Back in 2013, our partner Jose Casal had what appeared to be the crazy idea of creating a London-based Kanban conference. What started as a 1-day experiment on a Saturday became an established conference in the Lean Agile network of conferences. London Lean Kanban Days (LLKD) brought together some of the most prominent thought leaders, practitioners and enthusiasts in our community in a friendly and community-oriented venue with a programme packed with high-impact, and often experimental, talks.
For 2020 we faced a number of existential, and exciting, challenges for the conference survival. First and foremost was the loss of our “ancestral home” as BCS moved to a new, but smaller, venue.
So, we had to put our thinking caps on and have a hard look at the prospect of organising a viable conference in a commercial venue in London. It has taken us 8 long months to decide that we can do it.
New Beginnings
Moving to a commercial venue meant that organising the conference has a considerable financial risk. Far too much for us to ask BCS and the Agile Methods SG to bear as a membership organisation and organised by volunteers. So, Actineo is now responsible for the organisation of the conference. BCS remains an organising partner, but the financial risk rests with Actineo.
The conference will retain its focus on the community and its not-for-profit setup. But this change also means that we have an opportunity to evolve the conference beyond the usual improvements we have made every year.
We have a brand new name: Lean Agile London and new website. This name reflects our close partnership with other conferences that we share values and principles with: Lean Agile Brighton, Lean Agile US and Agile Cymru.
We have a new venue, too. We spent lots of time looking at several options and we believe that we have found the venue that is closest to our needs, is affordable and well-located and provides the friendly, self-contained and safe space we are looking for. Not an easy task in London, but we believe we found our new home at Glaziers Hall, right next to London Bridge. This change of venue also means that the conference needs to grow in capacity in order to make it viable. Our current MVC (Minimum Viable Conference) is going to need 160 participants.
The conference will continue to feature a range of world-class speakers selected by the organising team. As a small conference, we simply don't have the logistics to run a RFP process. The MVC plan is to have a single track with 30-minute talks and 45-minute keynotes. In total, 18 high-quality sessions. If the numbers allow it and we can secure the additional venue space, we may add a second track. Anyhow, the selection process of the first Lean Agile London first set of speakers is going to be a very tough job.
150 days to go!
Lean Agile London will take place on 27-28 April 2020. Just 150 days away. We will start announcing the speakers and session topics soon. While we do this, we are offering tickets we have called the Intangible class! These tickets are available for just ยฃ200 + VAT and limited to the first 40. They will be available for a couple of week while we start announcing the programme.
After that, the Standard tickets will become available. These will be priced at ยฃ250 + VAT. For the latecomers, we will eventually offer the Fixed Date tickets for ยฃ350 + VAT and the last-minute Expedite tickets for ยฃ450 + VAT.
For a conference in London of the quality we aim for, these are very low prices. Other conferences in our space regularly charge well over the ยฃ500 mark.
What can you expect at Lean Agile London?
If you want to get an idea of what Lean Agile London will offer, you can see the videos of all the previous LLKD conferences: LLDK13, LLKD14, LLKD15, LLKD16, LLKD17, LLKD18 and LLKD19.
What the videos can't show you in the key element of the conference: The sense of community, the conversations during breaks and the friendship we make.
Stay Connected!
The official Twitter account of the conference will be @LeanAgileLDN. For the 2020 conference, we will use the hashtag #LALDN20.
You can also subscribe to our LALDN Newsletter to get the latest news and updates on the venue, speakers and programme.