The Agile 2009 conference has been an incredible experience. As with last year, I find myself overwhelmed by ideas and lacking in sleep.

The workshops have gone well – thanks for the kind and useful feedback! It was a pleasure to meet Pat Maddox and watch him work. Seeing what’s happening in the BDD space with JBehave and Cucumber is also rocking my world. The little bit of code I wrote back last year is now out there, being used successfully in enterprises across the world.

My favourite experience of the conference has been the Programming with the Stars. I’ve enjoyed judging it enormously, and the quality of the performances from the contestants has made me look at my own development habits in a different way. I’m not sure I could have pulled off the “one hand each, no mouse” kata that was sprung on them today!

I’ve actually got to see some of Chicago while I’m here, too! Some kind friends took me out to Chicago Blues last night. The band were awesome. So awesome, in fact, that there is now a movement afoot to get them playing at Agile – either tonight, or at Agile 2010 in Nashville. I’ll be watching this with interest; I’m curious to see if there are any obstacles, what they are, whether the Agile fans can make this happen.

(Just as I typed this, a friend came up and told me that it looks close for tonight! That’s astounding… given that some of the people involved in making it happen didn’t get to bed until 4am… Thanks to Chris, Bonnie et al for setting it up!)

Here’s the myspace site for the Troublemakers and their gravel-voiced, energetic singer, Eric “Guitar” Davis. I’ve got a lot of souvenirs from this conference; very happy that their CD is amongst them.