Many of us have participated in the Agile event, both online and in person.
Have you ever wondered what is happening behind-the-scenes, once you enter the venue or online room?
How many hours volunteers at Agile conferences are spending, so you can enjoy the event?
What can you bring and learn as a volunteer?
Where are people coming from?
What brought them there?
I had the pleasure of being a part of the planning committee for a couple of conferences. It was an incredible journey. The journey, I can recommend to everyone who would like to be part of organizing a conference. It is volunteer work, and it is worth it. I learned so much from others and I became aware of how much work is required to organize an event:
- The first thing that is amazing about an Agile event is that we get together without knowing each other but immediately we build trust and share information about us.
- The second thing is all the spirit, passion, and engagement of people who just want to make a great Agile event.
- The third thing is that volunteers at Agile conferences do different tasks without management. Even if they didn’t try before they are willing to do so they can learn. Other volunteers are saying: “No worries, I can help you with that“. Or we can do that together. It is just amazing. People just raise their hand and the “I can do that” attitude wins. What are you not seeing is that an Agile event requires a lot of hours of preparation, coordination, planning, re-planning, inspecting, and adapting on the go!
This year (2024) I had the pleasure of being a part of the marketing team planning the Online Scrum Master Summit. It has been an incredible journey, people (women and men) around the world joined and wanted to make a great event. We met once per week, discussed our tasks, divided the tasks among each other, and kept each other updated. We had a WhatsApp group, where we shared our views on some topics, updated each other, tested the webpage, and suggested items for improvement.
After a couple of focused and intensive months, we were ready to go. After the summit was over, just reading positive feedback from the participants and their suggestions made me feel proud to be part of the community that enabled this great event. Honestly, I can’t wait to join again, as it is so beneficial both professionally and personally. Once, you learn what is behind-the-scenes, you’ll just want to be part of it!
By Allen Jellas
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajellas
