Grady Booch - my number one Hero at RSDC 2008

Feel welcome to share some of my highlights at the RSDC 2008 in Orlando.

Ok, there are heros and there are heros. Right. One of my Heros of this years Rational Software Development Conference was the great fellow Grady Booch.

The second one.. is Homer Simpson... i will tell you later..

Back to Grady.

Number 1. I have to admit, I did not know to much about Mr Booch and his achievements and career , neither of his excellent skills in keeping a 3500 person audience thrilled for 45 minutes. I had never seen him live, but I now understand why he is requested and so much appreciated as a speaker. Holy moses.. I am quiet hard to make an impression on... but this was good.

I just have to say, congratulations Mr Booch. Well done. Over my expectations, he delivered a Key Note that was excellent. What was so excellent then? To be honest, it was not the content.. " excuse me Grady ", it was the way he did it. His way of keeping us listening, focused and so very much involved in his passion and story about Software Development and the future. Natural born speaker. The combination of seriousity, infotainment but very personal touch to a great headline and very interesting topic. Thanks for the inspiration.

I want to bring Grady to Sweden, Scandinavia and I will truly do my very best to succeed in that.

Number 2. I have to mention my own sessions as two of the highlights of course....:-)... at least for me. It was a magic Tuesday. Started with Grady as a Key Note in the morning, Me... the last speaker of the day and I have to admit I was nervous. But everything went very well and I managed to manage my co-speaker in an excellent way and also deliver some jokes on the way... oops... it was maybe to much to talk about challenging to have something in between my legs for 1,5 hours... the lead... but hello,, it very much was a great ice-breaker for the session and yes... we had a good laugh.. even after the session. Anthony Crain, my favourite IBM RUP guy... got so many quotes from that session and I can tell.. if he is happy and pleased,, God, I am happy.

Also to mention the Panel about Agile Development that I was part of. How fun! We managed to get a good atmosphere in the panel and I hope that we managed to deliver some answers to the audience of any interest. I want to give the excellent panelmoderator Scott Ambler some roses... for managing to keep quiet for 1 hour :-) but also... for the comment " Scrum sucks".... hahaha... well Scott. You gave us a good laugh and you are both brave and brilliant.

Number 3.... Julian Holmes....UP mentors, He is just brilliant, as a speaker and as a UP mentor and person, wherever he is and no matter what he does. Julian looked fantastic in his Star Wars outfit and the session itself was just great. ..SHoulde be rated Session of this Year. Keep the outfit on Julian, it suited you perfect and keep on mentoring, singing., rocking or whatever... . ( And not to forget Mark and Joshua, you are just very great pros all of you... ).

Number 4 well there are so many highligts and great sessions, but before I tell about the second Hero this year I just want to mention all those great people I met there.... I know you know which I mean. I just love all of you and look forward to see you all again. Its all about people.. really. Kelly H....Your yearly Rational event in your house is just one the most lovely occasions I ever go to. Thanks for inviting me. Your hospitality is world class heart and love straight thrue.

Ok... back to my Hero number 2. Homer Simpson. The event at Universal Studios was fantastic. The Simpson ride was the most great ride I have ever joined. Truly madly deeply so much great fun and thrilling. I was high very long on that one...

http://www.universalorlando.com/usf_attr_simpsons.html

And when I later that evening saw Homer walking in the park I just ran like crazy to him and stand aside for a hug... but ..... his lovely wife Marge came up and looked furious to me... not only for stealing her husband... but also for that fact that I did not notice the very long que for taking photos with the Simpson family... oops ,,,

well well.... I got the photo.. here it is. Enjoy... I did.

Oh one last thing .. i miss and want to go back to Florida heat and the nice pool... it is just to cold here and my travel nervs are ready again.

Love and kiss from a lovely Stockholm, Sweden....

Anna