The Agile Practitioners of Nigeria and the Agile
Advisor Africa, organisers of the Annual Agile Nigeria Conference (ANC),
recently convened an impressive list of home and foreign subject matter experts
for the 5th edition of the conference.
Themed “Continuous Improvement Strategies”, the 2-day
hybrid event, which was held between March 1st and 2nd, 2022, with the physical
gathering at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, provided a platform for the
organisers to rally practitioners, key decision-makers, business managers and
organisations of all kinds to scale their efficiency levels in a rapidly
changing operating environment we find ourselves in today.
The conference featured in-depth presentations by over
30 renowned Enterprise, Business, Transformation, Agility Advisors, Specialists,
Coaches, and Evangelists. The conference was capped by an agile games night which
wrapped up the rich sessions. Multiple agile certifications and workshops were
parts of the strong line-ups of activities that followed the major event.
In her opening address, Abiodun Osoba, the Founder/Chief
Executive Officer, The Agile Advisor Africa/Chairman, Agile Practitioners
Association of Nigeria, remarked that convening experts and participants from
Europe, South and North America, Oceania, the United Kingdom, Asia, and Africa
was a daunting task but the targeted impact of the wide-ranging agile practices
presentations was a major driving force, and it outweighed the thought of any
challenges.
She said, “The event provides two days of inspiring
agile and lean learning from a dynamic mix of stimulating keynotes and
practitioners working on the front line of the industry. I could not imagine
how difficult it would be when the idea and vision for the conference came to
me. However, I am pleased that I accepted this challenge as it has been a
stimulating experience for me to coordinate the work with my team.”
Dr. Peter Adewale Obadare, the founder and Chief
Executive Officer (CEO), Digital Encode, and Olusina Ayegbusi, the Chief
Information Officer (CIO), GTCO, were the keynote speakers for this year’s
edition of the conference. Seyi Tinubu, the Chairman, Loatsad Promomedia was a
special guest.
Other speakers at the conference were Deepti Jain, the
Agile Transformation Strategist & Founder, Agile Virgin, who delivered a
presentation on “You Get the Behaviour That You Measure”; Evan Leybourn, the
CEO/ Founder Business Agility Institute, who spoke on “Evolving Impact of Tech on
Agile Transformations”, Quincy D. Jordan, the Director – Innovate,
AgileThought, delivered a presentation on the topic “Leadership for The Modern
Business”, and Martin Hinshelwood, Scrumorg Professional Scrum Trainer &
Microsoft MVP Development Tools, who delivered a presentation on “Is HR the
Most Important Enabler of Agility?”
The others are Myles Hopkins, the CEO/Founder,
BeAgile, Molood Ceccarelli, the CEO/ Founder, Remote Forever, Timm Urschinger,
Co-Founder & CEO LiveScience AG, Dr Fady Ismaeel, an Agile Evangelist from
MCIT, Eliana Philip-Amulum, an Enterprise Agile People Advisor from TAAA, John
Munro, a Disciplined Agile Enterprise Client Lead (PMI), Mun-Wai-Chung, a
Business Agility Consultant, MunWai Consulting; Omo Osemwegie, the Project
Delivery Lead, Access Bank, Pete Omotosho, Enterprise Agile Coach from Pete
Lauren Consulting; Itopa Sule, the Business Agility Advisor, PST – Adaptiflo,
Carol Ariyibi, Agile & Career Coach, PMO Director & Change Leader –
Sterling Bank Plc, Wole Oyeneran, an Enterprise Technology & Performance
Leader from Deloitte, Itohan Iyalla, the Head of Growth, eBanqo Inc., Jorge
Luis Castro Toribio DevOps & QA Program Manager, Test Manager and Agile
Coach – NTT DATA, Marco Eijsackers, the Global Head of Digital transformation,
ING, Mohamed Amr Abdelkader Abdelfattah, the Co-Founder and Principal
Consultant, Agile Academy (Dubai, UAE), John Okoro, the Director Auspicious
Agile & Blockchain Pte Ltd, Ady Dike, the Enterprise Agile Coach, BP, Ceren
Yildirim, the Agile Coach, Ericsson, Mary Laniyan, the Agile Coach, Ovilan
Consulting Ltd, Princess Edo-Osagie, a Payment Expert, DevOPS Advocate,
Strategy Execution on Agility, and Carl Starendal, the We Are Movement Founder
& SAFE Fellow.
The speakers emphasised the roles of technology,
people, and processes in meeting customers’ expectations in a changing business
environment. For instance, Martin Hinshelwood explained that reliance on the
traditional education model in nurturing the modern workforce could lead to a
misalignment in the skillset demand in the present marketplace. Mun-Wai-Chung
expatiated on how management can induce efficiency in key operational areas to
derive outstanding results. Molood Ceccarelli spoke glowingly on how utilizing
tech work tools in managing the distance work arrangement could boost
productivity level; stimulate rewarding experiences and relationships in the
Work-from-Home era.
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