Yesterday I went to my first Lean and Agile meetup at madlab in Manchester.  This was actually a number of firsts, first meetup, first time at madlab and first practical foray in to agile practices.  I have been wishing to attend for a while because I have been reading up on agile, scrum, kanban boards and have got to the point where the next step is to solidify that learning with practical experience.  When I checked the confirmed attendees mid afternoon the event was full with 60 confirmed attendees, so all plans were off or so I thought.  While checking out the agenda and reviewing who was going 4 people cancelled allowing me to grab a place.

The evening included “a hands-on workshop to explore how physical card walls are built” by working through practical scenarios using A3 boards and lots of small sticky notes.

It was quickly apparent that other people knew a lot more than me and they all had a different opinion of what the wall should look like. The knowledge shared at events such as these come from years of experience and can taste like sweet nectar to someone who is trying to get to develop skills in the subject.

There is no substitute to practical experience, reading is good but doing is better.