The Agile Practitioners of Nigeria and The Agile Advisor Africa, organisers of the Annual Agile Nigeria Conference (ANC) have successfully held the 4th edition of the conference. This year’s conference although a virtual event because of the COVID-19 pandemic, lived up to its billing. Once again, the conference delivered the highest quality of seasoned subject matter experts, authors, innovators, practitioners, coaches, facilitators and speakers from within and outside of Nigeria, something the annual conference had become renowned for.

During the three-day conference which held March 1 – 3, 2021, participants were taken through a series of carefully picked topics and impactful sessions that underlined this year’s theme of “Strategic Agility – Market Creating Innovations”, with a special focus on how to assist organisations on their Agile adoption and transformation journey.

The Agile facilitators, coaches, and practitioners appealed for strategic agility, thinking, innovations and adoption of critical tools such as DevOps, Enterprise Agility, Workplace Efficiency, Agility in Human Resources and Digital Change, amongst others, as means to depart from the business-as-usual mentality that impedes organisational growth. This was the unanimous view of the speakers at the conference which recorded very useful engagements, interactions and deliberations between the facilitators and participants.

Chief Executive Officer/ Founder, The Agile Advisor Africa, Mrs. Abiodun Osoba, while welcoming everyone and declaring this year’s conference formally open, said that the conference is an annual event which started in 2017 and is dedicated to forging Agile principles and providing a platform for people and ideas to flourish. She said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisers resorted to a virtual gathering, where it can provide the Agile culture and still adopt the Agile mindset. Adding that the conference had something for everyone, every team, business and organisation. 

“Agile Nigeria Conference is a practical agile development conference that allows participants to discuss, connect, have one-on-one conversations and learn from their peers and leaders in the industry. We are looking at enabling and building new Agile teams within businesses and organisations and helping organisations that are going through an Agile adoption and transformation journeys,” Osoba, said.

She further stated: “All over Africa companies are reimagining and reinventing themselves so they can innovate more effectively. The conference has a strong practical focus and attracts industry practitioners and decision-makers who want to improve their success with agile and lean methods.”

This year’s conference’s brought together the very best thought leaders, industry experts, speakers, facilitators and coaches that included Salley Elata, CEO, Enterprise Busines Agility Strategist; Itohan Iyalla, Lead Project Consultant, Infiitetiks Limited; Wole Oyeniran, Technology Strategy & Transformation Leader, Deloitte, West Africa; Omo Osemwegie, Digital Change Agent & Agile Transformation; Esther Akinnukawe, Chief Human Resources Officer, MTN Nigeria; Pete Omotosho, Release Train Engineer & Enterprise Agile Coach; Eliana Philip-Amulum, Enterprise Agile People Coach; Chijoke Eke, Executive Director, Sidmach Technologies Nigeria Limited; Emmanuel Obinne, Senior Presales Consultant, MEA & Africa at BPC Banking Technologies; and  Itopa Sule, Leapfrog Agile.

Other speakers and experts that took the impressive delegates through different presentations included Fatumata Coker, Founder, YGroup Holdings, INC and YGH West Africa; Fady Ismaeel, Business Consultant, SAFE Program Consultant and Senior Agile Coach; Obi James, Workplace Relationship & Inclusive Leadership Expert; Carl Starendal, Safe Fellow and Founder, Partner, Senior Advisor/Trainer, We Are Movement in Sweden; Molood Ceccarelli, Remote Work Expert and Agile Coach, CEO and Founder of Remote Forever; Jorge Luis Castro Toribio, HBR Advisor Council/ DevOps Institute Ambassador/ DevOps Program Manager/ Test Manager/ Global Speaker/ Agile Coach; and Evelyn Tian, Certified Enterprise Coach, Certified Scrum Transfer, Agile Leadership Educator, Path to CSP Educator and Board Member of Scrum Alliance.

Declaring the 2021 ANC closed, the Agile practitioners’ chief, expressed her profound gratitude to all the facilitators, speakers, Agile coaches, sponsors, community partners, conference delegates, and teams across the globe, for their immeasurable contributions and support in making the conference a resounding success. Assuring that the main conclusions of the conference will be reflected and incorporated into the declaration of how Agile will help transform workplaces, businesses and services as well as the adoption of Agile frameworks.