10th edition of LAS conference with record number of participants
Over 200 visitors attended swissICT's Lean, Agile & Scrum anniversary conference in Zurich on May 21 and 22. To mark its 10th anniversary, the event was held over two days.
How do you go about agile transformation the right way? What are the hurdles? Where are the showcase examples? At the LAS Conference 2019 there were many answers to all these questions. The LAS conference is the annual event of the swissICT Lean, Agile and Scrum specialist group. This specialist group holds Agile Breakfasts in various cities in Switzerland, in Basel, Bern, Lucerne, St. Gallen and Zurich. The Agile Breakfasts provide a platform to bring together like-minded people, interested parties and the curious on topics related to agile, so that they can grow together into a Switzerland-wide community and unite to form a comprehensive network.
At this year's event, which for once lasted two days, solutions were developed and discussed in workshops. Tweets were posted every minute. Under the hashtag #LASX and on the account @swissICT, interested parties can review the conference.
Agility unleashes potential
Damian Hughes, keynote speaker on the 1st day of the conference, captivated the audience with an inspiring keynote entitled "The Psychology of a winning mindset". His tips are insightful and practical: "Simplicity is critical to success, especially in business communications. No one wants to hear corporate bullshit, yet use simple and everyday language."
In the first keynote on the 2nd day of the conference, Franz Röösli from ZHAW spoke on the topic of "Beyond Budgeting". He did not spare with crisp quotes: "Budgets today often contradict the purpose of the company." Or: "Employees who are not engaged are idle potential!" The subsequent in-depth discussion with the audience showed that Röösli had hit a sore spot.
Recipes for success and painful processes
The often painful process of agile transformation was described by companies such as Swisscom Health, CSS and AXA. And Globus presented its vision of a department store that offers its entire product range for rent rather than for purchase.
It is clear that companies do well when they start with the culture and the mindset. This can be read from the many tweets. Christian Bartsch's workshop on "Agile into Burnout" also met with great interest.
