RALLYON!13 - Ten Years Later

Last night, while looking in my basement for our cat, Tony, who had wandered off earlier in the evening, I stumbled upon my attendee badge to the 2013 RallyOn! convention and hackathon, and I was flooded with a wave of great nostalgia.

I remembered how awestruck I was with Rally and their incredible hospitality to us at the time. I am so grateful to HP and my wonderful leaders who agreed to allow me and a couple of my peers to attend this event.

As a young(ish) scrum master -> agile coach -> agile evangelist, I was thrilled to soak up as much knowledge, wisdom, insights, and brilliance as I possibly could. I remember revering each of the speakers and presenters as important celebrities - because, at that time, to me, they truly were (so much so that I even asked many of them to allow me to have my photograph taken with them so I would never forget the experience). I cherish the photo I was able to get at that time of Jean Tabaka. Jean had visited us at HP a few times prior to that event and I truly LOVED listening to her wisdom and learning from her experiences. I was, of course, so sad to hear of her passing not too many years afterward. The world lost a truly glowing star in her! I am grateful for the strong influence she has had on me and my life.

That RallyOn! Hackathon was my very first, and I can't think of a better possible way to experience the power, beauty and efficacy that these types of events offer. I was paired with a great team of Rally engineers to help bring our vision to life, and although our simple project wasn't particularly earth shattering, I learned so many valuable practical lessons that I applied over and over again throughout my career.

What cemented the experience for me, making it collectively one of the most transformative weeks of my entire life, happened by pure chance. While in Boulder, I called a friend of mine from high school who was now a successful businessman living in Oklahoma City and told him about the great time I was having during this visit. In a very serendipitous turn of events, my friend and brother was able to hop on a standby flight out to Denver and spend most of the rest of the week with me. I would go to classes and workshops by day, and my friend John and I had a wonderful time sampling the truly incredible hospitality of many amazing citizens of Boulder who literally welcomed us, as strangers, with open arms. My friend, John, along with these wonderful people we randomly ran into, as well as the incredible RallyOn leadership, staff and fellow attendees taught me unforgettable lessons about kindness, openness, empathy and collaboration. I truly have applied the principles gained during that incredible week into my work and personal life over and over again, in the intervening years. I attribute much of my current character and successes to those special, transformative lessons.

Many, many special thanks to HP, Rally, John Astle , Leann MacMillan , Juli Lee , Stu Fisher , Keith Rakow , Gadi Naveh , Karen Wysopal , Max Norris , Jerome Dubreuil , Craig Miwa , Esther Sumner , Matt Mace , Jared Alger , Mike Baird , Jean Tabaka (RIP) and the fine people of Boulder, Colorado!

#rally #agile #team #awesomepeople #bouldercolorado #hackathon #hp #leancoffee