IBM sponsors Scrum conference in Dublin

Scrum Alliance announced that its European Global Scrum Gathering has kicked off in Dublin with IBM as its top sponsor.

“Reshaping the company in fundamental ways to fuel a culture of collaboration, IBM has embarked on an Agile journey that focuses on their customers’ needs,” said Scrum Alliance interim CEO Lisa Hershman. “We are thrilled to have IBM as our title sponsor for this event in Dublin and think their experiences in Agile will benefit the attendees who hear from them at the Global Gathering.”

“IBM has reinvented itself over its 106-year existence. Our Agile journey is premised on the same principle of transforming for the future and is integral to who we are,” said Marcel Greutmann, General Manager, Agile Professional Services, IBM Global Business Services. “Being Agile, not just in software but as a whole organization, keeps us innovative and adaptable. It lets us be creative on whole new level. The Agile model itself assumes failure and channels our energy to continuously improve in rapid iterations superior to inefficient and ineffective Waterfall methods. We believe the Agile framework appeals and applies to every culture, every ethnicity - we needed a cross-cultural platform that would be successfully used on every continent. Agile is enabling us and our clients with new ways of working.”

More than 600 people from around the world are expected to attend the event in Dublin. The purpose of Global Gatherings is to offer business leaders, managers, corporations, and practitioners worldwide the opportunity to share their passion for and knowledge of Agile and Scrum practices. Attendees will hear presentations from experts in the field who will inspire them with stories of success, current implementation best practices, and creative applications of Agile principles.

“It’s exciting to be in Ireland for our Global Gathering, this year centered around prioritizing individuals over tools and processes,” Hershman said. “IBM is a great partner to have as our main sponsor. They are known for reinventing themselves many times over and now they help companies perfect the same transformation.”

Besides partnering with Scrum Alliance as the title sponsor for the event, IBM will have 35 of IBM Europe’s leading Agilists at the event, helping to showcase the breadth of IBM’s Agile, consulting, and technology capability for all the delegates at the Global Gathering. The team will be providing two interactive experiences powered by IBM Watson technology. The first will be a Watson Tweetbooth that will enable visitors to take a selfie and tweet it using IBM technology (MQTT) driven by the computing power of just one raspberry Pi. The second is Lego MindStorm Robot, built on IBM Bluemix and using the cognitive capabilities of IBM Watson IoT, which, among other things, will have the ability to hold two-way verbal and written conversations.

IBM is also sponsoring the Agile Games stream at the Scrum Global Gathering. Agile games are activities focused on developing Agile and organizational effectiveness through play, using game theory. Chris Dalby and Roy Mitchley will be leading the IBM Watson-powered experiences at the event.