November saw us head to Denmark for the always inspiring annual JBoye Conference. The theme was ‘making it work’ and consisted of workshops and presentations from digital professionals. The event was focussed on innovation, discussion and sharing new ideas.

Our CEO Ben Rudman and Client Services Director, Nick Bygate, were there to present on strategic project delivery, using Agile. Rather than put delegates through yet another standard PowerPoint presentation, we decided to create our very own Agile board game in order to help communicate the benefits of Agile (in all good toy stores just in time for Christmas!).

The game is a simulation of the delivery of a website and the types of challenges faced when getting a digital solution to market. The audience were divided into teams and they were given the challenge of building the fictional online store; shop.jboye.com to sell t-shirts featuring the faces of the hosts of the conference, Janus Boye himself and Lau Hesselbæk.

The teams had 4 phases in the project and each included 40 developer days. Working together, the teams decided on what they felt were the most important elements and began to build their plan. A few curve balls were then thrown which called for changes in their plan (including an earlier launch date!) so the teams had to re-prioritise where necessary so that the MVP was ready in time.

The game was a huge success and really got the audience thinking about how valuable an Agile way of working can be when aiming to achieve success in a climate of extreme uncertainty. Everyone got involved and enjoyed the competition! The JBoye Twitter feed was full of praise for the game!

In fact, the game was so well received, we have introduced it into our Phase 0 (a key part of Agile delivery) when working on new projects. It has proven to be very popular with clients as not only a great way of being able to easily get to grips with the benefits of Agile, but also as a valuable tool to help the client with their internal digital transformation strategy. The latter point refers to ensuring key internal stakeholders are on board with an increased focus on digital and being Agile.

Back in the UK, at the historic RIBA building in London, we attended the annual Figaro Digital Conference. Figaro Digital are a publishing company and events organisation dedicated to new thinking in digital marketing. The conference featured 40 speakers from the brands, agencies and technology providers that are shaping the UK’s digital landscape. This year's line up included the likes of Reed.co.uk, Channel 4, Time Out, Dotmailer and Telefónica O2 UK to name just a few.

Adding to the fantastic line up was our very own James Cannings who presented along with Daryl Flack, CIO of AXELOS on how we worked in brilliant partnership with them to develop their new e-commerce website, online community and Continuous Professional Development platform.

James and Daryl discussed how we transformed their website and prepared it for a global launch in over 180 countries, whilst working collaboratively with their team. James and Daryl talked about the importance of creating one team and how this in turn leads to a ‘no-blame’ culture, particularly important the day before the site went live.

It was another excellent conference from Figaro and it was great to present with AXELOS and share our passion for Agile project delivery.