As the Agile2011 conference is now underway and the Twitter stream is buzzing with interesting ideas, I start hearing from people who expected to see me in Salt Lake City… And asking why I am not. So I’ll give you a real-life example of Real Options and Last Responsible Moments…

The Plan

In January I started thinking about possible sessions for XP2011 as the request for proposals timeline was fast approaching. I was involved in discussions about LeanProcrastination at the time with a few friends, and had an extensive discussion with Chris Matts about the Last Responsible Moment. Chris illustrated his argument with the example, “when to submit to Agile2011?” (Karl Scotland elaborated on that topic here.) After short discussions with the people I intended to do my submissions for XP2011 together with, we decided to submit to Agile2011 as well…

To cut the story short, one session, the Last Responsible Moment game I created with Marc Bless at Play4Agile, was accepted! So Marc and I started to make plans to go to the US in August, improved the game, played it multiple times to get more feedback…

Other Plans

Earlier than all of this, AgileMeister had invited me to come to SFAgile2011 in San Francisco in June. As visions turned into plans and these plans had to be aligned with other plans, we had a discussion at agile42 which ended with the joint decision that I should only go to one American conference this year. So I had to decide… And after intensive discussions with my co-presenter Marc, my decision (for too many reasons to elaborate here) went to San Francisco…

Due to difficulties with travel connections, time zones, late planning and decidedly NOT succeeding in hitting the Last Responsible Moment, my trip to San Francisco unfortunately didn’t happen as well. So why didn’t I go back to the option of going to Agile2011? More options had come up in the meantime…

More Options

While I was in Madrid at the XP2011 conference, two new options emerged: We started organising the ALE2011 unconference in Berlin, which will happen in four weeks and which has taken up a lot of my time, energy and focus since May… (We just published the program.) And, to my great surprise, I was invited (and sponsored) to attend the AgileCoachCampUS in Columbus, Ohio, in September. So, again, I had to decide between to American (un)conferences… Similar to the earlier decision, I opted for the smaller, more intimate and intensive event with fewer people.

Meet Me At ACCUS in September

This is why, unfortunately, I am not in Salt Lake City at the moment. I’m sorry to disappoint you… I apologise for any lack in communication of these developments, I should have told some people earlier.

The  session with the Last Responsible Moment game will happen as planned, of course, so you’ll get your chance to play the game if you plan to. Marc will be joined by my amazing fellow agile42 coach, Dave Sharrock. They both arrived safely in SLC, and I’m sure that the fun and learning of the session will not be reduced by my absence. The game was improved and simplified according to the feedback we got at XP2011 and ACCDE, so I’m sure it will be an amazing experience!

If you want to meet me at a conference, I will be at

• ALE2o11, Berlin, Sept 7-9—register here
• ACCUS, Columbus, Ohio, Sept 23-25—register here