In the words of conference chair Jim Newkirk, Agile2010 is Done, Done. Not unexpectedly, I found it another great experience to catch-up with friends and colleagues, and to make new friends as well. 
A new experience for me this year was serving as the stage producer for the agile adoption stage. So added to the week was the anticipation to see how our stage team's work came to fruition as the conference proceeded. We had some definite highlights in the stage; Alan Cyment took us out of our comfort levels and directed a great experiential session reconnecting us with the spirit of Scrum, and Henrik Kniberg closed the stage out with our highest attended and highest rated session helping us make the most of both Kanban and Scrum in an engaging, high energy presentation. All in all it was a great experience putting the stage together. I'm proud of the work our team did, and grateful to the accomplished speakers that submitted presentations to this year's adoption stage. I only wish we could have accepted more of them.
I did not think there were many places in the country that matched or exceeded Houston in humidity. As it turns out, Orlando in August is definitely one of them! Other than that, the Disney's Dolphin was a great location and facility. The conference party at Epcot rocked with Off Kilter, much to the delight of piper Bryan Campbell, and Monday night's ice breaker event, and Wednesday's evening exhibits were great fun with great food, oh and some nice vendor exhibits too. 
Then of course throughout week there were many, many sessions and activities from which to choose. Perhaps too many from which to choose, decision making was hard. Some nice surprises. I popped into a Lyssa Adkins session a little late and was very impressed with her. We also hooked up later that day in Alan Cyment's session and I'm already looking to get her to APLN Houston and to offer some classes in Houston. Also a surprise, was Max Keeler's session showing of agile adoption at Motley Fool. A great example of understanding agile principles and values; then adapting practices that work for the organization. I was also pleased to see that keynotes by Dave Thomas, Ron Jeffries and Chet Hendrickson, and Mike Cohn started to address some of the acrimony growing in our community by a few who seem to have let commercial interests get the best of them.
And then of course was the ever present, wildly active #agile2010 Twitter feed keeping the pulse of it all in real and near real time. Careful what you say, it will be on Twitter in nano-seconds!
By happy coincidence all of the APLN board was in attendance as well. We took advantage and had an impromptu lunch together. A nice way to catch up again after our board meeting in Salt Lake the month before and keep our initiatives moving.
Wrapping things up today are a series of Innovation Games® specially designed by Luke Hohmann as a retrospective for the conference. A great idea, and I was pleased to be able to facilitate one of these. Lots of great ideas and comments for next year's conference committee to consider.
Can't wait until Agile2011 in Salt Lake City.
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