Agile Denver held Mile High Agile 2024 (MHA2024) Reboot on May 15th. I’m writing the next day truly overwhelmed with so many wonderful feelings and thoughts. This post may be a dump of all of that on to a web page, so please bear with me.
A little context: I’m part of the Board of Directors for Agile Denver. When our team came together less than a year ago, we were all-in for giving back to the community in a variety of ways. We decided five months before this event to reboot the conference in 2024. As a board, we were willing to invest the cost, time and energy into making this happen. And I seriously couldn’t be happier.
The main organizing team of Candy, Nicole, Allison and Marie… I mean they did everything and anything including voluntelling spouses to help. They were the ones that put in countless hours and energy into creating this amazing space – that there are never going to be enough words to truly express my gratitude.
The volunteers were stellar. We had a different style venue and they were on any challenge that arose. I’m always extra partial to the volunteer crew for the care, attention and dedication they show up with every single time!
Sponsors were so supportive. I am very grateful to the organizations that put investing into this community as a priority (even with last minute requests). I have a special place in my heart for each of these organizations now and will be looking to promote them in any way that I can.
The speakers rocked. I had someone approach me to say there wasn’t one bad session that they or anyone in their group had attended. There were no cancellations, no late arrivals, no disasters with av, etc. They just delivered!
Attendees were fantastic. So engaged, so community driven, so thoughtful, so so fantastic. I got to catch up with old friends. I got to meet new connections. I got to hear “you’re so tall” from people that had only met me online. I got to learn, laugh, and connect with so many people. This extrovert was riding high!
Then there was a bonus element. My 19 year old son, a Computer Science major was volunteering at this event. He sat front and center for my session. This was a session that I’m actually retiring after this delivery (i.e. one that I’ve done numerous times already) and yet it felt extra special having him there. Having him nod, smile and even laugh at his mom’s jokes. To experience his life entering this next phase was a really incredible moment.
I’m sure there are things I and the team as a whole would do differently next time. And we will spend the time to do that reflection and learning but for today, I’m just going to smile for a wonderful experience yesterday!
Please consider joining the Agile Denver Board of Directors: https://www.agiledenver.org/bod-election/
What was your favorite part of MHA2024?
Photo: Of course I did a handstand in my volunteer shirt! I’ll save the rest of the photos for Agile Denver to post 🙂
