old dream. When I attended the 2002 XP Universe conference in Chicago, I experienced my first Open Space. I was amazed at the spontaneous collaboration and the way the entire track self-organized. After this amazing experience, my first thought was “we have to do this in Florida!” Since then, I’ve facilitated some smaller open spaces, but we never had critical mass to kick off a cross-Florida agile open space. Now that dream is a reality. I heard the same excitement from the participants that I had in my first open space. I look forward to continuing to share this spontaneous collaboration at next year’s Agile Open Florida.
