My Appreciation Card for ALE 2011

Last week I attended ALE 2011, an unconference organized by members of Agile Lean Europe (ALE) – “A network for collaboration of Agile & Lean thinkers and activists across Europe”. I’d like to go full circle and give to ALE 2011 something that I got to know at the conference: an appreciation card.

Appreciation cards in all colors
Appreciation Cards

You got these notes in your participant’s bag or from a box in the lobby. You could take your pick, e.g. “Thank you!”, “Well done!” or “Excellent!” and fill in, what you appreciate. It’s a nice way to give credit, even when you’re too shy to tell people directly that they made your life a little better. It’s for the thousand little things that usually go unsaid, where the potential receivers might think their efforts aren’t noticed. Such a card will make the receiver’s day a little brighter! They can even take it home as a keepsake 🙂

Shame on me, I only wrote two notes. So here’s a third one, for ALE 2011 itself and the most fitting one IMHO is “Impressive!”: A self-organizing team of organizers scattered all over Europe created an amazing event at an incredibly low price. I especially liked the

  • lightning talks
  • participants from all over Europe (everyone interesting and proficient)
  • high ratio of developers (instead of only consultants and SMs)
  • positive vibe
  • (re-)kindling of my interest in Software Craftsmanship and spreading the word about agile
  • high quality talks
  • non-pushy sponsors
  • appreciation cards 😉

See you at ALE 2012! Until then I still have a small stack of appreciation cards to bestow on people 🙂

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