The Bay Area Agile Project Leadership Network (BayAPLN) is a nonprofit that was created in 2006 to develop, promote and sustain a learning community of Agile Project Leaders. One of the ways they currently do that is by organizing a free event after work every month that allows its members to come together to share their practical experiences and advice. Each event also includes one presentation, workshop, lightning talk, expert panel, open space or other format around a topic of interest to the group. This allows the community to explore, understand and develop different Agile techniques and practices at the project, department, organization and enterprise levels. It is organized by practitioners for practitioners and put together entirely thanks to volunteers, sponsors and donations.
The response has been very positive, and participation really strong. The BayAPLN uses a Yahoo! group to notify its members of upcoming events, and this has grown to 230 subscribers. A LinkedIn group was created recently to help foster interaction amongst ist members, and already there are 175 members. The monthly events attract 50-70 attendees. The feeling at these events is one of energy, collaboration and a shared purpose of developing a craft.
For example, David J Anderson is coming to San Francisco on Monday, November 3rd to share his Recipe for Success with Agile Management. In addition, he will also be available to attendees for two hours prior to the event to discuss topics of mutual interest and learn about the issues that are important or challenging in the Bay Area at the moment. To bring the interaction with such a thought leader to a larger audience, a much larger venue has been sponsored and the RSVPs have been flooding in.
If you would like to attend this BayAPLN event, all you have to do is RSVP AT BayPALN.org.
For more information visit BayAPLN.org or contact me and I’d be happy to tell you more.
About the Author:
César is a financial industry technology strategist with twelve years experience in enabling advanced business transformations at large investment and trading banks.
Having been involved in addressing some of the most complex and rapidly changing problems in this industry at the project and program level, he is now exploring how companies tackle these at the enterprise level.
He is an active organizing member of the BayAPLN.org Coordinating Committee and the Agile Open California Organizing Committee, both nonprofit programs.
César also blogs at Nonlinear Enterprise.
