By Beth Hatter
I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Women in Agile – Europe conference held 7 November 2019 in the lovely city of Amsterdam. The organizers did an amazing job creating an environment of learning, exploring, and inclusion for all attendees – who represented over 30 countries!
The day kicked off the first of three great keynotes from Jutta Eckstein who took us through exploring the world as our customer and how different types of interactions and relationships impact all the work we do and products we build – not just with the customer but also what is good for society and the planet.
The day continued with many amazing workshops and small group sessions – there were so many great topics on offer it was hard to choose! I was lucky to attend a session on eduScrum by Alisa Stolze – which explored bringing scrum into the education system and how this benefits students as well as teachers. This was a fascinating look into a very different approach to education than I’d seen before
As the second keynote, Carla Clarissa Van Stralen presented her journey through the corporate and how she came to coach females exclusively. She inspired us to develop our inner energies and authority as we explore the will to lead in new ways.
The afternoon continued with great sessions and networking time, and some wonderful lightning talks (ok, a little bias there since I presented one!), and then Lyssa Adkins wrapped up the amazing day with her keynote on combining masculine and feminine energies for a better world. With her inspiration and the energy of an amazing day of speakers, we all joined together for one last amazing dinner and departed ready to make our mark on the next step forward for each of us.