So there, SudWeb 2011, I was there.

For me the story begins Thursday evening, May 26, in a hotel room facing the arena (the view and the city are superb, but I’m used to it). It’s the reception dinner for speakers and organizers. Everyone gets to know each other. Good atmosphere, pizza & beers (and 1 bottle opener that I highly recommend ). But I’m exhausted from my day, one of the old guys so I withdraw quickly. Especially since I live about thirty kilometers away, so, no question of spending the -late- evening at the hotel.

SudWeb was a great event, with impeccable organization, well above the usual standards. Everything was planned, organized, and ran smoothly, without compromising the friendly atmosphere.

No really everything. Even the small details that contribute to great successes (goodies, stickers, labels, the quality of the food -Prouheze !-, English French translation on the fly by rudy -red bull- rigot, etc.). Hard to name and congratulate all the organizers so, hats off to all of you. And also to all the photographers present (crazy! it was Cannes in Nîmes), from whom I shamelessly steal all these photos (you’ll find them all here: flickr).

So I participate by running a session intended as a feedback on agility. In a few words (I hope to be able to give this session again, it was its first outing): I didn’t want to explain how to be agile. It seems to me that everyone finds that easily enough on the web (even though I think I left some people behind… see the comment on Brice’s post or on the upcoming video Corinne’s question -and her blue eyes-). I wanted a feedback oriented toward decision-makers, or if you prefer a sensitization of decision-makers to the risks, constraints, stakes and ROI of an agile deployment. You’ll find the slides for this session here (ok !?). And soon the live recording, the site Sudweb will indicate it (ok !?). There I’m more worried. Even if the feedback was good, I found myself quite disorganized (especially at the beginning) and not necessarily always in rhythm (ok !?). And as Franck so rightly pointed out, I never stopped okéiser(ok !?).

Homo egocentricus at heart, thanks again to all the photographers for these photos that allow me intense sessions of self-flattery.

On that subject I can hardly launch into a description of all the sessions because I didn’t follow them all (I was caught up in quite a few off discussions, and Brice did it here). But I nevertheless had the pleasure of seeing Olivier Mansour’s session about purchasing web services, and I was relieved to see that we were going in the same direction in defending time and materials billing (there too, the agile contract wasn’t mentioned in my presentation, I’m avoiding this pipe dream). I appreciated the rhythm of the day and the way it was conceived: with its approach from the global to the concrete, and its sessions getting shorter and shorter until the lightning talks. On that subject, really great the “language” approach by Nicolas Dubois (all the sessions convinced me, I’m coming back to those that challenge me more). The day concluded with Marc Lipskier’s session, which beyond the content, interesting, was an experience in form. Indeed the physique, the voice, the rhythm of Marc don’t seem to come from the same person. This creates a distance and therefore gives an additional depth to his speech. Great feat, especially when you’re the closing session (By the way Marc explained to me how you really stand in a scrum -the rugby one- that stays between us Marc).

Actually the day really ended at Zinc tasting tapas and talking about everything and nothing with everyone. A very pleasant moment again.

Thanks again to the organizers.

A success, it’s up to you to be there next year.

There are photos here by Nicolas, Brice, Olivier, Adrien and others. Thanks for them, go see the originals on flickr.