The Agile Practitioners of Nigeria and the Agile Advisor Africa, organisers of the Annual Agile Nigeria Conference (ANC), recently convened an impressive list of home and foreign subject matter experts for the 5th edition of the conference. 

Themed “Continuous Improvement Strategies”, the 2-day hybrid event, which was held between March 1st and 2nd, 2022, with the physical gathering at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, provided a platform for the organisers to rally practitioners, key decision-makers, business managers and organisations of all kinds to scale their efficiency levels in a rapidly changing operating environment we find ourselves in today.

The conference featured in-depth presentations by over 30 renowned Enterprise, Business, Transformation, Agility Advisors, Specialists, Coaches, and Evangelists. The conference was capped by an agile games night which wrapped up the rich sessions. Multiple agile certifications and workshops were parts of the strong line-ups of activities that followed the major event.

In her opening address, Abiodun Osoba, the Founder/Chief Executive Officer, The Agile Advisor Africa/Chairman, Agile Practitioners Association of Nigeria, remarked that convening experts and participants from Europe, South and North America, Oceania, the United Kingdom, Asia, and Africa was a daunting task but the targeted impact of the wide-ranging agile practices presentations was a major driving force, and it outweighed the thought of any challenges.

She said, “The event provides two days of inspiring agile and lean learning from a dynamic mix of stimulating keynotes and practitioners working on the front line of the industry. I could not imagine how difficult it would be when the idea and vision for the conference came to me. However, I am pleased that I accepted this challenge as it has been a stimulating experience for me to coordinate the work with my team.”

Dr. Peter Adewale Obadare, the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Digital Encode, and Olusina Ayegbusi, the Chief Information Officer (CIO), GTCO, were the keynote speakers for this year’s edition of the conference. Seyi Tinubu, the Chairman, Loatsad Promomedia was a special guest.  

Other speakers at the conference were Deepti Jain, the Agile Transformation Strategist & Founder, Agile Virgin, who delivered a presentation on “You Get the Behaviour That You Measure”; Evan Leybourn, the CEO/ Founder Business Agility Institute, who spoke on “Evolving Impact of Tech on Agile Transformations”, Quincy D. Jordan, the Director – Innovate, AgileThought, delivered a presentation on the topic “Leadership for The Modern Business”, and Martin Hinshelwood, Scrumorg Professional Scrum Trainer & Microsoft MVP Development Tools, who delivered a presentation on “Is HR the Most Important Enabler of Agility?”

The others are Myles Hopkins, the CEO/Founder, BeAgile, Molood Ceccarelli, the CEO/ Founder, Remote Forever, Timm Urschinger, Co-Founder & CEO LiveScience AG, Dr Fady Ismaeel, an Agile Evangelist from MCIT, Eliana Philip-Amulum, an Enterprise Agile People Advisor from TAAA, John Munro, a Disciplined Agile Enterprise Client Lead (PMI), Mun-Wai-Chung, a Business Agility Consultant, MunWai Consulting; Omo Osemwegie, the Project Delivery Lead, Access Bank, Pete Omotosho, Enterprise Agile Coach from Pete Lauren Consulting; Itopa Sule, the Business Agility Advisor, PST – Adaptiflo, Carol Ariyibi, Agile & Career Coach, PMO Director & Change Leader – Sterling Bank Plc, Wole Oyeneran, an Enterprise Technology & Performance Leader from Deloitte, Itohan Iyalla, the Head of Growth, eBanqo Inc., Jorge Luis Castro Toribio DevOps & QA Program Manager, Test Manager and Agile Coach – NTT DATA, Marco Eijsackers, the Global Head of Digital transformation, ING, Mohamed Amr Abdelkader Abdelfattah, the Co-Founder and Principal Consultant, Agile Academy (Dubai, UAE), John Okoro, the Director Auspicious Agile & Blockchain Pte Ltd, Ady Dike, the Enterprise Agile Coach, BP, Ceren Yildirim, the Agile Coach, Ericsson, Mary Laniyan, the Agile Coach, Ovilan Consulting Ltd, Princess Edo-Osagie, a Payment Expert, DevOPS Advocate, Strategy Execution on Agility, and Carl Starendal, the We Are Movement Founder & SAFE Fellow.

The speakers emphasised the roles of technology, people, and processes in meeting customers’ expectations in a changing business environment. For instance, Martin Hinshelwood explained that reliance on the traditional education model in nurturing the modern workforce could lead to a misalignment in the skillset demand in the present marketplace. Mun-Wai-Chung expatiated on how management can induce efficiency in key operational areas to derive outstanding results. Molood Ceccarelli spoke glowingly on how utilizing tech work tools in managing the distance work arrangement could boost productivity level; stimulate rewarding experiences and relationships in the Work-from-Home era.