I love train journeys. Looking out of the window and the world passing by gets me thinking (as well as day dreaming!).

On a recent journey, as the fields whizzed by, I got thinking about the upcoming SAFe and AI summit, taking place in Amsterdam on 24 and 25th March.

The agenda was recently released and I was thinking about who I would like to hear.

Actually while the summit kicks off properly on Tuesday 24th, the day before on Monday those of us in the SPCT and Partner community are meeting up for a day of workshops and usually, fun.  I always look forward to seeing my Agile family.   Lots of inspiring lovely people whom I only get to see once a year if I’m lucky.

Tuesday is the official start of the conference as mentioned. The summit kicks off with Steve Matthesen’s keynote. I’m really interested in finding out the latest from Scaled Agile Inc. and what they’re hearing from organisations. Also, with the expansion of the AI Native partner programme (Connected Movement are a partner!), I’d like to understand what sort of impact the new AI courses are having and early customer feedback.

We’re in for a real treat as Andrew Sales, Scaled Agile’s Chief Methodologist delivers a keynote after Steve Matthesen. I’ve had the good fortune of hearing Andy speak a number of times and it’s always been thought provoking and energising.

Anika Paul from Volkswagen Group follows on from Andy Sales. Having worked a little with VW and hearing first hand the challenges they faced, I’m really interested to understand where they are on the their transformation journey and what we can all learn from that.

The afternoon sessions are where tricky decisions must be made. There are three, sometimes four different talks for the same timeslot! Do I learn about how AI and autonomous agents are rewriting the product lifecycle or do I attend the session highlighting a customer story of customising SAFe, applying guardrails and the critical role of the LACE?  Choices, choices!

 It then gets even more difficult later in the afternoon because my friend Harry Koehnemann is giving a talk on building cyber-physical systems. He’s going to discuss production line MVPs, using digital engineering and 3D printing for equipment, AI-powered testing, and hybrid manufacturing lines. A few years ago, I and others from the community worked with Harry on the SAFe for Hardware toolkit.  Having implemented Lean-Agile operating models in a few hardware contexts, I’ve been following the rapid development of ways to improve feedback loops and enable quicker integration when building physical product. So this talk by Harry is going to be really enlightening, that’s guaranteed.

But, I’m torn. Also at that time is a talk by French Ministry of the Interior.  It’s about their journey to create a “Product Mode Framework” based on Lean-Agile/SAFe principles and practices. This would also be interesting and useful given the myriad challenges to enact change in the public sector.

Then there’s yet another slot for an afternoon keynote. My thoughts will no doubt turn to the partner marketplace where Connected Movement have a booth and later in the evening a party will take place and loads of friends and partners are invited. I can’t wait!

Then there’s day two to come…I’ll need a good walk or another train journey next week to really give that some thought!

Sukie Kang

Transformation Architect and SPCT @ Connected Movement

N.B. This article was totally unassisted. Just me. All mistakes my own.