The Journey of a (Few) Thousand Miles
As the crow flies, Wiesbaden, Germany – where most of the Agile Hive team lives and works – is approximately 4,080 miles, 6,566 kilometers, 8 hours in flight, and 6 time zones from Washington, D.C. Agile Hive is one of several product teams under the umbrella of Seibert Group GmbH.
Before we go any further, this author wanted to make a specific shout-out to one of our colleagues for the many, many hours of work she put into planning our participation in the event. Veline Schroth is one of two Product Marketing Managers for Agile Hive and one of her primary responsibilities involves coordinating our participation in events, both in Europe and the United States, such as SAFe Summit. Scheduling everything from flights to AirBnB accommodations, booth layout and design, registrations, dinners and rental cars, and everything in between, Veline knocked it out of the park. It would’ve been nearly impossible to pull together this team and make the event such a resounding success for us without her direction. Thanks, Veline!
This year, four members of our team traveled from the home offices in Wiesbaden along with a colleague from our partner, KEGON AG, to attend the event. Additionally with myself driving from Pennsylvania, there were a number of logistical challenges to overcome. Those traveling from Germany arrived on Saturday, October 12 which allowed them additional time to adjust to the time changes and recover from the fatigue of the trip.
Upon landing at Dulles International Airport and picking up the rental car, Veline, Daniel Roller, Janik Röhler from Agile Hive, and Jonathan Batsch from KEGON settled into the AirBnB just a few miles from the conference venue, the Gaylord National Resort & Convention. The author arrived late Sunday evening and the entire team headed out for a bite to eat and an opportunity to catch up with one another.
Let’s Get This Party Started: Partner Day – Monday, October 14
Our first day onsite at the Gaylord was a busy one and set the tone for the two days that followed. Arriving just before 8:30, the latest morning start we’d have for the Summit, we walked the massive hallways of the Gaylord carrying with us our materials for the booth. After registering and receiving our participant badges, we headed to the ground floor where the exhibitor space was located.
Like many conference facilities, the room where we’d find ourselves stationed for the next few days along with the other SAFe partners was enormous. Over the next few hours, a quiet and barren hall filled with the chitter chatter of conversations and booths being assembled. We dropped off our equipment and headed upstairs for the 9am Partner Day welcome.
Kicking it off was Chris James, Chief Executive Officer for Scaled Agile, Inc. followed by Nikki Briggs, Chief Customer Officer. Both set the tone and helped light the fuse on what would be a packed, busy agenda for the next three days. Next up, four 5-minute lighting presentations by a handful of partners including our own Janik Röhler and KEGON’S Jonathan Batsch tag-teaming on their presentation, “Unlock Success: Seamless Agile Transformation with Seibert and KEGON” and they crushed it!
This Booth Isn’t Going To Build Itself
One of the primary tasks ahead of us was to get our booth and marketing materials ready for the next three days. After the opening and lightning presentations, it was time to head downstairs and get to work.
Having worked for various companies across many industries over the years, I’ve seen my fair share of convention halls. What amazes me most is the transformation of an empty, cold space to one buzzing with people, booths alive with lights and colors, and wall-to-wall conversations. Another part of an opening day is the “hurry up and wait” that can occur.
When you have almost twenty different sponsors, different backdrops, equipment, furniture, and folks anxious to get underway, it can put a lot of demands on event staff to get everyone setup in an efficient and timely manner. The major elements (backdrops, lighting, etc.) have to be installed by the event staff, and often they’ll work on parts of your booth, but then need to temporarily move onto another one. It’s just the way the process works, but it can be daunting when you want to get it all in place and prepped for the upcoming days.
By 5 o’clock, with all the major elements set, it was time to call it a day, event-wise that is, and get some R and R (rest and relaxation). And R and R to my German colleagues visiting the States meant good food, a visit to Costco, and the nearby outlet mall.
Giving The Germans What They Want: Costco and The Outlets
For those of us here in the States who belong to either Costco or Sam’s Club, or both, the experience of wandering aisle after aisle of just about every household item you could ever imagine, and in bulk sizes and quantities, is probably lost on us as Americans.
So off we went to the nearest Costco to our AirBnB, about a 20-minute ride in some fairly heavy after-work traffic, also somewhat of a unique experience for my colleagues. Within the first five seconds of walking into the lobby where you grab your cart, I was keenly aware of the issue of relative proportions coming into play as my colleague Janik seemed to be having trouble wrapping his head around the size of the shopping carts themselves.
Now while we were certainly shopping for snacks and other food items for our AirBnB, “window shopping” was the primary activity for the next 45 minutes. Case of ketchup – sure, why not? An entire rack of ribs – who doesn’t have them in their freezer? On and on, it was hilarious to hear the mix of German-to-English phrases being thrown about and to see their faces. Long story short, it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip. Now off to the outlets.
We hit the nearby Tanger Outlets before we called it a night. We all broke off into our separate groups as this was a much more personal experience for everyone. Many wanted to be sure to grab gifts for family back in Germany, or a few small items for themselves that they might not be able to find back home. Pretty certain we were one of the last groups out before the stores closed at 9pm and it felt like the right way to close out the day.
Opening & Welcome – Tuesday, October 15
Tuesday got off to an early start with breakfast being served onsite at the Gaylord starting at 6:45am. Our Agile Hive team arrived shortly after and made the final adjustments to the booth before grabbing a bit to eat for ourselves.
You could hear the low rumbling of voices rise as time passed and old friends caught up, new introductions were made over coffee and croissants, and plans were made for the day. With the keynote kicking off at 8:45, it was a relatively quiet morning in the booth. We had a few folks swing by between breakfast and heading upstairs for Chris James’ presentation.
“What Can You Tell Me About Agile Hive?”
There are many things I enjoy about conferences like SAFe Summit. Honestly near the top of the list is meeting people and learning about them, what they do for work, what issues they struggle with within their organizations.
While certainly there are similarities in every discussion we have about the many features of Agile Hive and how it can become an integral part of an organization’s toolset, each situation and conversation is also unique. You hear common threads for sure, but there really are specific needs and applications at every organization, within teams, down to the individual users.
I’d like to think, we as a team take the time to understand each of these situations and really connect with each and every person who takes the time to visit our booth. Certainly the hope is that we will welcome them as a customer down the road, but at the very least we want them to feel welcome and leave with a good, genuine impression of Agile Hive.
Networking and Auf Wiedersehen – Wednesday, October 16
Day three was another early start with the trip back to the Gaylord and an awesome breakfast, rather a “breakFEAST”. Mom was right when she told me breakfast was the most important meal of the day.
Inspiring Closing Keynotes
After fueling up, Veline, Jonathan and I headed upstairs to the main presentation hall for the morning keynotes, while our colleagues Janik and Daniel remained at the booth to speak with visitors. The first was by Master of Ceremonies, Laura Schwartz, who holds the distinction as the youngest female presidential appointee in history, serving as the White House Director of Events for 8 years in the Clinton administration. Her keynote was a great way to kick off the day, weaving in her personal experiences with tenets of agile methodology.
The second speaker of the morning was Jennifer Pahlka, author of “Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better” and former USA Deputy CTO founder. As we were literally sitting in the US federal seat of power, her keynote tied in elements of her book which addresses how government can work for the people in the 21st century, and how we all can work to retool the relationship between the citizenry and the government. Great stuff!
Another reason we wanted to catch these keynotes, in addition to knowing they’d both be powerfully inspirational in their respective ways, was that our Agile Hive sponsor commercial would be presented to the large audience gathered in between those speeches. And wow, was it worth the wait to see it on the big screens!
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
With the keynotes running through 10am, we headed downstairs for the remainder of the day at the booth. Another day of welcoming new faces and engaging in demonstrations of Agile Hive and discussions on how it can be that perfect tooling fit as their “SAFe in Jira” solution.
At 5pm, pretty much right on the nose, it was time for us and the other Partners to tear down and pack away all booths and materials. It’d been a long three days on our feet, without a doubt time well spent, but it felt good to know it was time to begin the transition back to regular schedules, home offices, and time back in the content and marketing realms.
The downside – having to pack up and say goodbye to each other on the team. Working six timezones apart and an ocean away, while realistic and part of today’s working environment, can’t overshadow how truly good it is to see one another in person and spend time in each other’s presence. After packing up at the AirBnB, I said my goodbyes to my dear German colleagues and headed back to Pennsylvania. They would spend a few more days in D.C. taking in the sites with a well deserved “Urlaub” (vacation).
That’s A Wrap!
The SAFe Summit 2024 is now behind us and it was an incredible experience! We now turn our attention to the next conference back on the other side of the Atlantic; the 10th RTE Summit, this year held in Amsterdam from November 5-6.
Agile Hive is once again tabling and sponsoring this event where RTEs from around the world gather to connect, gain and share valuable insights, and celebrate achievements and milestones. If you’ll be attending, you’ll find us at booth #4.
As always, to see firsthand any of the incredible features available in Agile Hive, we invite you to reach out and schedule a demo with our team. Demos are available in English and German, and we’ll be sure to craft the session specific to your needs and questions. We look forward to speaking with you!
